Wednesday, July 30, 2003

I'ts not just me
The whole dating game has always confused me, but I guess I should feel better since it seems people my age don't go on "real" dates anymore despite all the sites out there. Sounds right to me, I think. Then again, I've got a number of lingering issues out there I won't go into here, other than those in the know definitely know what's up.
Do a little dance ...
If you thought Elaine's disco dance (Dickinson, not Benes) was just the figment of some writer's imagination, then you haven't seen this. Yes, people are that stupid.

Monday, July 28, 2003

If police want to solve this mystery, they'll have to look between the two giant melons.
The inevitable happened this weekend, and it wasn't just Bob Hope's death (although I wonder if Jimmy and Bonnie live anywhere near his estate).

Nope, it was the lawsuit over the video game Max Payne by the washed-up wrestler of the same name. Now if the main character killed others with a Fujiwara arm bar, they're in trouble.
Six degrees of Chuck Woolery
I'm not sure I've seen a reality show deal with, well, reality with its subject ever. Sharon Osbourne's cancer wasn't diagnosed during the show's tremendous first season, for instance. But somehow, Naturally Stoned had to deal with the separation between Chuck Woolery and his wife that took place during the show's run. That episode was so awkward since most of the rest of the series was just goofy with some tension (Knudsen's cottage cheese anyone), but nothing really out of the ordinary. Then it ends with reality, and we wouldn't want that with our reality shows.

But what I found a little more interesting was seeing in the credits that some of the graphics for the show were done by someone I had met at the Chicago Tribune years ago while I was still in college. In a weird way, she helped lay down the foundation for me interning there a couple of years later, even though she was long gone by the time I started. Not only that, but I ended up becoming good friends with the girl who had set up that initial meeting at the Trib (we were both editors at the school paper at the time).
Born of frustration
I've actually held off on extreme personal venting for a while, mainly because I know this is public and who knows who will get to this. Granted, I think I know most of you who read this, but there's always that strange apprehension of giving away too much about myself in such a forum. That's kinda taken away from the point of this exercise, but oh well.

With that said, I am now keep asking myself if I'm any good at my job. I'm always surprised when people say they read my stuff, mainly because I'm under the impression that people only read ESPN and nothing else (especially based on all the links in my friends' blogs), thus not seeing my stuff. I'm often my own worse critic, as many people are, and I guess it gets magnified when I look over some of the competition. Add the fact that I'm working in a situation where it seems like people are allergic to complimenting people's work and ripping your colleagues seems to be a requirement for your job, you run into a crisis of confidence.

Am I being a bit too sensitive to this? Maybe. I'm also suspicious of most compliments, although that seems to come with the territory. Then again, from the general impression I get from just about everything out there, no one anywhere seems willing to appreciate anything. Right now, the line between genuine skepticism and paranoia gets blurrier every day.

I'll give Craig the credit for pointing me in this direction, but this song (down to the I-85 lyrics) seems to be an eerily good fit for the situation.

Sunday, July 27, 2003

More time with Angie
It's way too fitting that Jason Sehorn's debut with the Rams will be delayed by a broken foot. He's arguably the most overrated player in football today, and I'm sure most of the Giants fans were happy to see him go away. What's amusing is after Kim Herring, who assumes the starting free safety job, the backups are guys I remember as quarterbacks. Nick Sorenson was a safety at Virginia Tech, but during Michael Vick's freshman year, the Hokies were decimated by injuries at QB that Sorenson was pressed into service and at least didn't screw up too badly. The other backup is Steve Bellisari, the former Ohio State quarterback of questionable ability.

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

I guess it's mainstream now
The AJC has finally done a story on the Homestar Runner creators. Now, time to get my figurines, but first, time to read Strong Bad's latest e-mail.

Friday, July 18, 2003

As if the '80s retro craze hasn't gone wild enough, we now have the revival of Garbage Pail Kids.
Shut your piehole!
Sometimes I wonder if some of my co-workers realize how good we have it in our office. Web surfing and instant messenging are crucial parts of our job, as is watching sporting events. Sure, there are things that could be better (just like any office), but from the way some would put it, it sounds like we're working in a sweatshop surrounded by idiots, including myself.

I bring that up because eBay has apparently banned talking at desks, seemingly making it like elementary school all over again. It definitely sounds ridiculous, but then again, if it can shut up the unnecessary and unwarranted whining, complaining and backbiting, it may actually have some merit.

(Thanks Steve for the link.)

Thursday, July 17, 2003

Here come the brides
Thankfully, I wasn't anywhere near this spectacle either last night or this morning, or else get trampled by tons of future brides. Actually, it would've been funnier if some poor sap headed over to the Galyan's sporting goods store next door looking for a pair of sneakers or some camping gear got caught in the wave. To all my friends getting married soon, is this something you or your future bride would want to be part of?

The amusing part was listening to coverage of it on one of the morning radio shows while waking up. Sending out the resident "queen" was a natural fit, and the hosts even had fun ragging on a guy who got dragged to the sale with his sister-in-law.

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in my fandom for Rachael Ray, Food Network's answer to Katie Couric.
Comes with gas can and matches
I'm not too sure much good can come with Armando Benitez joining the Yankees, especially since before his many Mets meltdowns, he's best known for inciting a riot by hitting Tino Martinez with a pitch and allowing the homer caught by Jeffrey Maier in the '96 ALCS. One of the ESPN talking heads had the best remark that attendance at Yankee games may go up thanks to Mets fans wanting to go across town to boo him. This should be an interesting situation. I wonder if this screams Steve Trout or Ed Whitson.
All-Star Game thoughts
Welcome to my Larry King roundup of this year's All-Star festivities:

-- The game still started way too late after all the introductions and other crap, but it went briskly (2:38) despite the commercials and the scoring. Maybe there are signs that a nationally televised game doesn't have to be three hours long. It even caught ESPN off-guard as it didn't slot SportsCenter until midnight, when it expected the game to end, even though the game ended at 11:20 with a few minutes of post-game stuff.

-- There were still a lot of players used, but at least there wasn't the urge to get everyone into the game, especially pitchers. Sorry Dmitri Young, Lance Carter, Mike Williams and Armando Benitez. We weren't sure we wanted you there to begin with, but at least we didn't have to see you after the introductions. Thankfully most of the players stayed in for at least five innings. That's why the fans voted you in to begin with.

-- It may be sacrilege, but maybe the All-Star Game is better off keeping a DH on a permanent basis. Some of the problems from last year's tie was using many of the sorta All-Stars as pinch hitters in the middle of the game, taking away some valuable bench spots not to mention really screwing up the 50 people who still keep score. This year, most of the starters played at least four or five innings and their capable replacements were decent. The lesser guys could've come in if needed in a pinch, but it wasn't necessary. Besides, you want to see the best hitters hit at the All-Star Game, and this does it in the best way without killing your roster.

-- The pitching was handled a lot better this year, although after all the hoopla over Dontrelle Willis, he never got to pitch. Then again, he worked a lot Sunday, so he was probably one of the last guys on the list. We also discovered that relievers, who are already overrated, got exposed even more here. They allowed nine of the 13 runs in the game. Shigetoshi Hasegawa (who looks oddly like Ron Darling) got smacked around, Eddie Guardado didn't look much better, Billy Wagner gave up Jason Giambi's homer and Eric Gagne gave up the game-winning homer to Hank Blalock. Dusty Baker had a great plan, though, by planning to throw Wagner, Gagne and John Smoltz in the seventh, eighth and ninth, but that plan got sidetracked.

Some of the choices for relief pitchers had much to be desired and the AL's bullpen weakness could've been exposed a lot more. With no Mariano Rivera or Troy Percival around, the AL turned to Keith Foulke to close out the ninth, and that was by far their best option. Otherwise, there was Lance Carter and Mike MacDougal. If things went long, the NL side still had John Smoltz, but after that it was Williams and Benitez, yikes.

The one good thing about this year was not purposely bringing in a pitcher for just one hitter like Barry Zito last year. Stuff like that cripples a pitching staff. When you get the ball, you're going at least an inning, unless you're getting pounded. With the expanded pitching rosters, stuff like that pays off when you get to extra innings. And I guess it allows you room to placate managers who beg not to use their pitchers at the All-Star Game despite overworking them during the first half (I'm looking at you, Carlos Tosca and Roy Halladay). You really do need to have a couple of pitchers in reserve to a work a bunch of innings in extras, and it doesn't hurt to have a few guys go more than two during the first nine.

-- So much for the fan vote meaning anything as both players selected for the "last" All-Star slot, Geoff Jenkins and Jason Varitek, failed to get into the game.

-- The two players who logged the most innings were Angels -- Garret Anderson played into the eighth inning and Troy Glaus was pinch-hit for in the eighth by Blalock. I guess Mike Scioscia really wanted to reward his guys. At least they couldn't be found eating Doritos on their couch as the game ended.

-- I didn't really see any added intensity from the players and managers because "this time it counts." Although I was surprised to see signs being used, not to mention Scioscia arguing a bad call by the umpire on a fan interference call.

-- Watching the game with a bunch of Braves/NL supporters at the bar, the Atlanta contingent represented well despite Rafael Furcal's laser beam throw into the AL dugout. Even the 6-7 Richie Sexson couldn't catch one of those darts.

-- Going back to the Home Run Derby, it was one of the better one in years in that there were still a lot of homers hit in the last two rounds, and that the final was both close and high-scoring. Too many times, the finals are anticlimactic since the sluggers tire out after some impressive displays and we end up with 3-1 scores. The Giambi-Pujols semifinal is a sight to behold. The biggest plus of the whole thing, I was watching it during my weekly trivia outing, so the sound was down -- no Chris Berman grunting and making silly comments.

-- I'm happy to see Garret Anderson get a lot of play on this stage. I think I underrate him a lot despite the numbers. Unfortunately, I get caught up in writing off the big numbers as flukes because he doesn't walk. He doesn't strike out a ton, either, which works to his advantage. Plus, he hits lots of doubles to go with his nice home run totals. Still, it's guys like him that make you wonder if all of the Billy Beane/Bill James/SABRmetric/OPS worship is a tad overrated. As I've told many of my friends, I'd love to see the Bill James disciples play softball. (Dude! You've got to swing at the ball!)

Wednesday, July 09, 2003

I hope this news doesn't mean they'll do away with Chuck Taylors or create an Air Chuck brand.
Will someone explain why the NBA allows teams to negotiate with free agents on July 1, but can't sign them until July 16? Right now, the NBA turns into a league where things are "reportedly" going to happen but never actually do. I'm surprised there isn't a headline: "Report: LeBron James plays summer league game."

Tuesday, July 08, 2003

Still turning left
Wow, someone who actually covers NASCAR takes issue with the messed-up Winston Cup scoring system.

Monday, July 07, 2003

All-Star follies
This must be one of the stranger All-Star rosters I've seen years. Surprisingly, the fans did a whale of a job voting -- there weren't many egregious selections. (Props to St. Louis fans, who had a nice late ballot-stuffing run to get Albert Pujols into a starting spot, with the most NL votes to boot.) Everyone on the team had a legitimate claim on being on the roster, if not necessarily as the starter. It was when it got to the new-fangled process involving players and managers and finally Dusty Baker and Mike Scioscia where it got screwy.

One problem lies with the way the votes were collected by the players and managers around the league. The players/managers had to vote for a set number of players per position, much like the fans did with their ballots (one at each infield position and catcher, three outfielders, five starting pitchers, three relievers and a DH in the AL). However, they were voting almost simultaneously with the fans. So, there's a good chance that the picks of many players/managers were the same as the fans, thus it goes to a second choice that many players may not have considered.

Plus, not all players/managers are as clued into everything around them as many fans are. Some of the picks were made by just looking at the league leader stats whenever the vote was taken. That could've explained why Pedro Martinez, Mariano Rivera, Troy Percival and maybe even Sammy Sosa aren't on the team.

Locking in players by positions really hurt when you discover most of the "mandatory team rep" positions came at the pitching and outfield spots. The top picks at the infield spots got in, and that's fine -- those choices were pretty good for the most part. But players and managers were only voting for three outfielders, three relievers and five starting pitchers, yet there were five outfielders, five relievers and seven starters -- it almost tied the hands of Scioscia and Baker when it came to filling those last spots. Carrying five outfielders isn't necessarily a bad thing, but many times you had to weigh filling them with the pitching slots, especially when it came to guys like Milton Bradley, Brian Giles, Aubrey Huff, who all got screwed in favor of pitchers -- none with the same All-Star credentials as these guys.

The wacked out thing was the pitching. It's hard to pick five capable starting pitchers and realize the rest would have to come from the "mandatory" reps. And why was there a pressing need for five relievers? It seemed like that was the place for the "mandatory" guys to fill up -- Armando Benitez, Lance Carter, Mike Williams? Have you seen the numbers? Might as well give them a gas can and a match as part of the All-Star gift basket. Those picks made the Mike MacDougal selection look genius. I don't mind having middle relievers in there, either, although it's odd to think Brendan Donnelly and Shigetoshi Hasegawa are All-Stars and not Roger Clemens or Mike Mussina (1-2 in the AL in strikeouts). Although a sub-1.00 ERA will do that for you.

This current system seems to make even more enemies of the mandatory team rep rule, which I like (and one of the five remaining baseball fans that do). Some of the way the voting and filling in the gaps of the rosters makes me yearn for when Joe Torre or Bob Brenly would fill the roster with their own guys who were at least moderately deserving of a spot. I would think they would've done a better job of getting the right roster balance down while still getting the guys who have to be there.

Surprisingly, with a game that's supposed to mean home-field for the World Series, the All-Star Game seems even more watered down than usual. With the way some of the pitching was handled, this All-Star Game could take on scoring of NHL or NBA proportions.

Friday, July 04, 2003

What will the snakes do now that he's departed? I guess Ruben's victory is necessary with Barry White gone and Luther Vandross still ailing, although I still have to wonder which of Vandross or Ruben's marketability will survive first.

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

Whoa, smart stuff
All I've got to say about this column is, "Dude!"
I knew you shouldn't trust Paula Abdul and a rapping cartoon cat!
Fun on the transactions wire
OK, the White Sox are three games out of the AL Central lead and below .500 but decide to trade for Roberto Alomar and Carl Everett. Yet, down just a couple of games to the Indians in 1997, the White Sox decide to give up and trade Roberto Hernandez, Wilson Alvarez and Danny Darwin to the Giants for prospects, although they included future closers Keith Foulke and Bobby Howry. Is there something I'm missing here?

In hockey, the free agent rules and designations confuse most people, and for the most part, it doesn't matter much. But it's fun to see the Rangers sorta play around with the rules with their paper shuffling trades of Mark Messier and Brian Leetch (similar to deals with Theo Fleury and Mike Richter in years past). Maybe they'll sign elsewhere, most likely they'll return. Check this out for a great reaction to the moves.

The whole thing sorta smacks of those silly NFL one-day contracts that let players "retire" with a favorite team. Maybe there's some pension or alumni stuff involved, but to most fans your "last" team is the last one on your football card/player/register/whatever.