Friday, October 20, 2006

Weekly Picks

Looking to rebound from my worst week ever. I went 1-3 and had the aura of invincibility surrounding the Bears shattered. For the season my record stands at 7-5 which is subpar but still a 58.3 winning percentage. Good but not good enough. On the bright side, the competition did worse, Adam and Harley are still tied for second, but only 2 points back of the leader.

HOUSTON TEXANS +9.5 jacksonville jaguars
The Texans are really bad even though they have some weapons and the Jags haven't really been great. But it seems like this season road teams have done well and I never buy into home/road crap anyway, so I'll take Jacksonville and hope they think they're playing the Jets again.

MIAMI DOLPHINS -4.5 green bay packers
I make this pick for only one reason. The Dolphins have yet to cover a spread this season. I don't see that lasting all season so I'll pick Miami.

DALLAS COWBOYS -3.5 new york giants
Like the Bonnie Situation in "Pulp Fiction" you need to appreciate just how delicate this T.O. Situation really is. Sure he's happy now that he caught 3 touchdown passes. But what happens if things aren't going well? Will he throw another fit on the sidelines and demand the ball? Also Bledsoe is inconsistent, which means bad week (against the Eagles), good week (against Houston), so he's due for a bad weak. And the Giants are pretty good.

Recapping the Season

Lots of Mets coverage at the Happy Recap today.

Game 7 Recap

An explanation of why the Mets lost the NLCS

A brief word about the Cardinals

A recap of the 2006 season

There's hope for the future

Devastation

There are no words to express how badly I feel right now. I won't bother to dissect the game until the morning. That will do no good. I just can't believe it's over.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Skyrocketing in Value

I think the going rate of my 2004 Bowman Futures Game Gear Game Worn Jersey John Maine card just doubled.

It All Comes Down to This

Game 7. The most exciting two words in sports. Time for Oliver Perez to step up. I don't disagree with Willie's decision here. He has the best chance to be lights out, and if not, he'll be on a short leash and the other Oliver will come in. I think we could even see Tom Glavine for an inning. I do think our best hope is to pound Suppan and give Perez another 12 runs to work with.

I do not want this season to end here. There are two World Series tickets magneted to my refrigerator and I want to use them.

Let's Go Mets!!!!!!!!!!
Let's Go Mets!!!!!!!!!!

Really Fuckin Happy

On my way home from Shea I called SCZA, here is a rough transcript of our conversation:

Post-game highlight was both the message and phone conversation I had with Paul. He was so happy he literally said "fuck" every other word. It was brilliant. "Maine was fucking awesome, Reyes fucking tore this place up, Wagner fucking sucks!" Quite possibly the best use of profanity since Dice Man in his prime. Paul, keep on swearing, we need the karma! Lets go Mets!

Thank You Adrenal Glands

Despite getting home at 1 am, and waking up at 3 am, I don't feel the least bit tired. Somewhere in my back, just above my kidneys, sit two very overworked adrenaline factories. I hope to give the boys a rest this afternoon but put them back to work at about 8pm tonight.

The Curse of the Concierge -- Broken

The Mets' Game 6 victory broke the Curse of the Concierge.

Like Dante, I wasn't even supposed to be here today. I got a text from Nails and an e-mail from Reissberg at around 1 saying "Jay Leary is angry, Matt Focks doesn't have a clean blazer, we have an extra ticket, can you go to the game?"

I was conflicted but I decided to go. I took a nap, bought a sandwich from Subway (3-0 when buying a Subway sandwich before the game, 0-1 when not), got to Shea by 5:30, parked in the main lot and went to sleep.

Woke up at 7 to meet Reissberg. But where were Nails and The Concierge? They had train problems and were delayed by 30 minutes. That meant 3 more beers for each of them. The Concierge was out of control screaming.

After Reyes homered, the Concierge knocked a beer out of Nails' hands. The beer cup landed flat, but the beer splashed everywhere.

Things continued at this level of hyperactivity until the 7th inning. I did something I never do, and it set off a chain reaction of events. When Mota was coming in to face Duncan I dashed to the bathroom. I got in and out of the pisser quickly and was in the aisle right when the Mets turned 2. The Concierge was so pumped up he sprinted up the stairs and into our row. For some reason, he decided to run on the seats of the chairs of the row in front of us. He took a bad step on the end of a chair, and it collapsed. His leg was trapped. About five people tried to yank him up but he curled into a little ball. I thought he was really hurt, but he emerged, holding his shoe in one hand.

When we got back to our seats we noticed there was considerable bruisin' and swellin'. The Concierge was so not gellin'. Nails went to get him ice, but was refused by the ice nazis who wanted to make him pay for the cup.

At some point during all this, The Concierge also broke his chair.

When Lo Duca singled in the bottom of the inning I think his pain went away, because we all went nuts. We spent the last two innings on pins and needles until Wagner got the last out. We were huddled together hoping we could somehow help Wagner not suck so much. The crowd on the way out was awesome. People were hugging and high fiving and honking their horns. A great spectacle.

I was proud to be there.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

He's a Douche

Billionaire Steve Wynn had just sold a Picasso to fellow billionaire Steve Cohen for $139 million. But it was still in his office and he was showing it off to some friends including poet Nora Ephron. Then his elbow went through it. He cried "oh shit!" He just ruined a $139 million dollar painting, obviously the deal to sell it is off.

All We Need is a Miracle

The last time the Mets played a Game 6 in Shea Stadium a ball rolled through Bill Buckner's legs. I think the Mets will need a similar miracle to beat the Cardinals. The Mets just don't have any pitching. In 8 postseason games the starter made it through the 5th inning only 3 times. I have zero confidence in Maine against Carpenter and even less in whomever will pitch Game 7.
If you believe the Mets have a 50/50 shot in each of the two games, then they have a 25% chance to win them both. So I would say the Mets have about a 10% chance to make it to the World Series at this point.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Fired Unfairly

Fox analyst Steve Lyons was unjustly canned for his remarks about Lou Piniella. Piniella first compared good play from an unexpected source like "finding a wallet."
Later when Piniella used the expression "en fuego" and "frio" Lyons said Piniella was "hablaing some espanol there and I'm still looking for my wallet. I don't understand him and I don't want to sit close to him now."

There was no connection made between the speaking Spanish and the wallet. This firing was bullshit.

Here is the only youtube clip of the incident, with the comments at about 40 seconds.

Fired Fairly

Former Miami player Lamar Thomas lost his TV analyst job Monday over comments he made during a sideline-clearing brawl involving the Hurricanes and Florida International.

"Now, that's what I'm talking about," Thomas said as the brawl raged out of control. "You come into our house, you should get your behind kicked. You don't come into the OB [Orange Bowl] playing that stuff. You're across the ocean over there. You're across the city. You can't come over to our place talking noise like that. You'll get your butt beat. I was about to go down the elevator to get in that thing. I say, why don't they just meet outside in the tunnel after the ball game and get it on some more? You don't come into the OB, baby. We've had a down couple years but you don't come in here talking smack. Not in our house."

These comments are disgraceful. It just shows the attitude at the University of Miami. What a bunch of thugs. His partner was totally baffled by his remarks. He wanted to say the fight was out of control, but he couldn't respond when Thomas was saying crap like this.

300 Million

Everyone is making a big deal of the fact the 300 millionth American was born or snuck over the border this morning. It's worth mentioning that the country has crossed that population barrier, but trying to find the baby and calling him or her #300 million is ridiculous. The estimates are based on averages, which cannot be extrapolated to pinpoint a moment or person. Regardless, there are some interesting population related stats:

-According to the Census Bureau, there is one birth in the United States every seven seconds and one death every 13 seconds.

-In 1915, immigrant citizens came mostly from Germany; in 1967 from Italy; and in 2006 mostly from Mexico

-Average US family had 4.5 people in 1915, 3.3 in 1967 and 2.6 in 2006.

-Some 45.9% of Americans were property owners in 1915. That grew to 63.6% in 1967 and reached 68.9% in 2006

-There were 4.5 million people aged 65 and older in 1915, or 4.5%; 19.1 million in 1967 (9.5%) and 36.8 million in 2006 (12.4%)

-Life expectancy was 54.5 years in 1915, 70.5 years in 1967 and 77.8 years in 2006

-About 23% of women were in the work force in 1915, compared to 41% in 1967 and 58% in 2006

-There were 2.5 million cars in 1915, 98.9 million in 1967 and 237.2 million in 2006

-John and Mary topped the list of most popular names in 1915; Michael and Lisa were favourites in 1967; and Jacob and Emily were preferred in 2006.

-The population grows by one international immigrant every 31 seconds.

-Population grows by one person every 11 seconds.

-Density 84 people per square mile in the United States

-U.S. population is expected to top 400 million in 2043.

-When the U.S. population officially hit 200 million in 1967, President Johnson held a news conference at the Commerce Department to hail America’s past and to talk about the challenges ahead.

As Seen on CNN

CNN's Andy Serwer gets crushed by a beer can.

Warming Up to Scar.Jo

I have never been a big fan of Scarlett Johansson but her photo spread in the upcoming issue of Allure Magazine may make me change my mind. In the accompanying interview she says she has a good relationship with her boyfriend, Josh Hartnett and "Contrary to popular belief, I'm not promiscuous. There does seem to be a mistaken belief out there that I am sexually available somehow — which is not to say that I'm not open-minded about sex. Yet I wouldn't say I'm a serial monogamist, either. I mean, I went through periods of time when I was, ah, single. But when I'm in a relationship, I'm in a relationship."
"I do think on some basic level we are animals, and by instinct we kind of breed accordingly. But as much as I believe that, I work really hard when I'm in a relationship to make it work in a monogamous way."
"I get tested for HIV twice a year. ... One has to be socially aware," she says. "It's part of being a decent human, to be tested for STDs. It's just disgusting behavior when people don't. It's just so irresponsible."



The picture is poor quality, but she definitely isn't

Bullet "Into" Fabolous

Rapper Fabolous was shot early Tuesday as he stood at a Manhattan parking garage, spurring a sequence of events that left him hospitalized in stable condition and under arrest, police said.
The rapper, whose legal name is John Jackson, was shot once in the thigh when a male with a gun approached him and three others and opened fire, police spokesman Sgt. Mike Wysokowski said.
The foursome jumped into a vehicle and fled, attracting the attention of police, who stopped them and discovered two guns in the vehicle, both of which were apparently unlicensed, Wysokowski said. All four men were arrested, and charges were pending.
The Brooklyn native was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was in stable condition, Wysokowski said. Police were searching for the shooter.
The popular rapper's hits have included, "Breathe" and "Can't Deny It," and his songs cover topics ranging from romance to street life and violence. He most recently took part in the taping of the VH1 Hip Hop Honors, which were to air Tuesday evening.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Flat Hat

Mrs. Poop finally watched a playoff game with me (I had been at most of them) and was struck by the fact that Anthony Reyes irons the bill of his hat. She did not like that look one bit.



She also made some disparaging remarks about Tony LaRussa. But when I reminded her that his dog recently died and that he started ARF (Animal Rescue Foundation) she changed her mind. "I take that back, I don't want to shove his glasses up his ass.

Reality TV At It's Worst

Tuesday night at 10pm on MTV, "True Life: I'm a Staten Island Girl."

I am really scared to see this. It might just be too real. I also hope this doesn't lead to a trend. Girls in small rural towns in the South and Midwest will see this and thing Staten Island is so cool, and idolize Staten Island girls, and dress like them, and talk like them, and tan every day like them. I can only see this leading to bad things.

Fresh and Hot at the Pizza Parlor

Pizza Parlor Derek may finally have figured it out. He has been posting fairly consistently and only a little late.

Derek detailed his trip back to SU for homecoming. Darwin's has gone downhill.

He didn't really like The Office episode in which Dwight turned on Michael. He did miss a very funny line, when the crazy guy in Jim's new office called him a saboteur. He also couldn't identify Jim's new love interest as Rashida Jones, the annoying secretary from "Boston Public."

The latest PPI has a funny picture, but a change at the top is in store when a PPI comes out Wednesday.

And Derek says good things are in store for SU basketball this season.

Stay Classy Miami

As always, the most disgusting group of inviduals not incarcerated plays football for the University of Miami. Watch this brawl between Miami and Florida International. Pay attention to the Miami guys who are swinging their helmets and stomping on players while they are down.

Growing Old

Some events this weekend have made me come to believe that I am growing up and maturing, which reminded me of my second favorite Outkast song (spottieottie doesn't make sense in this context) which reminded me of the season and foliage we saw while driving, which inspired this post. Enjoy!

"trees bright and green turn yellow brown
autumn leaves must fall down
growin old"

Bill is engaged. For some reason this hurts more than my own, probably because the number of single friends I have is dwindling rapidly.

Bill's sister, who as a toddler ran into our apartment, yelled "Billy!" and gave him a huge hug is fully grown and like 5-foot-5, but Alison insists she's only 10.

I actually reached an agreement with Jeff, in which we were able to watch the Mets-Cardinals and Penn State-Michigan games in a mutually advantageous fashion.

I am actually going to give Jeff credit. Before the PSU game he said he was taking the under because it seemed "like a 17-10 game." And indeed it was. Good job, Horse. Oh wait, Horse is dead.

I didn't curse at the Mets until I was sure no kids were around.

I didn't make fun of Matt's blazer. At least not to his face.

I really was screaming in excitement for the cocktail shaker, not Magglio Ordonez' walkoff home run.

I only ate 3 pieces of cake.

I drank coffee. Ok, it wasn't coffee it was beer. But it was in a coffee pot.

But the biggest sign that I am growing up:
I avoided a potential reprise of the infamous "Rudy Galindo is straight" incident. I was talking with Alison's dad about the 1969-1970 sports scene in New York. We discussed the Knicks and Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals. He described Willis limping onto the court. I said he made 2 baskets and didn't score again. He said "no, 3 baskets." Of course, I was right and he scored only 2 baskets (scroll way down). But I didn't press the issue because I'm more mature than that now.


But I do have some growing to do.
After the Mets lost, double barreled beer pong action broke out. Alison claimed she was better than me so I challenged her to a 1-on-1 best of 3. If she won once, I'd admit forever she was better than me. If I won all 3, she had to admit I'm better than her, and let me play with Bill any time she is his partner. I tried to intimidate Alison in Game 1 by overfilling my cups and hoping I would win quickly and spread it out. That didn't happen. She got me down to 1 cup before I beat her. Then I knew I had to get tough so I stepped up the trash talking. I dominated Game 2, but faced another stern test in Game 3. We were down to cup v. cup but once again I came through. But I was so focused I forgot one thing. It was Alison's engagement party. All her family was there. And I was screaming at her. So now they all hate me, despite my protestations that Title IX says beer pong is a gender equity game and men and women compete evenly. Anyway, I guess I'm not that mature yet. But there's still 10 months to the wedding.

Rooting for a Rainout

There seems to be a split among Mets fans about whether the Mets would be better off if tonight's game was rained out. The forecast calls for rain all day in St. Louis.

The only reason you could say the Mets don't need a rainout is because of momentum. But momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher. And the next day's starting pitcher (Tom Glavine) would be better off pitching on his normal rest.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

The Curse of The Concierge

For all his bragging and calling me a mush, in my career I am 4-2 in the playoffs, but 0-2 when I am with the Concierge.

He was going crazy from the outset, pounding me on the arms when Delgado homered, and choking me when the Mets scored again. We almost came to blows when he blamed me for causing Maine to lose his control. When Delgado homered again to break the tie he wildly jumped causing a domino effect that nearly knocked over my father and my father-in-law. Suffice it to say he was out of control.

But he wasn't the only Met fan out of control. After the game a black woman and a white man engaged in a verbal argument. She called him a fat bastard at least 50 times. On time number 51 he said "I'm not a bastard, I know who my daddy is, do you?" Then he found a beer bottle and spilled it on her head. At that point she reached into her pocket and led everyone to believe she had a knife. The guy was freaking out and he shoved her and ran away. The funny thing is, if the Mets had won, those same to fans would have been hugging and high fiving. But that's what happens when you spend four hours on a cold night in a stadium on Friday the 13th.