Going Out on Top, Almost

You've heard the testimonials all week, everyone who loves college basketball is saddened by the demise of the Big East. But instead of being sad, I decided to celebrate it. Billy and I made a vow to each other that we would not miss our last chance to see Syracuse play at Madison Square Garden in the Big East Tournament. Everything was going smoothly early in the season, it seemed like a lock that SU would earn a top 4 seed and a double bye, guaranteeing a Thursday game, but the late season slide messed all that up. But still we took our chances and once the seedings were finalized we bought our tickets to Thursday's afternoon session. We got the tickets on Vividseats.com which is just like stubhub, but it is the official secondary market ticket partner of the Big East Tournament. The tickets were $67, not bad considering the face value was $70, but once we paid the fees and shipping (FedEx), they were $87 each.



We had to sweat out a Wednesday victory over Seton Hall, which earned Syracuse a game against Pittsburgh Wednesday at 2pm. Papa Poop arrived at the game on time but Billy and his dad were late while looking for NYC parking. The first game was a blowout by Georgetown of Cincinnati. Very unremarkable game. And then the SU-Pitt game started. Here's the vantage point from our seats:



Not great, very high up, behind the basket, and in the reconfigured Garden there was a section or a suite above and in front of us so we had no view of the scoreboard. But we did have high-definition monitors right in front of us for score checks and replays.



I decided to wear my Kirby Puckett jersey to honor him on what would have been his 53rd birthday. And the late great Puck brought us some luck. SU got our to an early lead thanks to some great shooting by James Southerland (a pattern), but gave it up in the second half (also a pattern), but managed to hold on for a victory.

So I decided to do it again the next night. Master Bates got free tickets so he invited me and Nails and off we went. I left work a little early and parked my car on 38th and 8th at 6:47. The area was restricted parking until 7, so I hung around, check for parking police and took off at 6:52, taking my chances. I got away with it, luckily, and we arrived at our seats just in time for tip. Our seats were much better than the previous day. The Georgetown student section was right behind the basket and we were in the section facing them on the side.



The game followed a similar pattern as the previous day, Syracuse built a big lead thanks to hot shooting by James Southerland (and even more surprisingly, Trevor Cooney) but blew the lead in the second half when Boeheim slowed the offense down and it went stagnant. Some dubious fouls helped Georgetown tie the game and force overtime, but Syracuse held on for the win.

This game was amazing because James Southerland had 13, so did Baye Keita who made 7 of 7 free throws (I was there, and I watched the entire game again on DVR the next day, and I still went to espn.com to check that stat because it was so hard to believe) and Trevor Cooney had 10. Michael Carter-Williams and CJ Fair combined for 9 points on 4 of 23 shooting.

But Fair did throw down this monster jam in the overtime to help seal it.



This win was particularly satisfying because of the obnoxious Georgetown students in front of us. But also because of the sour taste in our mouths after the huge beatdown in the final regular season meeting. This one was a classic, on the biggest stage for the Big East, and it got a large measure of revenge in the rivalry, which is now officially closed.

And I got to wear my "Your Mother's a Hoya" t-shirt one more time.



Now I suppose I have to talked about the Big East Final, a game which I thankfully had the good sense not to attend. SU got off to another hot start and when James Southerland canned a 3 to make it 45-29 with 16 minutes to go, it seemed like SU would certainly blow the lead, but still be able to hold on. What happened next was a total collapse by Syracuse. James Southerland went out with his 4th foul, and the Orange went about 10 minutes without a field goal. Louisville went on a 44-10 run in that span, turning blowout loss into blowout win in record time.

A few reasons I'm not that upset about the loss:
1) The tangible stakes were very low. SU was only playing for seeding. It got a 4, which is what the team deserved, and may not have gotten a 3 even with a win, though probably would have.
2) It had been a good run. I feel the team rebounded from it's late season slide, found its offense again and has renewed confidence going into the tournament that really matters, even though they got blown out in the second half.
3) Better to get an epic collapse out of the way, and hopefully learn something from it. Like take Southerland out when he had 2 fouls late in the second, and continue to be aggressive on offense even with a lead (more from the previous two games than the one against Louisville.)

Two reasons I am upset about the loss:
1) It would have been nice to have the final Big East Tournament title. It would have been very memorable.
2) James Southerland didn't win Most Outstanding Player. He averaged 15.5 points and 5.5 rebounds but more importantly, he made 19 out of 33 3s. Taking nothing away from Peyton Siva, who had a fine tournament and had been in a good player in his 7 years at Louisville, but it is called the Most "Outstanding" Player. Not valuable, not best on winning time, outstanding. Will anyone remember what Siva did in this tournament? No. Are people going to remember the shooting clinic Southerland put on? Yes! 57% from behind the line, on 8 attempts per game. That will stand out in people's minds. Stand out, outstanding, get it?

New Year, New T-Shirts

The other day I clicked on the ad on this blog (possibly a violation of my Terms of Service agreement) and was led to an hilarious t-shirt store. It got me thinking about shirts that would be appropriate for several Poopheads to wear in 2010:

TON:


Courtney Friel:


Me:


Freedo:


Nails:


VW:


Master Bates:


Amber:


Mrs. Poop:


The Concierge:


Anonymous hot girlfriend wife of anonymous Poophead (look down if you think I'm talking about you)


Me:


Juice:


And a shirt so fantastic, so digusting and so offensive I couldn't even put its picture on this blog: click here if you dare.

Note: if you didn't get a t-shirt dedicated to you make it your New Year's resolution to have more personality in 2010.

Syracuse 80 Seton Hall 73

My trip to the Rock to see #5 Syracuse play Seton Hall was a success, because Syracuse won as most Poopheads predicted, but we’ll get to the game later, first I’ll describe the other events of the evening.

Trying to meet up with Nails in Newark, a city neither of us has been to very often, was actually pretty easy. What did people do before cell phones? How did you ever meet up with someone at a ballpark or arena? Maybe part of the reason I didn’t see him was that he was completely bundled up so that the only things showing were his eyes. He was dressed for an Antarctic expedition when all we were doing was walking two blocks.

When we got inside we noticed some people taking pictures next to the Seton Hall Butt Pirate mascot. But one of the picture takers happened to be 7-foot-2. It’s about that time I realized it was Luther Wright. I guess we should have talked to him or at least shouted words of encouragement, but I was trying to get a picture which he ruined by continually stepping out of the shot. Not sure why Nails didn’t offer any words of encouragement, I mean the poor guy has been to hell and back.



We actually had pretty decent seats, row 12 behind the basket. I don’t think it was actually the 12th row since there were some temporary seats and we were a little too close to the middle of the section – and therefore obstructed by the basket at times, but for $25 tickets, they were really excellent.



But the guys next to me didn’t think so. Two older Seton Hall fans (I think they were the only two who remember Frank “Pep” Saul when the old-timer was recognized not once, but twice during the game) were constantly complaining about the fans in front of them standing. It began with the regular Syracuse tradition of standing and clapping until the first basket of each half. Then it continued, even after that so they called over an usher who told them the student section (which was in front of us) is allowed to stand during the games and everyone else stands because the people in front of them are standing. But they didn't let it die with that, when the cute girl in front of them put up her arms during a free throw, the old guy freaked out started yelling at her, her brother and father stepped in. I tried to calm him by telling him it was only a free throw. He said it was bad enough she was standing the entire game, but she exasperated (yes he said exasperated) the situation by holding up her arms so he couldn't even see the scoreboard monitor.

But he wasn't the only one behaving boorishly in our section. After a controversial intentional foul was called on Seton Hall Nails screamed "that's fuckin bullshit!" That caused the 8-year-old seated in front of us and his father to turn around and stare in bewilderment at Nails. When I alerted Nails to his breach of arena etiquette he said "that's not his seat, get him out of here!"

Nails was happy to have in our section a few cute girls who must have been students on break who call the Northern New Jersey area home. One of them a few rows up had scissored a simple t-shirt to convert it into a sexy off-the-shoulder look. As far as basketball game attire goes I think she achieved her desired level of sluttiness.

There was a game going on as well, and SU won, 80-73. One downside to attending games is I feel overstimulated and I don't think I pay attention as thoroughly as I do at home. This is the main reason I keep score at baseball games, to sharpen my focus on the action.

But here's what I do know: Seton Hall's Jeremy Hazell is a gunner. In each of the last two games he has taken 31 shots and leads the Big East with a conference play scoring average of 39.5. Even though his efficiency is low, Hazell pretty much single-handedly kept the Hall in this game when no one else could make a bucket. He also has huge ears.



As for Syracuse, it probably was their worst performance of the season. Defense wasn't great and Seton Hall got a ton of offensive rebounds, 23 according to the box score.

SU turned the ball over way too much -- 20 times -- half of those by Rautins and Triche and most of them on ill-advised high-risk passes. Triche and Jardine have combined to be a great duo to replace Jonny Flynn precisely because of the smart passing and low turnover total. That's something they need to get back to.

Rick Jackson didn't have a good game. After Onuaku exposed weakness in Seton Hall's interior D in the first half, SU stopped going insde.

Seton Hall did a good job sticking on Rautins and preventing him from getting open 3s.

Wesley Johnson was awesome, he does everything a team needs to win, in this one he grabbed 19 rebounds.

Kris Joseph also had a great second half, scoring on some big runouts and hitting 8 of 9 from the line despite being only a 64% shooter coming in.

The one thing that stood out most for me was SU's aggressiveness late in the game with the lead. In the past I have killed Boeheim for telling his team to sit on the ball with small leads and too much time on the clock. I've always advocated waiting until 15 seconds remained on the shot clock to start looking for a good shot. Several times SU jacked up quick shots and it almost proved to be to their detriment, but good free throw shooting down the stretch sealed the deal.

This was a game of runs (Seton Hall 27-9 in the first half which SU answered with a 14-2 before the half, then Seton Hall had a mini 6-0 run from a tie game, and SU scored the next 15 to put the game away) which made it fun for both sides. But more fun for the Orange, since we won.

Why Nails Didn't Go To Work Today

Nails has been well known to use some unusual excuses for not going to work. There was the time he called in "crazy" when he thought he hallucinated people knocking on his door several times throughout the night (it was actually a neighborhood-wide search for a missing girl). One time he called in "madness" to watch the NCAA tournament with me.
Today, he called in "gay."
A gay couple from Hollywood organized "A Day Without a Gay." The protest asked people to call in "gay" from work in support of gay marriage.
Nails was happy to do his part and spent the day staring at the Visanthe Shiancoe post. Look at the comments section.

The Whole Crew

Two excellent pictures of the Staten Island crew taken at JLeary's wedding.

From left: Nails, The Poop, The Concierge, JLeary, TON, Focks, TallSkott, Reissberg




Photos courtesy of Special K

New Kid on the Block

From the proud father:

Talia Bari was born today at 5:50pm and weighs 7lbs 1oz, length to be determined.

Mom and Tali are doing well!

The Poop's sincere congratulations go out to Daddy Nails, Mommy Nails and Uncle Concierge

Here She Comes

From the proud father-to-be:

"Today is judgment day for Baby Nails

Mrs. Nails received the flaxseed oil last night. The B-12 might come today around 11am.

The letters of the day for Mrs. Nails are FTP [fuck the pain].

Bidding for Baby Nails pictures start at $750,000.00.

Nails has made a fantasy baseball trade in the labor and delivering room. In case you were wondering Nails received [Roy] Oswalt for [Francisco] Liriano and [Evan] Longoria."

Good luck!

Four Schnooks and a Baseball Game

Master Bates, The Concierge, Nails and I made the trip to Philadelphia to see the Mets vs. the Phillies on Saturday afternoon. Because the game was a 4pm start we had plenty of time to get there and enjoy the stadium, lovely Citizens Bank Park. But of course, when I went to pick up The Concierge, he was still in the shower.

We did get to the stadium in plenty of time to walk around. The sports complex is huge, plenty of parking surrounding Citizens Bank Park, Lincoln Financial Field and the Wachovia Spectrum (the old Spectrum).

The concourse around the lower level of seats is what they call Ashburn Alley. Basically it's a wide, clean concourse, with the stadium on one side and restaurants and concession stands on the other. But they don't have typical concessions, they have cheesesteaks (Rick's and Tony Luke's) and bars (Harry the K's in the outfield) and each little beer stand has a different quality microbrew, and they are all actually cold.

Also along the alley is a Standing Room Only area, which actually surrounds the concourse on all decks. Some of the views are actually pretty good. I wouldn't want to stand the whole game, but I think the SRO tickets are only $12, so it might not be that bad. And the restuarants, you can sit there during the whole game and watch while eating and drinking and the views aren't bad. And restaurants tables are given out on a first come first served basis, they don't require a $100 deposit.

Once you get to the seats, all the seats are good, they are all pointed towards the field, and they all give you a nice view of the action.

I really hope the designers of CitiField take a trip to the Cit and copy or improve upon some of the fine amenities.

This game was also PSPCA day at the ballpark. Dogs available for adoption were entertaining fans in a special section of the concourse, but I didn't even go over to look because I know I would fall in love and Mrs. Poop would never let me adopt another dog. But they kept showing the dogs on the screen between innings, they all had baseball names (Schmitty, Pug McGraw, Slider) and I almost adopted Homer. Although maybe Homer was named after the Greek poet.

Once the game started the Mets gave us a good time, but you can read about that on the Recap.

When Carlos Beltran made a spectacular catch on a deep drive to center, right before crashing into the wall, I denoted it with a star in my scorecard. This is a practice I know Jems encourages, but evidently, the three idiots I went to this game with don't like this, as they asked for an asterisk on every play for the rest of the game.



The Concierge elected to take the Walt Whitman Bridge because he wanted to honor a famous gay American.

Philadelphia has some of the same between innings gimmicks that the Mets have. They do the Kiss Cam, and they played "Can't Get Enough of Your Love Babe," which is nice, but all the Phillies fans they showed were worried that their parole officer might see them on the big screen.

They don't have anything as fun as Learn Spanish with Professor Reyes.

At one point a dirty sweaty Mets fan proposed to his girlfriend on the big screen, she cried, said yes and then he rolled up his sleeve to show off his Mets logo tattoo on his biceps.

Speaking of biceps, the Philles employ a "Flex Cam" where sweaty guys in wifebeaters act like tough guys. Typical Philly.

Also typical Philly, we went to Geno's for dinner after the game. For the Concierge and Nails this was their third cheesesteak in 6 hours. We all ate steaks on arrival, but only Nails and The Conch opted for the Schmitter right at game time. The Schmitter is just a fancy cheesesteak, they use 3 pieces of cheese separating some fried salami, steak, tomatoes, and a special sauce. Master Bates was very proud of himself for rhyming Schmitter and shitter in a sentence.



Also typical Philly, cars park in the median, right in the middle of the road on some busy streets. I have never seen this before. Also a typical Philly greaseball (like the kind they show on FlexCam) was sitting in his apartment in his wifebeater leaning out the window. I only bring this up because as the Conch was driving, and complaining about Philly he said "look at that guy in the window." I have no idea how he saw him.

The Concierge and I didn't have too many arguments, perhaps because everytime we tried to talk Nails and the Master shouted out "they're arguing again." But we did disagree on Delgado's 2006 batting average, he said .265 and was exactly right. He also said Delgado would be within .015 of his career average at the end of this year. Assuming a like number of at bats from now until the rest of the season, he'd have to bat nearly .300 for the rest of the season.

The Concierge insisted that "Raging Bull" won Best Picture in 1980, which of course it didn't ("Ordinary People" did), and I think I could have bet him on it, but my initial offer was $1000 which Nails pointed out was a sure sign that I definitely knew I was correct. The Concierge also claimed that "I see dead people" isn't one of the most famous movie lines of the past 10 years, but Nails shut him down before he could spend an hour naming more well known quotes.

So it was a nice day trip to see a good ballgame and a nice stadium, and a good time was had by all.

Another Gay Nittany Lion

I have to give Nails credit, he told me this one probably ten years ago. I'm not sure how he knew, but he knew. Draw your own conclusions.

Former NBA player John Amaechi has become the first professional basketball player to openly identify himself as a homosexual.
Amaechi, who played at Penn State and spent five seasons in the NBA with Orlando, Utah and Cleveland, comes out in an upcoming book entitled "Man in the Middle" to be released later this month.
Only a handful of men's professional major sports figures have announced they are gay. Among them are football player Esera Tuaolo, baseball player Billy Bean and baseball umpire Dave Pallone.
Amaechi, a 6-foot-10 center, averaged 6.2 points and 2.6 rebounds before retiring from the league in 2003 after his contract was traded from Houston to New York. He never played for the Rockets or Knicks. He is currently known in Britain as a television personality and for helping fund the Amaechi Basketball Center in Manchester.
While he was playing for the Jazz he began frequenting gay clubs, both in Salt Lake City and in other NBA cities.
Amaechi called Jazz owner Larry Miller a "bigot," said former teammate Karl Malone was a xenophobe and said coach Jerry Sloan "hated" him.
Sloan, who was asked after practice Wednesday about Amaechi's allegations that the coach had made homophobic comments and treated the player crudely, said he did not know about Amaechi's sexuality when Amaechi was playing for the Jazz.
But Amaechi also spoke fondly of former teammate Greg Ostertag, who he said was the only player ever to ask him if he was gay (Amaechi answered: "You have nothing to worry about, Greg"), as well as another former teammate he calls "Malinka" (Russian for "little one") who Amaechi felt was aware and accepting of his alternative lifestyle. That player was Andrei Kirilenko.
"Some time after Christmas of my last Utah season, as the team was sliding out of contention, Malinka instant-messaged an invitation to his New Year's Eve party, explaining he was only inviting his 'favorite' friends. Then he wrote something that brought tears to my eyes: 'Please come, John. You are welcome to bring your partner, if you have one, someone special to you. Who it is makes no difference to me,' "
Amaechi also said he believes there are other homosexual players in the NBA.
"I don't know if there are a lot, but there are some," Amaechi said. "But you know … I don't really want to talk about it because I think that the coming out process for these individuals that for some I have been privy to and some I have not, um, it is theirs and theirs alone. And I don't think that they should be pressured or pushed for the good of the gay community or otherwise. They should not be pressured or pushed."

Nailsfest

As expected, the third Nailsfest Super Bowl party was awesome.

I was greeted by most everyone with a "waddup Poop," and I think a few even called Mrs. Poop Mrs. Poop. Still not sure if she likes that.

Seating was at a premium but we got a spot very close and got there early enough to find two good seats in the balcony behind the leather recliners staked out by the Concierge and Juice aka Green-spiggity.

I signed up for 3 boxes, at $3 a pop in the name of Diesel. Then I took my seat.

In typical Nails fashion the food was plentiful; the overflowing candy bowl, the three trays of wings and the delicious food (ribs, brisket, pulled pork, mac and cheese) from Blue Smoke.

For a large crowd, they were pretty well behaved but it was a little hard to hear all the commercials. If you missed any, you can check out this sampling.

Once the game was decided, that's when the action picked up. I had Colts 9, Bears 7 in the boxes. But I was rooting for the Bears. But then it seemed as if the Colts would score again. But they went for it on 4th down deep in Bears' territory. Initially Leary was furious (he had 2,7 and he's always furious) but on further reflection it was the right move. So then we held on through a threatening but meaningless Chicago drive and won the 4th quarter.

The reward: $150 and 5 envelopes of Fun Dip. I quickly gave one each to Mrs. Reissberg and The Conciergette in exchange for their eternal love and devotion.

Then on my way out Mrs. Nails saddled me with a bunch of candy. Then Nails begged me to take a 12 pack of beer because otherwise their fridge was too full. I never felt like taking beer was doing someone a favor before, but I think Nails really wanted me to. And not 10 seconds after I said that I felt like a schnura, Juice saw my haul and said "you're a schnura."

As always a good time was had by all. And next year, if we're not in Jerusalem, I hope we're back at Nails' house.

Too Bad It's Not 1987 Anymore

The New York Mets signed outfielder Ruben Sierra to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.
Sierra, 41, played in 14 games with the Minnesota Twins last season, hitting .179 with four runs batted in.
He has a career .268 average with 306 homers and 1,322 RBI in 2,186 games, spanning 20 seasons, with Texas, Oakland, the New York Yankees, Detroit, Cincinnati, Toronto, the Chicago White Sox, Seattle and Minnesota.
The value of Nails' Ruben Sierra autographed ball just increased 100% from 50 cents to $1.

One of My Favorite Jokes

A former high school basketball coach faces 39 charges for allegedly hitting male students in the groin, showing them pornography and pouring water on his players then driving them to games in the winter with the windows rolled down.

Gregory Lynn Burr, 28, face charges ranging from sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust to child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury, according to court documents reviewed by The Gazette of Colorado Springs. One of the students claims to have had scrotal surgery because of Burr's alleged assault.

A student in documents said Burr would ask them, "What is the capital of Thailand?" When they would answer "Bangkok," he would hit them in the groin.


This is better than when Nails, Master Bates and the Concierge were molested by a registered sex offender.

Wedding Blog: Dana & Scott Tie the Knot

If you are lucky enough to have a large group of friends, inevitably some of them will be awkward, especially around girls during high school. But somehow, people grow up and eventually get married, even TallSkott.

I've known TallSkott for about half my life. At first he was a big doof who just wanted everyone to like him, so he gave them candy for a quarter and free movie rentals. I believe TON's Dad still has an outstanding $41 bill at West Coast video (or whatever it was called, neither jusTON nor I can remember).

But Scott always wanted to be your friend, which I think is why he never chose a sports team, he just wanted to run with the crowd. He and I were golfing buddies (until I got struck on the hip by an errant drive). We were a dominant 2 on 2 basketball team (until jusTON and Leary beat us). We were part of an unstoppable Jewish bowling team (until I grew too much to still be called "medium jew"). We were gambling buddies (until we got tired of those long drives back from AC after losing). Strike the last one, we're still gambling buddies and recently played online poker at his apartment.

Which brings me to Dana, you can definitely see Dana's touch in their apartment, it's a girl's apartment that a guy happily cohabitates. But that's the thing with Scott. He's just happy to be there. Especially after some failed past experiences with women (prank calling Jen Levanthal, "I so wanna touch your ass", the whole Queenie debacle).

So when Scott met Dana we were all happy for him. The first time I met Dana, I recall Scott grabbing her ass, and she lovingly slapped it away. She fit the requirements for Scott's girlfriend. She's short, that was a key. She's Jewish. She's outgoing. She's good natured enough to deal with Scott's weird habits. And she's demanding enough to break him of a lot of those weird habits.

Scott's dietary restrictions are now legendary. The turkey and muenster cheese, the refusal to pass the lobster bisque. But now Dana and Scott go out for sushi. And that's a good relationship, when the partners become greater than the some of the parts.

So the wedding day came. WARNING!!! The following will be told strictly from my perspective so if you have comments of other funny things that happened feel free to add them.

Scott was sooooooooooooooooooooooo nervous. At 4:25 (five minutes early) he sent a group text message to the groomsmen saying "where r u guys?" He must have eaten 40 altoids in the few hours leading up to the ceremony. During the ceremony he alternated giggling and coughing fits. But he made it through.

And Scott looked good. He had a sort of pinstriped tuxedo with a black bow tie. Scott loves a bow tie for some reason. And Dana. Good lawd. At most weddings the bride looks beautiful, but Dana looked damn hot. The difference is subtle, but there is a difference between beautiful and hot.



Scott gave a firm stomp to the glass. And the party began.

I made a beeline to the bar and started with a couple Heinekens. Then we got a couple shots from the Vodka infusion. One was berry and one was pineapple. Thankfully, I don't really care for fruit so I went back to beer. Otherwise the cocktail hour was good, but I spent most of it drinking.

Scott's favorite part of any wedding/bar mitzvah is the hora. We love being the chair lifters. Thankfully I had front right of the ladies' chair, smoothly lifting, Dana, her mom, Elaine and Scott's mom, Stefanie. I don't know how the other guys got Scott and Howie up in the air, but they did.



Right after the the hora the band (which was awesome by the way) got into a couple good songs to get the group dancing. Then for some reason they moved into "Sweet Home Alabama." Half the crowd was like "wtf?" but then Scott and Dana's friend Alex got up there and started jamming with the band. It was a really nice touch and Alex told me afterwards it felt so cool to be up there "shredding."





After that there was more dancing and partying, and of course, more drinking. We had to get the best man, Matt Fox ready for his toast. Matt was very apprehensive about giving the speech so the only thing to do was fill him full of some liquid courage. Matt had about 12 shots before the speech and that must have been the right number because the speech was awesome. On his way up we seranaded him with the Jose chant (Matt Fox, MattFoxMattFoxMattFox...Maaaat Fox, Matt Fox). He had everyone laughing including the bride and the groom.





The rest of the night kind of flew by for me. We kept dancing. We kept drinking and we had a great time. These pictures probably say it all.









To put the icing on the cake we drove (well, actually only Leslie was able to) Greenspan aka Juice aka Green-spiggity to the train station because he had to get up for the Jets game the next day. I feel badly for anyone who might have been on the train with him. Almost as bad as I feel for Mrs. Poop who had to sit in the back seat with me on one side of her, and Juice on the other as we sang "What a beautiful wedding, what a beautiful wedding...but haven't you people ever heard of closing the God damn door."

All in all it was a great night that those of you who can remember it won't soon forget. I'll leave you with some pictures of the bride and groom.

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.

Big Ten Battle

This week Michigan goes to Happy Valley to battle Penn State. But as far as this blog is concerned it's Focks vs. Freedo, Nails & Leary. I generally root for both these teams although Nails is a such a dick about Syracuse I sometimes wish him pain. But I do love The Ohio State University more than either of these schools.

Notre Dame beat Penn State by 24, and lost to Michigan by 26, meaning this game should be 63-13, Michigan. But I expect a much closer game.

First off, the Michigan coaching staff may be distracted by threatening and obscene e-mails they have been receiving from some crazed fan.

Also, Michigan's top receiver Mario Manningham is out and will not play against Penn State. Manningham has 527 yards and 9 touchdowns already this season.

Last year's game was a classic overshadowed by Notre Dame-USC. This game should be another good one but I see Michigan winning but just enough to cover the spread, say 28-20.

Back Again

Game 2 was another great game to attend. I got to Shea Stadium early (4:30, 210 minutes before game time) and got a spot under the overpass again, putting my total savings on parking up to $52. I reclined my seat, took a nap, woke up at 5:15, read a magazine, had a sandwich and met my dad to get my ticket.

He of course had to go in to see batting practice but I wanted to wait until 7 to meet Nails, The Concierge, Reissberg and Focks.

Reissberg and I engaged in a spirited discussion about who should have been the 25th man on the roster, Ring or DiFelice. I said Ring because he can be used in a blowout to save the arms of the more valuable relievers. Reissberg suggested DiFelice would allow the Mets to use Castro as a pinch hitter.

When the rest of the guys arrived Focks was wearing a blazer, Reissberg said he must not have changed after work, I said he probably wore a jersey to work and changed into a blazer for the game. Nails and the Concierge took advantage of the LIRR's lax policies about alcohol and were screaming.



We posed for this fan photo and sent the brothers back to their seats. They were sitting right behind Jerry Seinfeld and Matthew Broderick.



The crowd was really into it chanting something for almost every player. Reyes' "Jose, Jose, Jose" chant was the loudest but "En-dee Cha-vez" was also spirited.

Sat one section over from Pinman who has now taken over for Cow-Bell Man as stupidest idiot at a Mets game. He wears a Mets jersey that says Pinman on the back, and on the jersey he has probably a couple hundred pins, meticulously arranged between the pinstripes on his jersey. I have no idea how or even if he washes that thing.