Ever had a pregame discussion with a buddy before going out with a couple of girls on who gets who? First, I feel like I'm back in college, and secondly I feel like a congressman bargaining to make sure his district gets some pork in a bill that's about to pass. "If you take Patti, then you pay for dinner and you have to drive so I can get drunk and take one for the team." And this brings up a good question...Why am I always taking one for the team. Man, it seems like this has been happening a lot more often than I would like over the past couple of months. I think I need to hire a negotiator to handle these things for me upfront since my friends continue to take advantage of the fact that I really don't care until shit starts going down at dinner or at the bar and I'm stuck with some she-male who has me in a half nelson and is licking my eyebrow as I try to catch the late scores on ESPN. Why can't I just find a nice girl, or one of those girls I hear about in all those Ludacris songs; I'm not asking for much, just a women that acts like a lady in public, but she is a freak in the bed, or something like that...whatever! I know how this will end tonight and it will probably involve some Irish Car bombs, a $200 tab that I will somehow get stuck with or offer to cover, and doing the Icky shuffle to that banana song by No Doubt with about 5 average looking chics while my friend looks on and laughs while he closes the deal with Patti. Good times man, Good times. Oh and Lee, I don't care if you have a kid now, so expect a call around 3:00 tonight. Paybacks are a bitch.
Tomorrow's topic: Is there any correlation between gaining weight and increased comedic ability?
Sep 30, 2005
Sep 29, 2005
AL Cheat Sheet for this weekend
Boy oh boy, how the math changes with 2 swings of the bat by David Ortiz.
I've broken down the possibilities for this weekend's action.
On the left are the 16 possble results from the series this weekend.
The P value is the probability (in 64ths) of this occuring, assuming that each team has a 50% chance of winning any game.
The result is your winner of the East and Wild Card.
Note: If NY and Bos tie and both are better than Cleveland, then NYY wins the division based on head-to-head record (NY is up 9-7 now).
IF................................P......................THEN
Chi 3-0, NYY 3-0.......1..............E: NYY, WC: Bos-Cle Tie
Chi 3-0, NYY 2-1.......3..............E: NYY, WC: Bos
Chi 3-0, Bos 2-1..........3..............E: NYY, WC: Bos
Chi 3-0, Bos 3-0..........1..............E: Bos, WC: NYY
Chi 2-1, NYY 3-0.......3..............E: NYY, WC: Cle
Chi 2-1, NYY 2-1.......9..............E: NYY, WC: Bos-Cle Tie
Chi 2-1, Bos 2-1.........9..............E: NYY, WC: Bos
Chi 2-1, Bos 3-0.........3..............E: Bos, WC: Cle-NYY Tie
Cle 2-1, NYY 3-0.......3..............E: NYY, WC: Cle
Cle 2-1, NYY 2-1.......9..............E: NYY, WC: Cle
Cle 2-1, Bos 2-1.........9..............**3 Way Tie** (see below)
Cle 2-1, Bos 3-0.........3..............E: Bos, WC: Cle
Cle 3-0, NYY 3-0.......1..............E: NYY, WC: Cle
Cle 3-0, NYY 2-1.......3..............E: NYY, WC: Cle
Cle 3-0, Bos 2-1..........3..............E: NYY-Bos Tie, WC: Cle
Cle 3-0, Bos 3-0..........1..............E: Bos, WC: Cle
Probabilities for each team:
NYY: Get in w/o playoff game: 45/64(70%); will be in a playoff game 15/64 (24%); out of playoffs 4/64 (6%)
Cle: Get in w/o playoff game: 26/64(41%); will be in a playoff game 22/64 (34%); out of playoffs 16/64 (25%)
Bos: Get in w/o playoff game: 23/64(36%); will be in a playoff game 22/64 (34%); out of playoffs 19/64 (30%)
3-way playoff: If this happens, then NYY-Bos will play on Monday; the winner is division champ; the loser plays Cle on Tuesday for the wildcard. This has a 14% chance of happening.
If Cleveland wins 2 of 3, they are in unless Boston wins 2 and only 2.
If Cleveland wins only 1, they are guaranteed at least a playoff unless Boston wins 2 and only 2.
If Boston wins 2, they are in without a playoff only if Cleveland loses 2 or more.
If Boston only wins 1, they are out if Cleveland wins 2. (obvious)
New York is in with 2 wins; with 1 win, they are guaranteed at least a playoff game.
New York cannot clinch anything on Friday.
I've broken down the possibilities for this weekend's action.
On the left are the 16 possble results from the series this weekend.
The P value is the probability (in 64ths) of this occuring, assuming that each team has a 50% chance of winning any game.
The result is your winner of the East and Wild Card.
Note: If NY and Bos tie and both are better than Cleveland, then NYY wins the division based on head-to-head record (NY is up 9-7 now).
IF................................P......................THEN
Chi 3-0, NYY 3-0.......1..............E: NYY, WC: Bos-Cle Tie
Chi 3-0, NYY 2-1.......3..............E: NYY, WC: Bos
Chi 3-0, Bos 2-1..........3..............E: NYY, WC: Bos
Chi 3-0, Bos 3-0..........1..............E: Bos, WC: NYY
Chi 2-1, NYY 3-0.......3..............E: NYY, WC: Cle
Chi 2-1, NYY 2-1.......9..............E: NYY, WC: Bos-Cle Tie
Chi 2-1, Bos 2-1.........9..............E: NYY, WC: Bos
Chi 2-1, Bos 3-0.........3..............E: Bos, WC: Cle-NYY Tie
Cle 2-1, NYY 3-0.......3..............E: NYY, WC: Cle
Cle 2-1, NYY 2-1.......9..............E: NYY, WC: Cle
Cle 2-1, Bos 2-1.........9..............**3 Way Tie** (see below)
Cle 2-1, Bos 3-0.........3..............E: Bos, WC: Cle
Cle 3-0, NYY 3-0.......1..............E: NYY, WC: Cle
Cle 3-0, NYY 2-1.......3..............E: NYY, WC: Cle
Cle 3-0, Bos 2-1..........3..............E: NYY-Bos Tie, WC: Cle
Cle 3-0, Bos 3-0..........1..............E: Bos, WC: Cle
Probabilities for each team:
NYY: Get in w/o playoff game: 45/64(70%); will be in a playoff game 15/64 (24%); out of playoffs 4/64 (6%)
Cle: Get in w/o playoff game: 26/64(41%); will be in a playoff game 22/64 (34%); out of playoffs 16/64 (25%)
Bos: Get in w/o playoff game: 23/64(36%); will be in a playoff game 22/64 (34%); out of playoffs 19/64 (30%)
3-way playoff: If this happens, then NYY-Bos will play on Monday; the winner is division champ; the loser plays Cle on Tuesday for the wildcard. This has a 14% chance of happening.
If Cleveland wins 2 of 3, they are in unless Boston wins 2 and only 2.
If Cleveland wins only 1, they are guaranteed at least a playoff unless Boston wins 2 and only 2.
If Boston wins 2, they are in without a playoff only if Cleveland loses 2 or more.
If Boston only wins 1, they are out if Cleveland wins 2. (obvious)
New York is in with 2 wins; with 1 win, they are guaranteed at least a playoff game.
New York cannot clinch anything on Friday.
Starbucks....
So I'm one of those guys that has a 4 minute long order at Starbucks. It's usually a Grande Non-Fat, Sugar Free, Vanilla Latte, with an extra shot of expresso. I hate ordering it, and I hate the fact that the barista screams out my order once its done, despite me standing right next to her with the drink already in my hand. I always try to head her off as well, since I watch her make it, then make eye contact with her so she knows it mine, then take it right out of her hand. This does not stop her from yelling my fluffy order to the entire place. Don't know if its in here Performance Review that she has to announce each drink she makes, or what, but its very very annoying. You already make me feel bad enough that I spend more on coffee than I used to on cigarettes, but now you have to embarrass me in front of everyone. Ben calls me pretentious for spending $4 for a coffee every morning, but I keep on telling him that if I could go to another joint to get my fix, I would, but Starbucks coffee is head and shoulders above everyone else out here.
Sep 28, 2005
Little Ms. SkeetSkeet
One of the writers and a good friend of mine Lee aka. SkeetSkeet, just had a little baby girl today. Now with the little lady born, lets see if he can still pull off the Vegas trip in March.
Ramblings
A couple of quick notes today:
1. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on the A's season now, but I'm going to go crazy if we don't sign a right handed power bat in the off-season. And lets revisit the three big trades during last offseason and see how the A's faired:
Kendall for Rhodes/Redman: Advantage- Push. Kendall can't hit it out of the infield and can't throw a runner out. He does provide some needed leadership in the clubhouse, can still get onbase, and did and excellent job handling the young pitching staff. If we move him down in the lineup to either 8 or 9, he would be better suited. Redman and Rhodes started out extremely hot and made Beane look very very bad. But in the end, Redman was 5-15 with a 4.90 ERA with a terrible K/IP ratio. Rhodes broke down in the second half and was out. For Kendall's small contribution and Rhodes good first half, I will call this a wash.
Hudson for Cruz, Meyer, and Thomas: Advantage: Braves. Cruz sucked. Thomas sucked, and Meyer when healthy sucked. Hudson on the other hand, will pitch 200 innings, and win 15 games with a 3.52 ERA. He only had 115 Ks which is very concerning, but not as much as his huge contract. This move was made out of necessity and the only good outcome for the A's was that it drove this trade...
Mulder for Harren, Calero, and Barton: Advantage: A's. With no pitching out on the open market, and the Braves getting Hudson, the Cards panicked and gave into Beane and handing over the farm to him. Harren outpitched Mulder, and Calero was excellent in the bullpen. This alone would of been enough to make this trade worth it, but now you throw in the best hitting prospect in all of baseball who should be ready by mid season of 2006, and this might be Beane's best trade of all time.
With every key part of our rotation, bullpen, and offense locked up for next year, we only need one right handed bat and some bullpen depth and we are set for 2006. We have a bunch of $ opening up in the offseason with Duarzo, Hatteberg, Kendall, Dotel, and Rincon off the books, so I expect to see that one hole filled.
1. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on the A's season now, but I'm going to go crazy if we don't sign a right handed power bat in the off-season. And lets revisit the three big trades during last offseason and see how the A's faired:
Kendall for Rhodes/Redman: Advantage- Push. Kendall can't hit it out of the infield and can't throw a runner out. He does provide some needed leadership in the clubhouse, can still get onbase, and did and excellent job handling the young pitching staff. If we move him down in the lineup to either 8 or 9, he would be better suited. Redman and Rhodes started out extremely hot and made Beane look very very bad. But in the end, Redman was 5-15 with a 4.90 ERA with a terrible K/IP ratio. Rhodes broke down in the second half and was out. For Kendall's small contribution and Rhodes good first half, I will call this a wash.
Hudson for Cruz, Meyer, and Thomas: Advantage: Braves. Cruz sucked. Thomas sucked, and Meyer when healthy sucked. Hudson on the other hand, will pitch 200 innings, and win 15 games with a 3.52 ERA. He only had 115 Ks which is very concerning, but not as much as his huge contract. This move was made out of necessity and the only good outcome for the A's was that it drove this trade...
Mulder for Harren, Calero, and Barton: Advantage: A's. With no pitching out on the open market, and the Braves getting Hudson, the Cards panicked and gave into Beane and handing over the farm to him. Harren outpitched Mulder, and Calero was excellent in the bullpen. This alone would of been enough to make this trade worth it, but now you throw in the best hitting prospect in all of baseball who should be ready by mid season of 2006, and this might be Beane's best trade of all time.
With every key part of our rotation, bullpen, and offense locked up for next year, we only need one right handed bat and some bullpen depth and we are set for 2006. We have a bunch of $ opening up in the offseason with Duarzo, Hatteberg, Kendall, Dotel, and Rincon off the books, so I expect to see that one hole filled.
2. Did anyone read BSG's quote of the day today. If you haven't, here it is:
"There's nothing to say. The game's over. It's not going to change the score." -- Steelers president Dan Rooney on the 52 seconds that were mistakenly added to the game clock in the Patriots' 23-20 win over Pittsburgh
Is this true? Where the fuck have I been, if I'm hearing about it for the first time today?
Sep 27, 2005
Here we go....
Now that Boston has played their game this afternoon, the picture is simplified a bit, since all the contenders have the same number of games left:
Chi 94-62 ----- @Det (3), @ Cle (3)
Bos 92-64 2 GB Tor (3), NYY (3)
Cle 92-64 2 GB TB (3), Chi (3)
NYY 92-64 2 GB @Bal (3), @Bos (3)
4 teams fighting for 3 spots.
Some random notes:
- A great thank you to the O's or showing up over the past week and rolling over dead. Nice. Thanks for the help.
- It really is amazing to see the Yanks here with their patchwork staff. But I don't understand why Small went out of the rotation when Mussina came back. He has been pitching great recently, no?
- Scott Elarton pitches tonight and then is scheduled for Sunday. A bit unsettling, but he has been pitching well as of late.
Because the contenders play each other, the math to a playoff spot is a bit complex.
If the Tribe:
- wins all 6, they win the division.
- wins 5 of 6; they clinch a playoff spot.
- wins 4 of 6; they clinch at least a tie for a playoff spot and will clinch a spot outright if both Bos and NYY lose one game before Fri;
- wins 3 of 6; they get a tie for a spot if EITHER:
a) Bos and NYY both lose once before Fri, OR
b) there is a sweep in the Bos/NYY series.
- wins 2 of 6 or less; let's not think about that.
I just don't foresee a sweep in the Bos/NYY series. It will be a 2-1 split, but I can't tell you who will win 2.
Go Detroit and Toronto and Baltimore (please, for the love of God, show up!)
Chi 94-62 ----- @Det (3), @ Cle (3)
Bos 92-64 2 GB Tor (3), NYY (3)
Cle 92-64 2 GB TB (3), Chi (3)
NYY 92-64 2 GB @Bal (3), @Bos (3)
4 teams fighting for 3 spots.
Some random notes:
- A great thank you to the O's or showing up over the past week and rolling over dead. Nice. Thanks for the help.
- It really is amazing to see the Yanks here with their patchwork staff. But I don't understand why Small went out of the rotation when Mussina came back. He has been pitching great recently, no?
- Scott Elarton pitches tonight and then is scheduled for Sunday. A bit unsettling, but he has been pitching well as of late.
Because the contenders play each other, the math to a playoff spot is a bit complex.
If the Tribe:
- wins all 6, they win the division.
- wins 5 of 6; they clinch a playoff spot.
- wins 4 of 6; they clinch at least a tie for a playoff spot and will clinch a spot outright if both Bos and NYY lose one game before Fri;
- wins 3 of 6; they get a tie for a spot if EITHER:
a) Bos and NYY both lose once before Fri, OR
b) there is a sweep in the Bos/NYY series.
- wins 2 of 6 or less; let's not think about that.
I just don't foresee a sweep in the Bos/NYY series. It will be a 2-1 split, but I can't tell you who will win 2.
Go Detroit and Toronto and Baltimore (please, for the love of God, show up!)
Mmmmm pizza
With this knowledge in my hands, I might be able take down the West Coast Pizza Huts in about 3 weeks.
Now Pizza Hut is not even in my top five choices for pizza, but pizza for 25 cents is too good to pass up. Just for the record Jon, there has been a change in my top five pizza joints:
New Entry at #5: Z Best Pizza- New joint out here in Dana Point. Solid crust, great sauce, and their large is almost too much for me. I can still plow through it, but I'm hurting afterwards. And the surfer kids that work there always gives me the thumbs up knowing that the large is just for me, after Ben and I were in there one time and bought a large, medium, and 4 extra slices, knowing that just the large and medium would not be enough for us. God, I'm getting fat.
Now Pizza Hut is not even in my top five choices for pizza, but pizza for 25 cents is too good to pass up. Just for the record Jon, there has been a change in my top five pizza joints:
New Entry at #5: Z Best Pizza- New joint out here in Dana Point. Solid crust, great sauce, and their large is almost too much for me. I can still plow through it, but I'm hurting afterwards. And the surfer kids that work there always gives me the thumbs up knowing that the large is just for me, after Ben and I were in there one time and bought a large, medium, and 4 extra slices, knowing that just the large and medium would not be enough for us. God, I'm getting fat.
It is Over....
I'm just going to steal from AthleticsNation since it sums up what I wanted to say perfectly, and I'm running behind a deadline right now.
By Blez on Mon Sep 26th, 2005
No, not in a Bill Paxton in Aliens kind of way. More a peaceful kind of way.
The A's needed to play perfect baseball to beat the Angels, and they didn't. Joe Blanton once again pitched to near perfection with nothing but a big, fat "L" to show for it. Two complete game losses to the Angels and he almost could've gone for number three tonight with 95 pitches through eight innings. I'd say Blanton is well established as a quality major league starter at this point.
The only way the A's have a shot is to now win the remaining three games against the Angels and then sweep the remaining games against Seattle and hope the Rangers can sweep the Angels. With Bazooka Joe pitching tomorrow, it doesn't look good.
But I'm going to wait to write the postmortem on the season until the A's have officially flatlined. I'd just like the A's to keep the Angels from celebrating an AL West victory on our field two seasons in a row. It's too bad that a season that seemed done long ago will come down to this.
Believe me, I'm positive about this season. Very positive, but it doesn't mean that it isn't going to hurt.
By Blez on Mon Sep 26th, 2005
No, not in a Bill Paxton in Aliens kind of way. More a peaceful kind of way.
The A's needed to play perfect baseball to beat the Angels, and they didn't. Joe Blanton once again pitched to near perfection with nothing but a big, fat "L" to show for it. Two complete game losses to the Angels and he almost could've gone for number three tonight with 95 pitches through eight innings. I'd say Blanton is well established as a quality major league starter at this point.
The only way the A's have a shot is to now win the remaining three games against the Angels and then sweep the remaining games against Seattle and hope the Rangers can sweep the Angels. With Bazooka Joe pitching tomorrow, it doesn't look good.
But I'm going to wait to write the postmortem on the season until the A's have officially flatlined. I'd just like the A's to keep the Angels from celebrating an AL West victory on our field two seasons in a row. It's too bad that a season that seemed done long ago will come down to this.
Believe me, I'm positive about this season. Very positive, but it doesn't mean that it isn't going to hurt.
Sep 26, 2005
Monday Night Football
I can't wait for tonight's game...
to see KC's running backs (Holmes, Johnson) run all over the Denver DL - the four old Browns.
I hope I'm not jinxing it with this post.
to see KC's running backs (Holmes, Johnson) run all over the Denver DL - the four old Browns.
I hope I'm not jinxing it with this post.
Wild Card
Pretty interesting article by Aaron Gleeman over at Hardballtimes.com. I don't agree with his rant, because I think the Wild Card is great, but for the AL this year, it really does take something away from the AL East and Central races, when you know that 3 out of 4 teams will make the playoffs, instead of just 2 out of 4.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/printarticle/and-down-the-stretch-they-come/
Couterpoint to his argument, which he even points out is the NL races. All of the races are basically wrapped up, except for the Wild Card. This is usually how it is, except for this year with two excellent races in the AL.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/printarticle/and-down-the-stretch-they-come/
Couterpoint to his argument, which he even points out is the NL races. All of the races are basically wrapped up, except for the Wild Card. This is usually how it is, except for this year with two excellent races in the AL.
Sep 25, 2005
Not a great day
Both the Tribe and the Browns lost.
First, the Tribe: we lose in the 9th when Grady loses a ball in the sun. Frustrating, but you can't point the finger at him. Especially when you have a 3-0 lead in the 6th and lose it.
Now back home to face Tampa for 3 and Chicago for 3.
Next, the Browns: a valiant effort on the road ends up in a 13-6 loss. It started off bad when Greg Gumbel says.."and now off to Indianapolis, where Don Criqui and Steve Tasker has the call". Ugh!
Nantz and Simms had last week's game - and I couldn't enjoy that since I was at the game.
And then Jeff Triplette was our ref. Now, I really hate to rag on the refs, but this post sums up my feelings right now...
http://mb8.scout.com/fbrownsinsiderfrm15.showMessage?topicID=47064.topic
Argh. A great effort. I am proud of this team and the direction it is going in. And if your team plays the Colts in the future, watch out. Their DL aims for the legs and expects to take the QB out.
(by the way, 9-4 on the picks today!)
First, the Tribe: we lose in the 9th when Grady loses a ball in the sun. Frustrating, but you can't point the finger at him. Especially when you have a 3-0 lead in the 6th and lose it.
Now back home to face Tampa for 3 and Chicago for 3.
Next, the Browns: a valiant effort on the road ends up in a 13-6 loss. It started off bad when Greg Gumbel says.."and now off to Indianapolis, where Don Criqui and Steve Tasker has the call". Ugh!
Nantz and Simms had last week's game - and I couldn't enjoy that since I was at the game.
And then Jeff Triplette was our ref. Now, I really hate to rag on the refs, but this post sums up my feelings right now...
http://mb8.scout.com/fbrownsinsiderfrm15.showMessage?topicID=47064.topic
Argh. A great effort. I am proud of this team and the direction it is going in. And if your team plays the Colts in the future, watch out. Their DL aims for the legs and expects to take the QB out.
(by the way, 9-4 on the picks today!)
TX update
So Farmers dodged a huge bullet yesterday with the storm moving east and hitting mainly Beaumont and Port Charles. With that, I got to spend some additional time in Dallas. What a great little city. Changes my opinion of Texas, after only seeing Houston and South Padre Island. The only bad thing about Dallas is that it seems as if every highway is a toll road. Just doesn't make sense. Went to a Greek Food Festival, which was pretty good, and let me tell you that the Greek women are vastly under-rated in the looks category. Not only can they cook some great lamb and spinach shit, they also are extremely attractive and a lot less hairy than I remember.
Anyway, just wanted to ask two music questions;
Anyway, just wanted to ask two music questions;
- Will we look back on the Black Eye Peas two-three years from now and consider them the Stereo MCs of our time? There music, while entertaining in a cheesy boy band type way, just doesn't seem like it will last.
- Has anyone heard the new Kayne West song? I really like it, but I'm the same guy that liked "Bye Bye Bye' by Nsync when it came out.
NFL Picks Week 3
On to the picks. The theme this week is "who have they played?"
Last week : 7-9-1; overall: 16-17-2
Cin 27, Chi 10 - Who has Chi played? 1) Washington, who is anemic on offense, and 2) Detroit, with Joey Harrington. This causes the media to mhave an orgasm about the Bears' D? Palmer is no Harrington.
GB 20, TB 17. TB beat Minn (with 5 turnovers) and Buf, who also shot themselves in the foot. GB will win this game, somehow.
Min 31, NO 24. Daunte's got to come out sometime right? Please?
Stl 31, Ten 13. Home opener for the Rams - they will dominate. They have to - I have Bulger. And who has Ten played? Pit - they got rolled over - and Bal, with no offense. Ten's defense is overrated.
Car 17, Mia 16. I have no idea how this game will turnout.
Phi 34, Oakland 20. I just don't see Oakland stopping Phi's offense with TO, Westbrook, etc. Philly's D will clamp down when needed.
Atl 20, Buf 17. Maybe Buffalo isn't as good as we thought. That week 1 win vs. Hou (at home) may not be impressive at all.
Ind 34, Cle 17. I freely admit that we will lose this game by 14-21 points.
Jax 19, NYJ 10: Not impressed with the Jets, and I like the Jags. 17-7 vs. Mia? Please. Need to do more than that. If the Jags can hold Ind to 10, they will certainly hold the Jets down.
Dal 27, SF 10: I can't see any way that a Parcells-coached team won't come out on fire after the Monday night debacle.
Sea 31, Az 21 - Back in my consulting days, Human Resources rolled out a theme for the employees: HOT GUTTS. It stood for "High-Octane Turbo; Go Until Told To Stop". That's how I feel about Arizona. Go against them with guns ablazing until told to stop.
NE 20, Pit 17. Somehow, Bill B will find a way to win.
SD 27, NYG 20. I really like this game; until I see that the line is 6. And who has NYG played? A woeful Az team, and a demoralized NO team. I think the NYG are overrated.
KC 31, Den 20. Please. If Den wins this, then I have to rethink the whole AFC.
14 best bets:
Cin -3
GB +3.5
Min -3.5
Min/NO Over 44
Stl -6.5
Phi -8.5
Phi/Oak over 46.5
Atl +2.5
Jax +2.5
Dal -6.5
Sea -6.5
Sea/Az Over 42
NE +3
KC +3
Last week : 7-9-1; overall: 16-17-2
Cin 27, Chi 10 - Who has Chi played? 1) Washington, who is anemic on offense, and 2) Detroit, with Joey Harrington. This causes the media to mhave an orgasm about the Bears' D? Palmer is no Harrington.
GB 20, TB 17. TB beat Minn (with 5 turnovers) and Buf, who also shot themselves in the foot. GB will win this game, somehow.
Min 31, NO 24. Daunte's got to come out sometime right? Please?
Stl 31, Ten 13. Home opener for the Rams - they will dominate. They have to - I have Bulger. And who has Ten played? Pit - they got rolled over - and Bal, with no offense. Ten's defense is overrated.
Car 17, Mia 16. I have no idea how this game will turnout.
Phi 34, Oakland 20. I just don't see Oakland stopping Phi's offense with TO, Westbrook, etc. Philly's D will clamp down when needed.
Atl 20, Buf 17. Maybe Buffalo isn't as good as we thought. That week 1 win vs. Hou (at home) may not be impressive at all.
Ind 34, Cle 17. I freely admit that we will lose this game by 14-21 points.
Jax 19, NYJ 10: Not impressed with the Jets, and I like the Jags. 17-7 vs. Mia? Please. Need to do more than that. If the Jags can hold Ind to 10, they will certainly hold the Jets down.
Dal 27, SF 10: I can't see any way that a Parcells-coached team won't come out on fire after the Monday night debacle.
Sea 31, Az 21 - Back in my consulting days, Human Resources rolled out a theme for the employees: HOT GUTTS. It stood for "High-Octane Turbo; Go Until Told To Stop". That's how I feel about Arizona. Go against them with guns ablazing until told to stop.
NE 20, Pit 17. Somehow, Bill B will find a way to win.
SD 27, NYG 20. I really like this game; until I see that the line is 6. And who has NYG played? A woeful Az team, and a demoralized NO team. I think the NYG are overrated.
KC 31, Den 20. Please. If Den wins this, then I have to rethink the whole AFC.
14 best bets:
Cin -3
GB +3.5
Min -3.5
Min/NO Over 44
Stl -6.5
Phi -8.5
Phi/Oak over 46.5
Atl +2.5
Jax +2.5
Dal -6.5
Sea -6.5
Sea/Az Over 42
NE +3
KC +3
Sep 24, 2005
Safety vs. Convenience
Our society needs to decide between safety and convenience. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail with this, but I'm sure next week's story line will be "Is your city ready for a disaster". This will be the hot topic for the rest of the year, but if these types of evacuations continue in large cities, with the weathermen forecasting incorrectly, then you will see the same type of attitude from people concerning these evacuations as you see with the airports. Do I think that the Houston evacuation went well? With everything being said and done, I think it went well when trying to get everyone out in that short period of time. This isn't Toledo, Baltimore, or even San Diego. This was the fourth largest city in the US, evacuating up to 95% of their people in 4-5 days. And unlike the East Coast, there really isn't anything close to drive to. What do you really expect from Houston local officials? Do you expect them to have buses ready to evacuate everyone in the city? Do you expect them to build another 3 to 4 highways out of the city to handle that one time volume of outgoing traffic? No. But I would of expected them to have enough gas in the area to handle the traffic flow. Other than that, I'm just confused on what the media and others expect Houston officials to do? With the traffic issues and the weathermen being wrong, I can tell you that no matter how big the next storm will be, you will probably only have a 70% evacuation rate. People just don't want to be inconvenienced like this on a continuous basis.
After 9/11, security increased and caused many delays when coming to flying. People put up with it for the first couple of months, but then got tired of it after about 6 months. To this day, I always hear people complaining about the security lines and other airport issues, and it is all driven off of the government trying to make sure we are all safe when flying.
It will be interesting to see how the local and state governments proceed with their emergency plans to make sure that this won't happen in their city. Are they going to raise taxes, build extra highways to handle 99% of the population to evacuate a city in 3 days, create useless agencies that will be called upon once every 50 years? I mean this would cost so much money to complete and maintain. When people plan or live their lives for worst case scenarios, you tend to not get anything done and become very unproductive.
With all of that being said, I am still down in Dallas and it looks as if I will be heading home either tomorrow or Monday, since their isn't much damage to Houston or the surrounding areas. I hate to say this, but is it just me or was everyone hoping for a CAT 5 Hurricane to go into Houston to see what could of happened?
After 9/11, security increased and caused many delays when coming to flying. People put up with it for the first couple of months, but then got tired of it after about 6 months. To this day, I always hear people complaining about the security lines and other airport issues, and it is all driven off of the government trying to make sure we are all safe when flying.
It will be interesting to see how the local and state governments proceed with their emergency plans to make sure that this won't happen in their city. Are they going to raise taxes, build extra highways to handle 99% of the population to evacuate a city in 3 days, create useless agencies that will be called upon once every 50 years? I mean this would cost so much money to complete and maintain. When people plan or live their lives for worst case scenarios, you tend to not get anything done and become very unproductive.
With all of that being said, I am still down in Dallas and it looks as if I will be heading home either tomorrow or Monday, since their isn't much damage to Houston or the surrounding areas. I hate to say this, but is it just me or was everyone hoping for a CAT 5 Hurricane to go into Houston to see what could of happened?
Sep 23, 2005
What am I missing?
OK, I'm going to get in trouble for this post - but here goes.
I think I am missing something in the whole Palmeiro debacle.
48 hours ago, he was a player that most media personnel would still vote for into the Hall of Fame.
It was established yesterday that, during an investigation, Raffy told investigators that "the stuff I took from Tejada" - the B-12 injection - could have caused the positive test.
Due to this, Raffy is persona non grata and no one in baseball wants anything to do with him.
I just don't see how people can get from "A" to "B" from just the info that Raffy pointed to Tejada.
This is an investigation. It is the investigators job to ask tough questions and try to elicit information. This investigation was formed to understand how and why this happened, right?
Well, these are the answers that we get. Raffy had two choices - stonewall and refuse to point any fingers, or try to say how/why he got a positive test. He truly believes that the B-12 he received from Tejada caused his positive drug test.
Don't we want Raffy to answer these questions? We didn't set up the investigation to have players say: " yep, I did it - but I won't give any more info on where I got it or how widespread it is". The investigation - because it is an investigation! - will cause names to be named and other people will be associated with this.
People were crying for an investigation - the Gammons, Kurkjian types - months ago. Well, now you have it, and you don't like that it is causing other players' names to be mentioned. What would you like Raffy to do? Sit stone-faced? Then you can crucify him for obstructing the holy investigation.
Now, if Raffy said that Tejada took steroids instead of the B-12, that's one thing. You don't lie (if it is a lie) about others. But he's not. He's saying what he thinks to the investigators.
To say that "Raffy shouldn't rat out his teammates" is ludicrous. Do you want an investigation or not? Do you want to get to the bottom of this or not? If you do - which I'm not sure Gammons et. al does anymore - then names will have to be mentioned and this is the by-product.
There is no more "secret code" anymore among ballplayers when federal/congressional investigations are going on. That's like saying you can't prosecute a frat pledge who died during hazing because the brothers don't talk about what goes on in the frat basement.
Sorry to bust up the secret club, guys - but you wanted an investigation, you got it. Now deal with it.
I think I am missing something in the whole Palmeiro debacle.
48 hours ago, he was a player that most media personnel would still vote for into the Hall of Fame.
It was established yesterday that, during an investigation, Raffy told investigators that "the stuff I took from Tejada" - the B-12 injection - could have caused the positive test.
Due to this, Raffy is persona non grata and no one in baseball wants anything to do with him.
I just don't see how people can get from "A" to "B" from just the info that Raffy pointed to Tejada.
This is an investigation. It is the investigators job to ask tough questions and try to elicit information. This investigation was formed to understand how and why this happened, right?
Well, these are the answers that we get. Raffy had two choices - stonewall and refuse to point any fingers, or try to say how/why he got a positive test. He truly believes that the B-12 he received from Tejada caused his positive drug test.
Don't we want Raffy to answer these questions? We didn't set up the investigation to have players say: " yep, I did it - but I won't give any more info on where I got it or how widespread it is". The investigation - because it is an investigation! - will cause names to be named and other people will be associated with this.
People were crying for an investigation - the Gammons, Kurkjian types - months ago. Well, now you have it, and you don't like that it is causing other players' names to be mentioned. What would you like Raffy to do? Sit stone-faced? Then you can crucify him for obstructing the holy investigation.
Now, if Raffy said that Tejada took steroids instead of the B-12, that's one thing. You don't lie (if it is a lie) about others. But he's not. He's saying what he thinks to the investigators.
To say that "Raffy shouldn't rat out his teammates" is ludicrous. Do you want an investigation or not? Do you want to get to the bottom of this or not? If you do - which I'm not sure Gammons et. al does anymore - then names will have to be mentioned and this is the by-product.
There is no more "secret code" anymore among ballplayers when federal/congressional investigations are going on. That's like saying you can't prosecute a frat pledge who died during hazing because the brothers don't talk about what goes on in the frat basement.
Sorry to bust up the secret club, guys - but you wanted an investigation, you got it. Now deal with it.
KITT throw your hands in the air...
Since the Red Sox have decided to ruin my Septembah, I have to post this up for some humor. Credits to my wife for finding this "gem".
Yikes
Yikes
Sep 22, 2005
Eye of the Storm
Being the lowest man on the totem poll in a meeting yesterday with the VPs and President, it was decided that I will make the trek down to Austin, TX to help with the logistics for the Hurricane.
Eric asked me why would the insurance companies send people down during the Hurricane. Well the answer is pretty simple. We want our people down there, close by, so once the Hurricane is over, our people are the first to respond, with direction, checks, and support. If we waited until after the Hurricane, we wouldn't be able to get into the area. Seems to work very well. Maybe we should send our plan to FEMA.
Eric asked me why would the insurance companies send people down during the Hurricane. Well the answer is pretty simple. We want our people down there, close by, so once the Hurricane is over, our people are the first to respond, with direction, checks, and support. If we waited until after the Hurricane, we wouldn't be able to get into the area. Seems to work very well. Maybe we should send our plan to FEMA.
Sep 21, 2005
AL Calculus, Browns, and Lambeau
1. What a pennant race. Wow. If the Tribe holds on today (they are up 8-0), they are 2 1/2 back again of the Sox. More importantly, they now lead the "3-for-2" race for the Wild Card:
Tribe ----
Yanks 1/2 GB
Red Sox 1 GB
Two of these three teams - unless Chicago keeps losing or the A's win out - are making the playoffs. One will miss out.
2. What will it take? 3 days ago, I thought the Tribe would have to go 8-5 to get in. Well, it looks like they will go 2-1 vs. the Sox. Again, the standings and the schedule:
Tribe 89-63 @KC (4), TB (3), Chi (3)
NYY 88-63 Bal (1), Tor (3), @Bal (4), @Bos (3)
Bos 88-64 @Bal (3), Tor (4), NYY (3)
I think:
Yanks will win tomorrow, win 2 vs Tor, 3 vs Bal, 2 vs Bos. That's 8-3
Bos will win 2 vs Bal, 3 vs Tor, 1 vs NYY. That's 6-4.
If that holds, the Tribe needs to go 6-4 to beat Bos. If Bos takes 2 from NYY, then the Tribe needs to win 7. If Bos sweeps, then the Yanks go 6-5, and the Tribe needs to go 6-4.
3. This theories behind the math above will change every day from now until next Friday. What fun this is going to be.
4. This is an incredible race, with all of us looking at 4, maybe even 5 games each night. It just seems like the contenders don't lose. Teams have to win just to keep pace and not lose ground. A loss puts you in a bad mood for 12 hours until the next round of heart stopping games - and if your team wins, you are on cloud 9 again until the next night. Just a whole lot of fun.
5. What a sports weekend. Left for Green Bay on Saturday night - got to listen to the final 3 outs of a 5-4 win on Saturday while driving in rural Wisconsin. Stopped over in Oshkosh Sat night for drinks and to watch football highlights. Sun morning was tailgating (more below) and the Browns' WIN in Green Bay!
Of course, the downside was the looooooong drive after the game back to home. 6 hours' drive , after tailgating and raucous cheering - it made for a long day.
6. Green Bay during an NFL game is something else. The stadium is set in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It's kind of like taking a suburb with mdeium size houses - say, Timonium, MD or Parma, OH, and clearing out 2 blocks and placing a stadium there. The closest I can compare it to is the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore - although Lambeau seemed closer to houses than Memorial was.
Anyway- about 50% of the houses near the stadium rent out their yards for tailgates and parking. We arrived in Green Bay about 10:45 (for a 3:15 game), and decided not to park in a gas station. So we went down one of these side street - and people were there flagging cars into their yards. We pased one house with the inside of the garage painted yellow and green - with 3 TVs - and decided that was home for the day.
A great decision. For $10, we got:
- a parking spot about 2 blocks from the stadium - and we were not blocked in
- full use of bathrooms and TVs
- a full liquor bar
- use of their grill for our food - they had hamurers and hot dogs provided anyway
- beer set out for postgame parties
And they were the friendliest people, even to us enemy fans. The only fans they hated were (not surprisingly) Bears fans.
We have their card - so if anyone wants to go to a game, they are able to secure tickets and get them for you . I will post their name/address in a later post.
Again, I can't say enough about the hospitality of those fans (and clearly many others). What an enjoyable trip.
7. And we won! I think the game was shown to most of the nations, so it's nice to see us play well on TV. The MVP of the season so far is clearly the offensive line. 0 sacks in 2 games.
That being said, this team is going to get killed this weekend in Indy.....I always though we were going to be 1-2 at the bye week, and we can't do any worse than that. After that, it is home vs. Chi, @ Bal, home vs Det, @ Hous, home vs. Tenn, @ Pit, home vs. Miami, @ Minn, home vs Jax. Those are not the hardest 9 games in the world. I think we have a chance to go (in order....) W, L(?), W, W, W, L, W, ??, L - 5-3 over those 8, withthe Jacksonville game a possibility. In fact, 2 other L's - at Baltimore and at Minn - now seem possbile to grab. Who knows???
Enough rambling. Go Tribe!
Tribe ----
Yanks 1/2 GB
Red Sox 1 GB
Two of these three teams - unless Chicago keeps losing or the A's win out - are making the playoffs. One will miss out.
2. What will it take? 3 days ago, I thought the Tribe would have to go 8-5 to get in. Well, it looks like they will go 2-1 vs. the Sox. Again, the standings and the schedule:
Tribe 89-63 @KC (4), TB (3), Chi (3)
NYY 88-63 Bal (1), Tor (3), @Bal (4), @Bos (3)
Bos 88-64 @Bal (3), Tor (4), NYY (3)
I think:
Yanks will win tomorrow, win 2 vs Tor, 3 vs Bal, 2 vs Bos. That's 8-3
Bos will win 2 vs Bal, 3 vs Tor, 1 vs NYY. That's 6-4.
If that holds, the Tribe needs to go 6-4 to beat Bos. If Bos takes 2 from NYY, then the Tribe needs to win 7. If Bos sweeps, then the Yanks go 6-5, and the Tribe needs to go 6-4.
3. This theories behind the math above will change every day from now until next Friday. What fun this is going to be.
4. This is an incredible race, with all of us looking at 4, maybe even 5 games each night. It just seems like the contenders don't lose. Teams have to win just to keep pace and not lose ground. A loss puts you in a bad mood for 12 hours until the next round of heart stopping games - and if your team wins, you are on cloud 9 again until the next night. Just a whole lot of fun.
5. What a sports weekend. Left for Green Bay on Saturday night - got to listen to the final 3 outs of a 5-4 win on Saturday while driving in rural Wisconsin. Stopped over in Oshkosh Sat night for drinks and to watch football highlights. Sun morning was tailgating (more below) and the Browns' WIN in Green Bay!
Of course, the downside was the looooooong drive after the game back to home. 6 hours' drive , after tailgating and raucous cheering - it made for a long day.
6. Green Bay during an NFL game is something else. The stadium is set in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It's kind of like taking a suburb with mdeium size houses - say, Timonium, MD or Parma, OH, and clearing out 2 blocks and placing a stadium there. The closest I can compare it to is the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore - although Lambeau seemed closer to houses than Memorial was.
Anyway- about 50% of the houses near the stadium rent out their yards for tailgates and parking. We arrived in Green Bay about 10:45 (for a 3:15 game), and decided not to park in a gas station. So we went down one of these side street - and people were there flagging cars into their yards. We pased one house with the inside of the garage painted yellow and green - with 3 TVs - and decided that was home for the day.
A great decision. For $10, we got:
- a parking spot about 2 blocks from the stadium - and we were not blocked in
- full use of bathrooms and TVs
- a full liquor bar
- use of their grill for our food - they had hamurers and hot dogs provided anyway
- beer set out for postgame parties
And they were the friendliest people, even to us enemy fans. The only fans they hated were (not surprisingly) Bears fans.
We have their card - so if anyone wants to go to a game, they are able to secure tickets and get them for you . I will post their name/address in a later post.
Again, I can't say enough about the hospitality of those fans (and clearly many others). What an enjoyable trip.
7. And we won! I think the game was shown to most of the nations, so it's nice to see us play well on TV. The MVP of the season so far is clearly the offensive line. 0 sacks in 2 games.
That being said, this team is going to get killed this weekend in Indy.....I always though we were going to be 1-2 at the bye week, and we can't do any worse than that. After that, it is home vs. Chi, @ Bal, home vs Det, @ Hous, home vs. Tenn, @ Pit, home vs. Miami, @ Minn, home vs Jax. Those are not the hardest 9 games in the world. I think we have a chance to go (in order....) W, L(?), W, W, W, L, W, ??, L - 5-3 over those 8, withthe Jacksonville game a possibility. In fact, 2 other L's - at Baltimore and at Minn - now seem possbile to grab. Who knows???
Enough rambling. Go Tribe!
Sep 20, 2005
10 Things I didn't know 4 days ago....
1. Despite being somewhat entertaining, I'm now including football as topics that the BSG has no idea about. I trusted him this weekend and used his picks in a pickem pool and did OK, but not great. In another pickem pool I did my own, and won 10 games.
2. I truly hate ESPN. Last night's Katrina telethon was terrible. Who was that lady hosting? Ugh.... And I have nothing against women, but they should not be doing sports. Suzy Kolburn is horrible. Maybe its not her and just sideline reporters.
3. This USC team might be the best college team that I have seen ever. If you get a chance to watch them, it's worth your time. Here is a quote from the Arkansas coach " I’ve never been part of anything like this, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, some of it was self-inflicted, and some of it was flat-out helplessness. We couldn’t stop them. "
It got to a point where it didn’t matter what was called, Nothing was working, and they were beating us every which way, with a receiver, with a running back. They executed. We didn’t. They got us down so fast and in a hurry that I think it really gutted our spirit pretty good."
4. So, the byproduct of Katrina is an over-reaction by all other towns and the news to any storm that hits the coast. What will happen to the weather guys who continues to get the paths and the severity of these storms wrong? Instead of people just being dismissing these guys, they are now going to be the fall guy because it will be costing families and businesses money and time lost. Or will there be a huge clash with local government on their mandatory evacuations?
5. I know Eric won't say anything, so I will. How about those Indians? 2.5 games. Crazy!!!!!!
6. Crosby is back for the A's and Harden is very close. This weekend's series with the Angels is going to be intense. If I didn't have to go to Palm Springs, I think I would make the trip up to Oakland.
7. Was at the Salt Creek Cafe yesterday with my parents, and my mom struck up a conversation with the hostess about recognizing one part of the place where Alex and Jason from Laguna Beach made out, and the hostess told her that she was right (fucking crazy conversation that deserves its own post). She also said that they were in last week taping season 3. I think my mom and I are the only people really excited about that.
8. Jay and I might be sending Eric some letters of apology for slamming his prediction on winning the AFC North.
9. Was supposed to play golf today at Mesa Verde country club, but for the third time in a row, my Dad and I get rained out in CA. Severe Thunderstorms and major wind and rain....In fucking SoCal. What the Hell??? Last time was at Riviera Country Club in LA. My dad is currently a walking rain machine.
10. Why can't they create a normal hybrid or electric car? Don't they understand that people might want to drive one of these if they didn't look so bad? And When will Lexus or BMW decide to put out a luxury electric car.
2. I truly hate ESPN. Last night's Katrina telethon was terrible. Who was that lady hosting? Ugh.... And I have nothing against women, but they should not be doing sports. Suzy Kolburn is horrible. Maybe its not her and just sideline reporters.
3. This USC team might be the best college team that I have seen ever. If you get a chance to watch them, it's worth your time. Here is a quote from the Arkansas coach " I’ve never been part of anything like this, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, some of it was self-inflicted, and some of it was flat-out helplessness. We couldn’t stop them. "
It got to a point where it didn’t matter what was called, Nothing was working, and they were beating us every which way, with a receiver, with a running back. They executed. We didn’t. They got us down so fast and in a hurry that I think it really gutted our spirit pretty good."
4. So, the byproduct of Katrina is an over-reaction by all other towns and the news to any storm that hits the coast. What will happen to the weather guys who continues to get the paths and the severity of these storms wrong? Instead of people just being dismissing these guys, they are now going to be the fall guy because it will be costing families and businesses money and time lost. Or will there be a huge clash with local government on their mandatory evacuations?
5. I know Eric won't say anything, so I will. How about those Indians? 2.5 games. Crazy!!!!!!
6. Crosby is back for the A's and Harden is very close. This weekend's series with the Angels is going to be intense. If I didn't have to go to Palm Springs, I think I would make the trip up to Oakland.
7. Was at the Salt Creek Cafe yesterday with my parents, and my mom struck up a conversation with the hostess about recognizing one part of the place where Alex and Jason from Laguna Beach made out, and the hostess told her that she was right (fucking crazy conversation that deserves its own post). She also said that they were in last week taping season 3. I think my mom and I are the only people really excited about that.
8. Jay and I might be sending Eric some letters of apology for slamming his prediction on winning the AFC North.
9. Was supposed to play golf today at Mesa Verde country club, but for the third time in a row, my Dad and I get rained out in CA. Severe Thunderstorms and major wind and rain....In fucking SoCal. What the Hell??? Last time was at Riviera Country Club in LA. My dad is currently a walking rain machine.
10. Why can't they create a normal hybrid or electric car? Don't they understand that people might want to drive one of these if they didn't look so bad? And When will Lexus or BMW decide to put out a luxury electric car.
Sep 19, 2005
Sep 18, 2005
Turning 30
Why is turning 30 so big? Turning 16 was big. Turning 21 was big. Turning 30? I just don't get it.
Sep 17, 2005
Week 2 NFL Picks
Before we get to the picks, Derek asked a good question last week -
"Why not just take the top 2-3 picks instead of the whole slate of 17 games?"
Well, to break even, one needs to go 11-10 over 21 games (that's a 52.3% success rate). I believe that - given I can choose whatever game I want, I can pick them at 53-55%. Last year I was approximately 54.5% over about 400 games.
So - if you believe you have a 54.5% success rate, it behooves you to pick as many games as you can, since you have an advantage! THa't my theory. Let's hope I don't throw up a 45% year.
On to the picks:
New York Jets 23, Miami 13 - Desperation does set in for the Jets; they need this game and will get it.
Buffalo 16, Tampa 7 - I was not impressed with Tampa's O; Buffalo shouldbe able to handle them. Buffalo will have fewer turnovers and should score some points.
New England 24, Carolina 20 - Hoenstly, I have no idea what will happen here. It's tough to pick against NE at this time, however.
Cincinnati 31, Minnesota 17 - Last week was just the start of what Cinci's Offense can do.
Pittsburgh 23, Houston 10 - Don't know much about the Texans, but Pit should run all over them, if Buffalo did.
Baltimore 16, Tennessee 6 - Can't see Ten scoring more than 10 pts. versus the Ravens D.
Cleveland 38, Green Bay 37 - BSG sees Green Bay scoring 37 against the Browns; so do I, unfortunately, But the Browns will score some points, too!
San Diego 31, Denver 20 - Now SD is desperate, and will win against an overrated Denver team.
Kansas City 27, Oakland 24 - Hard not to like KC's D last week. A barnburner that I'll listen to on the way home form Lambeau.
Philadelphia 23, San Fran 6 - Everyone and their sister has the Eagles covering. When I see that, I run - and run fast -away from that game.
Detroit 17, Chicago 9 - I have a feeling Detroit is this year's version of the 2002 Bears - the team from nowhere that got a lot of breaks and went 13-3.
St Louis i , Arizona 0- Wow - this is one of those games where both teams should lose the game. The league office rules that Arizona loses i to 0; however, since i is an imaginary number, St Louis loses too. Both teams are 0-2.
(OK: Arizona 31, St Louis 28)
Atlanta 20, Seattle 17 - another game where anything can happen, and I won't be surprised.
Indianaplis 31, Jacksonville 23 - I know, the Jags beat them twice last year. But these are the games that Dungy is going to use for motivation this year in order to get HFA.
New York Giants 17, New Orleans 16 - This game will go a looooong way to tell us about this year. If NYG win, then Carolina could be weker tha we thought; if NO wins, then we know Arizona is a fraud.
Dallas 27, Washington 10 - Is this always the week 2 Monday nighter? I always get this game wrong every year.
Best bets: (last week: 9-8-1; overall: 9-8-1)
Jets -6
Buf +2
Buf/TB Under 35
Cin -3
Pit/Hou Under 39
Bal -4
Bal/Ten Under 37
Cle/GB Over 41
SD +3
SD/Den Over 45
Phi/SF Under 40
Det -1.5
Det/Chi Under 33
Az/Stl Over 43
Ind/Jax Over 46
Dal -5.5
NYG/NO Under 43
"Why not just take the top 2-3 picks instead of the whole slate of 17 games?"
Well, to break even, one needs to go 11-10 over 21 games (that's a 52.3% success rate). I believe that - given I can choose whatever game I want, I can pick them at 53-55%. Last year I was approximately 54.5% over about 400 games.
So - if you believe you have a 54.5% success rate, it behooves you to pick as many games as you can, since you have an advantage! THa't my theory. Let's hope I don't throw up a 45% year.
On to the picks:
New York Jets 23, Miami 13 - Desperation does set in for the Jets; they need this game and will get it.
Buffalo 16, Tampa 7 - I was not impressed with Tampa's O; Buffalo shouldbe able to handle them. Buffalo will have fewer turnovers and should score some points.
New England 24, Carolina 20 - Hoenstly, I have no idea what will happen here. It's tough to pick against NE at this time, however.
Cincinnati 31, Minnesota 17 - Last week was just the start of what Cinci's Offense can do.
Pittsburgh 23, Houston 10 - Don't know much about the Texans, but Pit should run all over them, if Buffalo did.
Baltimore 16, Tennessee 6 - Can't see Ten scoring more than 10 pts. versus the Ravens D.
Cleveland 38, Green Bay 37 - BSG sees Green Bay scoring 37 against the Browns; so do I, unfortunately, But the Browns will score some points, too!
San Diego 31, Denver 20 - Now SD is desperate, and will win against an overrated Denver team.
Kansas City 27, Oakland 24 - Hard not to like KC's D last week. A barnburner that I'll listen to on the way home form Lambeau.
Philadelphia 23, San Fran 6 - Everyone and their sister has the Eagles covering. When I see that, I run - and run fast -away from that game.
Detroit 17, Chicago 9 - I have a feeling Detroit is this year's version of the 2002 Bears - the team from nowhere that got a lot of breaks and went 13-3.
St Louis i , Arizona 0- Wow - this is one of those games where both teams should lose the game. The league office rules that Arizona loses i to 0; however, since i is an imaginary number, St Louis loses too. Both teams are 0-2.
(OK: Arizona 31, St Louis 28)
Atlanta 20, Seattle 17 - another game where anything can happen, and I won't be surprised.
Indianaplis 31, Jacksonville 23 - I know, the Jags beat them twice last year. But these are the games that Dungy is going to use for motivation this year in order to get HFA.
New York Giants 17, New Orleans 16 - This game will go a looooong way to tell us about this year. If NYG win, then Carolina could be weker tha we thought; if NO wins, then we know Arizona is a fraud.
Dallas 27, Washington 10 - Is this always the week 2 Monday nighter? I always get this game wrong every year.
Best bets: (last week: 9-8-1; overall: 9-8-1)
Jets -6
Buf +2
Buf/TB Under 35
Cin -3
Pit/Hou Under 39
Bal -4
Bal/Ten Under 37
Cle/GB Over 41
SD +3
SD/Den Over 45
Phi/SF Under 40
Det -1.5
Det/Chi Under 33
Az/Stl Over 43
Ind/Jax Over 46
Dal -5.5
NYG/NO Under 43
Sep 16, 2005
Spiro Agnew and the 2005 AL Playoff Picture
Looking at each of these teams still in the picture, I have the feeling that the fans of each of the teams have reason to feel queasy about their chances at the present time.
Take Boston, for instance. I'm sure Jay was not expecting to hear Jason Robards' voice right now: " Your position in the post-season is no longer secure"
Or Derek. Even with the Angels' gift last night, I bet Derek is not all too happy that he is tied for the lead instead of 2-3 games up at this point.
What about the Angels? Is Austin an Angels' fan? There are major concerns with that team.
I read the White Sox board yesterday after their stunning loss to KC - they all want Guillen fired and are in a panic mode.
Me? It's hard to believe that the Tribe is playing this well, and only has a 1/2 game lead in the wild card. This is unchartered territory for us, and we can't play this well for the last 16 games, can we?
The Yankees probably feel the most confident - since they look like they are on fire right now - but at this point, they would be left out of the playoffs- there's more work to do for them.
I'd guess we all are collectively the "nattering nabobs of negativity", as VP Agnew eloquently said in the 70s. We all have things to worry about. The final 16-17 games are going to be loaded with drama.
Take Boston, for instance. I'm sure Jay was not expecting to hear Jason Robards' voice right now: " Your position in the post-season is no longer secure"
Or Derek. Even with the Angels' gift last night, I bet Derek is not all too happy that he is tied for the lead instead of 2-3 games up at this point.
What about the Angels? Is Austin an Angels' fan? There are major concerns with that team.
I read the White Sox board yesterday after their stunning loss to KC - they all want Guillen fired and are in a panic mode.
Me? It's hard to believe that the Tribe is playing this well, and only has a 1/2 game lead in the wild card. This is unchartered territory for us, and we can't play this well for the last 16 games, can we?
The Yankees probably feel the most confident - since they look like they are on fire right now - but at this point, they would be left out of the playoffs- there's more work to do for them.
I'd guess we all are collectively the "nattering nabobs of negativity", as VP Agnew eloquently said in the 70s. We all have things to worry about. The final 16-17 games are going to be loaded with drama.
Sep 14, 2005
MLB Predictions
Yes, it is only Sept 14th and there is a lot of baseball to go but if Mike and Mike on ESPNRadio can do MVP, Cy Young and Wild Card updates *everyday* then we can do it too! My picks as of today (subject to revision of course!):
AL MVP: Arod (yes Ortiz is a beast, but Arod has been playing good defense this year. If Ortiz has a few more dramatic HR and they take the division with the NYY missing the playoffs then *maybe* you can make the case for Ortiz)
AL CY: Colon by default (has there been a crappier overall year for CY candidates in the AL??)
Manager of the Year: Wedge
AL East: Sox
AL Central: Sox
AL West: Angels
AL WC: Indians
AL Pennant: Indians (I kind of dismissed them last week, but every day they are really making me more and more of a believer. They have been incredible in the second half and they are going to roll into the playoffs having serious momentum (not unlike the Sox of last year).
NL MVP: Pujols (he has to win one of them right?)
NL CY: Carpenter (With Willis 2 and Rog 3)
Manager Of the Year: Cox
NL East: ATL
NL Central: Cards
NL West: Padres
NL WC: Marlins
NL Pennant: Marlins
Yup a repeat of the 97 WS! And I think the Marlins will win it again. If they actually do win it they would have 3 WS in the last 9 years - sickening.
Oh and I am officially panicking with the AL East lead down to 2.5 (2 in the AILC). If last year had never happened I'd probably be calling in sick to work right now with the horror of the Sox choking another one away. Those last three games at Fenway will be very important...
AL MVP: Arod (yes Ortiz is a beast, but Arod has been playing good defense this year. If Ortiz has a few more dramatic HR and they take the division with the NYY missing the playoffs then *maybe* you can make the case for Ortiz)
AL CY: Colon by default (has there been a crappier overall year for CY candidates in the AL??)
Manager of the Year: Wedge
AL East: Sox
AL Central: Sox
AL West: Angels
AL WC: Indians
AL Pennant: Indians (I kind of dismissed them last week, but every day they are really making me more and more of a believer. They have been incredible in the second half and they are going to roll into the playoffs having serious momentum (not unlike the Sox of last year).
NL MVP: Pujols (he has to win one of them right?)
NL CY: Carpenter (With Willis 2 and Rog 3)
Manager Of the Year: Cox
NL East: ATL
NL Central: Cards
NL West: Padres
NL WC: Marlins
NL Pennant: Marlins
Yup a repeat of the 97 WS! And I think the Marlins will win it again. If they actually do win it they would have 3 WS in the last 9 years - sickening.
Oh and I am officially panicking with the AL East lead down to 2.5 (2 in the AILC). If last year had never happened I'd probably be calling in sick to work right now with the horror of the Sox choking another one away. Those last three games at Fenway will be very important...
Lavender
To keep it light as Eric said, can everyone take note and not use the lavender scented deodorizer from Glade? Yesterday before a meeting with my VP and some outside consultants, I sprayed some of this shit in his office to get rid of the taco smell from lunch and instead of helping, it was made the room smell like lavender tacos. It was so bad that my eyes started to water at the beginning. When my VP came back in his office with the consultants, the look on his face was priceless, like "How could you of possibly made the room smell worse that it already did in 2 minutes." We apologized for the smell with one the one consultants saying that it smelled like a cheap hooker, which made all of us realize that we probably picked the wrong consultant.
Sep 13, 2005
Random Musical Interlude
Let's lighten things up here....
I can't listen to music at work, so whatever the last song I hear in the car before I get into our parking lot - that's the song that is stuck in my head for the rest of the day. I don't know why - it's just how my brain works.
Anyway, I could do a LOT worse than the song today: "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" by Peter, Paul and Mary.
"So kiss me, and smile for me.
Tell me that you'd wait for me
Hold me like you'd never let me go..........
I'm leavin' on a jet plane!
(whisper) don't know when I'll be back again."
Not a bad song to have in your head for 10 hours straight.
I can't listen to music at work, so whatever the last song I hear in the car before I get into our parking lot - that's the song that is stuck in my head for the rest of the day. I don't know why - it's just how my brain works.
Anyway, I could do a LOT worse than the song today: "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" by Peter, Paul and Mary.
"So kiss me, and smile for me.
Tell me that you'd wait for me
Hold me like you'd never let me go..........
I'm leavin' on a jet plane!
(whisper) don't know when I'll be back again."
Not a bad song to have in your head for 10 hours straight.
Sep 12, 2005
Katrina Autopsy
Newsweek has a pretty exhaustive recap of what went wrong with the Katrina response. Some 19 correspondents pieced together the timeline and various events that affected the delayed response. Don't let the title fool you, there is plenty of blame to go around, although ultimately I think everyone (even some Republicans in this space) agree where the "buck stops". This is a must read.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/
Some interesting things:
-The president boasting how he doesn't read or watch the news. I mean, the only other person who is proud of such things is Michael Derr, and I certainly don't want him running the country anytime soon. Warrants mentioning.
-The total lack of any plan in the state of LA. I can picture the officials sitting around saying "First I'll soil myself - then I'll come up with a plan."
-"Brownie, you're doing a heckova job". Nuff Ced
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/
Some interesting things:
-The president boasting how he doesn't read or watch the news. I mean, the only other person who is proud of such things is Michael Derr, and I certainly don't want him running the country anytime soon. Warrants mentioning.
-The total lack of any plan in the state of LA. I can picture the officials sitting around saying "First I'll soil myself - then I'll come up with a plan."
-"Brownie, you're doing a heckova job". Nuff Ced
Random thoughts...
1) Derek noticed that I am not as despondent over the Browns' loss as I have been in the past. A good question.
My expectations for this team is not very high. I realize we are in rebuilding mode, and I know our defense is going to be terrible, since we are going to the 3-4, except we don't have the right personnel to do that.
So the game confirmed those concerns. We let the Bengals move up and down the field...bend,bend, bend, and then break. Argh.
I'm happy, however, that I can watch an offense move the ball. It won't take a penalty to get a first down. When you've suffered through Ty Detmer, Doug Pedersen, Spergon Wynn, and Josh McCown over the past 5 years, you kind of forget what offensive football is. Not to say Trent Dilfer is great, but when is the last time a Browns QB threw for over 270 yards?
This will take time. I still would like to see 6-7 wins this year, but I want to see progress. I got some (not all - playcalling was questionable, and penalties killed us) progress in that first game.
2) How's that front four, Denver?
3) Boy, did I get an earful from a whole lot of fans in the country when our Browns fans cheered Tim Couch when he got hurt in a Sunday Night Game vs. the Ravens on Oct 6, 2002. Remember that?
So what happened last night? Ravens's fans cheered when Boller went down. Hypocrites.
And I love seeing a QB controversy in the division.
4) The Bengals will win this division.
5) Which Mike will be fired first? Tice? Shanahan? Martz? Holmgren? Wow. All four had bad losses.
6) Pick for tonight: Atlanta 24, Philly 20. Take the Falcons.
19 games to go, we are 1 1/2 games up. Wow. Keep winning, Tribe.
My expectations for this team is not very high. I realize we are in rebuilding mode, and I know our defense is going to be terrible, since we are going to the 3-4, except we don't have the right personnel to do that.
So the game confirmed those concerns. We let the Bengals move up and down the field...bend,bend, bend, and then break. Argh.
I'm happy, however, that I can watch an offense move the ball. It won't take a penalty to get a first down. When you've suffered through Ty Detmer, Doug Pedersen, Spergon Wynn, and Josh McCown over the past 5 years, you kind of forget what offensive football is. Not to say Trent Dilfer is great, but when is the last time a Browns QB threw for over 270 yards?
This will take time. I still would like to see 6-7 wins this year, but I want to see progress. I got some (not all - playcalling was questionable, and penalties killed us) progress in that first game.
2) How's that front four, Denver?
3) Boy, did I get an earful from a whole lot of fans in the country when our Browns fans cheered Tim Couch when he got hurt in a Sunday Night Game vs. the Ravens on Oct 6, 2002. Remember that?
So what happened last night? Ravens's fans cheered when Boller went down. Hypocrites.
And I love seeing a QB controversy in the division.
4) The Bengals will win this division.
5) Which Mike will be fired first? Tice? Shanahan? Martz? Holmgren? Wow. All four had bad losses.
6) Pick for tonight: Atlanta 24, Philly 20. Take the Falcons.
19 games to go, we are 1 1/2 games up. Wow. Keep winning, Tribe.
Supreme Court
I remember talking with Lee on why he was going to vote for Kerry instead of Bush and he said it was mainly due to social issues and the possible appointments to the Supreme Court. I laughed and said that no one is retiring and that he should calm down because even if someone does get appointed, I don't think that Bush would get a right wing judge approved.
Well with two judges gone, I'm starting to get pay a more attention to what is going on right now. The Terry Schibo debacle makes me a little worried as well as how to redefine the Right to Privacy, which this court will probably have a good chance to redefine in the upcoming years. This also applies to State vs. Federal jurisdiction which flows into tort reform, gay rights, and gun laws. And then add on the Abortion issue that I thought was put to rest, but apparently this could get overturned. Am I over-reacting due to CNN and MSNBC or should I really be concerned?
Well with two judges gone, I'm starting to get pay a more attention to what is going on right now. The Terry Schibo debacle makes me a little worried as well as how to redefine the Right to Privacy, which this court will probably have a good chance to redefine in the upcoming years. This also applies to State vs. Federal jurisdiction which flows into tort reform, gay rights, and gun laws. And then add on the Abortion issue that I thought was put to rest, but apparently this could get overturned. Am I over-reacting due to CNN and MSNBC or should I really be concerned?
Sep 11, 2005
Kick it Off
So its about 75 and sunny right now, and I can't make it out of my place due to several Irish Car Bombs and a couple of bottles of wine. Looks like I'm stuck watching opening day. Several gambling notes to start everything off.
-Betting activity is up again this year, despite my attempts to offer bad service so they go elsewhere. Massive amounts of calls, which surprises me since usually it takes a while for this to kick in. What do you think is causing this?
-I really do like Eric's analysis on how to break down a game, but he hasn't been all that successful, has he? Is it because he just doesn't do this for one game...or maybe 2-4 games. He does it for like 10-15 games. Over time the odds are just against him. Eric, I want you to give me the top 2 games per week to see if you loaded up on just those games you would be anymore successful than spreading it out over 15 games.
-VegasInsider is still an amazing site for gambling advice and news. I recommend this site for everyone. On Monday morning they have a great column breaking down the line changes in Vegas. Really cool.
-Betting activity is up again this year, despite my attempts to offer bad service so they go elsewhere. Massive amounts of calls, which surprises me since usually it takes a while for this to kick in. What do you think is causing this?
-I really do like Eric's analysis on how to break down a game, but he hasn't been all that successful, has he? Is it because he just doesn't do this for one game...or maybe 2-4 games. He does it for like 10-15 games. Over time the odds are just against him. Eric, I want you to give me the top 2 games per week to see if you loaded up on just those games you would be anymore successful than spreading it out over 15 games.
-VegasInsider is still an amazing site for gambling advice and news. I recommend this site for everyone. On Monday morning they have a great column breaking down the line changes in Vegas. Really cool.
Sep 10, 2005
NFL Picks, Week 1
Boy oh boy, talking about flying blind. That's what it feels like trying to pick these games.
In no particular order:
Buffalo 16, Houston 13. Each team seems to have no passing game - Carr is shaky and who knows what Losman will do. Both have strong running games; this should be a field-goal fest in Buffalo.
Kansas City 31, New York Jets 20 - Should be a good game with the Chiefs pulling away late. Just don't see the Jet's defense containing all the weapons of KC.
Minnesota 28, Tampa Bay 13. Can anyone see Tampa scoring more than, oh, 17 points? Minnesota will score at least 3 TDs. This probably won't be close at half.
Chicago 20, Washington 17. Some people rate the Browns as the worse team in football (like Yahoo!/TSN). I watches every second of that dreadful 17-13 Browns win over the Skins last year; the Skins can play as bad as anyone most of the time, and they are not getting better anytime soon. I watched Kyle play vs. the Browns in the last preseason game - and he seems to "get" it.
Denver 20, Miami 13. The Broncos will make enough mistakes to keep it interesting; however, I just don't think Miami's offense can do enough to win.
Pittsburgh 24, Tennessee 23. Too many questions for Pittsburgh for a returning 15-1 team. What will the loss of Burress do to Big Ben? How will the injuries at RB affect them? They are not good at stopping the deep threat, and Tennessee does have that in Bennett. I have this gut feeling that this will be MUCH cloer than people think.
Carolina 27, New Orleans 9. Count me as one of those who thinks the Katrina disaster will impact the Saints in a negative manner. I just can't see them hanging with one of the best teams in the NFC.
Jacksonville 31, Seattle 24. These are the type of games Mike Holmgren has not been able to win over the past 3-4 years in Seattle - a road game vs. a good (not great) opponent where Seattle on paper should have a chance. This will be a shootout - Seattle will score, and their defense will give up big plays and long drives - and in the end, Holmgren will find a way to lose it.
Detroit 28, Green Bay 17 - This is not to say that I think that Detroit will go 11-5 or something. I have a nagging feelign about Green Bay and their weaknesses on Defense and in certain areas on offense. Detroit will lead early and often, forcing Brett to throw many times - and when he does, he's bound to make mistakes.
San Diego 20, Dallas 10 - I'm not drinking the Dallas kool-aid, ESPECIALLY with Drew Bledsoe at the helm. It will be LT, LT and more LT for San Diego, adn they will control this game.
St Louis 34, San Francisco 7 - The 49ers remind me not of the 199 Browns, but of the 2000 Browns, a team trying to recover from a disastrous 2-14 season. The Browns' opener that year was at home vs. Jacksonville, and Jax won 31-10, I believe. It will be the same type of game. SF may hang around for a while , but in the end, the horses will win out.
NY Giants 17, Arizona 13 - I'll believe the Cards are for real when I see it. This is a game they traditionally lose, and they will again. This loss will haunt the Cards into December.
Baltimore 24, Indianapolis 20 - I could just write "Indianapolis 31, Baltimore 10" and be done with it - there probably won't be a lot of questions - but something just nags me here. Manning does not play well against good defenses. This is outdoors, and in prime time. Jamal will have a big game (the 4-month sentence will affect later in the year, not now). There will be defensive TD's (or returns deep into Colts territory). And in the opening game, the Ravens will want to answer all types of questions. I hate to say this, but the more I think about this, the more I am convinced that Bal will win - and most of you know how much that pains me.
Oh yes, there is:
Cleveland 23, Cincinnati 20.
16 Best bets (to-date: 0-0-1):
Buf/Hou under
KC
Min
Chi
Ten
Ten/Pit OVER
Car
Car/NO Under
Jax
Jax/Sea Over
Det
SD
SD/Dal Under
Stl
NYG/Az Under
Bal
(edited for readability)
In no particular order:
Buffalo 16, Houston 13. Each team seems to have no passing game - Carr is shaky and who knows what Losman will do. Both have strong running games; this should be a field-goal fest in Buffalo.
Kansas City 31, New York Jets 20 - Should be a good game with the Chiefs pulling away late. Just don't see the Jet's defense containing all the weapons of KC.
Minnesota 28, Tampa Bay 13. Can anyone see Tampa scoring more than, oh, 17 points? Minnesota will score at least 3 TDs. This probably won't be close at half.
Chicago 20, Washington 17. Some people rate the Browns as the worse team in football (like Yahoo!/TSN). I watches every second of that dreadful 17-13 Browns win over the Skins last year; the Skins can play as bad as anyone most of the time, and they are not getting better anytime soon. I watched Kyle play vs. the Browns in the last preseason game - and he seems to "get" it.
Denver 20, Miami 13. The Broncos will make enough mistakes to keep it interesting; however, I just don't think Miami's offense can do enough to win.
Pittsburgh 24, Tennessee 23. Too many questions for Pittsburgh for a returning 15-1 team. What will the loss of Burress do to Big Ben? How will the injuries at RB affect them? They are not good at stopping the deep threat, and Tennessee does have that in Bennett. I have this gut feeling that this will be MUCH cloer than people think.
Carolina 27, New Orleans 9. Count me as one of those who thinks the Katrina disaster will impact the Saints in a negative manner. I just can't see them hanging with one of the best teams in the NFC.
Jacksonville 31, Seattle 24. These are the type of games Mike Holmgren has not been able to win over the past 3-4 years in Seattle - a road game vs. a good (not great) opponent where Seattle on paper should have a chance. This will be a shootout - Seattle will score, and their defense will give up big plays and long drives - and in the end, Holmgren will find a way to lose it.
Detroit 28, Green Bay 17 - This is not to say that I think that Detroit will go 11-5 or something. I have a nagging feelign about Green Bay and their weaknesses on Defense and in certain areas on offense. Detroit will lead early and often, forcing Brett to throw many times - and when he does, he's bound to make mistakes.
San Diego 20, Dallas 10 - I'm not drinking the Dallas kool-aid, ESPECIALLY with Drew Bledsoe at the helm. It will be LT, LT and more LT for San Diego, adn they will control this game.
St Louis 34, San Francisco 7 - The 49ers remind me not of the 199 Browns, but of the 2000 Browns, a team trying to recover from a disastrous 2-14 season. The Browns' opener that year was at home vs. Jacksonville, and Jax won 31-10, I believe. It will be the same type of game. SF may hang around for a while , but in the end, the horses will win out.
NY Giants 17, Arizona 13 - I'll believe the Cards are for real when I see it. This is a game they traditionally lose, and they will again. This loss will haunt the Cards into December.
Baltimore 24, Indianapolis 20 - I could just write "Indianapolis 31, Baltimore 10" and be done with it - there probably won't be a lot of questions - but something just nags me here. Manning does not play well against good defenses. This is outdoors, and in prime time. Jamal will have a big game (the 4-month sentence will affect later in the year, not now). There will be defensive TD's (or returns deep into Colts territory). And in the opening game, the Ravens will want to answer all types of questions. I hate to say this, but the more I think about this, the more I am convinced that Bal will win - and most of you know how much that pains me.
Oh yes, there is:
Cleveland 23, Cincinnati 20.
16 Best bets (to-date: 0-0-1):
Buf/Hou under
KC
Min
Chi
Ten
Ten/Pit OVER
Car
Car/NO Under
Jax
Jax/Sea Over
Det
SD
SD/Dal Under
Stl
NYG/Az Under
Bal
(edited for readability)
Just wanted to share the good news...
Aug 11, 1987, I hit a 5-iron at Hunt Valley Blue #5, a par 3 of 170 yards - it landed about 20 feet short and released, taking the break and falling into the hole for my first hole-in-one.
Today, Sept 10, 2005, I hit another 5-iron at #12 at Brown Deer in Coralville IA from 180; it hit 3 feet short and slowly released dead-on to the flag and dropped for my second hole-in-one.
At this rate, Oct 9, 2023 should be another big day.
Today, Sept 10, 2005, I hit another 5-iron at #12 at Brown Deer in Coralville IA from 180; it hit 3 feet short and slowly released dead-on to the flag and dropped for my second hole-in-one.
At this rate, Oct 9, 2023 should be another big day.
Finally back home
Couple of quick notes on my travels:
-How the hell do the Terps only win by 3 against Navy. Is Navy decent or are we just that bad. Now we are down 7-2 at home against Clemson. Ugh. Oh, now the Terps are up 10-7. Nice 4th down conversion.
-Not a huge college football fan, but man there is a just a huge amounts of great games already in the early part of the season. Here are my quick thoughts on the season:
1)Despite the early loss, Oklahoma will still beat TX.
2) Big Ten will be amazing this year with Iowa, Ohio State, and Michigan with great teams. Michigan isn't looking that good so far today against ND, so it might just come down to Iowa and Ohio State. Eric is big on Purdue, but I really have nothing to say about this.
3) The East Coast bias will really hurt USC this year if they falter against a solid Oregon on the road. Other than Oregon on the road, they really do have a cake walk to the National Championship again this year. Here is a question on the draft though. Is it possible that USC will have players go 1-2-3 in Leinart, Bush, and White in the NFL draft next year?
4) Pittsburgh- Was outclassed against ND last week and lost to Ohio last night. Wannstedt is just not a head coach. How many years will it take for everyone to realize this? And Cavanaugh is not a Offensive Coordinator. The difference between Carrol and Wannstedt is recruiting and game planning.
-This brings me to another comment on Wannstedt and Turner, two coordinators under Jimmy Johnson and the Cowboys. How are these two guys still living off of their legacy from 10+ years ago? 10 years and just failed head coaching from these two with every team they were with. Turner with the Skins, Houston, and Raiders, and Wannstedt with Chicago, Miami, and Pitt. Its just amazing to me that there are GMs and ADs that still take a chance on these boobs every year, and writers will comment on their success with the Cowboys on why that team will succeed. Its like someone referencing my Spades Tournament organizational skills from college now in an interview with my current bosses. It just doesn't make sense.
Wanted to make this comment before, but my computer died. The Sportsguy is just slipping and getting way to political in his columns. His comments about the Bill Maher episode on HBO just continues to show how big of an idiot he can be sometimes. I watched this episode that he referenced, and it was just terrible. Now I think that John Stewart and Bill Maher's take on Bush and Republicans are almost identical, but the reason why I enjoy watching John Stewart is because he is funny and refreshing. I might not agree with Stewart, but he doesn't make me feel bad about not agreeing with him, and his skits and monologues are just classic. And he tries to present both sides (doesn't do that good of a job, but at least there is an attempt), respects different opinions, and he brings on all types of political guests and he conducts very solid interviews with them. On the other hand, Maher is just full of hate and I think he is stealing his jokes from 3rd graders. And the quality of his guests are just crap. If you have to resort to using "Josh" from West Wing as your main political advisor, you are in trouble. And for the Sportsguy to say that his jokes and analysis was right on, now puts him in the "John Kruk" category for political comments.
-Oh, but I will buy his book, or at least ask for it for my b-day (hint hint Eric).
-So I go from the San Remo in San Fran to the Four Seasons in Scottsdale. Now I've been to plenty of top notch hotels, but never a Four Seasons. And wow, what an amazing hotel. Everything from polishing your shoes, doing the laundry, turndown service that is second to none, and rooms that are bigger than most houses. And the service? Unbelievable. The first morning I get a wake up call and its actually a person telling me good morning and the expected weather for that day. The second day I get the wake up call, but accidentally hung up when I tried to pick up the phone. They called back, but I don't answer since I'm on my way to the shower. Before I can get into the shower (maybe 4 minutes), there is a knock on the door. Its security making sure I'm OK, because I didn't answer the wake up call. Then the last night I was there, I was coming back from dinner, the valet guy tells me to go to the front desk since there is a problem with my room. Security is there telling me that there is a swarm of bugs outside my front door and walks with me to my room to make sure everything is OK. How the fuck did they know I wasn't already in the room, and what car I drove? Pretty nice.
-So back to the San Remo. I sort of railed on it the first night I was there, but it got a little bit better over the weekend. I still think that the key to it all is to have a few drinks before going to bed. The place is cheap and I shouldn't expect anything more than a place to sleep and shower. I will stay there again the next time I'm up in San Fran or Oakland. Oh and I did find the shampoo, soap, and iron.
-Sonoma- Wow, what a nice place. Even if you don't like wine, it is worth making a trip up North to Sonoma, Santa Rosa, and Heildsburg. Stay out of Napa since its a little bit touristy. Great time, nice drive and an overall great day.
-Video Games- Madden Season starts up on Monday. My boys back East and I finally have 16 players with 2 teams each so we can do a complete season. Check out Hereford Nine for the Website and early lines for AFC/NFC/Superbowl futures.
-How the hell do the Terps only win by 3 against Navy. Is Navy decent or are we just that bad. Now we are down 7-2 at home against Clemson. Ugh. Oh, now the Terps are up 10-7. Nice 4th down conversion.
-Not a huge college football fan, but man there is a just a huge amounts of great games already in the early part of the season. Here are my quick thoughts on the season:
1)Despite the early loss, Oklahoma will still beat TX.
2) Big Ten will be amazing this year with Iowa, Ohio State, and Michigan with great teams. Michigan isn't looking that good so far today against ND, so it might just come down to Iowa and Ohio State. Eric is big on Purdue, but I really have nothing to say about this.
3) The East Coast bias will really hurt USC this year if they falter against a solid Oregon on the road. Other than Oregon on the road, they really do have a cake walk to the National Championship again this year. Here is a question on the draft though. Is it possible that USC will have players go 1-2-3 in Leinart, Bush, and White in the NFL draft next year?
4) Pittsburgh- Was outclassed against ND last week and lost to Ohio last night. Wannstedt is just not a head coach. How many years will it take for everyone to realize this? And Cavanaugh is not a Offensive Coordinator. The difference between Carrol and Wannstedt is recruiting and game planning.
-This brings me to another comment on Wannstedt and Turner, two coordinators under Jimmy Johnson and the Cowboys. How are these two guys still living off of their legacy from 10+ years ago? 10 years and just failed head coaching from these two with every team they were with. Turner with the Skins, Houston, and Raiders, and Wannstedt with Chicago, Miami, and Pitt. Its just amazing to me that there are GMs and ADs that still take a chance on these boobs every year, and writers will comment on their success with the Cowboys on why that team will succeed. Its like someone referencing my Spades Tournament organizational skills from college now in an interview with my current bosses. It just doesn't make sense.
Wanted to make this comment before, but my computer died. The Sportsguy is just slipping and getting way to political in his columns. His comments about the Bill Maher episode on HBO just continues to show how big of an idiot he can be sometimes. I watched this episode that he referenced, and it was just terrible. Now I think that John Stewart and Bill Maher's take on Bush and Republicans are almost identical, but the reason why I enjoy watching John Stewart is because he is funny and refreshing. I might not agree with Stewart, but he doesn't make me feel bad about not agreeing with him, and his skits and monologues are just classic. And he tries to present both sides (doesn't do that good of a job, but at least there is an attempt), respects different opinions, and he brings on all types of political guests and he conducts very solid interviews with them. On the other hand, Maher is just full of hate and I think he is stealing his jokes from 3rd graders. And the quality of his guests are just crap. If you have to resort to using "Josh" from West Wing as your main political advisor, you are in trouble. And for the Sportsguy to say that his jokes and analysis was right on, now puts him in the "John Kruk" category for political comments.
-Oh, but I will buy his book, or at least ask for it for my b-day (hint hint Eric).
-So I go from the San Remo in San Fran to the Four Seasons in Scottsdale. Now I've been to plenty of top notch hotels, but never a Four Seasons. And wow, what an amazing hotel. Everything from polishing your shoes, doing the laundry, turndown service that is second to none, and rooms that are bigger than most houses. And the service? Unbelievable. The first morning I get a wake up call and its actually a person telling me good morning and the expected weather for that day. The second day I get the wake up call, but accidentally hung up when I tried to pick up the phone. They called back, but I don't answer since I'm on my way to the shower. Before I can get into the shower (maybe 4 minutes), there is a knock on the door. Its security making sure I'm OK, because I didn't answer the wake up call. Then the last night I was there, I was coming back from dinner, the valet guy tells me to go to the front desk since there is a problem with my room. Security is there telling me that there is a swarm of bugs outside my front door and walks with me to my room to make sure everything is OK. How the fuck did they know I wasn't already in the room, and what car I drove? Pretty nice.
-So back to the San Remo. I sort of railed on it the first night I was there, but it got a little bit better over the weekend. I still think that the key to it all is to have a few drinks before going to bed. The place is cheap and I shouldn't expect anything more than a place to sleep and shower. I will stay there again the next time I'm up in San Fran or Oakland. Oh and I did find the shampoo, soap, and iron.
-Sonoma- Wow, what a nice place. Even if you don't like wine, it is worth making a trip up North to Sonoma, Santa Rosa, and Heildsburg. Stay out of Napa since its a little bit touristy. Great time, nice drive and an overall great day.
-Video Games- Madden Season starts up on Monday. My boys back East and I finally have 16 players with 2 teams each so we can do a complete season. Check out Hereford Nine for the Website and early lines for AFC/NFC/Superbowl futures.
Sep 9, 2005
The Champ is Here!
Well, the football season opened up last night but for the Pats the season seemed to "resume". They did their usual grind it out, nothing flashy "W" - almost like the season was Tivo-ed at the end of the Super Bowl and was unpaused last night. Of course they'll need to pick up their game when they play at Pitt and at Carolina, but I thought they looked decent. Run defense was a little suspect, offensive line still coming together, but overall not too shabby, besides you never want to peak in Sept.
I am really looking forward to watching the other two PT games this weekend. What matchups (besides your teams) are you looking forward to this weekend? BTW, one nice thing about your team playing in Prime Time is that it allows you to channel surf without restriction to any game on Sunday. Ahhh football season!! Time to be lazy and do nothing for 12 straight hours!
I am really looking forward to watching the other two PT games this weekend. What matchups (besides your teams) are you looking forward to this weekend? BTW, one nice thing about your team playing in Prime Time is that it allows you to channel surf without restriction to any game on Sunday. Ahhh football season!! Time to be lazy and do nothing for 12 straight hours!
My inner 6th grade schoolgirl
Last night, after the final of "Tampa Bay 7, NY Yankees 4" was flashed, my feelings resembled a 6th grade girl who just found out that the boy she likes likes her back..
"Oh My God... Oh My God... Oh My God... Oh My God"
We are actually leading the wild card race this late in the season. We have caught and overtaken two very good teams in NY and Oakland. I think it finally hit me that we are not playing over our heads, but are on the same level as these two.
The next 9 games are going to be crucial - well, aren't they all? - to see if the Indians can validate their status. We have a 9-game homestand against Minnesota, Oakland, and Kansas City.
At this point, I'll take 6-3. This is the last chance for the Twins - and Santana goes tonight - so the weekend will be difficult. And, of course, the A's series will be fascinating to watch, and all three games should be a struggle. And then we have to be careful not to have a letdown with Kansas City.
Wow. I can't believe this. I hope the team has their blinders on and continues their good play, no matter what the standings say.
"Oh My God... Oh My God... Oh My God... Oh My God"
We are actually leading the wild card race this late in the season. We have caught and overtaken two very good teams in NY and Oakland. I think it finally hit me that we are not playing over our heads, but are on the same level as these two.
The next 9 games are going to be crucial - well, aren't they all? - to see if the Indians can validate their status. We have a 9-game homestand against Minnesota, Oakland, and Kansas City.
At this point, I'll take 6-3. This is the last chance for the Twins - and Santana goes tonight - so the weekend will be difficult. And, of course, the A's series will be fascinating to watch, and all three games should be a struggle. And then we have to be careful not to have a letdown with Kansas City.
Wow. I can't believe this. I hope the team has their blinders on and continues their good play, no matter what the standings say.
Sep 8, 2005
Pick for Tonight
OK, all, here is my process for selecting what "wagers" to select on any given Sunday. Let's work through the process for tonight's game.
Of course, by "wagers", I mean for entertainment purposes only. Have to throw that in.
Step 1. Do NOT look at the lines before analyzing the games. I can't stress this enough. It's too easy to look at a line and immediately be biased one way or another - and then you get caught trying to analyze the game to defend your inital bias. (for example, you are surprised that Denver is "only" giving 5, and you end up analyzing the game to make sure you pick Denver)
When looking at games, you need to make sure you are unbiased with regard to the line. That's why I don't pick Cleveland games - I can't be unbiased when talking about the Browns.
Step 2. Look at the off/def matchups on each side and predict how that will play out. Ball control? Lots of possessions?
Taking tonight's game as an example:
NE O / Oak D: This seems like a classic game where NE has about 8-9 possessions, each of 7-10 plays, with a lot of Corey Dillon and eating up the clock. I'm guessing 20-24 points.
Oak O/NE D: The big play offense is there, but I believe Belicheck will be ready to contain Moss. Oak will move the ball - I especially like Jordan - but I can't see them putting up 3 or 4 TDs. NE will stop them inside the 20 on multiple occasions. I think Oak will kick 3-4 FGs as drives stall. I even started Janikowski in my fantasy league.
Step 3. Any intangibles to consider? Rookie QBs? Coaches? Home teams that are considered lightly? None especially in this game.
Step 4. Make a prediction of the final score given the above analysis.
My prediction: New England 24, Oakland 16
Step 5: Check the line
Line: NE -7 1/2, o/u 50
Step 6: If your prediction varies more than 3 points from the line or more than 6 from the over/under, go with it!
There we are: I will pick the under in tonight's game.
Step 7: Are there any hard-and-fast rules that are violated with this pick? Some rules are: Home underdogs in prime-time games are like 70% ATS; are you picking a team that hasn't covered in a while; is Marty Schottenheimer involved?
None for this game.
There we go! Good luck.
Of course, by "wagers", I mean for entertainment purposes only. Have to throw that in.
Step 1. Do NOT look at the lines before analyzing the games. I can't stress this enough. It's too easy to look at a line and immediately be biased one way or another - and then you get caught trying to analyze the game to defend your inital bias. (for example, you are surprised that Denver is "only" giving 5, and you end up analyzing the game to make sure you pick Denver)
When looking at games, you need to make sure you are unbiased with regard to the line. That's why I don't pick Cleveland games - I can't be unbiased when talking about the Browns.
Step 2. Look at the off/def matchups on each side and predict how that will play out. Ball control? Lots of possessions?
Taking tonight's game as an example:
NE O / Oak D: This seems like a classic game where NE has about 8-9 possessions, each of 7-10 plays, with a lot of Corey Dillon and eating up the clock. I'm guessing 20-24 points.
Oak O/NE D: The big play offense is there, but I believe Belicheck will be ready to contain Moss. Oak will move the ball - I especially like Jordan - but I can't see them putting up 3 or 4 TDs. NE will stop them inside the 20 on multiple occasions. I think Oak will kick 3-4 FGs as drives stall. I even started Janikowski in my fantasy league.
Step 3. Any intangibles to consider? Rookie QBs? Coaches? Home teams that are considered lightly? None especially in this game.
Step 4. Make a prediction of the final score given the above analysis.
My prediction: New England 24, Oakland 16
Step 5: Check the line
Line: NE -7 1/2, o/u 50
Step 6: If your prediction varies more than 3 points from the line or more than 6 from the over/under, go with it!
There we are: I will pick the under in tonight's game.
Step 7: Are there any hard-and-fast rules that are violated with this pick? Some rules are: Home underdogs in prime-time games are like 70% ATS; are you picking a team that hasn't covered in a while; is Marty Schottenheimer involved?
None for this game.
There we go! Good luck.
Sep 7, 2005
ESPN = = TASS
Wow. This is news I haven't heard on ESPN, or elsewhere:
Trev Alberts and Adrien Karsten
What other secrets are they hiding?
Trev Alberts and Adrien Karsten
What other secrets are they hiding?
Sep 6, 2005
Sports Thoughts and Ramblings
There are many good posts on here about the New Orleans tragedy. I'm going to try to lighten up the mood a little bit with my thoughts and ramblings about the recent happenings in the world of sports.....
1) Listened to the Cubs broadcast on Monday on the drive home from St Louis. My God, Ron Santo is an even worse homer than has been described to me.
2) I see the Steelers have signed Quincy Morgan off the scrap heap, having been released by Dallas. In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, "good luck with that".
3) I usually hate sideline reporters, but I have a soft spot for Michael Barkan.
4) Speaking of the US Open, I love watching the coverage on USA. It's parly because I adore the night tennis atmosphere in New York, but also because this means football starts on the last Sunday of the Open. The more matches that are played, the closer we get to the Sunday kickoff.
That being said, I think we can improve on USA's coverage of the US Open. The announcers- Ted Robinson, and Johnny Mac - are great, but it is usually forced to sign off at 10 pm CT for some Law & Order reruns. There was a great match last night between Ginepri and Gasquet that was cut off in the middle of the 3rd set so that we can watch Michael Moriary and Jerry Orbach. Please - this is tennis's two weeks in the sun! Shouldn't USA be forced to stay on until all night matches are over?
5) I am woefully unprepared for the start of the NFL season. I think it's because I'm still paying lots of attention to baseball! Never fear, Eric's gambling picks will appear in time for the games on Sunday morning.
6) Speaking of the Indians, they never fail to impress. Scottie picked it up yesterday with a great outing, and Cliffy followed it up with a gem today. With the Yanks giving one away tonight, we are just 1/2 game back of the WC lead... on September 6th! Wow. Every day feels like Week 15 of an NFL season - with only 24 hours between the next set of games.
7) College football: How anyone can rank Oklahoma ahead of TCU is mind-boggling..... Reading the St Louis apers this weekend, it's like they are crowning Ron Zook a miracle worker because he beat Rutgers at home in OT. Read that sentence again.....Hope Romeo can emulate the same success Charlie had on the first week.....
8) Got tickets for Lambeau on September 18th! Tailgating question I need help with: how would you set your schedule for the weekend given the following constraints:
- assume 5 hours to get up to Green Bay, 6 hours going back
- assume you can't leave earlier than 6 pm on Saturday, and you'd like to minimize any vacation days on Monday
- Kickoff is 3:15, and you need ample time for tailgating
How would you schedule the trip? Madison is 3 hours away ( about halfway), so that could be a great place to stop and party Saturday night....
9) For the game, I think I decided not to order another jersey this year. I have a white #31 (William Green) jersey that's still in great condition that will be the jersey for 2005. I haven't had luck with purchasing jerseys recently - in 2003, it was an orange Tim Couch jersey (released in 2004) and in 2004 it was a brown Jeff Garcia jersey (released in 2005).
1) Listened to the Cubs broadcast on Monday on the drive home from St Louis. My God, Ron Santo is an even worse homer than has been described to me.
2) I see the Steelers have signed Quincy Morgan off the scrap heap, having been released by Dallas. In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, "good luck with that".
3) I usually hate sideline reporters, but I have a soft spot for Michael Barkan.
4) Speaking of the US Open, I love watching the coverage on USA. It's parly because I adore the night tennis atmosphere in New York, but also because this means football starts on the last Sunday of the Open. The more matches that are played, the closer we get to the Sunday kickoff.
That being said, I think we can improve on USA's coverage of the US Open. The announcers- Ted Robinson, and Johnny Mac - are great, but it is usually forced to sign off at 10 pm CT for some Law & Order reruns. There was a great match last night between Ginepri and Gasquet that was cut off in the middle of the 3rd set so that we can watch Michael Moriary and Jerry Orbach. Please - this is tennis's two weeks in the sun! Shouldn't USA be forced to stay on until all night matches are over?
5) I am woefully unprepared for the start of the NFL season. I think it's because I'm still paying lots of attention to baseball! Never fear, Eric's gambling picks will appear in time for the games on Sunday morning.
6) Speaking of the Indians, they never fail to impress. Scottie picked it up yesterday with a great outing, and Cliffy followed it up with a gem today. With the Yanks giving one away tonight, we are just 1/2 game back of the WC lead... on September 6th! Wow. Every day feels like Week 15 of an NFL season - with only 24 hours between the next set of games.
7) College football: How anyone can rank Oklahoma ahead of TCU is mind-boggling..... Reading the St Louis apers this weekend, it's like they are crowning Ron Zook a miracle worker because he beat Rutgers at home in OT. Read that sentence again.....Hope Romeo can emulate the same success Charlie had on the first week.....
8) Got tickets for Lambeau on September 18th! Tailgating question I need help with: how would you set your schedule for the weekend given the following constraints:
- assume 5 hours to get up to Green Bay, 6 hours going back
- assume you can't leave earlier than 6 pm on Saturday, and you'd like to minimize any vacation days on Monday
- Kickoff is 3:15, and you need ample time for tailgating
How would you schedule the trip? Madison is 3 hours away ( about halfway), so that could be a great place to stop and party Saturday night....
9) For the game, I think I decided not to order another jersey this year. I have a white #31 (William Green) jersey that's still in great condition that will be the jersey for 2005. I haven't had luck with purchasing jerseys recently - in 2003, it was an orange Tim Couch jersey (released in 2004) and in 2004 it was a brown Jeff Garcia jersey (released in 2005).
Sep 4, 2005
Condolences?
Has anyone seen any sort of show of support from any other nation? Has anyone made any sort of official offer of condolences?
Not that they are comparable in scope, but when the tsunami hit, the United States led the relief efforts both in action (military and volunteer relief efforts) and financial assistance (I know that the financial part was sketchy to begin with) for countries that we are friendly with (India) as well as countries who hate us (Indonesia). We willingly lent our power and shared our wealth with whomever was in need, regardless of politics, race or religion. Now, I'm not asking for money from anyone else, or even assistance, but just some show of support would be nice. Everyone expects the U.S. to do everything for everyone else, but I think that we should all remember the underwhelming response from rest of the world when we have a problem. Fuck them.
Not that they are comparable in scope, but when the tsunami hit, the United States led the relief efforts both in action (military and volunteer relief efforts) and financial assistance (I know that the financial part was sketchy to begin with) for countries that we are friendly with (India) as well as countries who hate us (Indonesia). We willingly lent our power and shared our wealth with whomever was in need, regardless of politics, race or religion. Now, I'm not asking for money from anyone else, or even assistance, but just some show of support would be nice. Everyone expects the U.S. to do everything for everyone else, but I think that we should all remember the underwhelming response from rest of the world when we have a problem. Fuck them.
Sep 2, 2005
What Country is This?
I was watching CNN and MSNBC last night, and was just sickened with all that is happening in and around New Orleans. To see people out there for days with infants and small children, it is horrifying. The fact that their has been no real response or plan has been ridiculous. What about our magnicifent new Homeland Security Department that our wonderful administration setup (for billions of dollars)?? Wasn't this supposed to be the way federal/state/local officials could work together and "keep America safe"?? Well how safe do the people of NO feel right now?? Why are people suffering for **days** and bodies lying in the streets and nobody is bringing supplies and aid to this area?? We could sure use that National Guard of ours right about now, I think these situations are what the Guard is supposed to be used for. But instead they're across the globe helping to "liberate" Iraq. Oops. I know there are Guard coming over now (or in the next few days) but why the long delay?? Sheesh, if this had been a terrorist attack, imagine how much worse it would be? Here, we even had a few days warning!!
I loved the quote from our "leader" yesterday about how this is a "temporary disruption". Really? Tens of thousands (at least) are homeless, an American city is pretty much destroyed, we now have refugees in America, people are dying in the street, police are handing in their badges, businesses will not be rebuilt in the city anytime soon...yup it all adds up to me as a "temporary disruption" Mr President. As always, you have your finger firmly on the pulse of the situation.
Lastly, watching "Scarborough Country" (who I normally would never watch) last night even Joe Scarborough was appalled at the federal response. He was being extremely critical of the feds for not acting, openly questioning why last year in Florida they had three hurricanes in five days and were able to handle the situation efficiently, yet in New Orleans and around the gulf there has been virtually no action. You can draw your own conclusions on that.
Over the last view years I have been thinking occasionally "What Country is This?", as I feel more isolated from how our government chooses to "operate" on any number of topics. The images that we have all seen really struck that chord again with me, as I couldn't fathom seeing a scene like that in an American city. Lets hope the feds "get off their asses" (nice quote mr mayor) and get some help to those people down there before more people are left dead days *after* the hurricane hit.
I loved the quote from our "leader" yesterday about how this is a "temporary disruption". Really? Tens of thousands (at least) are homeless, an American city is pretty much destroyed, we now have refugees in America, people are dying in the street, police are handing in their badges, businesses will not be rebuilt in the city anytime soon...yup it all adds up to me as a "temporary disruption" Mr President. As always, you have your finger firmly on the pulse of the situation.
Lastly, watching "Scarborough Country" (who I normally would never watch) last night even Joe Scarborough was appalled at the federal response. He was being extremely critical of the feds for not acting, openly questioning why last year in Florida they had three hurricanes in five days and were able to handle the situation efficiently, yet in New Orleans and around the gulf there has been virtually no action. You can draw your own conclusions on that.
Over the last view years I have been thinking occasionally "What Country is This?", as I feel more isolated from how our government chooses to "operate" on any number of topics. The images that we have all seen really struck that chord again with me, as I couldn't fathom seeing a scene like that in an American city. Lets hope the feds "get off their asses" (nice quote mr mayor) and get some help to those people down there before more people are left dead days *after* the hurricane hit.
Sep 1, 2005
Making moves on an airplane
I'll make this quick and get right to the point. I like to be left alone on planes. Even when I'm flying with co-workers, I would rather them just shut up and let me do some work. Even if its a hot chick, I end up making some small talk for about 5 minutes and it quickly turns into the me explaining how you can hear the pilots on channel 7 and then I freeze up, turn on my computer and not say another word to them for the entire flight. Tonight, I end up boarding a Southwest flight to Oakland and there are only middle seats left. I spot out two women of medium size and decide to sit between them, since I need enough room to do some work. Right as I sit down, the one women in the window seat offers to switch with me since she thinks I will uncomfortable in the middle seat. She actually called me "large" twice trying to explain to the other lady why she was offering to switch. I accept and offer to buy her a drink in return but declines. To cut to the chase, we end up talking for a little bit and find out that she is 25, works for LexisNexis, is slightly above average looking, and loves wine and A's. That's right she loves the A's and Barry Zito. So the plane lands, and I'm packing up my laptop, she gives me her card and tells me to call her if I ever need her help using the search engine on lawsuits even though I told her that we use her main competitor. I find that a little odd and thought it was an opening, so as I was mentally putting together a quick battle plan to ask her to go to the A's game with me when the fucking lady in the aisle seat said out of the blue "It was nice meeting you both and you two should really exchange numbers and get married." ????????? What? For once I actually took the time to talk to someone on a plane, actually had a good conversation, had something in common, and had a perfect opening, and this lady fucks it up. Still went through with it, but it was rushed and wasn't exactly how I planned it. She gave me one of those "Well I would really love to, but I'm here visiting my father who is in the hospital" lines. Hmmm. Don't think she will be picking up her cell phone if a 818 area code shows up anytime this weekend.
This is why I never make moves on a plane...only on the street.
This is why I never make moves on a plane...only on the street.
The San Remo Hotel
No, not the fine gambling establishment in Vegas that has one of the only 24 hour sportsbooks, but the one in San Fran. Lee had me stay here with him and Katie a while back, and I sort of liked it. It's cheap, perfect location, and I thought it was pretty cool place. Well I don't know if I was drunk for the entire 48 hours I stayed here last time, but this place is major sketchy. No soap or shampoo (unless someone stole it), no clock, and no iron. How the hell am I going to get the wrinkles out of my linen pants? And to top it off, I'm in the exact same room as Lee was in last time, which had me thinking about what went on in here with him and Katie. Anyway, I need someone to call me at 7:00am (my time) to wake me up so I can move my freaking minivan that Hertz gave me, since I couldn't find a spot that would fit it. I'm in the President's Circle for Hertz and I request a freaking minivan. I'm such an ass.
Note: Jon and Brad, make sure you tell Suz and Beth to bring soap and shampoo. I'll check on an iron tomorrow morning.
Note: Jon and Brad, make sure you tell Suz and Beth to bring soap and shampoo. I'll check on an iron tomorrow morning.
Un F*N believable
I was going to post some lighthearted remarks about engineers being shot at and looters drying up the nation's supply of A1 sauce (both true stories)...
until I read that CNN and others are reporting that the Astrodome is full and is no longer taking refugees from the Superdome.
Read that again. This is mindboggling.
How could this possibly happen?
Who is running the local, state and federal emergency agencies, liberal arts majors?
What happened to counting? Capacity analysis? Crowd estimation techniques?
If things don't improve soon - and I mean 12-18 HOURS soon - Bush will be paying a big, big political price for this.
And you know what? That will be justified. As a Republican, I am embarrassed by the performance of FEMA over the last 2 days or so. It's not getting any better.
God help those still in New Orleans.
until I read that CNN and others are reporting that the Astrodome is full and is no longer taking refugees from the Superdome.
Read that again. This is mindboggling.
How could this possibly happen?
Who is running the local, state and federal emergency agencies, liberal arts majors?
What happened to counting? Capacity analysis? Crowd estimation techniques?
If things don't improve soon - and I mean 12-18 HOURS soon - Bush will be paying a big, big political price for this.
And you know what? That will be justified. As a Republican, I am embarrassed by the performance of FEMA over the last 2 days or so. It's not getting any better.
God help those still in New Orleans.
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