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.

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.

Katrina and New Orleans

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

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

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

NFL

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

The sweet smell of victory

How was my weekend, you ask?

Click here to find out.

Just as dramatic as the US in 1999.

Here is the news story.

BuckSuperStereo

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

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

Text This!!!

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

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

Crap Music

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

Quick Thoughts for a Friday Morning

Two totally unrelated questions:

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

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

Welcome

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

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

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

Welcome

2005 AL Wild Card = 1986 Masters

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

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

I love saying that - triple tie. Try it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

NFC Quick Look

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

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

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

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

Baseball

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

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

Episode II - Attack of the Bad GMs...

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

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

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

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

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

Eric's Receiver Rankings

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

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

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

Eric's Running Back Ratings

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

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

Eric's Quarterback Rankings

Again, for a yardage-based league:

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

Fantasy Ratings...

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

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

OK - here we go!

Kaufmann Stadium

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

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

Who does all the work at Farmers?

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

Random Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Small ball my ass

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

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

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

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

Tiger & the PGA

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

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

But now I'm not so sure.

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

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

They all have before, why not now?

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

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

What might have been

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don't piss off the cable company...

or else this can happen to you..

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

Fantasy Football

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TO and Randy

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

Futures

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

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

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

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

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

Need a camera

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

Craps!

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

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

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

Any other favorites?

A Financial Lesson for all

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

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

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

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

I felt immediately sick.

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

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

T.O.

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

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

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

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

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

Things that should be outlawed...

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

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

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

Argh.

New Poll

New poll posted about the Family Guy.

Post your comments here.

TJ Hooker

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

Not in my house

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

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

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

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

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

Breaking news....

The sun came up in the east today!

Howard Dean goes off the deep end in criticizing Bush!

And, Courtney Brown is injured!

What are the chances of that happening? Shocking!

The smartest man in America...

... now has a blog.

Michael Barone Blog

It's listed over at the side as well.

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

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

Real World

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

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

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

Power of Advertising

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

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

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

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

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

Long time, no post

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

Some thoughts on baseball:

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

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

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

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

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

Derek:

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

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

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

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

Eric.

Interesting Thought

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

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

Some very interesting topics on Sportstalk today.

The Gooch

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

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

Wingman

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

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

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

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

No Limit

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

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

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

The Rafae Train

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

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

Meeting Expectations

Had a very interesting conversation with a guy who owns his own company last weekend about the current situation for service. He said that running a business in today's environment is extremely easy because all you need to do is deliver on what you promise, since so many companies can't even do that. He said that customers now are excited if you just deliver on what you promise, not when you go above and beyond expectations.

It is absolutely astounding how accurate this is, since I just moved and had to deal with the big offenders of poor customer service, and here how it went:

Cable: Had to cancel my Adelphia Cable two times and then just received a bill for Aug service today. Called up Adelphia and spent 30 minutes getting my account closed. New service with Cox Cable took 3 service calls to finally get everything set up. Our digital box has blown out twice now, and I still don't have my MLB package. I could just switch to Direct TV, but they absolutely screwed me about 4 years ago and I will never go back to them.

Phone: Had MCI service and just wanted to switch locations and told me it will take three weeks. Asked them why, since when I changed to them, it only took a couple of hours, they did not have a response. After two weeks without service, I called and they said it would take another two weeks. Ended up cancelling them on that call, and switched to SBC. SBC couldn't get their act together and I still don't have a home phone. Ugh. Wouldn't mind switching to Cox digital phone, but I don't trust them either, so I'll just sit here an wait. Spent about 2 hours dealing with this.

Gas and Electric: Shut off service and had a $40 credit, and a check was supposed to come. Nothing as of yet, but I received a bill and now I only have a $25 credit since someone moved into my old place and is now using my account. Spent about 35 minutes dealing with this.

Its just amazing how crappy service is everywhere out there right. The customer's expectations are set so low right now, and they still can't meet them, that it is no wonder why there are so many attorneys out there.

TV Update

Serious hangover this morning that it is even tough to move my fingers to even type this.

Haven't been watching too much TV but here are a couple shows I've been trying to keep current on.

Laguna Beach: This becoming one of the best shows on TV, but I feel so dirty watching it. Austin nailed the rumor a while back that the one girl was dating Matt Leinart. How can poor Steven compete against Matt Leinart. And this girl Casey is off the charts. Imagining bringing her home to mom just makes me laugh for hours.

Bobby Brown Show: Nothing surprises me about Bobby. He reminds me of some of the guys I play poker with at Hollywood Park; drunk, very talkative, hilarious, and eventually gets out of control but it is all in fun. Now Whitney....Jesus. What the hell has happened to her. In meetings I'm going to start singing everything like she does. I'm not going to put up with this today. Hate to say this, but I sort of understand why he beats her.

Real World: Love it that the guys are taking advantage of the fact that they are on Real World. The groupie drawer is such a solid idea, but I think this is the end of Real World for me.

Blow Out: Nothing like watching a grown man cry over hair. What am I going to do for 10 months before the next season starts up.

sushi bar

Quick question for everyone here. When you sit at the bar at a sushi restaurant, do you tip the waitress and the sushi chef, or only the waitress?

Everyone relax....

My good friend over at Hereford Nine wrote something the other day about marriage that I would like to comment on, since I think he might be misunderstood a little.

Over the years, most of my friends have gotten married. While all but two have remained married, they go against the grain on the success of marriage as they are all still happily married. Most of them have kids now, or they are on their way. I can't say anything negative about their marriages, and the complaints that I hear from them about their wives are minimal. Some are more whipped than others and over the years I have come to the conclusion that this is driven by them and not their wives. And for my friends that have stopped going on vacation with us to Vegas or golfing have valid reasons like, "Well Derek, I don't think I could leave my son with my wife for a weekend." This makes sense and I have no problem with that. What tends to get me are the comments from my friends, relatives, and co-workers about why I'm not married. To sum it up, I'm selfish. Getting married is not a top priority of mine. That is not to say that dating women is not a top priority, despite what people might say on this blog, but I'm not going to compromise my top priorities to get married. I enjoy the fact that I can wake up on Saturday and work-out, go play some poker or golf or go to the track. Or maybe I'll just hang out in my underwear and play 8 hours of Madden on the XBox. I can also decide to go back to school for my MBA. If I have to work late or work a weekend, I don't have to get approval first. Some people call this immature, while I call it being selfish and doing what makes me happy. When I find a women that likes to either do this with me or gives me the freedom to do these things, then I'll get married.

Not ALL married people that I know are unhappy. As I said above, ALL of my friends are happily married, with the exception of those who are now divorced. Now if I talk to the same number of my co-workers, they would have the exact opposite response. So what is the difference? Location? Race? Age? Salary Bracket? Well, the only thing in common is that the happily married friends are younger (30 or younger), while the unhappily married folks tend to be in their late 30s-50s. Is it that they come to a point in their lives where they realize that their life is almost over and they have wasted it doing things they don't want to do and compromised their own needs? Is this why in most marriages the best case scenario is 10 good years, a couple of kids, followed by someone cheating on someone else and then a messy divorce. It has to be along those lines, or I wouldn't hear all the complaints, see all the sleazy office relationships between married people, and the divorce rate wouldn't be near 50%. That is the point I think my friend was trying to make.

And one last note. The comments about my friends post wasn't what I was expecting. They were more of a personal attack on him, instead of a defense to marriage.

Del Mar

Every so often, I'm blown away by certain places or events that impress me beyond my wildest imagination. OK, maybe I'm going a little overboard, but there are some things that stick out in my mind that have exceeded my expectations over the years like:

• First time out to Vegas at the Monte Carlo
  
• First time out to Vegas during the NCAA Tournament
  
• Cole Field House
  
• US Track and Field Championships
  
• Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium
  
• Telluride
  
• Maui
  
• Girona, Spain
  
• Terps win at the Chic Filet Bowl
  
• Dog Pound in old Municipal Stadium
  

Well on Saturday I ventured down to Del Mar Racetrack. My buddy's brother in law, who is easily the brightest and sharpest horse handicapper that I know, has told me over the years that Del Mar is the greatest place to go for horses. Well, I finally went down to the track on Saturday and let me say that this place is absolutely amazing. The track is set up right off of the PCH and is about one mile from the beach, so its stays nice and cool, despite it being extremely sunny. I'm used to being in minority when I go to the track, but this time I was outnumbered by hot young women instead of old grandfathers. The women were all dressed up in their spring dresses and tank tops. Absolutely amazing. Next time I go, which will probably be this weekend, I must do my research before I get to the track, since I was too distracted to study my forms. Anyway, they have several restaurants located right next to the track, which looks like a blast. All the seats allow you to view the action and they are all outside. They open the inside of the track for families and picnics, and serve the usual carnival food. The bulk of the seating was reserved box seats, that cost only $10 dollars to get. Not too bad, but they were sold out on the day of the race, so I'll make sure I plan ahead and grab one of the seats. In all, there were probably 30,000 people at the track at least, and it didn't seem packed at all. It had the atmosphere of Preakness sanz the white trash. It was just a huge party!

When people complain about horseracing and how a track can attract people under the age of 50, here is the answer. Set up a nice track that allows for families, the younger crowd, and the old crew to all coexist, which will drive up revenues, and then in turn bring better races to the track. When you compare Hollywood Park to Del Mar, you can see why Del Mar is the premier track and not Hollywood Park, despite Hollywood Park having slots. I'm surprised more tracks have not followed suit with this type of atmosphere.

Golf update

We head to Des Moines today for the 103rd Iowa Amateur Championship.

18 holes on Monday and Tuesday, with a cut down to the low 60 for the final round on Wednesday. You can follow all the action on iowagolf.org; the tournament sends out people at the 9th and 18th greens to get 9-hole scores and post them on the internet during the round. Hopefully, you all will see a "36" around 3:15 Monday afternoon, and not a "44".

The heat here is oppresive; today I'll have a practice round with the high being 100 and the heat index being 115. What the hell is this, Phoenix?

Hot and humid Monday with a high of 94; chance of strong T-storms on Tuesday, with the high of 85. Back to you, Ron.

Two more NFL notes

I just posted my NFL blog entry, only to find out these tidbits:

1) Do we need a reality show titled "Being Ross Verba"? According to this link, we do.
How do you request this from the hotel?
"Yes, this is Mr. Verba in room 1225. I need 135 bottles of champagne.
Thank you. Oh, and can you pre-shake them?"

2) Is it true that the new offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers is..... Matt Cavanaugh?
The same Matt Cavanaugh who was run out of town by Baltimore and hated by most Ravens fans?

Really?

(smile is on my face)

Football is just around the corner!

I was in Walgreen's the other day, waiting for a prescprition to be filled ("come back in 10 minutes.... yeah, right... how about 58 minutes") when I rifled through the magazine rack.

All the NFL preview magazines are stocked. It's time for football season!

What a wonderful time of the year. Training camp starts, August flies by and then...voila! It's time for 17 Sundays of NFL heaven.

Some beginning notes this year:
1) Can't wait to see Charlie Frye in action.
2) The Browns are not interested in signing Peter Boulware. As of this moment, no reason is given for this.
3) Did I really see Dr. Z say that the over/under in Vegas for teh # of Browns wins is,,,, four? 4? I mean, jeesh. I'm not predicting playoffs or anything, but we are better team than last year's 4 win team.
Derek or Leland, do you have a link to the latest over/under win totals for the NFL?
4) I need help deciding what jersey to buy this year. My closet is full of Tim Couch, Jeff Garcia, and Eric Metcalf (old school) jerseys. I do have a white Willie Green jersey, but I have a feeling he may be gone soon.
My choices for a new jersey are:
Winslow
Andre Davis (WR)
Frye
Suggs
I mean, I don't have 100% confidence that those guys will be around another 3 years. I don't want to keep buying a jersey every year. That's the price of rooting for a team that has sucked.
5) For those with Direct TV, they are a offering a new service for a price. The premium package consists of:
- all games in HD (I don't have it....yet)
- the "red zone" channel - a channel that will flip to games where a team is inside the 20 yard line
- a channel with 8 split screens showing 8 games at once. However, this may not top the all-time greatest split screen I have ever seen, a Spanish-language Mexican "talk show" that was split into 4 to show everyone's reaction when Maria tells Jose about her affair. (I guess you really had to be here. Derek, Jay and I thought it was the most hilarious thing we ever saw)
- and, at the end of Sunday's games, they will edit each game into a 30-minute commerical free show, showing every play for the game. The shows for each game will then be "looped" until next week's action.
For fantasy players, this is heaven.

Tom Jackson doesn't make the list??????????

This is easily the best thing I have seen in years. The 64 person bracket for the most hated person on ESPN. As Aaron Gleeman wrote, "Seriously, if you can't see the genius in that, I don't think we can be friends."

http://www.bravesbeat.com/bravesjournal/bristol/

All you do is go to the comment section and post who you vote for. Very cool. Each Regional is given a Team that ESPN over-hypes which is pretty entertaining in itself.

My Great Eight ended up being:

Duke Regional: (The Vitale vs. Cohen matchup actually made me think for about 5 minutes)
(16) Linda Cohen: I actually hate her and I don't mind Vitale, so I took her all the way
(2) Bayless: It says loads about ESPN with him being ranked number 2 seed

Cowboys Regional: (Reynolds vs. Salisbury is like the classic 8-9 matchup. Should be a great game)
(1) Berman: The idiot actually takes away from each sport he broadcasts
(6)Tony Reili: All I need to say about this guy is "Stat Boy"

Lakers Regional: (Probably the most likeable group with Patrick, Michaels, Wilbon, Rome, Goldber, Walton, and my favorite in Stephen A. Smith. This one was tough. I actually liked most of these guys, even the ones below, at one point in time)
(8) Paul Maguire: I used to really like him but has ruined Sunday night football for me. Tough second round matchup against Stephen A Smith, who I actually enjoy.
(2) Michael Irvin: I loved him on the Dan Patrick show. He was amazing!!! But now he just yells.

Yankees-Red Sox Regional (Easily the toughest with Theisman, Morgan, Kruk, Lupica, Grey, Golic, and Clayton not making it to the finals)
(1) Stuart Scott: Fix his lazy eye and maybe I would of gone with Kruk in this bracket, but I just hate Scott so much.
(6) Woody Paige: Him and Bayless ruin a halfway decent morning show in Cold Pizza.

Final Four: Bayless, Berman, Maguire, and Scott with Berman and Scott squaring off with Berman winning at the buzzer.

Movies

Extremely busy right now at work, but wanted to put out a thread here to discuss the most underrated movies over the past 20 years. Watched Rounders and Step into Liquid, which are two of my top five most underrated movies. The third-fifth movies you ask? Well, I think they would be Spartan, You Got Served, and Tears of the Sun.

Anyway, over the weekend, I'm putting together the most underrated list, along with a movie ranking system that Ben and I have been talking about during our nightly drinkfests.

So what are your most underrated movies? It can't be shit like Pulp Fiction and Godfather, since they received proper recognition. Basically it would be movies that if you stumbled upon HBO, you wouldn't change the channel if you were alone, but possibly deny ever watching it when the boys were around.

Tivo and the Beast

How long will it take for XM or Sirius Radio to have a Tivo like product? If you hear a song that you like, you can press a button to record it and it stores about 4 hours worth of music. I'm surprised no one has come up with this yet? Charge an extra 5 dollars per month for this service, and you have your own little XM jukebox. I don't believe that there are any copyright issues that would be different than the Tivo product for TV. Any insight out there?

Secondly, does anyone know how much a case of Beast is? It must of gone up to $7.00 a case since they are now advertising during the World Series of Poker. The Milwaukee Best Poker Cam cracks me up everytime I see it. Why do they advertise? Who is in their marketing department? Why waste the money for ads, when the only people who buy their beer are poor college students? Would anyone on this site buy a case now, because of their ads? I do have to say that their ads are pretty funny.

Hot Dog Rollup

Here's a fun recipe that you can all try at home. Derek, I'm looking in your direction....

Who's your mentor?

As I am watching the ESPN WSOP marathon, two questions strike me:

1) At the poker table, which famous personality are you most similar to?
2) Who do you root for in the tournaments.

I think #1 for me is easy - I most resemble Dan Harrington. I need one of the flat-brimmed hats. ( I wish I had Marcel Luske's personality, though).
For #2, I've always liked Humberto Brenes. Don't know why.

History of the Caribbean

So I'm in my Kaplan class last night and they handed out the results of our Diagnostic tests from last week, and lets just say that I have a lot of work to do and plenty of room for improvement. But when I saw what percentile I scored it, it reminded me of a class back in college called History of the Caribbean.

In my Senior year at UM, Jay and I took a history elective called History of the Caribbean. Not too sure why we choose this class, but it started out poorly with our Prof being late to class since he was having Visa problems and couldn't get back into the country. Also, on first day of class, Jay made a stated that "If this asshole pulls down the map and points to the islands and says, this is the Caribbean, I'm leaving." Well the prof pulls down the map and points right at the islands and says "Well, this is the Caribbean." Before he even finished, Jay was up and out of the room, looking back at me and waiting for him to join him. Jay convinced me to come with him with the promise of taco boats and three hours of Doom.

One of the funniest moments in my college career was in this class when we just took the first written exam, and I thought I did OK. 4 questions, and I filled out an entire book. I got my tests back before Jay did, and I'm looking for a score and on the inside of the book, there was the number 3. Jay asked what I got, and I said, I think a 3. Well maybe its out of 4, with each question worth one point. Well while we were having this conversation, the prof stated that the total points on the exam was 30. Jay and I just busted out laughing, and we packed up and went and got more taco boats and played more Doom.

Anyway, I'm hoping that the GMATS will turn out just like the History of the Caribbean class, with a disappointing score at the beginning, with me coming on strong at the end.

Regrets

Would you rather have regrets about the things you have done or things you didn't do?

Vanity Fair

I don't know how many in this audience read Vanity Fair, but I received a subscription for my birthday from relatives. Didn't really know much about VF when I got it, but I have been very pleased. Intelligent, funny, sexy, cosmopolitan, and topical. Anyway, this month's issue is so-so, with features on Martha Stewart post-prison, the Guggenheim in NYC, and something about the chick who runs Jimmy Choo shoes.

However, there is one reason to seek out this month's issue the next time you are at the grocery store, and that is a fantastic article on Elle Macpherson. To be honest, I'm only about halfway through the article, but the pictures are amazing. She is stunning--and not just for a 42-year old. Lohan, Hilton, Aniston, whoever Maxim is featuring this week, you can take 'em all (and trust me, I would). But Macpherson puts them all to shame. If it's possible, she's even better than I remember. I wish I could post some pictures here, but there was nothing online. In the magazine, there are 5-6 pages of pictures that are not to be missed.

DVD Burners

Anyone have any thoughts on what DVD burner to buy? We're having a kid soon, so we just bought a camcorder and will be looking to burn the tapes to DVD. It has to be external to hook up with my laptop, but that's about the only requirement. I was thinking about this Plextor, as cnet seems to like it, but I'm open to ideas. Jay? Brad? Anyone else?

Pittsburgh Life, Part 1

In order to get ready for the upcoming NFL season, I'm starting an infrequent seeries looking at the city of Pittsburgh and its people. I'll be posting articles that show the inspiring, hardworking, and caring side of the citizens of that fine city.

The first article shows how a coach of a T-ball team deals with one of his players being disabled. Very touching and caring.

More to come in the future!

Political Scandals

Eric's rule of thumb is that if a scandal can be well defined to the average person on the street, then it has legs and will cause problems.

When I say...
Watergate?
Iran-Contra?
Monica?

almost everyone can at least explain the scandal in 30 words or less.

The current Karl Rove flap does not fit this criteria. Honestly, I'm trying to understand and view in a non-partisan way, but I just can't wrap my mind around it.

Can anyone explain to me in 30 words or less what the big deal is and why some are asking Karl Rove to resign? This is not a sarcastic request - I admit, I haven't paid attention and would like to know if it is truly a big deal.

Playing Center for the 1989 Sacramento Kings....

The best thing about living in a college town is that you never know what alumni you will see in the news.

Take this aricle, for instance....

No offense, but does this define the word pathetic, or what?

And after re-reading the article, I now realize I know the lawyer/former business partner listed in the article as a fellow tournament golfer.

Need assistance

Up at my old place without an alarm clock. Need a wake up call at 7:00am Pacific. Anyone who reads this tomorrow on the East Coast and can help a brother out, please call me on my cell.

"Watching Billy work is a big part of the joy of being an A's fan in this era. Let's see what's next."

The trade of Bradford for Payton makes no sense on many different levels:

• We had to bring Bradford off the DL, so now we have 26 active players. Someone is going to have to go down to the ML either today or tomorrow morning. Who will it be?
  
• We already have a crowded OF. Keilty, Kotsay, and Swisher with Brynes platooning. Now we add someone else? And this additional person has already been complaining about the lack of playing time.
  
• Bradford was a key part of our bullpen during the last 4 years and it sucks letting him go. I do agree with Blez from Athletics Nation stating that Duke, Street, and Calero are all better than Bradford now, so its not like he was going to be a 7-8-9 inning guy.
  

This is why everyone thinks something big is coming. Duarzo and Brynes to the Yanks is the most common tune I have been hearing recently. Brynes playing CF for the Yanks might be one of the most amazing things to watch, just to see how the crazy the fans would go on every single error he will make.

Once again, this is part of the fun in being an A's fan!!!!

Update: Byrnes and ML SS prospect Quintenella go to the Rockies for Kennedy and Witasick. Now this further hampers our roster situation. Who is going to the minors?

IT Guys

We have been working with an Actuarial Consultant to overhaul a certain portion of our business so that we can get rid of a software product that is costing us $250,000 a month in licensing fees. I have worked closely with the guy and the product is solid. He is an older Indian guy who I surprisingly have a good time when we go out to dinner. He is back out here today for a detailed product presentation to our Capital Appropriation Committee, and he brings this IT guy, who I assume is handling all of the hard programming and server design. Now this guy takes the cake for IT guys. I have actually become accustom to the fat and sloppy IT guys and find that these guys usually have a good personality. This guy on the other hand is dressed in a black suit with brown hush puppies, with his black hair slicked back into a pony tail (think Steve Seagal) with a Native Indian turquoise bracelet to top it off. He also weighs about 120 pounds and has black horned rim glass. He comes off like Phillip Seymour Hoffman in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Now I have to go out to dinner with him and others tonight. This should be entertaining. Should I even attempt to have a normal conversation with him or just go straight to talking to him in binary code. I'm sure we will end up at a strip bar tonight and it will get weird.

Dentist

Went to the Dentist today. Haven't been in 8 years. The Dental Assistant was so unbelievably cute (an easy 10, since I'm a sucker for a girl in any kind of uniform) that when she asked me why I haven't been to the dentist in 8 years, I lied to her and told her I was in Europe and I didn't trust them over there. She seemed to buy into it, but the Dentist didn't. He asked me where I was at in Europe and I said Zurich (since I know some of the information on the town), and he said that they had a better dental system than the states. The DA stayed in the room with us for the entire consultation, which sucked since the Dentist put up pictures (not X-Rays, but pictures) of my 3 cavities and my gums up on a 36 inch TV.

After the consult, the DA took me out to schedule when I'll have all my work completed and she kept on touching my arm and smiling at me, and I made such a bad joke and she couldn't stop laughing at it. So, do you think that I should ask her out on Friday when I go back to the Dentist when I get all my work done?

Quick Thoughts

Hate to write when Eric posts, but I'm stuck up at my old place without a TV or radio, so I have to kill some time before I go to sleep on the floor. Just some quick thoughts from the last several days....

Started up my Kaplan course for my GMATS. Man, why didn't I take this right after school? Jesus, this is going to be tough. I walk into this class at 6:00pm, after only getting 2 hours of sleep the night before, and then spending all day going over our Accident Year Incurreds and see that its me, 6 Asian girls that I swear were my Pai Gow dealers at the Monte last year, and a couple of young Lindsays and Chelsies scattered throughout the class. I'm honestly shocked that these girls are old enough to study for the GMAT. Was called sir twice. No lie. Once by Lindsay who needed to borrow a pen, and once by the freakin teacher. Then realized that we were actually taking the Math and Verbal parts that night. So the math section kicked my ass to my surprise. Out of 37 questions, I only could answer 24, with the only one that I know that I got correct was an algebra equation that I use when I need to know how much money it will cost me on a trifecta box when using 4 horses. Before you start ripping me on this, I was fairly OK in math. Was in honors Math in high school, and did fairly well in Calc in college. I'm a finance major and now oversee $1.6 billion in reserves, and I do a very good job at it, but for the life of me, I could not figure out what to do with fractions over fractions when solving for x. Once I get into the class a little more, I'll post some of the problems. Oh, and the Verbal section was easy.

Was back East last week. Check out the pictures from our game on the Hereford Nine site. Everyone had their cameras out, so I'm a little surprised we only got 4 pictures. Anyway, here are some thoughts I had about this last visit:

• I hate the weather there. Don't know why people put up with the humidity in the summer and then the harsh cold in the winter. I did it for so long and now I'm so confused on why others do. I forgot how it felt to be soaking wet at 8:00am on the putting green.
  
• Friends: I'll elaborate on this more in another section, but I'm extremely lucky to have the friends that I do. I hate going back to MD now because I can't see everyone. I want to spend as much time as I can with my family and everyone, but it is near impossible to see everyone. And if you try, its like you are at work and have a tight schedule to follow. I had a rough couple of days at work and the last thing I wanted was to be flying all over the place. People who I regret not seeing last time home are Chuck, Gene, Ron and Heidi, Kevin, Tim and Todd, and Ray.
  

Opening day at Del Mar tomorrow. Was supposed to meet Ron and his brother out there, but I was called up to LA for meetings which sucks.

Ever come across a picture of your ex that pisses you off so much you just naturally yell out "Fuck that" and have to walk away from it like it poison ivy?

Just dropping this thought out there, but who is up for Vegas in November? Eric and Lee, I'm looking in your direction. Jay????

Golf with Bob Wickman

Golf update:

1) Finished 2 shots out of the money at the Iowa Masters. Rounds of 80-73 put me on the cut line as I advanced on the number, and a Sunday 76 helped me to pass a few players, but I ended up tied for 47th where the top 40 was paid. I guess I should have started the tournament par-double-double.

2) We had the Iowa State Amateur Qualifier on Monday - 49 golfers for 34 spots. With those odds, the strategy is clear - don't make any big numbers, shoot 78 and things should be OK.
So I went into my classic "Pat Buchanan" golfing mode - ultra, ultra conservative - relying on my putting. My strategy for each hole during the round: "Just get me to the green, where I can 2-putt from anywhere". My putter is my Bob Wickman. It's not flashy, but it's effective.
1st hole - hooked drive, 5-iron hook-punch on the green to 70 feet - and Wickman closes the deal with a 2-putt par. The young flat-belly in the group hit driver, 9-iron to 12 feet above the hole, and 3 jacked. A good feeling.

Wickman must have had some bad mexican food before the 3rd hole, where he 4-putted for triple (don't ask) - so then we went into ultra-ultra conservative mode (like Alan Keyes). Every hole my thought was to get to Wickman. Get on the green, and trust the putter.

Bottom line: Wickman was 11-13 in save situations; I shoot 79 and made it by 3. Off to the state Am on July 25-27.

License needed for ATM usage

When you're in a hurry and you have to get money from an ATM - you know what happens next.

The car in front of you is a 1979 Chevy Caprice, loaded with Burger King wrappers and bags in the back;
The lady driving (I'm sorry, but it's true) doesn't pull up close enough to the ATM - she tries about 3 or 4 times, but nope, can't reach the ATM;
She opens her door to use the ATM, but then realizes she can't find her card;
She mis-punches the buttons once (usually twice) and has to re-enter the code again and again...

and so on. A 30 second that operation takes 5 minutes, a precious 5 minutes when it's 4:15 and you are trying to make a 4:19 tee time.

Banks need to hand out ATM cards like driver's licenses. You need to take a driving test to use one. If you can
- use the ATM with your doors shut
- find your card within 15 seconds
- enter in the type of transaction, PIN, and amount in 30 seconds,
- go from withdrawal of money to engaging the car in "drive" in 30 seconds

then you get a card. If not - too bad. Go inside and do your business.

Bathroom Reads

Top Ten Bathroom reads.

1. Bill Simmons Article: Used to be the highlight of my day when he was turning out top notch articles, but now he is slipping and I usually end up getting pissed off if he is writing about baseball. But those legendary 10 page articles back in 1998-2000 were legendary.
2. Peter Gammons Article: Still solid stuff for a quick bathroom read, even if 90% of the stuff is false.
3. Tony Kornheiser-I'm back for more Cash: Used to love his articles at work, but his book is a standard in my bathroom. My legs have gone numb because I can't put down his book.
4. Oakland A's-2004 Guide: Great in depth bios on every single A's player all the way down to the rookie league. Also includes every trade ever made. Never gets old for me.
5. 2000 USA Today Baseball Year in Review: Nothing like combing over the stats 5 years ago and realizing that Greg Vaughn was one of the highest paid players that year. Great College and High School section, which is great to read to see if any of the top players made it to the big leagues.
6. Howard Stern-Private Parts: Perfect for your home bathroom. Quick and funny stories.
7. HardballTimes: This site might of been created for the business man's morning bathroom break. At least two new articles per morning, plus a recap on all the stats from the prior day. Printing out these articles in the morning is right behind getting coffee and putting on a new patch.
8. SuperSystem: I make sure that I brush up on this book at least once to twice a week. Keeps everything fresh in your head pertaining to poker.
9. World Almanac: I still haven't finished the 2003 version. Provides an insane amount of useless information.
10. Peter King: This was part of my Monday morning ritual, but now that I can't print out the entire article at once, I am now boycotting this site.

Brett Boone's a bitch

A couple of thoughts after a stressful move, but then a relaxing weekend at the beach with no TV.

I've always hated Brett Boone with a passion. Maybe it was the short sleeves with the bulging biceps, or it was the roid use, or it was the fucking bat flips after his home runs. He is my single most hated player. Paul Katcher, who I have been quoting a lot recently, sums up his retirement speech: "There's something about a grown man with frosted hair crying his eyes out that screams hilarity." Once again I hate him and I'm glad he is gone.

Also, there is nothing quite like living at the beach and working from home. Waking up on a work day, and instead of commuting to work, you go for a run on the beach puts a lot of things in perspective. Despite the beach, I'll discuss the major issues with Orange County later this week.

Trade Rumors

Eventhough I think that Gammons should be writing for the National Enquirer and not ESPN, his trade rumor involving the Sox and the A's make sense. Payton for either Rincon or Bradford. With the A's recent issues with resigning Kotsay, I could see us grabbing Payton for CF and then moving Kotsay to the Yanks for Wang and company. No one on the A's right now, either on the team or in AAA, can play center, so this trade does make sense. I like Bradford, but he is starting to show signs of age, and I have always disliked Rincon.

Hard Rock / Palms Review

Hard Rock / Palms

While I've been to the Hard Rock numerous times, I've never been to the Palms. But in true Mitch Albom style, I'm going to just make up everything about the Palm. No, actually I'm only going to talk about the HRH, but I feel like they are the same type of hotel so anything about the HRH applies pretty closely to the Palms.

-The Scene
Clearly, the Hard Rock's strong point and will be addressed by the two major categories: celebrities and non-celebrities (the unwashed masses).

Non-celebs: There are few better places to go when it comes to amazingly hot chicks. It's funny, because you can tell that even the straight-laced chicks get a little crazy/slutty when they come here. Probably one of the best places to stand is in line for the bathroom where you can just watch the ladies walk by. The HRH is known around the country as THE place to go for a bachelor/bachelorette party and it shows. The amount of skin showing on the average Friday/Saturday night would make Hugh Hefner blush. (OK, that's a stretch, but you get the idea.)

Celebs: Recently known as where Paris & Nicole Hilton stay when they are on the strip. I was recently out there for a bachelor party and a friend was moved from his suite because it was Nicky's birthday party and they had reserved the entire floor. Of course, not all celebs are the same. During the same weekend, I saw Frankie Muniz (Malcolm, of Malcolm in the Middle fame) at the pool. All I can say is: worst...entourage...ever.

-The Gaming
Gaming at the HRH is generally hated amongst gamblers. The people are too stupid, too drunk and too busy fixing their hair (and that's just the guys). The gaming floor is 75% blackjack because the people here are generally too stupid to figure out anything else. You want a guy to stand on 14 against the dealer's face card? The HRH is the place for you. You want a chick to hit on 17 because she had a "hunch"? We got 'em lined up. If you get on a good roll in craps it can be hard to sustain because everyone's too stupid to know what to bet on and how to get their bets in on time.
However, because the clientele are limited when it comes to gaming, there opportunity for comps are better. While I'm sure that the HRH gets it' share of bigger players, most of the people who I know believe that they receive better treatment here than they would otherwise receive. That and they generally have better things to offer. The friend who had his room moved to accommodate Nicky's birthday bash received VIP entry and a table at her birthday party for four people. That's something that you're not going to get at the "All Suites" Rio...

-The Dealers
Usually young and good looking. Sometimes they even know what they are doing. Usually I spend almost as much energy watching them to make sure they don't make mistakes as I do with anything else. Not why I'm there.

-Sports Book
Almost non-existent. It's probably about the same size as the gift shop, but has less TVs. Again, not one of my favorite aspects of the HRH.

-Other (Pool, Shows, Clubs, etc)
The other strong point of the HRH. As I mentioned in the Mirage post, the HRH stocks it's pool with strippers and models. They often fly out from LA on the weekends to stay at the HRH and work at the various "gentlemen's clubs". They actually have something that looks like an elevated bed that are reserved for these "ladies" that serves to put them up for public viewing. I'd like to personally thank whoever was responsible for that one.

The HRH has a couple of clubs and restaurants, all of which are above average in my opinion. Mr. Lucky's, the 24-hr eats place is exactly what you need in a place like this. California-style diner food, it's great for 4am "dining". Nobu, the Vegas branch of the NYC sushi place is just as good as it's east coast companion (from what I hear) and similarly as expensive (typically ~$250/person). There is the compulsory steak house, the Italian place, and the casual Tex-Mex place (Pink Taco). All are acceptable, if not memorable.

The clubs are pretty good as well. The HRH gets pretty good acts to come through to it's club, The Joint. Notables include Metallica, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, David Bowie, Erykah Badu, Kid Rock, and others. It holds 1,400 and often spills out onto the main gaming floor.

In summary, the HRH hits what it's aiming for. If you are looking for the party scene, there are few better places. If you are looking to gamble, there are few worse.


NEXT EPISODE: Monte Carlo and New York, New York

Corrupting your child with bad music

So I'm taking Freddie home from pre-school, and I have Sirius 7 on - the 70s. I start singing "Rock the Boat" and try to get him to sing along. He's heard this song before.

Well, instead of singing, he asks in all seriousness:

"When are they going to play "Burn, Baby, Burn", Dad?"

(Of course, that's not the name of the song - but I would guess that most of you know what it is: "Disco Inferno")

All right! No Pink, or P Diddy, or even Christina for my boy. He's learning the classics!

Golf Update

1. Off to Ames we go for the 68th Iowa Masters. Scoring updates should be found here.

2. What's the difference between Iowa and Ohio?
Qualifiers for the Ohio State Amateur tournament: around 80 poeple for 20 spots
Qualifiers for the Iowa State Amateur tornament: 50 people for 35 spots
Qualifier is Monday.

3. A friend of mine at the plant has a son who plays golf collegiately. Well, he did qualify for the US Amatuer Public Links next week , and they're off to Cincinnati to face off with Michelle Wie and the others. Jordan Dye is his name,and he tees off at 1:20, I believe, on Monday, and live updates can be found at usapl.org

Wrinkles and Flapjacks

Why is all the good soft porn on Cinemax? Showtime and The Movie Channel have 80s porn while HBO is putting out just some God awful shit. First they had Real Sex, and then teased us with G-String Divas, and no there is Cathouse? I know I like crap TV, but 45-60 year old women talking about masterbation should not be on TV at anytime of the day.

Which brings me to another question? When is the cut-off age for women wearing lingerie? Jon went with 35 years old, while I went in the other direction at 65. I'm a big fan of the old lady cleavage.

Who am I? Why am I here?

Please join me in a moment of silence in remembering a true American who passed away this week, Adm. James Stockdale. Adm. Stockdale was 81.

Most people of our age remember his as Ross Perot's runnng mate in 1992. Those of us who supported Perot were honored that a true patriot like Adm. Stockdale would join the ticket.

His performance in that debate with Al Gore and Dan Quayle was surely not polished, but it offered a glimpse into a clear-thinking and unpretnetious mind - two traits sorely lacking in today's politics. Aside from the cringe-inducing first 2 minutes, Adm. Stockdale's best moment was when the moderator (Brokaw?) asked about his stance on abortion. He had 90 seconds for his answer

"I believe in a woman's right to choose. Period."

He stopped talking, and this stunned Brokaw. "Uh, anything else you want to add, Adm. Stockdale?"

"No."

It was refreshing to hear political candidates answer a question and aviod turning a question about the national debt into foriegn policy, or jobs, or character.

So - if you are drinking this weekend, raise your glass and proclaim proudly: "Who am I? Why am I here?" in honor of the man who should have been our 45th Vice President.

Need your opinion

If the fertilizer bag says "Apply in late Spring - April to June", and the bag is still sitting in your garage on July 7 - would it do any good to apply it now?

I mean, this is Iowa - it's practically Canada! So early July could be considered late Spring....

Coors Field

Is it just me or is the obvious answer to this question, move the fences back? Why bother with all of this other analysis? If you are hitting 10% more homers at home, then move the fences back by 10%. Am I overlooking anything here? Then just get a speedy outfield of Alex Cole, Brian McRae, and Luis Polonia and all your problems are solved.

Finally.....

With the impending move and my agreement with my boss to be up in LA 3 days a week, I will be getting Tivo and XM Radio. Tough decision on XM over Sirus, but baseball overrules football and Stern.

UM Football

Looks like the Terps grabbed a solid QB for next year out of PA. According to some sources he is the number one QB in the nation. The below source only rates him a 3 star prospect.


http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=15&p=8&c=1&nid=1578730

Moving Sucks

Ugh. I can't wait to finally get down to the OC and relax. I have a bunch of shit to post about my trip back to Baltimore and the A's finally hitting .500, but it will have to wait until this weekend. If you are bored, the final part of the Beane interview has been posted on Athletics Nation and Hardballtimes has a couple of good articles today as well.

What would you do?

If you are in a rest area, and there is one of those "family bathrooms", and inside you hear a 4-year old screaming at the top of his lungs - "NEVER!!!", and two adults are in there trying to shush him up, well, what would you do?

I'm glad no one called the police on us. Freddie hates those automatic flushing toilets - so much so that he refused to go on them. Of course, the one rest area we pull into has nothing but the automatic toilets.

We get him on there - Janice holding one arm and trying to swat Warren away, and me holding the other arm and holding the sensor so that it doesn't flush. Of course, my hand slips and I hit the manual flush button as Freddie is still on the toilet.

"FWOOSH!!!" .... "AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

We try to get him back on there - that's the "NEVER" part. After about 3-4 minutes, we calm him down and he goes.

When we opened the door, I expected to see 3 state troopers there. But gladly no one was waiting outside with handcuffs.

I Hate Best Buy

How come whenever I'm there just browsing around, 7 salespeople all come up to me, breathlessly saying: "Can I help you find anything? Anything? I'm here to help!"

And yet when I need something I can't find, no one is to be found - and they seem to actively turn away as you approach them.

And then there is the guy at the register... making small talk with me. "Hi there! Speakers, huh? Going to play some tunes on your PC?"

No, dipwad, this is so I can hear Elmo when my kids play games.

He's acting like he wants to be my best friend, making all that conversation. He then tries to sell me on those 2-year warranties. Yeah, like I want a 2-year warranty for my cheap $29 pair of speakers.

More incessant talking. Then, of course, he asks for my phone number. That's just creepy.

I want to take a shower when I leave that place.