The Matt Harvey Mess

"Pitchers recovering from Tommy John surgery should limit innings to 180-185." - Dr. James Andrews, the man who invented Tommy John surgery "Pitchers recovering from Tommy John surgery should shut up and act like a man.' - Asshole Sports Radio Caller


Whom would you listen to?

Matt Harvey is doing exactly the right thing here for his own future and the future of the franchise. He's not being greedy or selfish, and even if he were, can you blame him? Stay healthy and pretty much assure yourself a huge contract or ignore doctor's advice and risk not only all that money but also everything you've worked for your entire life.

Now there are a couple problems here, but I don't know exactly who deserves how much of the blame.
First of all, why wasn't a clear and coherent plan made from spring training? Were the Mets expecting to be out of it by September at which point they could just shut him down? Was Harvey suddenly feeling tired and asking for time off?
We'll probably never know but I would suspect the Mets are more worthy of blame than Harvey.

And those idiotic Mets fans who want him traded are exactly the fans I fear the team is listening to when doing or almost doing things like signing Cuddyer or trading Flores and Wheeler for Carlos Gomez.

Matt Harvey is the centerpiece of what could be one of the greatest rotations we've seen in a long time, if they stay health and stay together.
The Mets need to do everything they can to protect him even if it means lessening their chances to win a few regular season games.

But come playoff time I think Harvey and the Mets would be willing to take their chances and push themselves 15-20 innings past the doctor prescribed limit, if that's ok with all the doctors in the stands at CitiField.

2015 NFL Season Predictions

AFC East: New England Patriots
AFC North: Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC South: Indianapolis Colts
AFC West: Denver Broncos
AFC Wild Cards: Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens

AFC Championship: Indianapolis over New England

NFC East: Philadelphia Eagles
NFC North: Green Bay Packers
NFC South: Atlanta Falcons
NFC West: Seattle Seahawks
NFC Wild Cards: St. Louis Rams, Minnesota Vikings

NFC Championship: Green Bay over Philadelphia

Super Bowl: Indianapolis over Green Bay

Off. Player of the Year: Andrew Luck
Def. Player of the Year: JJ Watt
Off. Rookie of the Year: Melvin Gordon
Def. Rookie of the Year: Randy Gregory
Coach of the Year: Mike Zimmer
Comeback Player of the Year: Sam bradford

The Old Dog's Still Got It

I hope I'm this spry when I'm 77.

Song of the Week

"Get Right Back To My Baby" - Vivian Green
Excellent use of a sample from "Before I Let Go" (SOTW, 3/21/12) by Frankie Beverly and Maze.
Plus I don't remember Vivian looking this good in her previous videos.

Another Redskins Embarrassment

The city of Washington took a break from obsessing over the future of RGIII (at this point he has none) for some good old gossip.
Here's what happened, Jessica McCloughan, the wife of GM Scott McCloughan

sent a couple nasty messages to a local reporter, Dianna Russini, on Twitter.

She asked Russini how many blow jobs she gave to get a story

And she accused Russini of sleeping with her husband.

The Redskins made her apologize, which she did, but a family member said she has been long suspicious of an affair between her husband and Russini.

Have You Ever Loved Something This Much?

Through various TV shows and stuff Jules has become quite interested in Star Wars and I showed them "A New Hope" and they loved it.
Since then, the countdown has been on for the new movie.

I took the kids to a special Star Wars event at the Disney Store. It was quite cool. The taught the kids to use Jedi Mind tricks to trick a storm trooper, and eventually they received the Medal of Bravery from the Galactic Republic.

Note: I did my parental duty and reminded them of the racial injustice that denied Chewbacca his rightful medal.

After that, they learned to draw R2-D2 (neither of them follows in my artistic footsteps) and were given a cardboard 3-d puzzle of Artoo (which was very difficult to put together).

It was quite cool to be let into the mall an hour early for this special event (mainly because we got a good parking spot), but the real goal was to get the big shoppers into the store.

Ever since we saw the first trailer for "The Force Awakens" Julian loved BB-8, the roly poly new droid, though he kept calling him "BBQ."
He said he liked him "because he's cute like me!"

So I bought him a stuffed action figure, and bought Chase the figurine set.

And for the rest of the day he carried around this little BB-8 everywhere saying "I'm obsessed with him."

And then when Mrs. Poop went to check on him during the night, this is what she saw.

I wish I could get back to those innocent days of childhood when a ten dollar toy provided so much joy and happiness that I couldn't bear to be away from it, not even for a second, not even while sleeping.

Incidentally the other BB-8 we saw while we were in the store was fuckin awesome.

It's very similar to a remote control car, except you use an app through your phone to move it around the house. And it does cool things like create a map of your house based on things it runs into, including you. And it can even play messages hologram style, I think.

Read the review to understand more.

Only problems: it costs $150, and Julian would want to sleep with it in his bed.

3000 Cars

This is the fleet of cars required for Saudi Arabia's King Salman's visit to Washington:

Another Hit To Personal Responsibility

The New England Patriots' balls were deflated in the AFC Championship game. It is almost certain that this was due to purposeful actions by members of organization. And it's hard to envision any scenario in which someone would do something like that without at the very least, being sure Tom Brady would want it that way.

The problem here with Roger Goodell is that he tried to make a statement. Instead of enforcing the penalties on the books for such an offense, he went way beyond what was collectively bargained (perhaps to dispel criticism that he is too hard on black players, perhaps because of negative publicity when he went with the defined punishment for Ray Rice) and a judge ruled he didn't have the authority to do so.

Yet somehow, Tom Brady is escaping this scot-free even though any sane person has to believe he at least "generally aware" of the plot to deflate the balls, and likely more involved in that.

Which once again reinforces the preferred attitude when doing something wrong: deny it, cover it up and when you get caught, blame the person who caught you for being overzealous. Worked for Bill Clinton.

Song of the Week

"Day One" - Tamia
"If I could do it all again I would
Give me the bad days along with the good
My heart is even more in love
Then it was on day one"

What Do You Give Me For? Harris Faulkner and Harris Faulkner, The Hamster

Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner is suing Hasbro for using her name for her a hamster in its Littlest Pet Shop series of toys.
"Hasbro's portrayal of Faulkner as a rodent is demeaning and insulting," says the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.
Her lawsuit says that in addition to sharing her name, the toy bears a physical resemblance to Faulkner's traditional professional appearance, including its complexion, eye shape and eye makeup design.

I don't agree that it looks like her, but no way should Hasbro have used her the exact name of a public figure. She doesn't deserve $5M for this but Hasbro should have known better.

Money Can't Buy Happiness

Maybe I'm going soft in my old age but I actually feel sorry for Markus Persson, the guy who created Minecraft, sold it and pocketed roughly a billion dollars in the process.
Persson, known as Notch to cool people like me, recently tweeted a series of unhappy thoughts about life as a famous billionaire.
"The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance.
Hanging out in ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I've never felt more isolated.
In sweden, I will sit around and wait for my friends with jobs and families to have time to do shit, watching my reflection in the monitor.
When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of, and they all hate me now.
Found a great girl, but she's afraid of me and my life style and went with a normal person instead.
I would Musk and try to save the world, but that just exposes me to the same type of assholes that made me sell Minecraft again."

Half the internet thinks he is clinically depressed and needs medication and talk therapy. The other half thinks he's a whiny little baby who should shut up and realize how good he has it.

But on my little corner of the internet I think he's just a guy going through some things that he doesn't know how to process.
He probably never wanted to sell Mojang (Minecraft), but did so because it would greatly enrich his partners, investors and employees.
He's just lacking direction and purpose in his life right now.
He probably has a great time at these fancy parties and hanging out with his cool famous friends (Zedd tweeted at him and invited him to his show when he plays LA next month) but when he's at home and his friends are busy with work and family, he gets lonely and feels isolated. And in this case he decided to let it out.

This is Markus Persson's house. He paid 70 million dollars for it.

But I think we need to remember that in life you need a certain amount of money to live a comfortable life. But once you have food and shelter covered, and some money to buy stuff and go on vacation, each additional dollar like has a very small incremental impact on your happiness.

So I do feel for Notch, and hope that he can find something to fulfill him, give him worth and help him make meaningful personal relationships.

Song of the Week

"Made for You" - Alexander Cardinale
"there's not much that I know
been searchin' high and low
but one thing that is true
darling I was made for you"

Somewhere In Japan There is a Very Disappointed Teenage Boy

You may have heard the recent news that One Direction is breaking up. Maybe for only a brief time but I don't want to Google it to confirm.
Either way it has to come as shock to Nagiru Hiramatsu.
Two years ago when competing in the Little League World Series Hiramatsu told ESPN his favorite singer was One Direction.

Only problem is, between his accent and an idiot ESPN producer, it came out as Wandai Wrection.

Three Things You May Not Have Known About Body by Jake

Remember "Body by Jake" the 1990s fitness show? Well, Jake, whose real last name is Steinfeld, has had an interesting life.

Here are three things you might not have known about him:

1) He was the cab driver who picked up Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall in "Coming to America"



2) He founded Major League Lacrosse

3) His niece, Hailee Steinfeld is an actress and pop star and her song "Love Myself" is blowing up big right now



Bonus thing you may not have known: the song is about masturbation.

Here's a sampling of the lyrics:

"When I get chills at night
I feel it deep inside without you, yeah
Know how to satisfy"

"I'm gonna touch the pain away
I know how to scream my own name"

"I'll take it nice and slow
Feeling good on my phone without you, yeah"

"The beautiful, it comes without you"

"I'm gonna put my body first
And love me so hard 'til it hurts"

Family Swims in a Backyard Pool

Did I mention it was a family of bears? This happened in Rockaway, New Jersey.

Song of the Week

"The Matrimony" - Wale featuring Usher
I'm actually quite surprised we haven't heard more about this collaboration between Wale and Jerry Seinfeild.

I Don't Know How Many Words There Are in a Video

Three videos from the internet that are worth watching:

San Francisco Giants remake the "Full House" opening theme


Daniel Negreanu does a clean version of NWA's "Fuck Tha Police"


Best video of the Chinese Explosion. I strongly recommend you watch the entire thing

Song of the Week

"Can't Feel My Face" - The Weekend
This one goes out to IK, from Geno

Who Are These Guys?

Player A: .159 BA, .196 OBP, .227 SLG, 88 AB/HR, 17 wRC+
Player B: .285 BA, .386 OBP, .512 SLG, 18 AB/HR, 153 wRC+ (100 is league average)

Player C: 57 1/3 inn, 1.57 ERA, 10.0 K/BB
Player D: 41 1/3 inn, 5.01 ERA, 2.9 K/BB

Eternal Optimist

Many times I am considered a pessimist when it comes to my favorite sports teams. But consider the Redskins, Mets and Knicks have won a title in 23, 28 and 42 years, you could argue that I am actually a realist.
And when I fired off my overly emotional and reactionary piece entitled "The Mets Will Never Win" I certainly lived up to my reputation.
But when you take a step back and analyze it, I am the most optimistic of all.
I am the one who thinks the front office has done a great job.
I am the one who thinks we should keep the guys we have.
I am the one who thinks the Mets are poised to be very very good for a very long time.
I am the one who thinks that when our good young players hit free agency (or before) the Mets will sign them to longer contracts.

The only thing that I was a little pessimistic about was the Mets chances to make the playoffs this year. But a sweep of the Nationals changes a lot. The Mets odds to make the playoffs after that heart-breaker against the Padres were 22%. Now, a 6-game winning streak has boosted them to 52%.

And once you get in the playoffs, you never know what can happen.

But you can always hope.