Katrina and New Orleans

The best place for information that I have found on the absolute destruction in New Orleans and other gulf coast cities is at: www.brendanloy.com.

If these stories and reports are true - 1) they seem valid and 2) there's no reason to openly doubt these - then there are some terrible things going on down there now, and it looks like New Orleans is in some serious trouble.

The magnitude of the damage seems to be lacking on CNN and other news channels.

NFL

How much of an impact have Fantasy Leauges, Gambling, and XBox had on the recent success of the NFL?

The sweet smell of victory

How was my weekend, you ask?

Click here to find out.

Just as dramatic as the US in 1999.

Here is the news story.

BuckSuperStereo

To steal from the BuckSuperStereo site of "Events that I wish I had my camera handy", here is what I saw last night leaving Hollywood Park, which is in Inglewood, at 9:00pm last night. Pulled up to a stop light that has an Adult Store that is boarded up, with a small door on the side for entrance. I've seen this place a thousand times before heading to Hollywood Park. Hookers and drunks are always going in and out of the place.

Well standing out front of the place were four white 9 year old kids rapping freestyle and making comments to the drunks walking by. They were actually rapping. I am totally lost for words.

Text This!!!

In the Claims Insurance World, the advent of Text Messaging was a tremendous breakthrough. It allowed a claims operation from a centralized location to notify field claims handlers of new losses in their territory by Text Messaging them on their cell phones. Every new loss was text messaged to the claims handler with all the information they would need to make contact with our insured and in the end handle the claim faster and more efficient. We started using this back in 2000, and since then we have evolved to wireless broadband cards that allows us to issue checks to the insured on the spot.

But the backlash of this technology lies with the regular public. Now I don't mind kids text messaging back and forth, since we used to do stupid shit back in the day, plus they don't really know any better. But what sets me off are adults who text message. If anyone can give me a solid reason why an adult would text message another adult, then I will change my view, but until then, anyone who sends me a Text Message (without calling first) automatically gets put into the "What the Fuck is wrong with them" category. Especially when the message is long and I know that it probably took them 10 minutes to compose and send. Or it just says "Hey what are you up too?" Why not just call? Most of the time when I question the people who send me a message as to why they did it, their response is that they didn't want to bother me because it was too early or late to call. What they should know is that whenever you get a text message, the phone rings like you are getting a regular call, so its still bothering you. And with my Sprint phone, it takes me about 5 minutes to get to it and I still don't know how to erase them so it keeps a little message light lit up and I can't tell if I actually have a regular message. Just plain annoying.

Crap Music

Ben and I were arguing the other day about Maroon 5, and how much they suck. I'm not going to get into that argument since it should be agreed that Maroon 5 is just a glorified boy band with a couple of guitars, and their music makes N'Sync sound like Megadeath. But what should be noted is how long their songs have remained in the mainstream radio rotation. Their album was released back in early 2002 and they still dominate the airwaves with songs off that album. Here is the question...Has there been an album in the last couple of decades that continue to release songs 3 years later? Pearl Jam-Ten? Metallica-Metallica? On XM yesterday, Maroon 5 was on 4 different stations, with different songs. In my opinion this represents how much the music industry sucks right now, and their inability to find original and solid talent.

Quick Thoughts for a Friday Morning

Two totally unrelated questions:

Couldn't sleep last night due to work issues in our project management staff, so from 4:00-7:00am I watched episodes of Monk. Never watched it before. Very light and enjoyable, but this might of been because of the time. If I was watching this in the evening I'm not too sure if it would of held my attention for an entire episode. But I did find Monk's sidekick, Traylor Howard, very very attractive. Any thoughts on Monk?

Do you think Isreal's pullout from the Gaza is a setup? Do you think that when they get bombed again, they will make the case that they have tried everything that they could, and then just bomb the living shit out of everyone in that area with the blessing of everyone?

Welcome

I would like to welcome Austin, who will be a regular poster on Flotsam Jetsam. For some reason he goes by the tag of LindaNelson (my boss's name), but seems to have his finger on the pulse of LA. He has broke some very important stories by either seeing it first hand or somehow hearing about it before they even made the papers or the internet. Here are a few of those stories over the past year:

• Matt Leinhart was dating Kristine from Laguna Beach.
  
• The Lawerence Phillips incident last weekend.
  
• Ike Austin accepting money to play at ASU.
  
• Derek Lowe sleeping with the Fox Sports girl.
  
• Matt Leinhart breaking up with Kristine and then dating Jessica Simpson's best friend (the one that lived with them).
  
• Michael Jackson's love affair with all those kids (Austin used to be a regular guest at Neverland).
  

So he will be our field reporter for good and accurate gossip about LA athletes. Also, I'm hoping he will add some insight for college football gamblers which seems to be lacking here at Flotsam and Jetsam. His knowledge in basically all College Sports is second to none.

Welcome

2005 AL Wild Card = 1986 Masters

Before the games last night, the AL Wild Card chase struck me as being very similar to the 1986 Masters.

During that final round when Seve and Kite were on 15, and Seve put the ball in the water and Kite made a routine birdie, Ben Wright announced that "we have a triple tie, a triple tie for the lead".

I love saying that - triple tie. Try it!

Anyway, the standings at that moment were:
Ballesteros -8 15
Nicklaus -8 16
Kite -8 15
Norman -6 14
Watson -6 15

The parellells to this year's WC are clear. Obviously, the Yankees are Seve - the team/player that has a lot of talent, but everyone loves to hate. Norman is the hard-charging Twins, and the Blue Jays seem like Watson - they're in it, but no one gives them a chance.

The only question is whether the Tribe or the A's play the part of Jack. My argument:
- Jack is from Ohio, and the Indians are in Ohio!
- Jack at that time had won 5 Masters; the Tribe has won 5 AL Pennants!
- Kite wears glasses, Macha wears glasses (I think).

There you go! My prediction is that the final standings will mirror the 86 Masters, where Seve 3-putted 17, Kite missed an 8 footer on 18 to tie, and Norman choked away a playoff with a bogey on 18.

Cle 90-72
Oak 89-73
Min 89-73
NYY 87-75
Tor 84-78
Sea 82-80

(See, someone had to play the part of Tommy Nakajima, so I picked Seattle. I guess that's where my analogy falls apart.)

NFC Quick Look

As part of my prep for my draft this Sunday, I like to take a look at all of the teams in the NFL and think about who I think will take a step forward, who will be about the same, and who will take a step back. This is certainly not an in-depth analysis, and I would encourage people to comment more in-depth. I would expect that Eric would have a pretty good commentary on the Browns and the AFC North in general. Derek, AFC West, Jay, AFC East, etc. With that being said, here's my first stab at the NFC.

NFC East
Iggles - we've talked about it on this site before, but I just can't see them taking much of a step back. Their defense is still pretty good, and even before T.O., they won 12 games. So maybe their schedule is harder and maybe T.O. as a distraction is worth another game or two. So they go 10-6? More of a commentary on the rest of the NFC East than anything else.
G-Men - Manning is hurt and still a second-year QB, Burress is not as good as he is being paid, Barber had a career year, and Shockey is one of the two most overrated TE's in the game (Heap is the other). That being said, their defense is pretty good, they are disciplined, and the rest of the NFC East sucks. They are not good, but will win more than the 6 that they won last year.
Redskins - the team that I root for. That being said, they are terrible. I think that they will improve from last year, but only to 8-8 or 9-7 at best. The defense is solid, but until the offense proves that it can move the ball and actually score points, the jury's out. Oh yeah, and Brunell will be starting by week 7.

NFC North
da Bears - wasn't Chicago in the exact same position last year when Grossman went down? frisky, might make some noise, but then their only hope hurt his leg and the rest of the season went down the toilet? so, don't you go out and get a decent back-up to protect against that? of course not. and that's why you deserve to be in this position.
Lions - no, not the crappy Black Crowes disc, the team with the sick WR trio. How long do you think that Harrington will be allowed to make mistakes before Garcia comes in? Mooch loves Garcia, and the weapons are there. I think that Kevin Jones is going to be good, and Charles Rogers, Mike Williams, and Roy Williams? Wow. I think that the defense is so-so, but we're just looking for competitive, not a Super Bowl.
Pack - I keep waiting for Favre to get hurt and he keeps throwing 30 TDs. I just feel like they are going to get old in a hurry. If Favre retires next season, is Green coming up close? He's been in the league 8 years, and isn't that about the time when RB's slow down? And without those two, who's left?
Vikes - addition by subtraction? with Moss gone, do they spread it around and actually bother with a running game? Culpepper is still the best QB in the NFC, their defense is improving, and their schedule is pretty easy. I think that the NFC North is theirs to lose.

NFC West
Cardinals - they can't be worse, right? Boldin and Fitzgerald now have Warner and his gimp thumb to throw him the ball and this guy JJ Arrington is supposed to be good. Denny Green will get them to a point, and then who knows. Again, they can't be worse, right?
Rams - Bulger is pretty good, Holt is still one of the elite WRs, and Steven Jackson looks like the real deal. I don't think that they are a SB threat, but they should put some numbers up.
49ers - yikes. I think that the only thing that you are looking at is Alex Smith and Frank Gore. And that's only for next year.
Seahawks - Shaun Alexander's contract year, will Hasselbeck finally turn into a consistent QB? After Darrell Jackson, do you even know any of their WRs? Did you know that they have a WR named Taco? No kidding. Sorry, I just can't get excited about them. Maybe it's an East Coast bias, but I don't really understand how they are any good (other than playing the 49ers twice). Anyone have any insight on this?

Baseball

I hate the A's. I hate that my mood depends on if they win or lose. I hate that A's have reverted to their old habits of May. I hate getting consistently 2-3 hit by scrubs. I hate that my expectations have changed about 4 times this year. I hate that Crosby is out of control right now and is trying to pull every single pitch for a homer. I hate that Crosby has to bat third. I hate being passed by the Yanks and the Indians in the Wild Card race. I hate thinking that we are out of the playoff race this early, despite the fact that we play the Indians and the Yanks 3 more times each in the next month.

I love the fact no matter what happens this year, the rookies are all getting important playing time down the stretch. I love that our pitching staff that has been outstanding will be returning. I love that we will shed Dotel, Rincon, Duarzo, and Hatteburgs salary next year that will allow us to get that right handed power bat that we need. I love that Swisher, Johnson, Street, Blanton, and Haren have exceeded expectations as rookies and will allow us to get that one power bat. I love that our team will be twice as good next year and should walk away with the division.

Episode II - Attack of the Bad GMs...

Hello all!! I've been locked away for quite awhile, I'm surprised I am still listed as "Contributor" on the Blog and not "Deadbeat". I figured if another week went by DZ would put my face on a milk carton. Sorry for the delay, its been hectic here...you know rehabbing my ankle and all...

Without further ado I'd like to start the list of worst trades and signings evah by "my" teams. Again, I am going with the original rules of keeping things within the last 25 years or so.

• Red Sox -
  
• Trade: Larry Andersen for Jeff Bagwell. Even though Andersen pitched well for the Sox in this 1990 deadline deal, it still was an awful deal. Made worse by the fact that GM Lou Gorman admitted he never saw Bagwell (in AA) play at all and felt that Scott Cooper and Boggs were ahead of Bagwell. One item in defense of Lou (who famously said "What would we do with Willie McGee??" when the Sox failed to put a waiver claim on him in an August deal where McGee was dealt) was that he felt Bagwell would not be a power hitter and Bagwell never hit double digit HRs early on, perhaps he developed that power by some other means??? Sox fans always fret extra over this one because Bagwell was a "native New Englander" being a Connecticut guy and growing up dreaming of playing for the Sox. Plus, its one thing to give up prospects for difference makers, but a 38 year old middle reliever? Yeesh.
  
• Free Agent: Matt Young. Although there are so many options here Young takes the cake. I think he had a $4 million contract and got like 3 Red Sox wins. Other options were Jack Clark (one good year, then basically became a corpse and filed for Bankruptcy), Jose Offerman (one good year, then became fat and terrible), BK Kim (re-signed him but still) 10 mil over 2 years.
• Draft: None of the names will mean much but look at any of the Gorman drafts post 1992, or any of the Duquette drafts (as well as unsuccesful forays into International Waters - Robinson Cano, Sang Lee, etc getting multi-million dollar deals)
• Pats
• Draft - Any of the players taken by the pre-BB GM. They had all those extra picks from the Parcells and Curtis Martin "defections", yet they did nothing with them. Not only did the guys selected during that era not contributing, something like 75% were *out of the league* within three years. You would almost have to try to select that poorly. Before this entire era of futility it would be OG Eugene Chung, who was a disaster from the start.
• Trade - Football trades are so tough to recall since they usually involve draft picks.
  
• Free Agent - Donald Hayes and Antonio Langham were both exceptionally awful as Patriots. I guess Hayes gets the nod since he was decent before arriving whereas Langham was bad before arriving, but was still starting since that 2000 team was crappy.
• Celts
• Draft - Well, Len Bias turned out the worst no doubt. They were really counting on him to add needed youth and athleticism to that championship team. However, one could argue they would have been better off if Acie Earl just died after they drafted him as he made almost no impact anyway. Close calls were the trio of bad choices Kedrick Brown, Joe Johnson and Joe Forte. Johnson eventually came into his own although everyone looks better playing next to Nash. Forte is out of the league and Brown should be enjoying the NBDL very soon.
• Free Agent - Pretty much anyone signed by GM ML Carr ("This train is bound for glory!!!!"). Lets see Nique, Pervis Ellison, Dana Barros, etc. But of course Rick Pitino also had some great ones Travis Knight, Vitaly Potopenko to name a few.
  
• Trade - Vin Baker. I mean Vin Freaking Baker!!!!!! The best thing about the Vin Baker trade is that it makes the Kenny Anderson for Chuancy Billups trade look like an excellent deal in comparison. Yes, Baker is STILL on the celtics cap this year :(

Thats a wrap!! I am getting pissed just thinking about Vin Baker again. Fortunately, the Sox are pounding the Royals and the NYY are losing. Crap, Matsui just jacked one and Jeter is doing his best to be an annoying a-hole as always. Damn Yankees.

Last thing, I think the Red Sox are smart to be pulling out their last card in the deck and calling on their rookies to help their pen (Hansen and Papelbon mostly). What do they have to lose? Can they be worse than Remlinger's 18.56 ERA, lets face it the bar is pretty low. Pray Foulke can come back and maybe the two rookies can be enough of a band-aid that Timlin's are doesn't fall off by September.

Eric's Receiver Rankings

This seems to be the opposite of the RB's - if you can't get one of the top 9-10 WR's, forget it - they're all lumped in a group from #11-#30 or so.

"A" rated:
1. Harrison
2. Moss, R
3. Holt
"A-" rated:
4. Owens
5. Johnson, C
6. Wayne
7. Clayton, Mike
"B+":
8. Burleson
9. Jackson, D
10. Smith, S
11. Williams, Roy
12. Ward
13. Kennison
"B"
14. Johnson, A
15. Mason
16. Fitzgerald
17. Horn
18. Bennett
19. Walker
20. Boldin
21. Bruce
"B-"
22. Burress
23. Porter
24. Bryant
25. Johnson, Key.
26. Williams, Reggie
27. Moss, S
28. Moulds
"C+"
29. Branch
30. Smith, R
31. Chambers
32. Coles
33. Evans
34. Galloway
35. Smith, J
36. Driver
37. Robinson
38. Clayton, Mark
39. Houzmanzadeh
40. Edwards

Tight Ends:
1. Gates
2. Gonzalez
3. Witten
4. Crumpler
5. Heap
6. Shockey
7. Clark
8. Smith, LJ

Eric's Running Back Ratings

I'm struck by how deep this list is in terms of high-quality backs. I think there are RB's of great quality - not good, great -and the 12, 13, 14 spot.

For a yardage-heavy league:
"A" Backs:
1. Tomlinson
2. Holmes
3. Alexander
4. James
5. McAllister
6. Davis, D
7. Lewis, J
8. Portis
"A-"
9. Bell
10. Jordan
11. Jones, J
12. Dillon
13. McGahee
"B+"
14. Barber
15. Johnson, R
16. Green
17. Martin
18. Jones, K
"B"
19. Staley
"B-"
20. Jackson
21. Westbrook
22. Brown, K
23. Taylor
"C+"
24. Barlow
25. Arrington
26. Faulk
"C"
27. Suggs
28. Foster

Eric's Quarterback Rankings

Again, for a yardage-based league:

A 1. Manning, P
2. Culpepper
3. Green
A- 4. Bulger
5. McNabb
B+ 6. Hasselbeck
7. Palmer
8. Delhomme
B 9. Plummer
10. Vick
11. Brady
12. Collins
13. Pennington
14. Favre
B- 15. Warner
16. Leftwich
17. Carr
C+ 18. Griese
19. Detroit mess
20. Roethlisberger
21. Brees
22. Brooks
C 23. Bledsoe
24. Manning, E
25. Dilfer

Fantasy Ratings...

Every year, before the draft, I prepare my making my own list of top 25/50 QB/RB/WR. I like to make my own evaluations first before being swayed by the magazine's opinions.

The steps I take:
1) Review each NFL team's depth chart, writing down the starting QB, 2RB, 2Wr and TE (or 3 WR); assess the team and any changes it made (coaching? philosophy?) and then give each player a preliminary grade;
2) Sort by grade (lump all the A's, A-minus's, etc) and see if anything is odd
3) Compare the initial groupings to the standard lists printed out by magazines
We have to take into account that I am in a yardage-heavy league. We only give out 2 pts for TDs, which I think is the right way to do it.
4) Make adjustments, and then rank within each grade.

OK - here we go!

Kaufmann Stadium

Yes, this post is mostly a test to see if I can upload pictures correctly to the blog. Here is the four of us at Kaufmann this July. I hate this picture of me (and the boys look like they are kidnapped), but it's the only one I have handy.

By the way - we loved the stadium. Warren tried to run into the right-field fountains twice.

Who does all the work at Farmers?

I think this picture speaks volumes... check out the look on Derek's face.

Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts while I wait for traffic to die down on a Friday evening.

I really can't wait until Eric posts his blog about the formula for drafting. This might be the biggest thing since OPS. I'm in a personal record of 5 Fantasy Football leagues this year. What is the point now? I'm basically rooting for everyone, and I'm basically looking just to break even. And its not like I don't have enough to do on Sundays.

Did Jay's kid eat him? Haven't seen or heard for that Schillzilla in a long time.
XM Radio has turned me into a freak. I drive with the receiver in hand and constantly scroll through the channels looking for the next crap song that I haven't heard in years. I now have a 2 hour commute 2 days a week, and I can tell you that I do not put that receiver down for longer than 5 minutes. Its like I have ADD. I now have to issue a public apology to my brother for yelling at him for doing this exact same thing.
And fucking Tivo!!! Jesus. It has totally exceeded all of my expectations.

Going to a scrimmage on Sunday at USC with my buddy Austin. Expected attendance....50,000. Did the Terps even have scrimmages that we could go to?

Was I dreaming or was Coach Fridge actually on the front of ESPN.com the other day?

Why is everyone bitching about Madden 2006. I love the cone and they have corrected a couple of issues from last year's version. I'm sure the programmers didn't spend much time improving the look of the game, since they probably deep in development for the new game system coming out this winter, so what does everyone expect. Remember it wasn't that long ago that we were all playing GameDay and swore off Madden.
Overall Rating: 7 out of 10.

Question for Eric and RRD (or whoever else): What makes the top notch golfers decided which tournaments to play in (other than the majors). Why the Memorial? Why the Buick? Why not the Zurich Open in Baton Rouge? Is it because of the money? Course? Competition? It seems as if VJ plays in every single tournament, and the reason why he is racking up all of these wins is that Tiger, Mick, Els, and company don't play all the time. Just a thought.

The waves in Dana Point glow. That's right, they glow at night. Ben and I first thought it was the St. Regis shinning a blacklight down on the beach at night, or something like that. But nope, it's just "natural" as they say here. I have a feeling that someone has not been reading the "Do not Dump" signs in front of all of our drains.

It continues to amaze me at the incompetence of the people that I work with. I think that only 10% of the employees at a certain company understand and are smart enough to get things done. 60% of the people come in to work everyday and understand their place and usually stay out of the way, since they don't care. The remaining 30% are people who are completely clueless. They are so clueless that they get in the middle of everything, and just completely fuck up everything. For some reason they still have their jobs, despite continuous fuck ups. They tend to be managed by the same type of people who have no balls to tell them that they suck, so you could come across an entire department of complete fuckups. So you have these idiots causing delays because they don't understand the first thing about Business, Project Management, Finance, or just plain life in general. They tend to cause you possibly several hours of delays per day due to their crazy emails or continuous interruptions in meetings. I probably work an extra 10 hours a week fixing issues that they cause. It is absolutely amazing.

Small ball my ass

If I hear about the White Sox winning ways is due to small ball again, I'm going to kill myself. Spent some time getting a couple of facts together on this to just prove to you all that this is just not true.

In 2005, the White Sox are 13th in the league in Runs and Runs per game compared to 3rd in the league in 2004. In 2005, the White Sox are 28th in the league on OBP compared to 15th in 2004. On the bright side, they are 3rd in the league in SB, but with only a 69% success rate, which really hurts since they have attempted more steals than anyone else in the league. They have had 52 runners thrown out this year compared to 51 all of last year. Finally, they are 17th in the league in SH in 2005, compared to 13th last year.

So, let me get this straight. All those guys in the media (I'm looking at you ESPN), continue to say that the White Sox winning ways are due to playing small ball. Does small ball equate to getting on less, scoring less runs, and sacrificing less runners? Yes, they have stolen more bases than last year, but they are terrible at doing it. Couple all of this with hitting less homers, and you can see that their offense is not what caused the turnaround. Here is the obvious reason why they have turned it around:
3.67 ERA which is 5th in the league, compared to 4.91 (25th in the league) in 2004.

Is it because it is this simple, that Kruk, Morgan, Reynolds, and company totally ignore this fact? And I hate to say it, but its just not them. Its everyone!!!! Their offense got worse since letting Lee go and bringing in Podsednik (who is receiving all sorts of credit). Do you want a leadoff hitter, who is on pace to score only 86 runs, drive in 26 runs and walk 53 times with an OPS of .680? Oh, and he hasn't hit any homers. Is this the guy that is turning this team around? Can you imagine how good this team might of been with Lee batting behind Konerko? Wow.

Tiger & the PGA

Regarding Tiger leaving Sunday night from Baltusrol as the leader in the clubhouse.....

I originally felt that Tiger was well within his rights to leave that night. It was unlikely that all 5 of the leaders would come back to him, and if he had some pressing engagement, then he must have done a benefit/cost analysis in his head and decided it was worth the small risk and leave.

But now I'm not so sure.

What kind of message would it send if Phil, Vijay, Steve, and Thomas all come to the range on Monday to see - Tiger hitting ball after ball on the range? Wow.

Tiger, in effect, would be saying: "I have no faith in all of you. You all are going to cower in my presence."

They all have before, why not now?

If winning majors is so important to Tiger, and he has a chance to not only win one but mess with people's minds.... don't you do that? Especially since majors only come around once every four years?

I don't know. I didn't see any of Sunday's or Monday's action, so maybe my comments are out of line. But I think the mere presence of Tiger at Baltusrol on Monday would have caused a couple of them to fold.

What might have been

Monday was the last real individual tournament of the year, the US Mid-Am Qualifier. I went to Chiacgo for the 18-hole qualifying round; 3 people advanced out of 45 or so.

Now, these USGA Qualifiers are crapshoots. Anyone who has played golf knows that some days, you wake up and your swing is clicking; but on other days, it just isn't there. If the swing isn't there on a qualifier - well, you just suck it up, shoot the best you can (75? 78?) and try again.

On the days where the swing is there, you have to take advantage. Monday was one of those days.

I came into the qualifier driving well, putting better (especially the 10-20 footers) and the weak link, my irons, were finally showing signs of life. Even though I hacked up the practice round on Sunday (and it's impossible to play a good round of golf after a 4 hour car ride), I felt good. Steve (my caddie, best friend from college) and I though -2 (69) would be a lock; anything under par would have a chance.

The course was 6500, par 71, and tight. I like it like that - I usually can keep the ball in play, and if the irons are working, who knows?

Well, I got off to a solid par on the opening hoel - the 10th - and the 11th was a 155 yard par 3. I hit the 7 iron to 3 feet. Birdie. Good start.
12 is a very tight (25 yard fairway, dogleg left, with OB about 10 yds left of the fairway) hole. I steered my drive into the trees left, and it dropped down. The punch out got a bad kick, I had to go over a tree and didn't make it; my wedge on was a bit fat, and my lag putt was 6 feet short. Now I need to make a 6' just for double. I did.

Argh. +1 after 3. The next 3 holes were tight par 4's; I went 4-4-4. Back on track.

16 is a short,tight par 5; 3 wood, 5 wood to 75 yards; 60 deg wedge to 6 feet. Birdie. Even.
Par 17; 18 is a short par 3. 9 iron to 15 feet. Steve and I see the line - 2 balls outside the left edge; unfortunately, I stroked it a bit too hard (I knew it when I hit it) and it caught the lip and missed. Par.

Even with the double, I finished at even for the back side. I feel good.

Par 1; par 2 even though I half-bladed a 7 iron. 3 is a 210 par 3; I hooked the 5 wood too much and that led to a bogey.
#4 is a 500 yard par 5; my drive was OK- hit a tree by bounced out inthe fairway, and my 3 wood ended up 35 yards short. I have a tight lie over a bunker with some green to work with; I hit a great low, spinning wedge to 10 feet.
Great; get back to even here, pick up another birdie along the way and who knows?

Steve and I have the line - it's on the right edge; I stroke it just the way I want.

The ball does not move and rolls over the edge. Par.

That was deflating. I am in a haze for the next two holes, and bogey #5 and #6 which are holes that I should make par on 90% of the time. I finish with 3 pars for a total of 74, +3. 70 (-1) qualified. Standings here.

I've never felt worse after shooting a 74. It was there. Even with the botched double on the 12th, I still could have done it. That putt on 4 will haunt me for a while. If that falls, there's no way I bogey 5 and 6, etc. etc.

The goal of qualifying for a USGA championship is so close, yet so far away. Maybe next year.....

Don't piss off the cable company...

or else this can happen to you..

I think I'd frame that bill if it happened to me.

Fantasy Football

Well, it's about that time. I will post my position rankings over the weekend in preparation for my draft on Monday, Aug 22. I really don't trust the rankings of the national magazines - they are too dependent on last year's stats; it seems their rankings are just a regurgitation of the yard leaders from the year before - so I use the national mags as a starting guide and then adjust according to changes in the coaches, FA, strategies, etc.

( Slightly off topic: it seems to me that you should be able to create a linear program (LP, for those nerds reading) that takes in the stats of the players and uses those to slove for an objective function that eqautes to any customized league.

For example, your objective function could be:
max z = (QB Yards/25) + (QB Passes)*2 +...+ (RB TD)*6 + (RB Yds/15) +...

where the coeffiecients of each variable are dependent on the league. Your constraints, of course, are the number of people at each position; you'd also want to constrain the ranking poistion of each player s- obviously, you couldn't take the #1 QB, #1 RB, #1 WR, etc - even though that would maximize the objective function. You'd have to set your constraint so that
(draft position of QB) + (draft position of RB #1) + .... > 100 (or so).

I wonder why this hasn't been created..... hmmmmm...... )

Anyway, back on topic - I have a choice between keeping Alexander or Jailbird Jamal Lewis. Any opinions? I'm almost set in my choice, but wanted to hear any last minute arguments.

(oops...did I let my anti-Ratbird bias show?)

TO and Randy

I'm stealing from Dr. Z from SI.com, but can you imagine if the Raiders traded Jerry Porter for TO, and then you have Randy and TO on the same team?

Futures

As we prepare for the upcoming football season, here are the updated odds, requested by many of you.

AFC Champion
http://www.vegasinsider.com/u/futures/NFL_1031.cfm

NFC Champion
http://www.vegasinsider.com/u/futures/NFL_1032.cfm

Superbowl Winner
http://www.vegasinsider.com/u/futures/NFL_1033.cfm

Over/Under
http://www.vegasinsider.com/u/futures/NFL_1185.cfm

Need a camera

How can a homeless person be overweight? Just doesn't make any sense to me. Does grass have a high carb count. There is currently an overweight homeless women rearranging the tables in Starbucks right now, which is providing me endless amounts of amusement. Now she is drawing pictures with her highlighter on the floor. I wish I had Curr's camera phone right now...oh, now she is praying.

Craps!

One of the great things about Craps is that there are so many nicknames that players use to call their favorite number. Every time I play, I hear something different.

Some examples:
"Fever Dice" (5)
"Little Joe" and "Big Richard" (4, 10)
"Three women and me" (4, the easy way)

I heard a player Wednesday keep yelling "Square Pegs! Square Pegs!" on the come-out roll. I had no idea what that was. A 12? But I don't think he had any of the horn numbers....

Any other favorites?

A Financial Lesson for all

Back in 1997, Argosy Casino first opened up in Cincinnati. It slowly grew in popularity over the next 2 years and now is a Cincinnati tourist destination.

Anyway, around 1998 or 1999, a couple of friends at work and I started to look at their stock. As a young company, it was pretty low at that point - I think it was $3 for most of 1998.

Numerous times during that year, I was thinking about pulling together $1500 or so and buy 500 shares. I believed in that stock - since I was going there once a month at the time! - and believed in the company.

Well, I checked the share price yesterday. Why don't you check it too. It's symbol is AGY.

I felt immediately sick.

Moral of the story: if you truly believe in a company and its prospects, do whatever you can to get the money and invest in what you believe.

(I'm buying Sirius next week.....)

T.O.

This post isn't to comment on T.O.'s actions or whether he was an idiot or not, but rather what type of impact will this have on the team.

Eric made some statements to me a couple of minutes ago that the Eagles will go 6-10 without Owens, since he is simply the most important person to any team in the league, and without him they will be a sub .500 team. I can't really argue with him on this since I can only think of maybe Manning and Brady being more important than TO to their own respective teams.

Theismann states that the Eagles are built on defense and the Eagles won't miss TO that much. King states that the Eagles have two outstanding rookie WR that might be ready to step up.

Even with these two rookie WRs stepping up, I have to agree with Eric that without TO, the Eagles are a 6-10 team. TO's impact was tremendous last year, up until he got hurt and then when he played in the Superbowl. I respect him as a player and I really could care less about his contract dispute, since owners regularly cut players before their contracts are up anyway.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out. And if TO is gone from the Eagles, who will win the NFC East and with what record?

Things that should be outlawed...

1) Stuart Scott hosting any game shows
2) Paul Begala doing political analysis
and
3) Any driving ranges that put out a sign saying "Irons Only".

Twice this year I got to ranges to work on my driver and 3 wood, only to be faced with this sign.

Don't be a cheapskate and buy the extra 50 yards to allow drivers to be hit.

Argh.

New Poll

New poll posted about the Family Guy.

Post your comments here.

TJ Hooker

Sitting here at the Starbucks now for 5 hours, I have seen roughly 50 girls between the age of 13-18 (guessing on the age since they all look young). Anyway, of these 50 girls, I would say that close to 85% of them, if kidnapped and put on the streets of Atlantic City to turn a trick, would not need a wardrobe change. Some of these outfits would make Lil Kim blush. WHERE ARE THE PARENTS??????? Oh, they are with them buying them coffee? OK, that makes sense. How are these parents so numb to what their kids wear out in public? I can understand if the kid sneaks out and puts this stuff on, but the parents are right there with them!!!!!! And its a fucking Sunday morning, not Friday night at the clubs. I give up. If some right winged person wants to make an ordinance for uniforms for kids in public, I just might volunteer to help them get it passed.

Not in my house

Another morning ruined by babies. I understand that I have a short fuse to begin with, but it's getting tougher and tougher to stay quiet when things like this happens.

8:00am at the local Starbucks. The Starbucks is filled with couples and older men reading the paper, while relaxing and listening to some nice blues on the stereo system. I grabbed a nice little table in the corner and I've been doing some work, when all of the sudden a young couple with their one year old kid comes in and starts to reek havoc. They grab the table next to me, and for the next 30 minutes the kid either is crying or screaming in joy, right in my ear. And the parents are laughing, taking pictures, and thinking that it is so cute. And to top it off, the area where they were sitting at was completely trashed as the kid tried to eat a muffin and left about 60% of it on the floor, and the parents didn't even bother to clean it up. After they left, the men in the place all had a bonding moment, as we all made eye contact and did the manly nod as to acknowledge how ridiculous all of that was.

Now, if we were in a grocery store, beach, park, or fast food joint, I would not get mad because I know how tough it is to control kids that young. But kids that young do not belong in nice restaurants or places like Starbucks, where people are trying to relax or have a nice morning or evening. There is a place of kids of that age and it shouldn't be where it is obvious that adults are trying to have a nice relaxing time. I would rather see a kid of that age in a bar than Starbucks, since it is at least noisy in a bar and it will drown out some of that ear piercing T-Rex shrieking.

Now if I was a real man, I would do what Brian (dog from Family Guy) did in the last episode, where he is drinking his coffee and some kid is crying right behind him and he turns around and just starts to yell right at the kid, and then goes to the parents "Isn't that annoying? Isn't this ruining your dinner? And nobody is doing anything to stop me? How do you like that? WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

So for all of you that have kids this age, please think before you start trucking your kid around everywhere and assume that people won't mind. This seems to be happening all too often out here in CA recently.

Breaking news....

The sun came up in the east today!

Howard Dean goes off the deep end in criticizing Bush!

And, Courtney Brown is injured!

What are the chances of that happening? Shocking!

The smartest man in America...

... now has a blog.

Michael Barone Blog

It's listed over at the side as well.

Barone is the pre-eminent political writer of the last 20 years, and his knowledge of American Politics is second to none. One of his first posts comments on the special election in OH's 2nd district, and contains warnings for both the Dem's and Rep's.

If you are a political junkie, like me, this is a must read.

Real World

If you are bored with the new Real World in Austin, you can just wait until next year's Real World-Key West. And they are starting to film now, at the start of Hurricane Season, so they will have an additional storyline.

By the way, what is the over/under on the number of gays this time around. 3?4?

And my friend's quote the other night on how crazy the Real World has gotten, pretty much sums up the current status of the show. "I used to have to think through who the gay guy was. Now I don't even know who the black guy is."

Power of Advertising

So I'm in Des Moines this year - twice - and I'm watching cable in the hotel room. Now, the cable there has local commercials - unlike DirecTV at our house, which just shows national commercials for teh cable stations.

Anyway, we're still undecided about where to take our vacation this year. We usually take a late vacation, and it seems we're getting lazier and lazier in planning it.

I'm watching poker, and all of sudden one of the commercials is a state asking you to come visit. "Legendary history... lakes... great food...". It's an ad for the state of North Dakota. It shows a beautiful steak being served (yummm), two kids happily jumping on hotel beds, Indian reservations (Freddie loved to go into tepees the last time we went to a state park)...

And then I see the commercial again an hour later. Yes, yes, it all make sense now. It's only a 7- hour drive to Fargo. Why not vacation in North Dakota? All we need is a hotel with a pool, beds, some Indians that Freddie and Warren could hassle with toddler questions.....it's a capital idea!

Gees. I came to my senses a few days later. What's wrong with me and my willpower that I was actually considering vacationing in North Dakota???

Long time, no post

Yes, it has been a long time since I posted. Sorry about that hiatus. There was a golf tournament, a 4-day trip to Cincinnati, and work that all got in the way. Derek has posted some great topics over the past several days to cover.

Some thoughts on baseball:

1) I think Derek and I are on the same page when it comes to Raffy. For all you Pete Rose haters out there, one question for you:
If you are against Rose being in the hall, you'd also have to against Raffy going into the hall, right? It's only logical.

2) I was going to talk about the Tribe, but the devastating loss tonight kind of rained on that parade. A tough decision for Wedge - Millwood pitched 8 strong, and was under 95 pitches. Wickman pitched Tue and Wed, and declares himself "great" and "ready to go" if needed tonight. The Tribe leads 3-2 going into the 9th.
What do you do? A tough, tough call.
Wedge called for Wickman, and we end up losing on 2 solo HRs.
(I'm sure Derek thinks this is somehow sweet revenge- for what, I'm not sure.)

3) Is there a law that says that any male who:
- is overweight by 10-30 pounds
- is of the age 25-34, and
- has a bushy moustache/goatee
MUST be a Red Sox fan? Geesh.

4) I'm happy to see Washington fade into the night. It's just not right that a team that relocated in their 1st year makes the playoffs. Suffer a little first, God dammit!

The Official "Derek, get off your high horse and call 1-800-DIRECTV now" Thread

Derek:

You are the only person I know that has had a bad experience with DirecTV. (and it wasn't even DirecTV, it was one of their contractors.

I'm asking all the readers/lurkers to post their good experiences with DirecTV here to illustrate to you that the last time was a fluke.

They are sooo much better than any cable company. How many weeks now has it been since you had your baseball package?

Please, for the love of all that's good and clean in this world, call 1-800-Directv today. Swallow your pride - we all do sometimes! - and make the call.

Eric.

Interesting Thought

Will we look back on Jose Canseco 20 years from now and say that he saved the game of baseball by outing the Steroid's Issue?

Also, if we remove the fact that Jose and Raffy did steroids, who had a bigger impact on the game of baseball?

Some very interesting topics on Sportstalk today.

The Gooch

My asshole brother calls me up in the middle of Zito's no hitter and demands to know what is going on. I don't bite, but he persists and then I finally admit that Zito has a no hitter through 4 innings. What happens next? Homer, walk, and single. Of all people that know the power of the gooch, he plays that card to me, and I fall for it. I'm so pissed right now!!!!!!!! Can't wait for the Browns to start playing so I can make insane calls to him every 5 minutes.

And yes, I do think that I can control the outcome of a game by my actions.

Wingman

I absolutely hate the term wingman. I hate those Miller Lite commercials that celebrate the term wingman. After what I've been through tonight, it should be called "laying on a grenade." That's what I did tonight for my friend Ben. I laid on a grenade.

Update: Good news-If I ever need a fullback to create some holes in the defensive line, I think I got my girl. Bad news- she has teeth that would make John Elway jealous.

How can Fox continue to have Brit Hume on TV? The guy looks and sounds like someone who has been up for 48 hours straight. Just completely lifeless. And then you have Dan Abrams on MSNBC who seems like he is just mailing it in, and is completely off on most of his analysis.

Two questions here. Who is your most hated news person and who do you like the most?

No Limit

So played some poker last night at Hollywood Park. This will become the downfall of my graduate career, since Hollywood Park is conveniently located halfway between my office and home and it breaks up the 2 hour commute.

So met up with some friends there playing in a tournament and watched them for a while. Ended up playing 4-8 for about two hours and I was even. Went back over to check on my friends and one was out, while the other two were advancing pretty nicely. Anyway, my one friend Travis convinced me to join him at the no limit table. Hollywood Park has a couple of different No Limit games which actually is pretty nice. I played some $2-$3 no limit with a $100 buy in. There seems to be more talking at these tables as everyone is just having a good time. Also, you have more novice players than at the structured table for some reason. Now I've played some no limit games in Vegas and I was totally out of my league since I was in the shark tank at the Monte, but at Hollywood Park, it was a different story. Was up pretty large for most of the time, but then lost it all as by pocket queens lost to pocket aces. Ugh. Anyway, I think I'm getting out of the structured games and going into the no limit scene. Have a nice private game planned for Friday night, which will hopefully bankroll another run at Hollywood Park on Saturday. Will keep you all posted.

And I haven't commented on the A's recent run since I don't want to call out the Gooch.

The Rafae Train

Baseball does not make it easy to love the game. Today Palmerio was suspended for Steriod use. Good. It was so obvious that he was lying to congress a couple of months ago. Its obvious that dozens of other players were using as well and eventually it will all come out because these ego maniacs can't stop using. And the ones that stopped using, you can see that they won't be in baseball for that much longer.

But does it really make a difference. 7 years from now when Palmerio is on the HOF ballot, I bet nobody will bring it up. Writers and Fans seem to have such a short term memory. People are now cheering Giambi, the media never made a story about Bonds actually admitting he used the cream (but he didn't know what it was), and Balco is the thing of the past.