Over at Athletics Nation, Tyler Blezinski lands another interview with Billy Beane and gets some very good quotes from him. If you are a baseball fan, check it out. Its in two parts, so you need to scroll down to the bottom for the first part.
To the question of the decision on signing Chavy over Tejada:
Beane: First of all, we signed Chavy during last spring training. Then he goes out and wins another gold glove, leads the league in walks, misses six weeks and hits 29 home runs. So no one writes anything then. What they do is they take, out of context, two months of struggling. We've always said Miguel is a spectacular player. It would take too long to explain, but the revisionist history of what went on is just wrong. The fact of the matter is that I'm happy that we have Chavez at third and Crosby at short. That's my choice. It will be my choice. I have absolutely no doubt that it will be the right choice. But Miguel is a marvelous player and who wouldn't say that? There was never a choice given at the time.
To the question of the Hudson Trade:
Beane: I guess I would reverse it and say, would we be better in that situation if we still had Tim right now? That's the question I would pose. Would we be better had we not done those trades? The trades weren't made to be judged every single day. Again, two marvelous players, two marvelous talents and two marvelous individuals. But those trades were made because we had to make those trades. Everyone seems to want to cover it daily, but we're still pleased. We have the benefit of having an extended amount of time to judge these deals. The fact of the matter is with younger players you aren't going to get immediate satisfaction. That being said, I'm pleased with the way Danny Haren is throwing. I couldn't be more happy with Daric Barton's progress. I'm very happy with what I see out of Kiko Calero. Charles (Thomas) is down in Sacramento and he's tearing it up in Sacramento. He didn't really get the opportunity to play here, but we knew that was a possibility that might happen initially. Dan Meyer's season has been very frustrating, but he's 23.
Blez: The thing about it is that, I think it was after 27
On the question if Zito's health was a factor of him not being traded:
Beane: It's important. As you see, with a club like ours, we just don't have that replacement. Z's performance has been very good and his durability has been something that is just so crucial to us.
Beane: Yeah, we have no intention of trading Barry. Barry is 27 years old and such an important part of this team.
On the Kotsay situation:
Beane: Exactly. I just think we need to see how it goes. That being said, we're also going to make sure we have the best baseball team and we're going to do that within the confines of what we have to operate with now. I've said this many times, economically, we're in a position that sometimes keeps us from making bad baseball decisions. If we signed everyone's favorite player here, every year they came up, we'd be in big trouble right now. As a fan, you can look back and say, wow, good thing they didn't do that. But we don't have that luxury here. We can't go "oops" and then just erase the mistake. So in many cases, we're prevented from making a bad baseball decision. You want to be in a position where you can make some really good ones. Miguel is a great example. He's a great player. Who wouldn't want him? Baltimore has a great player. We need to get ourselves in a position where we can make those good baseball decisions and have the financially ability. But there are some where we just aren't allowed to because we just don't have the ability to.
On the risk of running a team by paying for future performance:
Beane: Of course, but there's risk in running a small market. It's a must. We're one of the lowest payrolls, we're sharing a market, we've got a stadium that leaks.Well, it's a fact. We share a stadium with another team. And especially for anyone who used to watch games here before they built that monstrosity in center field, they already know it. But as for paying for what a player will do, we have to. If we're paying for past performance, we're destined to have a bloated payroll far beyond our means. Now there are risks, as you are saying, because you're trying anticipate future performance by investing in it. Other teams are also in that boat. The Cleveland Indians are also kind of there. The Kansas City Royals. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays. There are a number of teams now that aren't in the position to pay for the premium, premium players. It's a function of our situation right now. Hopefully that will change.
Jun 30, 2005
Corporate Life Part III
Never trust a guy who doesn't carry his own briefcase. It baffles my mind everytime I see a guy pulling his laptop bag behind him. I just want to go up to him and comment on how much of a pussy he is for not being strong enough to carry a 10 pound bag. This will now become part of my interview process for all new hires.
Jun 29, 2005
Any requests for Royals gear?
The family and I are heading to Kansas City this weekend for a fun-filled vacation, and we just got tickets to the Royals game. I've heard good things about Kaufmann stadium, so I'm interested to see if those things are true.
If anyone wants me to pick up any Royals gear (Chris??) , let me know!
If anyone wants me to pick up any Royals gear (Chris??) , let me know!
Hampton! Santa Clara!
More match play fun this week - the Iowa State Match play started today with a seeding round. 78 players played to fill in the 64 person field.
I tried to give it away with a 9 on the last hole, but I made it into the field with a smooth 82 (ugh) and am officially the #60 seed in the bracket. This is equivalent to a #15 seed in the NCAA torunament.
My first round tomorrow is against a college guy from Nebraska who shot 70 today. Tee time at 8:54 CT, and in-match updates should be available at iowagolf.org.
Let's see if I can duplicate what Hampton and Santa Clara has done in the past.
I tried to give it away with a 9 on the last hole, but I made it into the field with a smooth 82 (ugh) and am officially the #60 seed in the bracket. This is equivalent to a #15 seed in the NCAA torunament.
My first round tomorrow is against a college guy from Nebraska who shot 70 today. Tee time at 8:54 CT, and in-match updates should be available at iowagolf.org.
Let's see if I can duplicate what Hampton and Santa Clara has done in the past.
Jun 28, 2005
Bogut Bogut Bogut
Is everyone ready for probably the second biggest bust in NBA draft history tonight with the biggest bust being Kwame Brown. Also, don't underestimate how big of a flop M. Williams will be in the two slot.
Over/Under on Bogut's first year numbers.
FG %: 45%
Points: 9
Rebounds: 6
Number of crotches in his face from opponent's dunk attempts: 24
Over/Under on Bogut's first year numbers.
FG %: 45%
Points: 9
Rebounds: 6
Number of crotches in his face from opponent's dunk attempts: 24
Jun 27, 2005
Vegas Hotel/Casino Review
Since I'm already tired of the Real World/Tribe blogs, I thought that I would start a thread that will probably interest everyone on this degenerate-laden site: gambling, and specifically, Vegas hotels/casinos. I'll try to post something every day or so and have everyone comment on it. I'll start with the Mirage, and since I never leave the Mirage, the meat of most of the rest of the posts will be up to you guys.
THE MIRAGE
-My Background
You have to realize that I have gone to Vegas every year for the last 6-7 years during the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tourney. The reason I go is to gamble. I'm married, so I'm not really looking to hook up with some cougar LA slut (although I'm happy to drunkenly ogle your enormous fake breasts from across the craps table while you pull 100's out of your meathead boyfriend's pocket). I'm also not really interested in the club scene that Real World Las Vegas has made so popular (see Ghost Bar, Rain, etc). Thanks, but I get my fill of douchebag meatheads with too much shit in their hair in tight Abercrombie t-shirts and $150 jeans here in DC. So for me, the Mirage is a pretty good fit.
-The Scene
Opened Nov 22, 1989, the Mirage was the first of it's kind. Financed with newly-invented junk bonds, the Mirage was one of the first (if not the first) themed hotels. However, it is showing it's age. You enter into a vanilla-scented lobby and must pass through an enoumous enclosed rain forest to enter the gaming area. The ceilings tend to be a little low, and the Polynesian theme is dated compared to today's casinos. This in turn keeps the demographics of the patrons a decidedly mixed lot. It certainly skews older and male, probably upper-middle class or so. I've seen everyone from "construction executives" pulling wads of 100's from their Sergio Tacchini track suits to Mike Fratello, the "Czar of the Telestrater" to Kevin James (one of the guys from CBS's Yes, Dear). The low end of the weekend table limits tend to be $25-$50, high enough to keep much of the trash out, but low enough to keep it an interesting mix.
-The Dealers
The dealers tend to be a little bit older, which means that you can't ask them what place is hot on a Thursday night. But it'a a small tradeoff for someone who actually can converse with you on the odds of playing a certain hand, why to do it and it what situations it is called for. They've also seen a lot and have generally been around for a while, so they "get it". The dealers generally have a pretty good rapport with the pit boss(es) and can get things for you. Whether it's vouching for you in getting comps, getting a hand fixed when you make a mistake after 14 vodka & sodas, or holding your spot while you run to put bets down on the upcoming Lady Blue Devils game, an experienced dealer has much more sway with a pit boss. Something that the 25 yr old blackjack dealer who just quit her job at Friday's will never have (although she has the perfect tits busting out of her shirt that my guy will never have) .
-The Gaming
The Mirage is moving more and more towards automated shufflers which is a sad thing for the players. Gambling always involves a great deal of superstition, karma, and misc other voodoo and players feel that the machines serve to kill any type of good run that you might have. I know that the cards are random, but any gambler will agree with me. Give him a choice between a table with an automatic shuffler and a shoe, and 99% of gamblers will take the shoe.
The Mirage also has a good range of table games, baccarat and mini-bac, enough craps tables to usually get on a table, blackjack galore (auto shuffler and shoes), pai gow (tiles for us Asians and poker for you round-eyes), roulette (for chicks, gay guys, and Derek), and all the randoms where you throw away the money you may have won from the last 17 hours of poker (Casino War, the Money Wheel, 3-Card Poker, Caribbean Stud, Let it Ride, etc).
The Mirage poker room is probably one of the better rooms in Vegas. It's pretty big, with a good mix of players, and a good range of games (in terms of types of poker and minimum bets), with plasmas everywhere. I'm not much of a poker player, but from what I hear, it's pretty good.
-Sports Book
Another aspect where the Mirage shines, in my opinion. It's a huge room that houses both the race and sports book. During the tournament, people camp out for seats in the book, literally sleeping in their chairs for the opportunity to sit and watch games in my idea of heaven. The Mirage sports book is big enough to handle the crush of people betting on every game, but not so big to where it gets impersonal and cavernous.
Possibly the best two things about the first weekend of the NCAA tourney are when the CBS music comes on at 9am Vegas time on Thursday, and at the end of any big upset. It's unlike any other place I've been and something you really have to experience to understand.
-Other (Pool, Shows, Clubs, etc)
One of the places where the Mirage really shows it's age is the lack of clubs and the lack of a pool scene. Today's hotels feature one or more clubs and actually derive a rapidly diminishing portion of their revenues from gaming (usually now under 50%, down from over 70% just a few years ago). Also, places like the Palms and the Hard Rock are known to stock their pools with strippers. Literally. They will often give the girls rooms, comps, free access to the gym, or food and beverage to use the pool. I went to the Mirage pool once (3-4 years ago) and there was no such thing. I guess that I don't really care since it keeps the meathead factor down and I'm never at the pool anyway.
I don't care about shows either, but for the sake of completeness, the Mirage features Danny Gans and hosts rotating performers (David Spade, Wayne Brady, Ray Romano, Jay Leno, etc) in the old Sigfried and Roy theater. I think that it's only a matter of time until they turn the S&R theater into a club of some kind in order to get in line with the rest of the Vegas places.
NEXT EPISODE: Hard Rock and The Palms
THE MIRAGE
-My BackgroundYou have to realize that I have gone to Vegas every year for the last 6-7 years during the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tourney. The reason I go is to gamble. I'm married, so I'm not really looking to hook up with some cougar LA slut (although I'm happy to drunkenly ogle your enormous fake breasts from across the craps table while you pull 100's out of your meathead boyfriend's pocket). I'm also not really interested in the club scene that Real World Las Vegas has made so popular (see Ghost Bar, Rain, etc). Thanks, but I get my fill of douchebag meatheads with too much shit in their hair in tight Abercrombie t-shirts and $150 jeans here in DC. So for me, the Mirage is a pretty good fit.
-The Scene
Opened Nov 22, 1989, the Mirage was the first of it's kind. Financed with newly-invented junk bonds, the Mirage was one of the first (if not the first) themed hotels. However, it is showing it's age. You enter into a vanilla-scented lobby and must pass through an enoumous enclosed rain forest to enter the gaming area. The ceilings tend to be a little low, and the Polynesian theme is dated compared to today's casinos. This in turn keeps the demographics of the patrons a decidedly mixed lot. It certainly skews older and male, probably upper-middle class or so. I've seen everyone from "construction executives" pulling wads of 100's from their Sergio Tacchini track suits to Mike Fratello, the "Czar of the Telestrater" to Kevin James (one of the guys from CBS's Yes, Dear). The low end of the weekend table limits tend to be $25-$50, high enough to keep much of the trash out, but low enough to keep it an interesting mix.
-The Dealers
The dealers tend to be a little bit older, which means that you can't ask them what place is hot on a Thursday night. But it'a a small tradeoff for someone who actually can converse with you on the odds of playing a certain hand, why to do it and it what situations it is called for. They've also seen a lot and have generally been around for a while, so they "get it". The dealers generally have a pretty good rapport with the pit boss(es) and can get things for you. Whether it's vouching for you in getting comps, getting a hand fixed when you make a mistake after 14 vodka & sodas, or holding your spot while you run to put bets down on the upcoming Lady Blue Devils game, an experienced dealer has much more sway with a pit boss. Something that the 25 yr old blackjack dealer who just quit her job at Friday's will never have (although she has the perfect tits busting out of her shirt that my guy will never have) .
-The Gaming
The Mirage is moving more and more towards automated shufflers which is a sad thing for the players. Gambling always involves a great deal of superstition, karma, and misc other voodoo and players feel that the machines serve to kill any type of good run that you might have. I know that the cards are random, but any gambler will agree with me. Give him a choice between a table with an automatic shuffler and a shoe, and 99% of gamblers will take the shoe.
The Mirage also has a good range of table games, baccarat and mini-bac, enough craps tables to usually get on a table, blackjack galore (auto shuffler and shoes), pai gow (tiles for us Asians and poker for you round-eyes), roulette (for chicks, gay guys, and Derek), and all the randoms where you throw away the money you may have won from the last 17 hours of poker (Casino War, the Money Wheel, 3-Card Poker, Caribbean Stud, Let it Ride, etc).
The Mirage poker room is probably one of the better rooms in Vegas. It's pretty big, with a good mix of players, and a good range of games (in terms of types of poker and minimum bets), with plasmas everywhere. I'm not much of a poker player, but from what I hear, it's pretty good.
-Sports Book
Another aspect where the Mirage shines, in my opinion. It's a huge room that houses both the race and sports book. During the tournament, people camp out for seats in the book, literally sleeping in their chairs for the opportunity to sit and watch games in my idea of heaven. The Mirage sports book is big enough to handle the crush of people betting on every game, but not so big to where it gets impersonal and cavernous.
Possibly the best two things about the first weekend of the NCAA tourney are when the CBS music comes on at 9am Vegas time on Thursday, and at the end of any big upset. It's unlike any other place I've been and something you really have to experience to understand.
-Other (Pool, Shows, Clubs, etc)
One of the places where the Mirage really shows it's age is the lack of clubs and the lack of a pool scene. Today's hotels feature one or more clubs and actually derive a rapidly diminishing portion of their revenues from gaming (usually now under 50%, down from over 70% just a few years ago). Also, places like the Palms and the Hard Rock are known to stock their pools with strippers. Literally. They will often give the girls rooms, comps, free access to the gym, or food and beverage to use the pool. I went to the Mirage pool once (3-4 years ago) and there was no such thing. I guess that I don't really care since it keeps the meathead factor down and I'm never at the pool anyway.
I don't care about shows either, but for the sake of completeness, the Mirage features Danny Gans and hosts rotating performers (David Spade, Wayne Brady, Ray Romano, Jay Leno, etc) in the old Sigfried and Roy theater. I think that it's only a matter of time until they turn the S&R theater into a club of some kind in order to get in line with the rest of the Vegas places.
NEXT EPISODE: Hard Rock and The Palms
Jun 26, 2005
Tribe update
Real World Austin
I try to watch teh first few episodes of each Real World, to see if I should be hooked into the show. I think MTV is casting knowing that the audience will wane if there isn't some controversy, so I'm thinking that they have to choose roommates that will mesmerize the viewers immediately. They better draw viewers through their sexiness, ignorance, race/sexual orientation, etc. etc.
And it looks like MTV has hooked me in again, with the epic brawl on Episode 1.
But one side effect - does anyone actually like any of these characters? Wes and Daniel are certainly boys you would love to root against; Johanna, Rachel and Melinda have "skank" written all over them, which leaves Lacey and Nehemiah. Something about Nehemiah bugs me.
Is it enough to have people watch a show with characters no one likes, even if they do crazy things and get into dumb-ass situations?
So, for now, I'm interested in seeing the Lacey do well and become a better person. For the rest.... well, we'll see.
As "Red Green" would say, "I'm pulling for you, Lacey.. we're all in this together"
(and if anyone else knows who Red Green is, please comment. It's a midwest thing.)
And it looks like MTV has hooked me in again, with the epic brawl on Episode 1.
But one side effect - does anyone actually like any of these characters? Wes and Daniel are certainly boys you would love to root against; Johanna, Rachel and Melinda have "skank" written all over them, which leaves Lacey and Nehemiah. Something about Nehemiah bugs me.
Is it enough to have people watch a show with characters no one likes, even if they do crazy things and get into dumb-ass situations?
So, for now, I'm interested in seeing the Lacey do well and become a better person. For the rest.... well, we'll see.
As "Red Green" would say, "I'm pulling for you, Lacey.. we're all in this together"
(and if anyone else knows who Red Green is, please comment. It's a midwest thing.)
Match Play Golf
The Iowa City Match play tournament ended this weekend. 29 golfers ina bracket format with the winner determined by the end of Sunday. The highlights:
1) Shot well in the seeding round Friday morning; shou a 74, which made me the #2 seed and gave me a bye for the afternoon;
2) Came out flat on Sat morning, but pulled off an Eric special; was 3 down with 6 to play, but won 13, 14, 16 and 18 to win 1-up
3) Sat afternoon in the round of 8 - birdied the first 2 holes and never looked back - won 3 & 2
4) Sunday morning in the semis I played a good friend of mine. He got me early - he was up 3 thru 8, before I tried to come back. I hung tough, he missed a couple of short ones coming in, and I was 1 down going into 18, and had a 15' for birdie to force extra holes... but missed.
Not bad for having no clue where my driver was going. That's the worst feeling - stepping up to the tee and not being sure at all what direction the ball will go. Is it a 210-yard duck? A 240-yard push-fade? A 250 yard low draw? Who knows...
If Don or Kermit are out there, this tournament probably cemented my reputation as the slowest player in Iowa City. You know what? I don't care.
Match play is great golf. It's all mental. You can really get inside someone's head by making a key putt at the right time, or taking advantage of a mistake.
1) Shot well in the seeding round Friday morning; shou a 74, which made me the #2 seed and gave me a bye for the afternoon;
2) Came out flat on Sat morning, but pulled off an Eric special; was 3 down with 6 to play, but won 13, 14, 16 and 18 to win 1-up
3) Sat afternoon in the round of 8 - birdied the first 2 holes and never looked back - won 3 & 2
4) Sunday morning in the semis I played a good friend of mine. He got me early - he was up 3 thru 8, before I tried to come back. I hung tough, he missed a couple of short ones coming in, and I was 1 down going into 18, and had a 15' for birdie to force extra holes... but missed.
Not bad for having no clue where my driver was going. That's the worst feeling - stepping up to the tee and not being sure at all what direction the ball will go. Is it a 210-yard duck? A 240-yard push-fade? A 250 yard low draw? Who knows...
If Don or Kermit are out there, this tournament probably cemented my reputation as the slowest player in Iowa City. You know what? I don't care.
Match play is great golf. It's all mental. You can really get inside someone's head by making a key putt at the right time, or taking advantage of a mistake.
Fights and Womens Golf
Flipping back and forth between the US Open and the Real World, two thoughts come to mind:
1) Why would you ever, ever, get in a bar fight with only two guys on your side? Bar fights can only be won with either having a super psycho Army Ranger on your side, or you have about 10-15 average guys with you. If you have two above average guys going into a fight, you are fucked. I would rather take 3 Jays, 3 Little Brads, and 3 Dereks against those two stupid asses on Real World. And this is especially stupid when your on the Real World, where guys are just itching to get in a fight on TV.
2) These announcers for the Women's US Open are terrible. Kim sinks a bunker shot to basically win the Open on 18, and there is no enthusiasm? Come on. And Wie looked fantastic today and I'm not talking about her golf game.
Stumbled across this quote from Paul Katcher that I had to share since it was pretty funny.
"Do you think Sam Cassell has Internet access, or did he cancel his AOL account after coming across the 500th website that cited him as the ugliest player in sports? "
Finally, Eric advanced to the Iowa Match Play Semi Finals yesterday, and I'm still awaiting to hear how he did today. No call is hopefully good news.
1) Why would you ever, ever, get in a bar fight with only two guys on your side? Bar fights can only be won with either having a super psycho Army Ranger on your side, or you have about 10-15 average guys with you. If you have two above average guys going into a fight, you are fucked. I would rather take 3 Jays, 3 Little Brads, and 3 Dereks against those two stupid asses on Real World. And this is especially stupid when your on the Real World, where guys are just itching to get in a fight on TV.
2) These announcers for the Women's US Open are terrible. Kim sinks a bunker shot to basically win the Open on 18, and there is no enthusiasm? Come on. And Wie looked fantastic today and I'm not talking about her golf game.
Stumbled across this quote from Paul Katcher that I had to share since it was pretty funny.
"Do you think Sam Cassell has Internet access, or did he cancel his AOL account after coming across the 500th website that cited him as the ugliest player in sports? "
Finally, Eric advanced to the Iowa Match Play Semi Finals yesterday, and I'm still awaiting to hear how he did today. No call is hopefully good news.
Jun 25, 2005
Was that her hammy?
Today I went to the US Track and Field Championships at the Home Depot Center, and had one of the most enjoyable sports experiences in recent years. The weather was perfect, the complex was absolutely amazing, the event was extremely organized, and the competition was beyond what I was expecting. If you weren't interested in the running, you always had the shot put, triple jump, high jump, or the discus going on inside the track, and there was a new race on the track almost every 8 minutes. I do suggest that if you do attend a Track and Field Event, that you have someone who knows Track and Field pretty well. I ended up going at the last minute with my buddy Austin, who is the first person that I've met who is an avid Track and Field fan. He seemed to know everyone in the races, which he took advantage of during several wagers. A guy from Maryland made an appearance in the 400 hurdles, and got destroyed, which cost me a couple of bucks. I won my money back when Wariner beat the field in the 400. Watching the pros run the 100, 200, 400, and 800 is simply amazing. You don't realize just how fast they are going. Wariner ended up running the 400 (once around the track) in 44 seconds. And if it wasn't for Greene pulling his hamstring in the 100, I would of nailed the Superfecta with Gatlin, Crawford, Greene, and Nix. See, everything is fun when you turn it into some sort of gambling.
I guess it was just nice to watch a sporting event that was more about the sport than anything else. I wasn’t distracted by crap music pumping, long breaks between the action for TV timeouts, constant advertising, and teenagers butt cleavage walking around not giving two cents about what is going on in the field. For $30, it was well worth it.
I guess it was just nice to watch a sporting event that was more about the sport than anything else. I wasn’t distracted by crap music pumping, long breaks between the action for TV timeouts, constant advertising, and teenagers butt cleavage walking around not giving two cents about what is going on in the field. For $30, it was well worth it.
Another one down
I know I said I wasn't going to talk about Poker, but I figured I would share some additional tips when playing with your friends.
Last night I was in a tournament over at a friend's house that had about 15 people in it. I was playing at the tougher of the two tables, since after 2 hours of play, nobody was knocked out from our table. The players were all above average, except for one guy who kicked my ass on three different hands since I just couldn't get a read on what he had. These players, especially in private tournaments tend to do well since people try to bully them at the wrong times. The second best player, James was sitting to the left of me, which just sucked since I really couldn't limp into any pot, without getting raised. James was constantly talking shit to the table and playing extremely aggressive. I didn't have a problem with this, so I sat there and tried to stay out of his way for a while until I could get a read on his betting pattern or something to see when he actually had a top hand compared to just two good cards and bulling out the other players. Well, this guy after everyhand seemed to tell me what he had, and how pissed he was that nobody stayed in. He even showed his cards about 50% of the time when every folded. So as I'm sitting there watching him bet pre-flop, flop, turn, and the river, he became very predictable. He was a good enough player that he would only enter a pot with a premium hand, and would tend to raise almost everytime. His next bet, if he hit something on the flop, would be the same amount of his raise, and then he would increase it on the turn and the river. If he didn't hit the flop, he would increase his bet, to try to scare everyone away. And finally if he had a monster hand, he would check on the flop and then bet heavy on the turn. In the end, he was very predictable, but it took a while to figure this out.
Anyway, I started to get a string of decent cards and I was in every pot for about 6 hands. I lost about 75% of the pots, and my chips were dwindling. The last hand that I lost, I only had Ace high, which got a comment from James to my left stating how loose I was playing. The very next hand, every folded except for me and James. I went in on the small blind with an 8-9 suited, and James raised me $600, which was higher than his typical pre-flop raise. I figured he was trying to bully me out of the pot, but he was a smart enough player that he probably still had something good. I tend to call more often with lower connectors against a pre flop raise, since the only chance I have to win against good-great premium cards is a straight or flush, so I will take my chances. The flop comes and it is 9-5-2. I check, and the guy bets $1,200. Now I know he doesn't have a pocket pair, but an Ace-X. I call. The turn shows an 8. I check and he bets $1,500. I only call. The river shows a Jack. I go all in, and he calls. He had Ace -Jack and then proceeded to get extremely pissed since I stayed in after his pre-flop raise and his other large bets. I was quiet for a short period of time, until he wouldn't stop bitching at me after 15 minutes. I then took the time (which is the biggest no no) to explain my play to him, since he was a big black man with what I thought was a tatoo of a bar code on his hand, and scales of justice on his bicep. After he didn't believe me, which is what I expected, I just dropped it and went on to busting him a couple more times. His play went down hill from there, and I could tell he was thinking too much about his bets from that point on, which made it even easier to tell what he had. That pot got me back in the game, and my explaination to him in front of everyone allowed me to take control of the table, and win several pots just out of respect. I ended up winning the tournament about four hours later, which ended my streak of 3 second place finishes.
Three things to take away from this tournament:
Last night I was in a tournament over at a friend's house that had about 15 people in it. I was playing at the tougher of the two tables, since after 2 hours of play, nobody was knocked out from our table. The players were all above average, except for one guy who kicked my ass on three different hands since I just couldn't get a read on what he had. These players, especially in private tournaments tend to do well since people try to bully them at the wrong times. The second best player, James was sitting to the left of me, which just sucked since I really couldn't limp into any pot, without getting raised. James was constantly talking shit to the table and playing extremely aggressive. I didn't have a problem with this, so I sat there and tried to stay out of his way for a while until I could get a read on his betting pattern or something to see when he actually had a top hand compared to just two good cards and bulling out the other players. Well, this guy after everyhand seemed to tell me what he had, and how pissed he was that nobody stayed in. He even showed his cards about 50% of the time when every folded. So as I'm sitting there watching him bet pre-flop, flop, turn, and the river, he became very predictable. He was a good enough player that he would only enter a pot with a premium hand, and would tend to raise almost everytime. His next bet, if he hit something on the flop, would be the same amount of his raise, and then he would increase it on the turn and the river. If he didn't hit the flop, he would increase his bet, to try to scare everyone away. And finally if he had a monster hand, he would check on the flop and then bet heavy on the turn. In the end, he was very predictable, but it took a while to figure this out.
Anyway, I started to get a string of decent cards and I was in every pot for about 6 hands. I lost about 75% of the pots, and my chips were dwindling. The last hand that I lost, I only had Ace high, which got a comment from James to my left stating how loose I was playing. The very next hand, every folded except for me and James. I went in on the small blind with an 8-9 suited, and James raised me $600, which was higher than his typical pre-flop raise. I figured he was trying to bully me out of the pot, but he was a smart enough player that he probably still had something good. I tend to call more often with lower connectors against a pre flop raise, since the only chance I have to win against good-great premium cards is a straight or flush, so I will take my chances. The flop comes and it is 9-5-2. I check, and the guy bets $1,200. Now I know he doesn't have a pocket pair, but an Ace-X. I call. The turn shows an 8. I check and he bets $1,500. I only call. The river shows a Jack. I go all in, and he calls. He had Ace -Jack and then proceeded to get extremely pissed since I stayed in after his pre-flop raise and his other large bets. I was quiet for a short period of time, until he wouldn't stop bitching at me after 15 minutes. I then took the time (which is the biggest no no) to explain my play to him, since he was a big black man with what I thought was a tatoo of a bar code on his hand, and scales of justice on his bicep. After he didn't believe me, which is what I expected, I just dropped it and went on to busting him a couple more times. His play went down hill from there, and I could tell he was thinking too much about his bets from that point on, which made it even easier to tell what he had. That pot got me back in the game, and my explaination to him in front of everyone allowed me to take control of the table, and win several pots just out of respect. I ended up winning the tournament about four hours later, which ended my streak of 3 second place finishes.
Three things to take away from this tournament:
- Against average to slightly above average players, taking the time to study betting patterns is a must, since this is the best tell.
- Ego will always be the downfall for these types of players. The appearance of not being a good poker player can be your biggest advantage.
- A bad poker player might be the toughtest person to read. I can't seem to figure out what that person has, and I tend to be very timid against these players.
Jun 23, 2005
Midnight visit from the neighbors
My neighbors are a bunch of snobs. They moved in about 4 months ago and I have made some minor attempts to introduce myself to the 20 something couple from Boston, but they want nothing to do with me. Not a big deal to me, I was just trying to be friendly. Well last night while watching the A's blow a late inning lead, then having Crosby botch a double play that would of ended the game, a very loud "FUCK" came from my apartment which apparently woke up the young couple. Then I proceeded to yell a couple of additional F bombs as Glynn let up two more singles to end the game. Right after the game, the guy from upstairs paid me a visit. I apologized and tried to explain why I was yelling, but he was half way back to his place when I finished. Whatever. I thought I was being quiet and the noise didn't compare to the time in 2003 when Zito let up the homer to Ramirez in the playoffs, which prompted me to chuck my cell phone which shattered against my wall, overturning my chair, and scream at the TV for a solid minute. That time I actually received an official noise complaint from the apartment complex. And that doesn't compare to when my Dad threw me out of the house when Jax beat the Broncos in playoffs back in 1996.
What is the worst reaction that you had on a team loss?
What is the worst reaction that you had on a team loss?
Jun 22, 2005
What the Hell is that?
In the morning when I'm getting ready for work, I'll either watch the local news, MSNBC, FoxNews, or the weather channel to see everyone else's weather for the day since I know mine will be 80 and sunny. But the other morning I was watching MTV, which is sort of strange since they only play rap videos which really doesn't go well with ironing and getting dressed. Well, while I was putting on my shoes and about to head out, they showed the new Shakira video, which caught my attention. As I sat there and watched her shake every part of her body while being covered in motor oil, she just started to thrust her chest back and forth for about 6 seconds. It wasn't to any specific beat or anything like that, so I don't think it was a dance move. It was just her violently move her chest in and out. Very, very disturbing. While I have become accustom to the stripper dance in recent years (women just randomly shaking their ass like they are grinding on your package), I don't think that I will be able to handle this new chest move. Anyway, check it out if you can.
And while we are on MTV, I almost put this station in with ESPN as second level stations, since their programming has gone to shit with shows like Date My Mom, Next, Pimp My Ride, Room Raiders, and Made. But then on Monday night the season finale of Real World vs. Road Rules was outstanding, and now the new Real World in Austin looks pretty good. Also, they are bringing back Laguna Beach for a second season, which now gives me a reason to call my mom and bond with her. My mom, for some reason, loves this show and then loves calling me to discuss what happened afterwards. Lots of comments like "that Lauren is so loose" and "if these girls are attracted to those dorks, why are you still single". Good times.
And while we are on MTV, I almost put this station in with ESPN as second level stations, since their programming has gone to shit with shows like Date My Mom, Next, Pimp My Ride, Room Raiders, and Made. But then on Monday night the season finale of Real World vs. Road Rules was outstanding, and now the new Real World in Austin looks pretty good. Also, they are bringing back Laguna Beach for a second season, which now gives me a reason to call my mom and bond with her. My mom, for some reason, loves this show and then loves calling me to discuss what happened afterwards. Lots of comments like "that Lauren is so loose" and "if these girls are attracted to those dorks, why are you still single". Good times.
Jun 21, 2005
Tribe Update
You haven't heard me spout off about the Tribe because I was afraid to jinx them during their streak.
Great winning streak. 9 straight games of solid pitching - 9 wins. Then they face Boston, a game on National TV - and blow it, 10-9. Argh.
Still, so far, so good. 6-2 on the homestand; if Cliffy can win tomorrow, and then we win 2 of 3 vs. the Reds, that's a 9-3 homestand. Who can argue?
Great winning streak. 9 straight games of solid pitching - 9 wins. Then they face Boston, a game on National TV - and blow it, 10-9. Argh.
Still, so far, so good. 6-2 on the homestand; if Cliffy can win tomorrow, and then we win 2 of 3 vs. the Reds, that's a 9-3 homestand. Who can argue?
Lyric Game - Set #2
Answers for the first set:
1. "The Boys of Summer" - Don Henley (or the Ataris - whatever)
2. "The End of the World" - REM
3. "Love Shack" - B-52s
There was another one in the comment section of that post.
Here are some more:
Easy:
1. catwalk
Medium:
2. oasis
Hard:
3. litigate
Hint: All three songs are between 1985 and 1996. Hey, it's my game, I'll pick the music I know!
1. "The Boys of Summer" - Don Henley (or the Ataris - whatever)
2. "The End of the World" - REM
3. "Love Shack" - B-52s
There was another one in the comment section of that post.
Here are some more:
Easy:
1. catwalk
Medium:
2. oasis
Hard:
3. litigate
Hint: All three songs are between 1985 and 1996. Hey, it's my game, I'll pick the music I know!
Golfing with the Wiggles
This is what happens when you play tournament golf after you have kids.
So I'm on the 4th hole of the first 18 - I'm +3 thru 3 after I botched 1, 2 and 3 - and I chip to within 3'. I need this to get somewhat on track for my first par of the day. My last thought before I stood over the putt was... "you better make this kneeknocker, or else we're headed for an 87".
Kneeknocker? Cue the music! From "The Wiggles" CD, these lyrics then run through my head:
"Hands on my knees....
What have we here?
That is my kneeknocker
That much is clear....
Knee-knocker
Waist-bender
Chin-wagger
Head-scratcher
Nicky Nacky Nocky Noo
That's what they teach me in my pirate school"
And with that song in my head for 9 hours straight, I never missed a 4 footer the whole day.
Don always asked me what my secret is to my putting.... well, there you go.
(PS 75-78- 153 isn't going to get it done in a USGA qualifier.)
So I'm on the 4th hole of the first 18 - I'm +3 thru 3 after I botched 1, 2 and 3 - and I chip to within 3'. I need this to get somewhat on track for my first par of the day. My last thought before I stood over the putt was... "you better make this kneeknocker, or else we're headed for an 87".
Kneeknocker? Cue the music! From "The Wiggles" CD, these lyrics then run through my head:
"Hands on my knees....
What have we here?
That is my kneeknocker
That much is clear....
Knee-knocker
Waist-bender
Chin-wagger
Head-scratcher
Nicky Nacky Nocky Noo
That's what they teach me in my pirate school"
And with that song in my head for 9 hours straight, I never missed a 4 footer the whole day.
Don always asked me what my secret is to my putting.... well, there you go.
(PS 75-78- 153 isn't going to get it done in a USGA qualifier.)
Dilf the Dilfman Dilfer
After another frustrating discussion with my brother about the Browns and Trent Dilfer, a new poll was created. How many wins will the Browns have with Dilfer as QB?
Jun 20, 2005
Publinks Status
Eric just called in and said that he just wrapped up the first 18 holes in the Publinks Qualifier. Ended with a 75, after going +3 on the first three holes. Not too bad. I don't know if I'm happier that he shot a 75 or that he is not in jail after spending the night his 14 year old caddy.
Added a new link over on the side. It is a new blog called Hereford Nine. It will take a while to get up and going, but should be good.
Added a new link over on the side. It is a new blog called Hereford Nine. It will take a while to get up and going, but should be good.
additional advice
Since I enjoy getting advice from my friends and complete strangers that happen to stumble upon this blog, here is another question:
Am I making a big mistake by not going to Zurich and deciding on staying in the US, moving to Dana Point on the beach, going back to school to get my MBA, and moving in with Ben?
Am I making a big mistake by not going to Zurich and deciding on staying in the US, moving to Dana Point on the beach, going back to school to get my MBA, and moving in with Ben?
Jun 19, 2005
New Lyric game
OK - thought of a new game. The object is to identify a commonly known song with only 1 word. The word must be part of the lyric, but not part of the title.
The goal is not to stump the players, but to pick the right word that will give away the song to the audience. It's harder than it seems.
For instance, if the clue is:
thyme
you should be able to guess the song.
Here goes:
1. Wayfarers
2. Lenny Bruce (I know, two words, but it's a person's name)
3. rusted
Have fun!
The goal is not to stump the players, but to pick the right word that will give away the song to the audience. It's harder than it seems.
For instance, if the clue is:
thyme
you should be able to guess the song.
Here goes:
1. Wayfarers
2. Lenny Bruce (I know, two words, but it's a person's name)
3. rusted
Have fun!
Not a fluke
Congrats to Michael Campbell. Some people are calling this a fluke, and are calling Campbell an "unknown", but to hard core golf fans, he is a golfing talent that finally put it all together for a week.
In the early and mid-90s, he was mentioned as one of the up and coming stars - almost always in the same breath as Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. He had the lead in the 95 British Open with 18 to play - the one where John Daly beat Constantino Rocca in a playoff - but shot 76 and lost by 1. He never seemed to recover until now.
Good for him.
As for Goosen, geesh. 81? My God, that's a choke. They're comparing it to Gil Morgan's 81 at Pebble in 92 - but at least then, they had 30-40 mph winds to deal with. (Tom Kite ended up winning over Derek's favorite golfer, Monty. Nicklaus gave the title to Monty when he shot 70 and was in the clubhouse as the leaders were flailing in the wind - only Kite was steady enough to take it away from Monty.).
Congrats to Campbell and also to Jason Gore, who should have more than enough sponsor exemptions this year to ease the pain of that 84.
In the early and mid-90s, he was mentioned as one of the up and coming stars - almost always in the same breath as Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. He had the lead in the 95 British Open with 18 to play - the one where John Daly beat Constantino Rocca in a playoff - but shot 76 and lost by 1. He never seemed to recover until now.
Good for him.
As for Goosen, geesh. 81? My God, that's a choke. They're comparing it to Gil Morgan's 81 at Pebble in 92 - but at least then, they had 30-40 mph winds to deal with. (Tom Kite ended up winning over Derek's favorite golfer, Monty. Nicklaus gave the title to Monty when he shot 70 and was in the clubhouse as the leaders were flailing in the wind - only Kite was steady enough to take it away from Monty.).
Congrats to Campbell and also to Jason Gore, who should have more than enough sponsor exemptions this year to ease the pain of that 84.
Aunt Sassy's Condo
I don't know what to think about HBO's new show The Comeback. It actually makes me nervous and my chest gets tight when watching it. But I can't stop tuning in every Sunday. Ugh.
84 in the final round????
Gore to Goosen on the 16th. "Do you want to bet $10 dollars on the last holes to keep it interesting?"
Gore finished tied for 46th. Poor guy.
Gore finished tied for 46th. Poor guy.
Strip Steak
Happy Fathers Day to all of you Dads out there. Just a few quick thoughts on this Sunday Morning....
USGA Commercial: What an outstanding commercial the USGA has, with the golfers yelling out certain sayings on their bad shots. Everytime it makes me laugh. The funniest is the Strip Steak comment, since I have no idea what the hell that means.
US Open: I'm not a huge TV golf fan, but I do try to watch the big three tournaments a year, which are the Masters, British Open, and the US Open. I hate the PGA since I don't find it very interesting. I love the Masters because of the course, the British Open because of the weather, and the US Open because I love to watch the pros struggle. I know the pros haven't complained about the course conditions that much this year, but I hope they make it tougher and don't give into the complaints. If they make the courses easier, then it will turn into another PGA, which I won't watch unless Els, Singh, Mick, or Woods are involved in a tight race. I can't justify wasting away a Sunday afternoon watching Chad Campbell battle Fred Funk for the PGA Trophy.
ESPN: I'm beginning to really enjoy Scott Van Pelt as a golf anchor. Great mix of comedy and seriousness that makes me like him a lot. And by the way RRD, I don't mind Bobby Jones. But once again, I'm not a huge golf TV fan.
Bathrooms: Why is it that when I have to "drop a deuce" that will take about two hours, I don't have anything to read, but when I do have something to read, I'm in and out of the bathroom in like 30 seconds.
Need Advice: Would you rather have a small old place 1/4 of a mile from the beach or a nice new roomy place 2-3 miles from the beach?
Gammons: States that the Yankees are after Kotsay, which basically means that the A's will lock up Kotsay to a long term deal. When is the last time Gammons was on with a trade rumor?
BSG: I think he is reading our blog. Or at least one of his readers since they were discussing the best drunk food in his latest mailbag. On another BSG note, its bad when I watch the NBA playoffs and it is obvious what the refs are doing. The calls were totally going Detroits way, basically taking the Spurs out of their game early in games 3 and 4. It will be interesting to see what happens today.
A's Notes: The A's finally demoted Juan Cruz, who I thought was out of options, but will have him work on being a starter in AAA. Boy, if we can't get him turned around, the Hudson trade looks worse and worse, with all three of the guys , Thomas, Meyer, and Cruz, in AAA struggling. But Hudson is on the DL again with the same ole injury he had 4 different times with the A's. See with the A's, we can't afford to have a $8-$10 million dollar pitching sit out at least 2-3 times a year with an injury.
USGA Commercial: What an outstanding commercial the USGA has, with the golfers yelling out certain sayings on their bad shots. Everytime it makes me laugh. The funniest is the Strip Steak comment, since I have no idea what the hell that means.
US Open: I'm not a huge TV golf fan, but I do try to watch the big three tournaments a year, which are the Masters, British Open, and the US Open. I hate the PGA since I don't find it very interesting. I love the Masters because of the course, the British Open because of the weather, and the US Open because I love to watch the pros struggle. I know the pros haven't complained about the course conditions that much this year, but I hope they make it tougher and don't give into the complaints. If they make the courses easier, then it will turn into another PGA, which I won't watch unless Els, Singh, Mick, or Woods are involved in a tight race. I can't justify wasting away a Sunday afternoon watching Chad Campbell battle Fred Funk for the PGA Trophy.
ESPN: I'm beginning to really enjoy Scott Van Pelt as a golf anchor. Great mix of comedy and seriousness that makes me like him a lot. And by the way RRD, I don't mind Bobby Jones. But once again, I'm not a huge golf TV fan.
Bathrooms: Why is it that when I have to "drop a deuce" that will take about two hours, I don't have anything to read, but when I do have something to read, I'm in and out of the bathroom in like 30 seconds.
Need Advice: Would you rather have a small old place 1/4 of a mile from the beach or a nice new roomy place 2-3 miles from the beach?
Gammons: States that the Yankees are after Kotsay, which basically means that the A's will lock up Kotsay to a long term deal. When is the last time Gammons was on with a trade rumor?
BSG: I think he is reading our blog. Or at least one of his readers since they were discussing the best drunk food in his latest mailbag. On another BSG note, its bad when I watch the NBA playoffs and it is obvious what the refs are doing. The calls were totally going Detroits way, basically taking the Spurs out of their game early in games 3 and 4. It will be interesting to see what happens today.
A's Notes: The A's finally demoted Juan Cruz, who I thought was out of options, but will have him work on being a starter in AAA. Boy, if we can't get him turned around, the Hudson trade looks worse and worse, with all three of the guys , Thomas, Meyer, and Cruz, in AAA struggling. But Hudson is on the DL again with the same ole injury he had 4 different times with the A's. See with the A's, we can't afford to have a $8-$10 million dollar pitching sit out at least 2-3 times a year with an injury.
Quick Movie Reviews
I have a couple movies I would like to touch on. "Sideways", a quality movie. Some seriously funny parts. (i.e. drinking and dialing, and not gonna drink no fu**ing merlot) True to life story. We can all find bits of ourselves in the characters. Most of them negative.
Next, "Howard Stern's Private Parts." Obviously not new, but what a movie. Even if you have never heard of Howard, quality movie. Enough said about that.
Star Wars III. Good movie, but remember the standards have been significantly reduced. Mulan is a classic compared to the first 2 star wars. I feel the originals are still the best! That includes "a new hope" Z.
That's all I got for now.
Next, "Howard Stern's Private Parts." Obviously not new, but what a movie. Even if you have never heard of Howard, quality movie. Enough said about that.
Star Wars III. Good movie, but remember the standards have been significantly reduced. Mulan is a classic compared to the first 2 star wars. I feel the originals are still the best! That includes "a new hope" Z.
That's all I got for now.
Jun 18, 2005
US Open notes
What a great two days of golf.
1) This has all the feel of Shinnecock at 86, where there were 9 people or so tied coming down the stretch. It seems like it's going to be a logjam at Even par during the day on Sunday.
2) My dark horses; KJ Choi and Adam Scott. They both have the game to win, and both are ready to break through.
3) Phil: "I don't think I shot myself out of it with that 41 on the back sinde on Friday". Um, no. No one has won when shooting a 41 since Willie Anderson.
1) This has all the feel of Shinnecock at 86, where there were 9 people or so tied coming down the stretch. It seems like it's going to be a logjam at Even par during the day on Sunday.
2) My dark horses; KJ Choi and Adam Scott. They both have the game to win, and both are ready to break through.
3) Phil: "I don't think I shot myself out of it with that 41 on the back sinde on Friday". Um, no. No one has won when shooting a 41 since Willie Anderson.
Jun 16, 2005
The Ex strikes back...
Ever had a relationship with a women at work? Well I have been known to dabble, to the point where Lee believes I don't have the ability to talk to pick up a non work women. My work relationships have ranged from young to old, from single to married, from one night stands to 4 year relationships, and let me tell you that they never end up turning out well. I remember I advised a friend of mine some time ago that the only way that a work relationship can turn out well is that you two get married. Period. And even with that you have to make the marriage work. Anything less than that, it will be a huge mistake.
Anyway, despite my advice to my friend, I got involved with a consultant for our company that we ended up bringing on full time. She was a programmer in our IT department that was deeply involved in the development of our Claims Operating System that I would regularly be involved in for performance management issues. The relationship started out innocent enough with a couple of dates and such, but then I lost interest after she was planning trips to Oakland and San Diego, and trips back to Stubinville, OH. The dumbass that I am, I did not end the relationship like a smart person would, but I decided to end it like a lazy selfish man by not returning any of her messages.
Well, I've done an excellent job of avoiding her the last several months until today. We had major issues with our Claims Operating System (CRN), that I was put on a conference call to drive the programmers to come up with a fix asap. Well who was one of the programmers? Yup, my ex. Well at first it was funny to my buddy Austin and I, where we had to mute the phone because we were laughing so hard, but then it turned pretty ugly, with me for some reason acting like Dr. Evil speaking to his son. I kept on cutting her off saying the same word "Unacceptable" and she kept on yelling something else back. It came to the point to where Austin and my ex's boss had to step in. Don't know if it was a preemptive strike, thinking she would take advantage of me because I was feeling guilty or what, but it wasn't very professional. Don't know what happened to me. And I wish I could say that I learned my lesson, especially at my level, but my friend Bridgett is planning on setting me up with a co-worker from another office. Let the awkwardness begin!!!!!
P.S. I'm drunk.
Anyway, despite my advice to my friend, I got involved with a consultant for our company that we ended up bringing on full time. She was a programmer in our IT department that was deeply involved in the development of our Claims Operating System that I would regularly be involved in for performance management issues. The relationship started out innocent enough with a couple of dates and such, but then I lost interest after she was planning trips to Oakland and San Diego, and trips back to Stubinville, OH. The dumbass that I am, I did not end the relationship like a smart person would, but I decided to end it like a lazy selfish man by not returning any of her messages.
Well, I've done an excellent job of avoiding her the last several months until today. We had major issues with our Claims Operating System (CRN), that I was put on a conference call to drive the programmers to come up with a fix asap. Well who was one of the programmers? Yup, my ex. Well at first it was funny to my buddy Austin and I, where we had to mute the phone because we were laughing so hard, but then it turned pretty ugly, with me for some reason acting like Dr. Evil speaking to his son. I kept on cutting her off saying the same word "Unacceptable" and she kept on yelling something else back. It came to the point to where Austin and my ex's boss had to step in. Don't know if it was a preemptive strike, thinking she would take advantage of me because I was feeling guilty or what, but it wasn't very professional. Don't know what happened to me. And I wish I could say that I learned my lesson, especially at my level, but my friend Bridgett is planning on setting me up with a co-worker from another office. Let the awkwardness begin!!!!!
P.S. I'm drunk.
As I brace for the big one out here in LA (another 5.3 today), I figured I'd confess to one of the many bad things that I've done in the past. Neil, we did this to you, during the 2003 Madden Superbowl.
Indians, A's, Royals, Yanks, Nats, and Sox win!!
Is there anything worse that getting into the shower, seeing a huge spider on the ceiling, turning around to get a piece of toilet paper to kill it, and then its gone? Makes for a real quick shower.
Anyway, check out BuckSuperStereo's updates on his vacation with his inlaws. Ahhh, that is one thing I don't miss about having a serious girlfriend. Is there anything worse? These trips only end with either your girl being pissed off at you for "being yourself", or you are miserable because you couldn't relax on your own vacation because you were trying not to be yourself with the in-laws. Its a no win situation for the men. Now throw in a couple of sisters and brothers that you are forced to bond with and its just a week long nightmare. Luckily for me in the past, the brother in laws and I have bonded, so it has turned into a big drinkfest in the basement or on the beach, and there is minimal interaction with the rest of the family.
Anyway, check out BuckSuperStereo's updates on his vacation with his inlaws. Ahhh, that is one thing I don't miss about having a serious girlfriend. Is there anything worse? These trips only end with either your girl being pissed off at you for "being yourself", or you are miserable because you couldn't relax on your own vacation because you were trying not to be yourself with the in-laws. Its a no win situation for the men. Now throw in a couple of sisters and brothers that you are forced to bond with and its just a week long nightmare. Luckily for me in the past, the brother in laws and I have bonded, so it has turned into a big drinkfest in the basement or on the beach, and there is minimal interaction with the rest of the family.
Jun 15, 2005
The (Media) Circus is coming to Cincinnati in July
For those of you who didn't hear:
Michele Wie has qualified for the US Men's Publinx Amateur.
If she wins the match play event, she will get an invitation to the Masters next April.
This will be the biggest media circus in Cincinnati - the host of the Publinx on July 11-16 - since, what? Schottzie 02?
As Don told me, it's up to me now to get there and be paired with her in the stroke play portion.
Am I rooting for her? Why not? If she can beat all of us public golfers, the better for her.
Eric Z.
Michele Wie has qualified for the US Men's Publinx Amateur.
If she wins the match play event, she will get an invitation to the Masters next April.
This will be the biggest media circus in Cincinnati - the host of the Publinx on July 11-16 - since, what? Schottzie 02?
As Don told me, it's up to me now to get there and be paired with her in the stroke play portion.
Am I rooting for her? Why not? If she can beat all of us public golfers, the better for her.
Eric Z.
Jun 14, 2005
Wasting away my day
After giving an 8 hour presentation yesterday, I can't get motivated to work today. I stumbled across this game on Paul Katcher's site this morning and I have wasted at least 2 hours on this. High Score: 17,417. Good luck.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/squares.html
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/squares.html
Jun 13, 2005
Baseball in Cleveland?
Does anyone outside of Cleveland hear anything about the Tribe? They are the most non-descript and boring team in baseball. Even the Pirates are more exciting.
But I don't care. This team is 31-30 and heading home for a 12-game home stand that could start to define the season.
A closer look at the stats show:
- They are the worst in the AL in BP, OBP, and 26th overall in OPS
- Yet are 3rd in ERA and 1st in WHIP.
The bullpen has been marvelous, led by Wickman but also with substantial help from Howry, Miller, Betancourt and yes, Riske. The starting pitching has been delightful. CC is good, although he could be better; Cliff Lee is 7-3, Millwood is pitching well and will come off the DL on Thursday, and our two stiffs, Elarton and Davis, have winning records. Westbrook, while 2-9, eats innings and is not deserving of this record.
The offense, putrid in April, is starting to warm up. Boone and Blake are starting to come around, Sizemore has been decent in the leadoff, and Coco, Jhonny and Hafner has been decent. We just need Victor to get out of his slump.
The 12-game homestand is against Colorado, Arizone, Boston and Cincinnati. Is 8-4 out of the question? I think not. That will take us to 39-34, and should make a lot of teams (including the Red Sox and Yanks) take notice.
But I like being ignored for now........5 games behind the Twins and closing in.
Eric Z.
But I don't care. This team is 31-30 and heading home for a 12-game home stand that could start to define the season.
A closer look at the stats show:
- They are the worst in the AL in BP, OBP, and 26th overall in OPS
- Yet are 3rd in ERA and 1st in WHIP.
The bullpen has been marvelous, led by Wickman but also with substantial help from Howry, Miller, Betancourt and yes, Riske. The starting pitching has been delightful. CC is good, although he could be better; Cliff Lee is 7-3, Millwood is pitching well and will come off the DL on Thursday, and our two stiffs, Elarton and Davis, have winning records. Westbrook, while 2-9, eats innings and is not deserving of this record.
The offense, putrid in April, is starting to warm up. Boone and Blake are starting to come around, Sizemore has been decent in the leadoff, and Coco, Jhonny and Hafner has been decent. We just need Victor to get out of his slump.
The 12-game homestand is against Colorado, Arizone, Boston and Cincinnati. Is 8-4 out of the question? I think not. That will take us to 39-34, and should make a lot of teams (including the Red Sox and Yanks) take notice.
But I like being ignored for now........5 games behind the Twins and closing in.
Eric Z.
Golf Update
1) Don did not qualify for the Ohio Am on June 7; however, his playing partner 3-putted the last two holes to fall into a playoff for the last few spots. The playoff was 6 people for 5 spots; his partner promptly doubled the first playoff hole to be the odd man out. Wow.
2) Monday is my US Publinx qualifier - 36 holes in Des Moines; if I qualify, I go to the exotic location of.... Lebanon, OH, to play a course 10 minutes from my old house.
3) Stay tuned for March Madness in June, as we have 2 match play tournaments coming up. Match play is great golf; I wish I played competitive match play more frequently.
Eric Z.
2) Monday is my US Publinx qualifier - 36 holes in Des Moines; if I qualify, I go to the exotic location of.... Lebanon, OH, to play a course 10 minutes from my old house.
3) Stay tuned for March Madness in June, as we have 2 match play tournaments coming up. Match play is great golf; I wish I played competitive match play more frequently.
Eric Z.
Lets hug it out bitch....
Went to the Dodger game on Saturday night and they had the Hollywood All-Star softball game beforehand. It's fascinating to watch Joey Macinyire,the fat hobbit,and the Principal from Breakfast Club turn a double play. Oh and John Lovitz and the fat hobbit were co-mvps of the game. Lovitz jacked a game ending 2 run shot in the bottom of the seventh. Fabulous!!
I'm not going to totally slam Lee for drunk dialing me on Saturday night since it resulted in one of the greatest ideas of all time. We came up with the solution to the problem for all married guys who have kids and can't get out to Vegas. Casino Day Care. When the wife says that you can't go to Vegas because of the kids, just say you will take them with you so she can relax. Once in Vegas drop the kids off at the Mirage Day Care Service and gamble away. I'm serious about this!!!
The gooch is live and well. I'm not a great golfer, but recently I have been able to hit in the mid 80s the last couple times out. On Sunday, after a rough couple of holes, I was able to put together a solid back nine, being 2 over going into the last hole. All I needed was a boggie on the Par 5 and I would break 40 on the back 9, which is a pretty big feat for me. I happened to brag to the guys I was playing with and after a 285 yard drive, I decided to go for the green and put it in the water. After a bad chip and then a three putt, I ended up with a 7. Ugh.
I'm not going to totally slam Lee for drunk dialing me on Saturday night since it resulted in one of the greatest ideas of all time. We came up with the solution to the problem for all married guys who have kids and can't get out to Vegas. Casino Day Care. When the wife says that you can't go to Vegas because of the kids, just say you will take them with you so she can relax. Once in Vegas drop the kids off at the Mirage Day Care Service and gamble away. I'm serious about this!!!
The gooch is live and well. I'm not a great golfer, but recently I have been able to hit in the mid 80s the last couple times out. On Sunday, after a rough couple of holes, I was able to put together a solid back nine, being 2 over going into the last hole. All I needed was a boggie on the Par 5 and I would break 40 on the back 9, which is a pretty big feat for me. I happened to brag to the guys I was playing with and after a 285 yard drive, I decided to go for the green and put it in the water. After a bad chip and then a three putt, I ended up with a 7. Ugh.
Jun 11, 2005
Hangover food
The next poll should ask what everyone's favoirte hangover food is. My worst hangover ever was in New Orleans in 1999, and when I finally felt like eating at 4:30 pm, I downed 5 pieces of Popeye's Chicken. Oh God, was that good.
This afternoon I turned to BK's traditional Chicken Sandwich. It satisfied the need.
There are no Rally's in Iowa. That ranks right up there for me when I need food NOW to cure a pounding headache.
This afternoon I turned to BK's traditional Chicken Sandwich. It satisfied the need.
There are no Rally's in Iowa. That ranks right up there for me when I need food NOW to cure a pounding headache.
Paul Lynde, for the block
Got back from Ames last night - a 7th place finish. Not too bad, given what transpired on Thursday.
This is a course that has no real trees to speak up - so the defense of the course is the wind and the "scottish" heather set up on the sides of most fairways. The fairways are generou s- about 30-35 yds wide - and about 5 more yards of plain rough - but if you miss that, you aredead. Sometimes it is the wispy heather; sometimes it is a hazard (lakes, marhses), and on some holes, OB awaits. So hitting the driver well is essential.
I was -1 thru 4, which included some Nathan Lane-type antics when my 50' for birdie on 3 was dead in the cup with 6 inches to go - yet somehow lipped out. I hit a bad tee shot on a par 3 (bogey) and a bad approach on 6 (another bogey). +1 thru 6 with 2 mistakes. The 7th hole had OB left, and unfortnately I duck hooked it. The ball bounced in the fairway as it was heading left, took two bounces and disappeared. I got up near the ball - the officials painted a white line just inside of the heather, signifying OB. However, right around where my ball was, the white line diverged into two - one line stayed on the inside part of the heather, but another white line appeared to go 10-15 yards deeper into the weeds and continued on down the hole. My ball, of course, was in between the two lines.
Long story short, I was ruled to be OB and I took a 7. After 9, I played halfway decent, 6 greens, and shot 39. Argh. The back nine was uninteresting but solid - one biride and one brain lock on a 500 yard par 5 that resulted in a 6 - until 18.
18 has water right and heather left. For whatever reason, the block appeared on that tee and my ball went dead right. There wasn't a question - splash. I had to drop about 100 yards from the tee, resulting in a 320 yd approach shot. Oh yeah, I got that in the bag. I hooked a 3 wood into a bad lie, punched up near the green and made a horrendous chip. Two more putts resulted in a 7.
I was in a complete fog for an hour after the round; I almost ran two stop signs and when I drown my sorrows at a Chiniese buffet, I collided into a waitress. "Oh! So sorry...more lo mein?"
So after hitting the ball well, two mistakes cost me 5 strokes.
Friday was the opposite; I hit two drives well all day, but solid irons (and a 205-yd 5 wood into the wind to 12' for a birdie on 15) kept me in the game, and I somehow shot 72. Every drive I hit was a severe draw - not quite as bad as a dead hook spatula, but certainly uglier than a draw. I parred 7 and 18, by the way, going 5-4 when I went 7-7 on Thursday.
I'm still stuck on the block from Thursday and am thinking I was scared of doing it again all day Friday. So now I'm lost with the driver when, 10 days ago, I couldn't hit irons. I hate golf.
This is a course that has no real trees to speak up - so the defense of the course is the wind and the "scottish" heather set up on the sides of most fairways. The fairways are generou s- about 30-35 yds wide - and about 5 more yards of plain rough - but if you miss that, you aredead. Sometimes it is the wispy heather; sometimes it is a hazard (lakes, marhses), and on some holes, OB awaits. So hitting the driver well is essential.
I was -1 thru 4, which included some Nathan Lane-type antics when my 50' for birdie on 3 was dead in the cup with 6 inches to go - yet somehow lipped out. I hit a bad tee shot on a par 3 (bogey) and a bad approach on 6 (another bogey). +1 thru 6 with 2 mistakes. The 7th hole had OB left, and unfortnately I duck hooked it. The ball bounced in the fairway as it was heading left, took two bounces and disappeared. I got up near the ball - the officials painted a white line just inside of the heather, signifying OB. However, right around where my ball was, the white line diverged into two - one line stayed on the inside part of the heather, but another white line appeared to go 10-15 yards deeper into the weeds and continued on down the hole. My ball, of course, was in between the two lines.
Long story short, I was ruled to be OB and I took a 7. After 9, I played halfway decent, 6 greens, and shot 39. Argh. The back nine was uninteresting but solid - one biride and one brain lock on a 500 yard par 5 that resulted in a 6 - until 18.
18 has water right and heather left. For whatever reason, the block appeared on that tee and my ball went dead right. There wasn't a question - splash. I had to drop about 100 yards from the tee, resulting in a 320 yd approach shot. Oh yeah, I got that in the bag. I hooked a 3 wood into a bad lie, punched up near the green and made a horrendous chip. Two more putts resulted in a 7.
I was in a complete fog for an hour after the round; I almost ran two stop signs and when I drown my sorrows at a Chiniese buffet, I collided into a waitress. "Oh! So sorry...more lo mein?"
So after hitting the ball well, two mistakes cost me 5 strokes.
Friday was the opposite; I hit two drives well all day, but solid irons (and a 205-yd 5 wood into the wind to 12' for a birdie on 15) kept me in the game, and I somehow shot 72. Every drive I hit was a severe draw - not quite as bad as a dead hook spatula, but certainly uglier than a draw. I parred 7 and 18, by the way, going 5-4 when I went 7-7 on Thursday.
I'm still stuck on the block from Thursday and am thinking I was scared of doing it again all day Friday. So now I'm lost with the driver when, 10 days ago, I couldn't hit irons. I hate golf.
Mystery Lyric #3
Congrats to those who got #2: "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" by Cher, I had no idea that Nirvana covered that song.
Here we go - Lyric #3:
We do the dive every time we dance
I'll give you love baby not romance
I'll make a move nothing left to chance
So don't you get fresh with me
Good luck!
Here we go - Lyric #3:
We do the dive every time we dance
I'll give you love baby not romance
I'll make a move nothing left to chance
So don't you get fresh with me
Good luck!
Warning
Ariel and I wasted a good hour going through all of the video on this site
Nested here you will find some really good shit (along with a lot of junk). I'm sure you all have seen this already, but I can't get enough of Tom Cruise going crazy. Make sure you watch Dane Cook's impersonation of Tom on Kimmel. On the left hand side of this link I recommend the following as must see video:
Nested here you will find some really good shit (along with a lot of junk). I'm sure you all have seen this already, but I can't get enough of Tom Cruise going crazy. Make sure you watch Dane Cook's impersonation of Tom on Kimmel. On the left hand side of this link I recommend the following as must see video:
- The worst sportscaster of all time
- The ultimate ownage video
- Too many guys
- Stewie vs. Shattner
This is what happens when no one else writes.....
As I prepare for my impeding move to the OC, I figured that I would do some spring-cleaning on my wardrobe. Since I’ve been single for about 3 years now, my collection of shitty clothes has grown to an almost uncontrollable level. Actually being single has nothing to do with it, since I have two full dresser drawers of tee shirts, most of which are from my college days. I have enough shirts, socks, and underwear to last about 90 days without doing laundry. I’m still amazed I was able to hold off multiple attacks from past girlfriends and my mother in throwing out some of the 62-logo tee shirts that I have. So last night, while watching the A’s and hopped up on Benadryl and Johnnie Walker, I decided to cut down the number of tee shirts to 30. I was able to get down to 36, with the below shirts not making the cut.
- 5 Gap tee shirts from 4 years ago that I bought when I was in shape and working out. Now these tee shirts don’t even fit over my stomach and the sleeves just barely cover my shoulders. What the fuck was I thinking?
- 2 Maryland Shirts: I can’t believe I still have these. These were the free white Tee shirts we got during our freshman year with the Toyota ad on the back.
- 4 Tee shirts from my brother: For some reason when Eric was traveling to Mississippi, he picked me up a Biloxi Grand Casino and Jim Bean tee shirt (with matching hat). I’m also tossing an ESPN shirt from Disney World and some weird golfing tee shirt with the saying “Its not the size of your shaft but how long you can drive it in her” or something like that.
- 3 Zurich Shirts with our company goals on it. Yeah, that’s something I’ll wear out.
- One shirt from my old apartment complex commemorating the 2002 Renovations.
- The one that I hate to get rid the most because it has been with me for the longest was the 1989 Jose Canseco tee. This is a 16-year-old tee shirt that has made it through college, 12 moves, and multiple attempts by many people to chuck it. It has two massive holes under the armpits, the collar is no longer there, and there are holes around the logo.
- There were another 10 tees from different parts of the country like Black Bear Tavern in Deep Creek, a bunch of San Diego shirts, New Orleans, and the Hard Rock in the Bahamas. The Detroit Tigers tee from their last season in the old Tiger stadium didn’t make the cut either.
Jun 10, 2005
Put it on the board.....Yes.
Only a few of you will enjoy this. This always reminds me of the Monte Carlo with Jay and I making each other laugh by putting "he gone" in every sentence while Eric is trying to pick his final game to put in his 10 game parlay.
http://www.heavethehawk.com/Hawkisms.html
http://www.heavethehawk.com/Hawkisms.html
Jun 9, 2005
There have been 19 QBs selected number 1 overall in the NFL Draft...
I usually despise all ESPN non sporting event programming like Baseball Tonight, NFL Primetime, Dreamjob, Tilt, and even Sportscenter, but after 1,000 tries at a game show, I think they found a winner in "Stump the Schwab". The questions are great and I've even done the "put a sheet of paper up over part of the TV so I can play along" move. Man, I need to get out of the house. Anyway, the only negative thing about the show is that I have to look at Stu Scott and his lazy eye for 30 minutes and endure the awkward fist poundage between Stu and the schwab at the end of the show. But other than that, it has now gone into my regular rotation along with Family Guy, West Wing, Blow Out, and Real World/Road Rules Challenge. But the lack of ads and press for this show along with it getting bumped to ESPN2 gives me the impression that they will be dumping it shortly. I hope they come out with a Stump the Schwab board game before they do.
Why is Iowa more advanced than ESPN?
Eric is playing in the Iowa Public Links Championship today not the US Open Qualifier as displayed in the poll. Go to the Iowa Golf Link on the side to get live updates. Doesn't seem like a lot of people. I remember the ones for Ohio had a large field. With the small field and his recent performances, I'm giving 10-1 odds on Eric winning this thing.
Anyway, let's wish him luck and hope he doesn't have that Cher song (answer to Lyric #2) stuck in his head, since its been in mine all night.
Anyway, let's wish him luck and hope he doesn't have that Cher song (answer to Lyric #2) stuck in his head, since its been in mine all night.
Jun 8, 2005
Corporate Hell
Question? Why is it when married men travel for business they always act like they are back in college on a road trip to New Orleans? If I see another middle age married man with two kids at home down 6 beers before dinner, then try to pick up the waitress, and then embarrass themselves by telling us stories about how they flirted with the front desk clerk at the Hampton Inn in Oklahoma City last week I’m going to throw up. And just because I’m single, that doesn’t mean that I’m an alcoholic and know where all the loose strippers dance. It also doesn’t mean that I’m desperate and need your help in meeting a girl. Jesus, you are definitely not my wing man so stop buying the 42 year old chain smoking red head at the end of the bar drinks. Karaoke? Hell no. Yeah I know marriage sucks and the kids are a pain and I should always stay single, but please stop begging and bitching that I stay out and have one last “nightcap”. It’s pathetic. On the bright side, I don't think I've paid for a single drink since these married boobs get too drunk and start picking up tabs left and right.
Mystery Lyric #2
If you get this, then we will really have to make it difficult.
Lyric:
Picked up a boy just south of mobile
Gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal
I was sixteen, he was twenty-one
Rode with us to memphis
And papa woulda shot him if he knew what he’d done
Lyric:
Picked up a boy just south of mobile
Gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal
I was sixteen, he was twenty-one
Rode with us to memphis
And papa woulda shot him if he knew what he’d done
Where are the Nationals?
Second day in a row that the A's-Nats game isn't on the MLB package. As I was cursing why the games aren't televised, I stumbled across this old Hardballtimes article discussing how badly the Nationals are going to get screwed by Angelos. Now it all makes sense on why Angelos didn't receive a large lump sum of money that everyone thought he would need to allow the move. This is just shocking that Selig would allow this, since it seems that it will permanently put the Nationals in the poor house for the next 50 years.
Lee, who is picking up the Nats games? Is it just on local TV?
Daily Picks: Making this quick since I'm swamped with work.
TX (Young vs. Tejada) -110- Mark my words. By the end of 2006, Young will be considered the next Johan Santana.
KC (Hernandez vs. Fassero) +120- How do the Giants have 24 wins with Rueter and Fassero in their rotation?
Dodgers (Weaver vs. Johnson) -105- No explanation for this one except that I truly love watching The Weave pitch.
Brewers (Capauno vs. Mussina) -Even- If they lose, I wouldn't be surprised if we hear more and more Torre being fired rumors.
Yesterday: 2-3 -123
YTD: 16-8 +840
Lee, who is picking up the Nats games? Is it just on local TV?
Daily Picks: Making this quick since I'm swamped with work.
TX (Young vs. Tejada) -110- Mark my words. By the end of 2006, Young will be considered the next Johan Santana.
KC (Hernandez vs. Fassero) +120- How do the Giants have 24 wins with Rueter and Fassero in their rotation?
Dodgers (Weaver vs. Johnson) -105- No explanation for this one except that I truly love watching The Weave pitch.
Brewers (Capauno vs. Mussina) -Even- If they lose, I wouldn't be surprised if we hear more and more Torre being fired rumors.
Yesterday: 2-3 -123
YTD: 16-8 +840
Jun 7, 2005
baseball draft
The draft is underway and I just read a comment about how the A's used 3 out of their first 5 picks on high school pitchers and that Beane must be frustrated with "Moneyball" and coming back to using traditional baseball philosophy. Once again the media gets it wrong on what Moneyball is all about and what Beane has to do to be successful. It's not about OPS, College Pitchers, and Stats, but its about finding inefficiencies in the market to maximize wins per dollars spent. With the success he has had in the draft, there is now a tendency to overpay for college players and undervalue high school talent. So while everyone is paying good money for college pitchers, the A's once again go against the norm and steal some talented high school pitchers for dirt cheap. The hardest throwing right handed pitcher in the draft, Craig Italiano, goes in the third round to the A's and has already been signed.
Side note: Did you know that the MLB draft only allows for 30 seconds between picks? Other sports should follow this model.
A's Notes: If the A's weren't so far out of first place, and the Angels and Rangers heating up, I would really like our chances but I think we dug ourselves too big of a hole. We usually dominate our interleague competition (except for the Giants) so my goal is to see the A's at .500 by the end of June.
Daily Picks: I'm on fire.
Oakland (Zito vs Armas) -103- Zito doesn't pitch that well on the road, but our bullpen is rested and our offense is clicking.
Angels (Byrd vs Ramirez) +110- Byrd will throw strikes and Ramirez will get knocked out early against the free swinging Angels.
Cubs (Rusch vs. Towers) -140 - I'm riding the Rusch and Cubs bandwagon until the wheels fly off.
KC (Carasco vs. Rueter) +120- The only reason why I'm taking this one is due to the fact that I hate Rueter and I'm shocked that he still has a job.
Brewers (Sheets vs. Pavano) Even- No respect for the Brewers despite the Yanks going into a huge slide. Sheets doesn't seem to be completely healthy yet, but he only has to worry about Jeter, Sheff, and A-Rod.
Two days ago: 5-1 +458
YTD: 14-5 +963
Side note: Did you know that the MLB draft only allows for 30 seconds between picks? Other sports should follow this model.
A's Notes: If the A's weren't so far out of first place, and the Angels and Rangers heating up, I would really like our chances but I think we dug ourselves too big of a hole. We usually dominate our interleague competition (except for the Giants) so my goal is to see the A's at .500 by the end of June.
Daily Picks: I'm on fire.
Oakland (Zito vs Armas) -103- Zito doesn't pitch that well on the road, but our bullpen is rested and our offense is clicking.
Angels (Byrd vs Ramirez) +110- Byrd will throw strikes and Ramirez will get knocked out early against the free swinging Angels.
Cubs (Rusch vs. Towers) -140 - I'm riding the Rusch and Cubs bandwagon until the wheels fly off.
KC (Carasco vs. Rueter) +120- The only reason why I'm taking this one is due to the fact that I hate Rueter and I'm shocked that he still has a job.
Brewers (Sheets vs. Pavano) Even- No respect for the Brewers despite the Yanks going into a huge slide. Sheets doesn't seem to be completely healthy yet, but he only has to worry about Jeter, Sheff, and A-Rod.
Two days ago: 5-1 +458
YTD: 14-5 +963
Episode I - The Best Decisions
Coming off last week, where it was obvious that David Ortizzle was the greatest Free Agent signing in the history of the Red Sox, it made me think - what are the other "Bests" in terms of player moves for the other teams I follow (lets limit this to NBA, MLB, NFL only - if you want to tell me about that great russian Krykiashisyckyzcvy that someone drafted in the NHL - save it). Here are the categories:
- Best Free Agent signing
- Best Draft choice
- Best Trade
- Red Sox
- Free Agent - Aforementioned David Ortiz. He has had a zillion clutch hits, was huge in the playoffs and you could make the argument that he is the most dangerous LH hitter in the league right now. Oh, and he was signed for around 1 million - thats ridiculous value.
- Draft Choice - Roger Clemens. Pretty much a nobrainer since the Red Sox haven't developed too many guys since him. Although I think he actually has something like 140 post Red Soxwins - thats amazing . Throw in back-to-back pitching Triple Crowns and 4 Cy Youngs AFTER his Red Sox career, it seems like his Red Sox days were eons ago, but it still counts.
- Trade - Pedro for Armas Jr and Pavano. You could argue Schilling for Fossum, Jorge De La Rosa, 6 baseballs and some chewing gum - but Pedro was so good for so long he gets the nod.
- Celtics
- Free Agent - It seems like since the advent of FA, and the cap the Celts have always been saddled with bad contracts, veterans or dead people still on their cap. So I will say David Wesley who I think they picked up during the Dark Ages as a street FA and he turned out to be a very servicable guard in his day. Of course, Pitino let him walk.
- Draft Choice - Bird. Duh. When they make a rule about who is draft eligible because of a selection - that says it all.
- Trade - Easily Kevin McHale and Parish for Joe Barry Carroll.
- Pats
- Free Agent - Adam Vinitieri OK, I'm cheating a *little* here, but he was an undrafted FA pickup by Parcells.
- Draft Choice - Brady. Duh.
- Trade - This is tough because so many football trades involve picks and you can't remember who actually was traded for what. I would say Corey Dillon, because I can't remember any impact trades they made that weren't just for draft choices. If you count "trading" a first round pick for Belichick, then that would be the obvious choice.
Jun 6, 2005
Mystery Lyric
This is a game that Steve and I play sporadically - we both leave random lyrics from songs on each other's voice mail as a challenge. The purpose, of course, is for the recipient to name the song and the artist. Watch out! The artists span a wide range of styles, from Naughty By Nature to Barbra Streisand.
Lyric #1:
That's my story, and you see
I learned my lesson, and so did she
Now it's over, and I'm glad
I regret all that I said.....
Trivia answer from last week:
John Lucas
Keith Smart
Randy Wittman
Lyric #1:
That's my story, and you see
I learned my lesson, and so did she
Now it's over, and I'm glad
I regret all that I said.....
Trivia answer from last week:
John Lucas
Keith Smart
Randy Wittman
Soccer
It's family night tonight!
Freddie scored his first goal tonight in a 8-1 win. His goal included pushing down members of his own team so he could score. Ah, we've created a monster.
Freddie scored his first goal tonight in a 8-1 win. His goal included pushing down members of his own team so he could score. Ah, we've created a monster.
Sunday School Lessons - Eric Z style
So I'm sitting with Freddie in the preschool Sunday School class. The teacher is going over the story of Noah's Ark. Bad people, God tells Noah to build Ark, 2 by 2, etc. etc.
Then - did you know this? - before Noah sent the doves, he sent a raven out. I'll have to check my Bible on that.
The lady asked all of the kids..."Now why did Noah send the raven out of the Ark?"
My first response (unfortunately, not audible):
"Because Mrs. Noah caught him selling cocaine to the giraffes?"
Other answers welcome below.
Then - did you know this? - before Noah sent the doves, he sent a raven out. I'll have to check my Bible on that.
The lady asked all of the kids..."Now why did Noah send the raven out of the Ark?"
My first response (unfortunately, not audible):
"Because Mrs. Noah caught him selling cocaine to the giraffes?"
Other answers welcome below.
Where are they now?
You can stop the email campaign, Mario Lucas has been spotted. He is currently a blackjack dealer on a riverboat in Mississippi. He reportedly is working as a blackjack dealer for a little extra cash from a full-time real estate job, but the legitimacy of those real estate claims has not yet been validated. Road trip anyone?
Shaq
If the Heat don't win tonight, does that diminish Shaq's legacy/reputation? Isn't this the reason that they got him? To have a legit arguement for league MVP, don't you have to be the MVP of your own team? Is he the MVP of the Heat? Or is it proving to be Wade? Shouldn't you be able to carry your team for a game when it counts? The playoffs are when legacies are made, and in my opinion Shaq needs to come up big tonight. Anything short of being an unstoppable force tarnishes his reputation to me--injury or no injury. How many did Jordan score when he had the flu in the playoffs and had to be helped (almost carried) off the court? Big players show up in big situations and this is a big situation.
Jun 5, 2005
bitch bitch bitch
Yesterday evening I went to play some poker at Hollywood Park, which is one of my favorite places to go, and Eric wanted me to write about it. But as an old school poker player, I hate reading and talking about poker sessions. What is an old school player?
- Purchased Supersystem when it was out of print and only available in hardback for $100.
- Was playing back when Hold em was called World Series of Poker.
- When going to a casino, it was a 50/50 split on Stud and Hold em tables. Most casinos now, you can't even find a Stud game.
- Only had two choices to play poker on the strip in Vegas; Monte Carlo and Mirage.
- You were the youngest person at the table by at least 30 years.
- You could not find clay poker chips at Walmart. When you ordered clay chips they were $1 per chip.
- It took months to plan and get enough people for a 16 person tournament.
There is nothing more annoying to me than some guy telling me about a hand that he lost, or how his pocket Aces didn't hold up. The thing that pisses me off is that it is usually due to improper betting (trying to slowplay a hand or not knowing when to raise) or that the player doesn't realize that he will eventually capitalize on people who try to draw a flush or straight on everyhand. That is why I don't talk to a lot of people at the table when I play, especially at Hollywood Park, because all it turns into is a bitch fest on how people are drawing out on good hands. That's all it seems to be now at the tables, a bunch of men almost in tears, complaining on hands they lost. What the fuck? If you want to complain, which I do at times, take a second to step away from the table, call your brother, and make it quick. When strangers complain to me, I usually make some stupid comments that offend them and it ends very awkwardly, so that is why I just sit there and either read or pick random horses. My method for picking horses has now changed to a junk hand that I have on the button. So if I get a 5-8 on the button, I'll fold and then find a race that has a 5-8 racing and do an exacta box.
I'm at a point in my poker playing life that I have probably lost and won on more strange hands that nothing surprises me so I don't care to much to read, write, or talk about it. So for you poker players that have only been playing for 1-2 years, there is nothing more annoying than listening to you on how you lost on 2 pair to a flush when it was clear that you lost because you bet improperly. There is nothing more annoying that watching you bitch and complain like a little girl when you lose. Shut up, suck it up, and learn from your mistakes. Take a second from your bitching and understand why that guy was able to pull something on the river from you. If you are smart enough, you will either realize that you did something wrong or that the other guy is a bad poker player and it will take a small amount of time to get your money back. Poker used to be played by a group of real men who would take you out back if you complained about losing, and now its played by a bunch of men who find reasons to complain so they can bond with their fellow complainers.
Anyway, I really wanted to talk how the demise of the married man can be blamed on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, but that will have to wait.
A's Notes: Another solid performance by the A's offense, even with Kotsay out with back spasms. Chavez's OPS has been over 1.000 and he fielding 100% better than a couple of weeks ago. Blanton must of seen the writing on the wall after Macha's comments the other day. Too bad its about 3 weeks too late though.
Other Notes: Jay, the top of the 9th of the Sox game might of been one of the ugliest half innings I've seen in sometime.
Picks: Big day today. I like a bunch of games so I will probably go 1-5.
Pittsburgh (Perez vs. Greisinger) +118 - Perez as a underdog at home?
Dodgers (Penny vs. Obermueller) -165 -NyQuil doesn't even have the sleeping power over the combination of Scully and a 2-1 Brewers/Dodgers game.
Cubs (Zambrano vs. Williams) +128 I-'m asking for it here with the Cubs going for a sweep against a very good Padres team. Heard Ron Cey on the radio the other day stating that this Cubs team matches up perfect with the Padres. Whatever, but I'll go with it.
Minnesota (Silva vs. Brown) +122 - In a must win game yesterday the Yanks just barely squeak out a win. I'm just so disappointed with this team.
A's (Haren vs. Gaudin) -138- Hot Hot Hot!!!!!
Indians Under 8 (-110) - I'm really hoping this Indians slide doesn't continue.
Yesterday :3-1 +200
YTD: 9-4 +505
Jun 4, 2005
Iowa State Cyclones - Fo' Real
Two days ago all I had to respond to was Neil's desperate grasp for yankee bashing, his mind now fully seized with madness by the faint images of a 2nd string catcher from Kentucky simultaneously tip toeing out of the batters box and drop kicking the braves into a decade of hanging NL East, feel the pride, championship banners (and his transition to the dark side complete), but now the bar has been raised.
Zahn the elder's rumination on MTV's Next makes statistics sing like it hasn't since Abraham de Moivre dropped The Doctrine of Chance back in 1718. http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/10920/statist.htm
I'm looking forward to Easy Z using Gauss' work in differential geometry to explain how Felix Fermin was robbed of the 1988 AL Player of the Month Award for May.
In honor of the blog's founding freres and for no good reason at all I will briefly recount my recent trip to that haven of incentivized guesswork, the tantalizing clank of tokens falling into somebody's grandma's plastic cup, and the ever tasteful, north of the thong tatoo of something meaningful in chinese that is sure to stoke the ardor of your new abusive boyfriend who will remark upon it favorably while you guys hook up in the bathroom cuz like whatever we were fucking drunk, or as you know it, Atlantic City.
I guess there are three possible outcomes for the non-gambling, non drinking, possessing an ever shrinking comfort zone visitor to AC. There is 1) try a bit of gambling and lose (bad), 2) get stuck in a lame theme bar buying 4 dollar sodas (worse), and 3) paying $50 to watch Bruce Smirnoff at the Comedy Stop in the Tropicana (having your legs cut off by your jedi master and slowly drifting into lava). Luckily I only had to endure 2 and 3. Understand this, Smirnoff means well. He lives in Miami, and he's tried internet dating and viagra. He knows his name is a brand of vodka. He thinks the world is just crazy sometimes; he just doesn't have any idea as to how convey these facts with any hint of jocularity or irony. Think about it this way, the Smirnoff formula for F (funny) =H (linguistic ability) + U (universality of human expression) X P (perceptiveness) divided by S (the amount of Smirnoffs in the room -1). In any case it's over now. Is there any way we can add ms paint artwork to the blog, or it verboten?
Zahn the elder's rumination on MTV's Next makes statistics sing like it hasn't since Abraham de Moivre dropped The Doctrine of Chance back in 1718. http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/10920/statist.htm
I'm looking forward to Easy Z using Gauss' work in differential geometry to explain how Felix Fermin was robbed of the 1988 AL Player of the Month Award for May.
In honor of the blog's founding freres and for no good reason at all I will briefly recount my recent trip to that haven of incentivized guesswork, the tantalizing clank of tokens falling into somebody's grandma's plastic cup, and the ever tasteful, north of the thong tatoo of something meaningful in chinese that is sure to stoke the ardor of your new abusive boyfriend who will remark upon it favorably while you guys hook up in the bathroom cuz like whatever we were fucking drunk, or as you know it, Atlantic City.
I guess there are three possible outcomes for the non-gambling, non drinking, possessing an ever shrinking comfort zone visitor to AC. There is 1) try a bit of gambling and lose (bad), 2) get stuck in a lame theme bar buying 4 dollar sodas (worse), and 3) paying $50 to watch Bruce Smirnoff at the Comedy Stop in the Tropicana (having your legs cut off by your jedi master and slowly drifting into lava). Luckily I only had to endure 2 and 3. Understand this, Smirnoff means well. He lives in Miami, and he's tried internet dating and viagra. He knows his name is a brand of vodka. He thinks the world is just crazy sometimes; he just doesn't have any idea as to how convey these facts with any hint of jocularity or irony. Think about it this way, the Smirnoff formula for F (funny) =H (linguistic ability) + U (universality of human expression) X P (perceptiveness) divided by S (the amount of Smirnoffs in the room -1). In any case it's over now. Is there any way we can add ms paint artwork to the blog, or it verboten?
Tornado Warning
Sirens have now gone off.... great. There is a tornado warning just announced for our county until 11:00. A little scary when you realize those sirens are not drills, especially at 10:20 at night.
Eric Z.
Eric Z.
Golf Update
1) Good luck to Don H as he tries to qualify for the Ohio Amateur on Monday in Cincinnati. Let's see that 74, Don.
2) Ryan in Honestly talked about his golfing hell in a post - a 6 hr scramble. I think Don will be in another hell on Tuesday when he tees off in the Publinx qualifier. He will try to get 36 holes in - in foursomes.
Anyone who has plyed torunament golf knows that stroke play tournament in foursome is a disaster. This is guaranteeing a 5 hour round, and quite likely more. Right now, the Cincy golf Assn (making the tee times) has alloted 5 hours between 1st and 2nd round tee times. Don - better have that PB&J sandwich in the bag to scarf down between 18 and 1.
3) Off to Ames tomorrow for a practice round for a tournament on Thu & Fri.
Eric Z.
2) Ryan in Honestly talked about his golfing hell in a post - a 6 hr scramble. I think Don will be in another hell on Tuesday when he tees off in the Publinx qualifier. He will try to get 36 holes in - in foursomes.
Anyone who has plyed torunament golf knows that stroke play tournament in foursome is a disaster. This is guaranteeing a 5 hour round, and quite likely more. Right now, the Cincy golf Assn (making the tee times) has alloted 5 hours between 1st and 2nd round tee times. Don - better have that PB&J sandwich in the bag to scarf down between 18 and 1.
3) Off to Ames tomorrow for a practice round for a tournament on Thu & Fri.
Eric Z.
The blog curse?
The Tribe is now at 4 losses in a row since we started F&J. All of them were close games we were capable of winning, making it all the more frustrating.
Maybe I should go on a posting strike until we win.
Notes of encouragement for such a strike are not necessary!
Maybe I should go on a posting strike until we win.
Notes of encouragement for such a strike are not necessary!
Sitting here trying to get over this cold and having to listen to Buck and McCarver butcher the Sox-Angels game and talk about Queer Eye for the Straight guy, I stumbled over these little gems.
Not too sure if you heard about this, but the 49ers released a video for their rookies on how to deal with certain situations. Segment number 8 will not disappoint.
Is it too early for this? Or how about this? Pats a 7.5 favorite over the Raiders? I'll take it. I just can't find a decent link to the Over/Unders yet.
This ones for you Lee. I know how much you enjoyed Project Runway. I wonder if his freaky daughter and her fat friend will be on it.
This is why men don't take women athletes seriously . Sort of reminds me of Nomar's cover of SI.
This might be old, but Borat was my favorite character on the show.
For all of you Black Crowes fans, looks as if they are going on tour with Tom Petty.
I don't know what was funnier, the actual site or Paul Katcher's comments to this link stating "This doesn't look like Curt Schilling to me."
Not too sure if you heard about this, but the 49ers released a video for their rookies on how to deal with certain situations. Segment number 8 will not disappoint.
Is it too early for this? Or how about this? Pats a 7.5 favorite over the Raiders? I'll take it. I just can't find a decent link to the Over/Unders yet.
This ones for you Lee. I know how much you enjoyed Project Runway. I wonder if his freaky daughter and her fat friend will be on it.
This is why men don't take women athletes seriously . Sort of reminds me of Nomar's cover of SI.
This might be old, but Borat was my favorite character on the show.
For all of you Black Crowes fans, looks as if they are going on tour with Tom Petty.
I don't know what was funnier, the actual site or Paul Katcher's comments to this link stating "This doesn't look like Curt Schilling to me."
Daily Picks
I'm surprised by the interest of this blog and the requests for posting rights so over the weekend, I plan on building out the blog to allow for others to contribute, but maintain some organization to the site. Already received a complaint from one of our contributors that he feels "crowded".
Added a new link: Our friend Chris has his own blog over at BucksSuperStereo.
A's Notes: Tough loss last night, but it was expected and the team battled nicely against Halladay. Glynn, a AAA call up, pitched seven strong innings, but Cruz pitched like crap and the offense stalled once again. For some reason Macha changed the lineup back to April's lineup, with Kendall in the two hole and Hatteberg batting cleanup. Why? Our offense has been clicking with a lineup of Kendall, Kotsay, Chavez, Keilty, Johnson, Hatteberg, Crosby, Swisher, and Ellis. This is one of the many reasons why Macha needs to be fired. Still with all of their troubles, they are only 10 games out of first place (Thank you Red Sox for coming back and winning last night). The Zito trade rumors are now starting, with Hardballtimes stating that there have been talks between the Padres and A's.
Other Notes: Indians continue to falter losing 3 straight against their division rivals, missing a great opportunity to take the opener. Now they have to go up against Garland. How long until they remove Blake from the lineup? Sox continue to track down the O's, but I think that the O's might be able to build a little cushion during interleague play in June since the O's face CO, Pitt, Houston, and Cincy, while the Sox face the Cards, Cubs, Cincy, and Phillies. And finally the Yanks lose another one. What would be more intersting, the Nationals making the playoffs or the Yankees missing the playoffs?
Onto the picks:
Yanks (Wang vs Mays) -137: The Wanger is on the mound trying to end a 4 game losing streak. No way they continue to lose. Just no way!!! I will eat my plaid shorts if they lose today.
D-Backs (Vaz vs. Padilla) +110: How is Vazquez an underdog?
Phillies (Meyers vs. Ortiz) -173: Game 2 of the double header. Ortiz has been getting shelled and hopefully that trend continues.
Giants/Mets Under 9 -110: Has anyone taken a look at the NL East Standings. The Phillies are in last place, but yet 2.5 games out. The Mets are at 28-26 and in 4th place, but only 1 game out.
Yesterday: 4-0 +495
YTD: 6-3 +305
Added a new link: Our friend Chris has his own blog over at BucksSuperStereo.
A's Notes: Tough loss last night, but it was expected and the team battled nicely against Halladay. Glynn, a AAA call up, pitched seven strong innings, but Cruz pitched like crap and the offense stalled once again. For some reason Macha changed the lineup back to April's lineup, with Kendall in the two hole and Hatteberg batting cleanup. Why? Our offense has been clicking with a lineup of Kendall, Kotsay, Chavez, Keilty, Johnson, Hatteberg, Crosby, Swisher, and Ellis. This is one of the many reasons why Macha needs to be fired. Still with all of their troubles, they are only 10 games out of first place (Thank you Red Sox for coming back and winning last night). The Zito trade rumors are now starting, with Hardballtimes stating that there have been talks between the Padres and A's.
Other Notes: Indians continue to falter losing 3 straight against their division rivals, missing a great opportunity to take the opener. Now they have to go up against Garland. How long until they remove Blake from the lineup? Sox continue to track down the O's, but I think that the O's might be able to build a little cushion during interleague play in June since the O's face CO, Pitt, Houston, and Cincy, while the Sox face the Cards, Cubs, Cincy, and Phillies. And finally the Yanks lose another one. What would be more intersting, the Nationals making the playoffs or the Yankees missing the playoffs?
Onto the picks:
Yanks (Wang vs Mays) -137: The Wanger is on the mound trying to end a 4 game losing streak. No way they continue to lose. Just no way!!! I will eat my plaid shorts if they lose today.
D-Backs (Vaz vs. Padilla) +110: How is Vazquez an underdog?
Phillies (Meyers vs. Ortiz) -173: Game 2 of the double header. Ortiz has been getting shelled and hopefully that trend continues.
Giants/Mets Under 9 -110: Has anyone taken a look at the NL East Standings. The Phillies are in last place, but yet 2.5 games out. The Mets are at 28-26 and in 4th place, but only 1 game out.
Yesterday: 4-0 +495
YTD: 6-3 +305
Is there any worse aggravation....
than running out of gas on your gas grill in the middle of cooking? Argh.
Would Markov watch MTV?
OK, I'm falling in love with the latest in bad TV, "Next". For those who don't know, this is where one person (say, "Brittany") would date up to five guys ("Josh, Jereme, Cory, Alex, and T-Lo"). At any time in the date, Brittany can holler "Next!" and the date would end; the next guy/loser would then emerge. Also, she can choose to stop at any time (not unlike "Press Your Luck") and choose that guy for a second date.
The nerd in me identifies this as a classic Markov chain. A Markov chain is a statstical model for a process where the state changes in discrete steps - like when Brittany yells, "Next!". A matrix is derived listing out the state transition probabilities; one can then multiply the matrices together to see the probabilities of being in a certain state in 3, 4, or more steps.
For instance, if P(Kellen Winslow gets hurt doing one wheelie) = .5, the Markov chain would be:
Healthy Injured
Healthy .5 .5
Injured 0 1
(For now, we assume that Kellen will never move from Injured to Healthy...... a pretty good assumption, no?)
We could then multiply the matrix 5 times to see the probability that Kellen is hurt after his 5th wheelie.
What a fascinating Markov chain we can draw for Next. Making up probabilities...
Josh Jereme Cory Alex T-Lo Winner
Josh 0 .9 0 0 0 .1
Jereme 0 0 .8 0 0 .2
Cory 0 0 0 .6 0 .4
Alex 0 0 0 0 .5 .5
T-Lo 0 0 0 0 0 1
Winner 0 0 0 0 0 0
what's the chances that Brittany will pick somebody after 3 dates? What's the disadvantage of going first?
Answering these questions are an exercise for the reader. Wow, I wish my grad class had questions like this instead of the generic ones we had. The ways math can be made more interesting.....
The nerd in me identifies this as a classic Markov chain. A Markov chain is a statstical model for a process where the state changes in discrete steps - like when Brittany yells, "Next!". A matrix is derived listing out the state transition probabilities; one can then multiply the matrices together to see the probabilities of being in a certain state in 3, 4, or more steps.
For instance, if P(Kellen Winslow gets hurt doing one wheelie) = .5, the Markov chain would be:
Healthy Injured
Healthy .5 .5
Injured 0 1
(For now, we assume that Kellen will never move from Injured to Healthy...... a pretty good assumption, no?)
We could then multiply the matrix 5 times to see the probability that Kellen is hurt after his 5th wheelie.
What a fascinating Markov chain we can draw for Next. Making up probabilities...
Josh Jereme Cory Alex T-Lo Winner
Josh 0 .9 0 0 0 .1
Jereme 0 0 .8 0 0 .2
Cory 0 0 0 .6 0 .4
Alex 0 0 0 0 .5 .5
T-Lo 0 0 0 0 0 1
Winner 0 0 0 0 0 0
what's the chances that Brittany will pick somebody after 3 dates? What's the disadvantage of going first?
Answering these questions are an exercise for the reader. Wow, I wish my grad class had questions like this instead of the generic ones we had. The ways math can be made more interesting.....
Jun 3, 2005
Half-truths and flat-out lies
True or not, what's the point of being able to post to a blog if you can't spread rumors that are completely unsubstantiated? Here's my two additions from unnamed sources:
1. In Chicago, Scottie Pippen is known by the nickname "No Tippin' Pippen". I don't really think that this is news, but I like to bring it up from time to time. One of the 50 greatest players, my ass.
2. Also, a guy I work with has a friend that works at IMG. A while back, there was a rumor that Bill Bellicheck hooked up with Melissa Stark, and that he "put it in her ass". This is so unbelievable that I actually believe it. Do you think that he was wearing his sweatshirt while banging her? I have so much more respect for BB if it's true. One, that he could pull MS. Two, that he actually left the house.
Also, is it wierd that I am now even more attracted to Stark?
1. In Chicago, Scottie Pippen is known by the nickname "No Tippin' Pippen". I don't really think that this is news, but I like to bring it up from time to time. One of the 50 greatest players, my ass.
2. Also, a guy I work with has a friend that works at IMG. A while back, there was a rumor that Bill Bellicheck hooked up with Melissa Stark, and that he "put it in her ass". This is so unbelievable that I actually believe it. Do you think that he was wearing his sweatshirt while banging her? I have so much more respect for BB if it's true. One, that he could pull MS. Two, that he actually left the house.
Also, is it wierd that I am now even more attracted to Stark?
Mmmm bedsheets
What is wrong with the Yankees? Turtle from Entourage said on Cold Pizza this morning that it was due to a lack of chemistry, so I will go with that, since it was better than Kruk's analysis that the fall of the Yanks was due to Torre not ordering his pitchers to hit the opposing team's star after Jeter gets hit. How does a guy like this stay on TV?
A's are on a 4 game winning streak, with our offense healthy and our bullpen back to being consistent. Still worried that 3/5 of our rotation is made up of guys that can't go 5 innings consistently in Blanton, Etherton, and Sarloos. Dotel is out for nearly two years with elbow surgery and looks as if Calero is headed in the same direction after letting up 2 runs and 4 hits in one inning in Sacremento. Dotel's injury really hurts the A's since this was one of our only tradeable players where we have a major league ready replacement. But if we are at .500 by the end of June, which is very doable with our schedule, Beane might be looking to obtain some talent to win the weak AL West.
One quick thought before I go onto the daily picks; When did Grape Soda become so big? Did I miss something? Why is everyone on my case about leaving it off the list?
Onto the picks: (by the way, no more NBA for me)
Nationals (Becket vs. Livan) +120 - Like the odds I'm getting with one of the most underrated pitchers on the mound, but with Nick Jonhson out, I should probably be getting even higher odds.
Twins (Lohse vs. Mussina) +125- How does Mussina only have a 3.90 ERA? Seems like whenever I watch him pitch he is getting racked.
Cardinals (Pettitte vs Carpenter) -130 - Cardinals 8-2 in Carpenter's last 10 starts.
TB (Fossum vs. Sele) +150 - TB will break out of their 5 game losing streak.
Yesterday 2-3 -190
YTD- 2-3 -190
A's are on a 4 game winning streak, with our offense healthy and our bullpen back to being consistent. Still worried that 3/5 of our rotation is made up of guys that can't go 5 innings consistently in Blanton, Etherton, and Sarloos. Dotel is out for nearly two years with elbow surgery and looks as if Calero is headed in the same direction after letting up 2 runs and 4 hits in one inning in Sacremento. Dotel's injury really hurts the A's since this was one of our only tradeable players where we have a major league ready replacement. But if we are at .500 by the end of June, which is very doable with our schedule, Beane might be looking to obtain some talent to win the weak AL West.
One quick thought before I go onto the daily picks; When did Grape Soda become so big? Did I miss something? Why is everyone on my case about leaving it off the list?
Onto the picks: (by the way, no more NBA for me)
Nationals (Becket vs. Livan) +120 - Like the odds I'm getting with one of the most underrated pitchers on the mound, but with Nick Jonhson out, I should probably be getting even higher odds.
Twins (Lohse vs. Mussina) +125- How does Mussina only have a 3.90 ERA? Seems like whenever I watch him pitch he is getting racked.
Cardinals (Pettitte vs Carpenter) -130 - Cardinals 8-2 in Carpenter's last 10 starts.
TB (Fossum vs. Sele) +150 - TB will break out of their 5 game losing streak.
Yesterday 2-3 -190
YTD- 2-3 -190
Initial Thoughts
First, congratulations to the Kansas City Royals for sweeping the Evil Empire. Maybe if the Yankees had listened to Costanza and stuck with the cotton uniforms, things would have worked out differently. No World Series rings since the Subway series of 2000. All I need to make the picture perfect would be for Jim Leyritz to die suddenly from "Overrated Dickhead" syndrome (a very rare mental disorder occuring mainly in below-average Yankee role players who managed to get a couple of lucky hits in big games. See Chad Curtis and Shane Spencer).
Significantly more importantly, the England/Bangladesh cricket test series resumed this morning in Durham (England, not North Carolina). For those too busy to check the score, Bangladesh are currently 70/6 just after lunch on the first day. Exciting stuff!
With football season fast approaching, allow me to be the first to predict that my very own Atlanta Falcons will be crowned Super Bowl Champions in 2006. Good upgrades on defense, and Michael Vick will continue his progression towards consensus league MVP and demi-god.
Back to baseball. Can someone PLEASE explain to me how friggin' Nomar Garciaparra is the leading vote-getter at shortstop in the National League for the All-Star game. Never mind that he's out for the majority of the season; he was only batting .157 when he got hurt with 0 home runs. As of right now, the All-Star lineups should be as follows:
Catcher: AL - Jason Varitek; NL - Ramon Hernandez
First Base: AL - Mark Teixeira; NL - Derrek Lee (tough to not vote for Pujols, but Lee deserves the start this season, and Pujols can DH because the game is in an AL park).
Second Base: AL - Brian Roberts; NL - Jeff Kent
Shortstop: AL - Miguel Tejada; NL - Jimmy Rollins
Third Base: AL - Alex Rodriguez; NL - Troy Glaus
Outfield: AL - Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramirez, Ichiro Suzuki; NL - Bobby Abreu, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Beltran
DH: AL - David Ortiz; NL - Albert Pujols
Significantly more importantly, the England/Bangladesh cricket test series resumed this morning in Durham (England, not North Carolina). For those too busy to check the score, Bangladesh are currently 70/6 just after lunch on the first day. Exciting stuff!
With football season fast approaching, allow me to be the first to predict that my very own Atlanta Falcons will be crowned Super Bowl Champions in 2006. Good upgrades on defense, and Michael Vick will continue his progression towards consensus league MVP and demi-god.
Back to baseball. Can someone PLEASE explain to me how friggin' Nomar Garciaparra is the leading vote-getter at shortstop in the National League for the All-Star game. Never mind that he's out for the majority of the season; he was only batting .157 when he got hurt with 0 home runs. As of right now, the All-Star lineups should be as follows:
Catcher: AL - Jason Varitek; NL - Ramon Hernandez
First Base: AL - Mark Teixeira; NL - Derrek Lee (tough to not vote for Pujols, but Lee deserves the start this season, and Pujols can DH because the game is in an AL park).
Second Base: AL - Brian Roberts; NL - Jeff Kent
Shortstop: AL - Miguel Tejada; NL - Jimmy Rollins
Third Base: AL - Alex Rodriguez; NL - Troy Glaus
Outfield: AL - Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramirez, Ichiro Suzuki; NL - Bobby Abreu, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Beltran
DH: AL - David Ortiz; NL - Albert Pujols
Finally, before I sign off from my first official blog post, a quick cricket score update. Bangladesh are now 90/8 and are at sixes and sevens.
yeah, buddy ball!
who woulda thunk it?
don't get me wrong....i'm still so out of touch with baseball right now (both from a fanboy standpoint for the beloved boys in KC and from the general goings on), but you gotta love it when a bunch of no-names with a fuckhead of an owner, shit-for-brains GM, and one winning season in over a decade steps up to the plate and sweeps the yanks.
i wish i could use my flux capaciter to revisit my childhood and change my allegience. maybe then i'd really care about what's going on in the sport i spent so much of my life playing.
don't get me wrong....i'm still so out of touch with baseball right now (both from a fanboy standpoint for the beloved boys in KC and from the general goings on), but you gotta love it when a bunch of no-names with a fuckhead of an owner, shit-for-brains GM, and one winning season in over a decade steps up to the plate and sweeps the yanks.
i wish i could use my flux capaciter to revisit my childhood and change my allegience. maybe then i'd really care about what's going on in the sport i spent so much of my life playing.
Jun 2, 2005
Soda Poll
Talking to Lee tonight and he wanted to add a couple of things to the site. The first was a counter, which has now been added down at the bottom of the site. The second was the ability to add polls if needed. Well, I found a decent site that provides free polling services so I will give it a shot for a while. The only way that I could make it look good was to put it under the Archive section on the side. If you put it in the post, it creates about 1000 rows worth of space between what I type here and the actual poll.
Anyway, Lee wanted to do a poll on that chic Indy Car driver, but I didn't want this to turn into a Hot or Not site and I didn't want to promote such a ridiculous sporting event (no one televises or cares about any other Grand Prix Race except for this one and we are all supposed to be amazed with what is going on?), so I decided to go with an old stand by. Pop!!!
One last note, did you know that Brittany Spears's husband was the leader of the bad guys dance group in "You Got Served".
Anyway, Lee wanted to do a poll on that chic Indy Car driver, but I didn't want this to turn into a Hot or Not site and I didn't want to promote such a ridiculous sporting event (no one televises or cares about any other Grand Prix Race except for this one and we are all supposed to be amazed with what is going on?), so I decided to go with an old stand by. Pop!!!
One last note, did you know that Brittany Spears's husband was the leader of the bad guys dance group in "You Got Served".
Amnesty International
These kind of stories get my blood roiling....
Amnesty International and Kerry
This is why it's very, very hard for me to listen to these guys - and, in general, a lot of the left-leaning "humitarian" groups. They never seem to hesitate to criticize the US - but where are they when the crap hits the fan in other countries? Did we hear a peep out of them when Daniel Pearl was executed? When tens of thousands of Iraqi prisoners were beheaded?
Gulag, my ass.
Look, are there things going on in Guantanamo that are questionable, and probably against international laws? Probably so - but I don't believe (nor has there been any proof) that it is as common as the media has you believe. I believe that these prisoners throw the accusations on the wall to see what is going to stick in the western media - who love a controversy.
Andrew Sullivan is one writer who has been following the torture/prison story for a while. While I don't agree with a lot of the stuff he says - and it's been getting stale of late - I will never question his motives. He genuinely loves this country and is very concerned of the damage that these stories may have in parts of the world.
However - he calls a spade a spade. He's not afraid to call people "terrorists" (do you see that word in the NYT or on NPR?) and is very critical of the spite and hatred from the left as well.
Those critics carry a thousand times more weight that these do-gooders at Amnesty who have a hard time criticizing real tyrants, but do not hesitate to pile on the US.
OK. End of rant. I feel better.
Amnesty International and Kerry
This is why it's very, very hard for me to listen to these guys - and, in general, a lot of the left-leaning "humitarian" groups. They never seem to hesitate to criticize the US - but where are they when the crap hits the fan in other countries? Did we hear a peep out of them when Daniel Pearl was executed? When tens of thousands of Iraqi prisoners were beheaded?
Gulag, my ass.
Look, are there things going on in Guantanamo that are questionable, and probably against international laws? Probably so - but I don't believe (nor has there been any proof) that it is as common as the media has you believe. I believe that these prisoners throw the accusations on the wall to see what is going to stick in the western media - who love a controversy.
Andrew Sullivan is one writer who has been following the torture/prison story for a while. While I don't agree with a lot of the stuff he says - and it's been getting stale of late - I will never question his motives. He genuinely loves this country and is very concerned of the damage that these stories may have in parts of the world.
However - he calls a spade a spade. He's not afraid to call people "terrorists" (do you see that word in the NYT or on NPR?) and is very critical of the spite and hatred from the left as well.
Those critics carry a thousand times more weight that these do-gooders at Amnesty who have a hard time criticizing real tyrants, but do not hesitate to pile on the US.
OK. End of rant. I feel better.
Expectations
So I'm sitting at work today watching the Tribe score change on the net, and I find myself cursing Scott Elarton for giving up a 3-1 lead in the 5th. We end up losing the game in the 13th, 4-3.
Deep breath.
This is SCOTT freakin' ELARTON, and I'm pissed because his line was:
?
My God, if we get that every other time out from him, we should be so lucky.
Another deep breath. All is well.
Eric Z.
Deep breath.
This is SCOTT freakin' ELARTON, and I'm pissed because his line was:
| 7.0 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
My God, if we get that every other time out from him, we should be so lucky.
Another deep breath. All is well.
Eric Z.
Daily Bets
To steal something from Aaron Gleeman, I will be trying to post daily picks for baseball and other assorted sporting options. Like most other working professionals, I am blocked from most gambling sites, so I will use the USA Today for the odds.
Each wager is $100.
Cubs (Rausch vs. Stauffer) +150 - Rausch is on fire!!!!!
Florida (Willis vs. Williams) -140 - Florida will not lose four games to Pit.
Yankees (Pavano vs. Jensen) -170 - I will eat my bedsheets if the Yanks get swept.
Atlanta (Ramirez vs. Loiza) +105 - This is why people lose money in Vegas. I feel great about the other picks, but I wanted to do 4 baseball games, so I took this game. Stupid, but I can't help it. This is why I live in an apartment and Steve Wynn just built another $2 billion hotel.
Miami/Det over- 182.5
Didn't realize that the games were starting so early today and I had already selected both the Indians (+280) and TX (-110), but I will exclude these from my picks. I wanted to take the Blue Jays over the A's, but this is probably a must win for A's just to get a split in this four game set since they have Blanton and Etherton going this weekend against Halladay and Lilly. Ugh.
Each wager is $100.
Cubs (Rausch vs. Stauffer) +150 - Rausch is on fire!!!!!
Florida (Willis vs. Williams) -140 - Florida will not lose four games to Pit.
Yankees (Pavano vs. Jensen) -170 - I will eat my bedsheets if the Yanks get swept.
Atlanta (Ramirez vs. Loiza) +105 - This is why people lose money in Vegas. I feel great about the other picks, but I wanted to do 4 baseball games, so I took this game. Stupid, but I can't help it. This is why I live in an apartment and Steve Wynn just built another $2 billion hotel.
Miami/Det over- 182.5
Didn't realize that the games were starting so early today and I had already selected both the Indians (+280) and TX (-110), but I will exclude these from my picks. I wanted to take the Blue Jays over the A's, but this is probably a must win for A's just to get a split in this four game set since they have Blanton and Etherton going this weekend against Halladay and Lilly. Ugh.
Spelling Bee Fantasy Draft
Perhaps one of the greatest ideas of all time, the ESPN Spelling Bee Fantasy Draft. I mean, think of how you would have felt if you had the kid last year who passed out and then recovered to spell the word correctly! High drama indeed. It's televised on ESPN and for those of us in the Washington, DC area, we could even go and heckle those little nerds. Anyway, check out the statistics for this year's bee here and start thinking of your strategery for next year's fantasy draft!
Jun 1, 2005
Links
Added some additional Links.
Aaron Gleeman is an excellent writerwho does some wonderful articles for HardballTimes.com, but also has his own blog site that is mainly dedicated to the Twins. About once or twice a week, he usually spends time on other topics that follows the same flow as the Sportsguy, and his hatred for Baseball Tonight and ESPN.com are in line with my views.
John Sickels- great minor league writer, who was abruptly fired from ESPN.com because he didn't fit in their new mainstream format. He now has a nice little blog site and there are some jems is you really like baseball.
AthleticsNation.com- probably the second largest blog site out there dedicated to a specific baseball team with Sons of Sam Horn having the largest following.
Sons of Sam Horn.com- Even though I hated to include anything related to the Sox, I think that this site along with the old time usergroups lead to what we have here today...blogs.
Iowa Golf- So we can all keep up with Eric's tournaments. How does a state like Iowa have enough money to spend on live scoring for amateur tournaments? Still amazes me.
Eric, Jon, and Lee, I couldn't find any really good blogs for the Yanks, O's, and Indians. The two Indians sites I came across had about 6000 hits over the last year and had only been updated about twice a week. I will keep my eyes open for additional sites.
For everyone else, please let me know if there are any other good sites.
Aaron Gleeman is an excellent writerwho does some wonderful articles for HardballTimes.com, but also has his own blog site that is mainly dedicated to the Twins. About once or twice a week, he usually spends time on other topics that follows the same flow as the Sportsguy, and his hatred for Baseball Tonight and ESPN.com are in line with my views.
John Sickels- great minor league writer, who was abruptly fired from ESPN.com because he didn't fit in their new mainstream format. He now has a nice little blog site and there are some jems is you really like baseball.
AthleticsNation.com- probably the second largest blog site out there dedicated to a specific baseball team with Sons of Sam Horn having the largest following.
Sons of Sam Horn.com- Even though I hated to include anything related to the Sox, I think that this site along with the old time usergroups lead to what we have here today...blogs.
Iowa Golf- So we can all keep up with Eric's tournaments. How does a state like Iowa have enough money to spend on live scoring for amateur tournaments? Still amazes me.
Eric, Jon, and Lee, I couldn't find any really good blogs for the Yanks, O's, and Indians. The two Indians sites I came across had about 6000 hits over the last year and had only been updated about twice a week. I will keep my eyes open for additional sites.
For everyone else, please let me know if there are any other good sites.
What's this a 3 game winning streak?
So as I sit here watching my A's complete a 3 game sweep of the Rays (I can't believe I'm actually proud and excited to say that), I'm flipping over to the extended Laguna Beach Landslides. If you don't know what happened out here, below is the link:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-060105slide_lat,0,118386.story?coll=la-home-headlines
I'm just shocked at some of the local news reporting of the landslides. First, we are nearly 14 hours after the initial landslide took place and this female field reporter who has been on all day is still so excited about being on TV, she has basically repeated the same 2 sentences over the last 12 hours. "Stan, I'm standing outside of Laguana Beach, where 18 houses were destroyed in a mudslide. This is just a small price these people pay for their beautiful ocean views." No lie, I have heard this about 25 times from this lady. I really don't know who is crazier, her or me expecting to hear something new.
Anyway, I got a couple of calls tonight on the landslides and how people from the East think that Californians are crazy for building their houses on the side of a mountain. I used to believe that until I actually spent some time in some of these houses, and let me tell you, when I have the money I will take the risk. These views are so amazing, its like you are at a beach resort everyday of your life.
When I say risk, I mean that if the house comes down, there is no coverage from your Homeowners Insurance. If it is a mudslide, then it is covered by the Federal Goverment under Flood Insurance, but if it is a Landslide, which this is, it is only covered by Loyds of London policy (since normal carriers don't want any piece of it) and usually runs close to $2,000-$3,000 for every $300,000 worth of home, and this was back in 1998.
And you wonder why you would ever need to know this? Well this also goes for sink holes. And if you don't think landslides can happen in your area, well if it can happen in PA, I'm sure it can happen in Iowa, Columbus, Capital Hill, or Cockeysville.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05049/459336.stm
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-060105slide_lat,0,118386.story?coll=la-home-headlines
I'm just shocked at some of the local news reporting of the landslides. First, we are nearly 14 hours after the initial landslide took place and this female field reporter who has been on all day is still so excited about being on TV, she has basically repeated the same 2 sentences over the last 12 hours. "Stan, I'm standing outside of Laguana Beach, where 18 houses were destroyed in a mudslide. This is just a small price these people pay for their beautiful ocean views." No lie, I have heard this about 25 times from this lady. I really don't know who is crazier, her or me expecting to hear something new.
Anyway, I got a couple of calls tonight on the landslides and how people from the East think that Californians are crazy for building their houses on the side of a mountain. I used to believe that until I actually spent some time in some of these houses, and let me tell you, when I have the money I will take the risk. These views are so amazing, its like you are at a beach resort everyday of your life.
When I say risk, I mean that if the house comes down, there is no coverage from your Homeowners Insurance. If it is a mudslide, then it is covered by the Federal Goverment under Flood Insurance, but if it is a Landslide, which this is, it is only covered by Loyds of London policy (since normal carriers don't want any piece of it) and usually runs close to $2,000-$3,000 for every $300,000 worth of home, and this was back in 1998.
And you wonder why you would ever need to know this? Well this also goes for sink holes. And if you don't think landslides can happen in your area, well if it can happen in PA, I'm sure it can happen in Iowa, Columbus, Capital Hill, or Cockeysville.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05049/459336.stm
Golf update
Tournament season is about to begin in earnest - next week we have the Iowa Public Golfers Championship in Ames. This is tournament #3 on the 12-city tour. Tournaments #4-6 come in a 9-day span at the end of the month.
My game is very inconsistent this spring, and that is solely due to one factor - not hitting balls on the rangs. High-level golfers fall into two camps; the range rats (think Tom Kite, Vijay Singh) and the "practice is playing" crowd - think Crenshaw, and most likely Mickelson. The latter group thinks that playing 18 holes is practice, as you are put in all sorts of game situations throughout the round, and it never hurts to practice "how to score".
I am clearly in the latter camp, but I can tell my game is suffering from the lack of time on the range. I do not have a consistent swing - I've been pull hooking 9 irons, thinning long irons - and that is a result of not having a grooved swing. My scores aren't too bad - since I'm getting up and down OK - but it clearly is not where it should be. And those sorts of thoughts aren't going to do me well under tournament pressure.
(This also explains how I can shoot 74 and be disappointed. Derek is flummoxed by this. How can I be happy when my last 3 iron shots were: a) a wedge from 90 yards 35 feet past the pin, 2) a thin 7 iron to 20 feet, and 3) a fat 9 iron that's 15 yards short? I was +1 on three holes where I could easily have been -1. )
The only solution? More time at the range. Maybe I should stop posting so much and get out there.....
Eric Z.
My game is very inconsistent this spring, and that is solely due to one factor - not hitting balls on the rangs. High-level golfers fall into two camps; the range rats (think Tom Kite, Vijay Singh) and the "practice is playing" crowd - think Crenshaw, and most likely Mickelson. The latter group thinks that playing 18 holes is practice, as you are put in all sorts of game situations throughout the round, and it never hurts to practice "how to score".
I am clearly in the latter camp, but I can tell my game is suffering from the lack of time on the range. I do not have a consistent swing - I've been pull hooking 9 irons, thinning long irons - and that is a result of not having a grooved swing. My scores aren't too bad - since I'm getting up and down OK - but it clearly is not where it should be. And those sorts of thoughts aren't going to do me well under tournament pressure.
(This also explains how I can shoot 74 and be disappointed. Derek is flummoxed by this. How can I be happy when my last 3 iron shots were: a) a wedge from 90 yards 35 feet past the pin, 2) a thin 7 iron to 20 feet, and 3) a fat 9 iron that's 15 yards short? I was +1 on three holes where I could easily have been -1. )
The only solution? More time at the range. Maybe I should stop posting so much and get out there.....
Eric Z.
Sports Futility Trivia
1. To mark the hiring of Mike Brown as the Cavs' new coach, I bet you can't name the three head coaches of the Cavs before the LeBron era....
Answer later in the week.
2. The Colorado Rockies beat St Louis last night, and with that win, Jason Jennings became Coors Field's all time winningest pitcher. In the 11-year-old park, Jennings has...... 25 wins.
The longer I think about this, the more preposterous it is.
3. Anyone catch Jake Plummer on ESPNews tonight? Think Fred Dryer sunglasses, Fred Biletnikoff hair and Burt Reynolds mustache, circa 1977. Yikes.
Answer later in the week.
2. The Colorado Rockies beat St Louis last night, and with that win, Jason Jennings became Coors Field's all time winningest pitcher. In the 11-year-old park, Jennings has...... 25 wins.
The longer I think about this, the more preposterous it is.
3. Anyone catch Jake Plummer on ESPNews tonight? Think Fred Dryer sunglasses, Fred Biletnikoff hair and Burt Reynolds mustache, circa 1977. Yikes.
More Soda blogging
Anyone know where I can get the CD for the "Wanna Fanta" jingle? Boy, is that catchy...
(Strawberry Fanta....mmmmmmmmm.....)
A couple more postings like this and Glenn Reynolds will call me the soda-blogger.
(Strawberry Fanta....mmmmmmmmm.....)
A couple more postings like this and Glenn Reynolds will call me the soda-blogger.
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