Hazing can be good for you
How a rookie Indians pitcher got shot while riding the team bus in weird enough, but how he avoided serious injury is very amusing:

[Team spokesman Bart] Swain said all of Cleveland's rookies were dressed in cheerleader outfits as part of an annual ritual -- Denney's choice was Southern California -- and the mood on the bus was jovial until Denney was shot. ...

Swain said the team's trainers thought the high white boots Denney was wearing as part of his cheerleader outfit may have prevented a more serious injury. The bullet didn't lodge very far into Denney's leg, and trainers were able to remove it before he went to the hospital.


And in another baseball note, it was fascinating watching Vin Scully do play-by-play on two games at once last night. He was calling the action as usual for the Rockies-Dodgers game, but since this is the time for scoreboard watching, you could tell he had the telecast of the Giants-Padres in the booth and giving updates in that game in between the action at Chavez Ravine. It was very entertaining, considering I didn't find the Padres game on my other TV until after the Dodgers finished. And it was amazingly seamless and calm; to think, many announcers can barely call the game in front of him, and Vin is doing double duty just when the action is getting good.

Fantasy football pervades the comics pages once again.

A couple more thoughts from the Texas trip
-- Is the radio industry slowly replacing Power, Lite, Kiss and the letter-number combo in favor of real names (much like pro wrestling biting the bullet and naming the characters their actual names)? I've already lauded the new Dave FM here in Atlanta (and there's a similarly named station in Canada as well).

In Dallas, I stumbled across Jack FM, which is even more eclectic than Dave FM. It seems even more like a CD collection or iPod on shuffle. While driving around Friday, I heard the incongruous 1-2 punch of Lita Ford's Kiss Me Deadly and ABBA's Mamma Mia. And, yes, there was some Led Zeppelin on the station later, so the station could be mistaken for KFSL -- Fossil 103 since it does play "Classic hits from Abba to Zeppelin, comma, Led."

Somewhat fitting, I heard White Wedding on that station after the wedding Saturday, but just before that I heard this '90s classic. Yup, this is definitely someone's iPod on shuffle.

-- Coincidentally, I noticed a couple of people from my flight out Friday morning who were also on my return trip Sunday morning. It wasn't hard to pick them out since they wore the same clothes on both legs of the trip. And those clothes easily identified who they were. They happened to be these guys celebrating their 25th anniversary. However, I have no idea if they stayed at a Holiday Inn while they were in the Metroplex.

I forgot to post this the other day, but it's a story like this that shows exactly how big college football is down in Atlanta, even the bye weeks.

By the power vested in me by the state of Texas, which shan't be messed with ...
I was in the Dallas area this weekend for Brian's wedding (congrats to the groom and his lovely bride Christine). It was a nice ceremony, and it was nice to be a part of the celebration.

But besides wedding stuff, there were still some interesting observations from being in the Metroplex for a couple of days:
-- Most of the stuff took place in Lewisville, just a few miles north of DFW Airport, and a suburb that's a definite salute to commerce. There was a big mall right outside our hotel, not to mention all the requisite big box retailers and chain sit-down restaurants. While driving around to find the church, we thought we had done a loop since there we encountered two Wal-Marts during the four-mile drive. We realized we were wrong since the first one we saw probably could've housed three indigenous populations, the second one, possibly only a splinter group.
-- A picture to come soon, but it appeared that they were building a highway to heaven outside our hotel. There's a massive highway project going on in the area, and from the angle of the supports currently built, it appeared they were trying to launch something into the sky.
-- After the wedding, my friend Jeremy and I went to Ameriquest Field to see Ichiro get his 250th hit. It's a nice stadium, although it looks a lot different in person than on TV -- it feels more closed in because of the offices in center field, and the upper right field stands seem massive compared to other upper outfield sections.
(It was a good excuse to see a sporting event in town, and it saved me the indignity of watching NU get put through the wood chipper -- although I caught a couple minutes of it on WGN getting out of the stadium. Yes, I could pick up WGN in Arlington, Texas. Thank God for AM radio.)
-- I thought about getting some Rangers memorabilia, but I couldn't find a player t-shirt in my size of Mark Teixeira or Francisco Cordero. They did have plenty of other options, though. While I understand having an Alfonso Soriano, Hank Blalock, Kenny Rogers and even Laynce Nix, I wondered who was buying the Ryan Drese, R.A. Dickey, Rod Barajas, Kevin Mench and especially the Jeff Nelson shirts.
-- The most intriguing part of the experience, though, was the free giveaway outside the stadium that might've made Dwight happy: There were people outside the stadium handing out free pork on a stick (and even squeezing some barbecue sauce if you so wanted). Not sure why they used this venue to promote pork awareness, but it worked for me.

It's been a strange week in the obit pages. It's definitely not Ronald Reagan and Ray Charles, that's for sure.

Instead, it's one of Roger Ebert's heroes and a guy who put Cobb County, Georgia on the map for me. (It's interesting that one of the first obits for him was from the Paulding County site (a neighboring county).

It's good to see someone else wonders why there are so many sportswriters at the heart of sitcoms, even though sports is hardly at the heart of their shows (with the exception of George Costanza playing Tony Kornheiser, and that shows epitomizes the word average). How many athletes do you see on many of these shows featuring sportswriters as the central figure?

I suppose if they were sports editors, they'd have to force them into an office. It is interesting to see how little we see of many of our site's writers in the office (even before the move), but in many cases, as long as you're set up in a home office, what's the need to commute in?

And now that I think of it, maybe that's why Sports Night was only slightly groundbreaking. Instead of having the sports folks at home, they're actually in an office and living out the same interpersonal relationships on a work level. In other words, it's a second family. You're now covering the "other" life of Ray Barone, George Owens or Oscar Madison -- although Sorkin found a way to make it seem more like a drama than a breezy sitcom.

Is it live or is it television?
There was a brief uproar yesterday when the local station that airs Jeopardy! pre-empted the show for Hurricane/TS Ivan coverage. It was amusing that the station got plenty of calls about it when the newscasters said a couple of minutes into when the show would've aired that the station would air both Thursday and Friday episodes back-to-back today. Now I know why the crawl works much better for many viewers; many of these people probably tuned out when they didn't see Ken's face and instead saw the local news team on the screen. I guess there are many people like this guy or satirized in this song.

During the explanation for the pre-emption, one of the newscasters said something to the effect that, "Ken doesn't lose today anyway so it's not like you're missing anything," and then went on to discuss the rumors briefly before going back to regular coverage.

It got me thinking that while all those rumors are out there, many people still want to watch his run, how long it goes, how it happens, etc., even though the end won't be when they're watching it. And in a similar vein, the actual World Series of Poker took place months ago and the winner got plenty of attention in the news, but many of us are still captivated by watching it on ESPN. (Unfortunately, I've gotten hooked on the show, too.) In both cases, we know (or supposedly know) what's going to happen and yet we want to watch.

Yet when it comes to the Olympics, at least for me, if I know the result ahead of time, I may or may not watch. But NBC sorta banks on the assumption that people will watch even if they know the results ahead of time (although they do their best to hide it from their coverage, but it's hard to do so thanks to today's instant information age). So not only has NBC treated some of its Olympics coverage like The West Wing or ER, it also makes it like a well-publicized game show or even the old Superstars competition (usually taped weeks in advance).

It begs the question why am I (and many people) so up in arms that NBC tries to package the Olympics as a show we'll watch even if we know the results in advance (in contrast to almost every other major sporting event we want to watch live), yet we'll eat up Ken's Jeopardy run and the WSOP, knowing what will happen, at least the basics of it.

I guess it's because when you watch a live sporting event, the result is the biggest thing (and the part that makes news) and all the details help accentuate it and add color to the viewing experience. In many cases, if you didn't see it but then saw a score or a result, you walk away satisfied. You can see highlights or read about it later if you really want to.

When it comes to Jeopardy! or the WSOP, the result is seemingly secondary (although Ken's run is challenging that assumption). Sure, Ken wins some ungodly amount of money in a day or Fossil Man wins the grand prize, but the journey is more interesting than the result. The how is more compelling than the what.

Plus, I think things like Jeopardy!, WSOP, and other game or reality shows seem to occur in its own universe of time and space. They air when they air, and we live with that fact and enjoy it for that moment independent of any other time (like many TV shows). Sporting events occur in the here and now, it's news, except that it's actually scheduled. So when it happens live, we want to know it happened and the result in due time.

I suppose the Olympics occupy a strange netherworld, at least in NBC's eyes. Those drawn to basketball and soccer, for instance, demand live coverage of their events because they're sports fans and are used to that. But the assumption is that those drawn to "Olympic" sports aren't necessarily sports fans and aren't beholden to the here and now of live coverage. You might as well milk the ratings when it's convenient as opposed to when it actually happens. If the WSOP can grab huge ratings for something that happened months in advance, could the Olympics be next?

I’m like a bird

So how do I celebrate/relax/whatever now that the Olympics are over? How about racking up more than 5,000 miles on Delta in a week. It was a wild travel week that really only came together after I had come back from my NJ-DC double shot just a month ago.

The first part of the trip was to talk to some people at a company near a large Otis elevator shaft and Lake Compounce theme park (where I ended up for that company’s picnic by some fluke). Those who can put it together will have an idea of where I went. I’ll have more updates on the actual business part of that trip later on when events warrant.

I got to that part of the trip by flying Song, Delta’s “low fare” offshoot airline. After that trip, I felt ripped off having to fly the mother ship home (and on the second half of my frequent flyer week). The no first-class thing was cool, mainly because everyone gets those leather-type seats.

But the real kicker is the Dish Network at each seat (rivaling JetBlue's offering of DirecTV). While I did watch a little TV on the flight (although no USA Network to catch up on the US Open), I spent most of my time dominating an NTN-like music trivia game -- multiple choice, touch screen to select answers, your seat number is listed alongside your score/answer/etc. I was waiting for one of my fellow passengers to come over and see who was going Ken Jennings on him or her.

Song also had a bunch of streaming audio channels, which were slightly better than the prepackaged music selections on your favorite airlines, if only because the playlists were longer, not necessarily better. In some cases, the music channels played full albums, which was nice; other times, it was just a mishmash sorta under one umbrella (for instance, the rock channel somehow included AC/DC, Hole, Warrant and Creed all in the same mix). The ‘80s channel had three albums streamed: Born in the USA, Night and Day, and Colour by Numbers. Guess which one I actually own? Sad, ain’t it.

Part 2: Vegas, baby, Vegas

The second trip of the week had me flying out to Las Vegas for the Fantasy Sports Trade Association conference. Somehow because of schedules, I have now attended it on an every-other-year basis. Instead of it being in Chicago as in years past, it went out to Sin City, partly because it coincided with another event run by the organizers. But, heck, it was in Vegas, that’ll bring people out there, and it attracted a record number of companies, including one that stuck to the Vegas theme by trotting out a bunch of girls to sell itself (unfortunately, I have zero idea of what they do, but the thought was nice).

I got into Vegas in the middle of the afternoon on Wednesday, and avoided the temptation to lose money at the slots in the airport. However, I did take advantage of another amenity at McCarran -- the ability to check into my hotel room at the Flamingo from their desks in the baggage claim area. It also got me access to the airport shuttle to get me to the hotel in just a few minutes (as opposed to the hour or so it took one of my colleagues because it stopped everywhere on the Strip).

Once I walked seemingly a mile across the sixth floor of the hotel to get to my room, it was on to exploring the area before the conference started. I hadn’t been in Vegas in more than 15 years (to put it into perspective, the Mirage was still being built when I was there), so it was a lot different than I remembered, but I also knew there was plenty to keep me occupied.

I ended up walking the Strip north from the Flamingo to Circus Circus in 105-degree heat (which honestly didn’t seem anywhere as uncomfortable walking the 6-7 blocks from the Washington Plaza to the Washington Convention Center in icky DC humidity last month). I stopped at a few casinos here and there, doing well at video poker at Caesar’s Palace and breaking even for the most part on the slots and such everywhere else. I also partook in the ¾-pound hot dog at Westward Ho (Total cost with a soda: $2.50), which was worth every nickel, meaning it was cheap and tasted that way. Just imagine fusing together the contents of a few cans of Vienna sausages together and you got this hot dog.

The dinner to open the conference was fine (dang hot dog killed some of the appetite), and it was interesting to hear special guest Napoleon McCallum talk about his career and the gruesome injury that ended it.

After dinner, it was off to go bond with some of the other folks from the conference in a place that has to be seen to be believed (there is some stuff that stays in Vegas).

Most of Thursday was spent doing conference stuff, attending panels, etc. However, I was able to steal a few minutes to cash in my winnings at Caesar’s from the day before (and then win another $9 on video poker for good measure). And since it was the season opener for Northwestern and BC, of course I was going to put some money down for the heck of it. Now I know why I don’t usually bet on sports.

Both bets were more from the heart since I’m an NU alum and my brother is a BC alum. I didn’t realize BC was on the road at Ball State until it was too late, and by then, well, they didn’t cover the spread and they barely scored what the spread actually wasy.

As for NU-TCU, I missed most of the game because I was doing a fantasy draft (and putting together a really good team in the process -- which means I’ll go 4-9 or something like that), but I saw a few glimpses of early in the second half before going to the Hard Rock for dinner. I jumped over to the bar to check out the score, figuring I had lost for sure. Instead, I was floored to see the game go into overtime, and Brian Huffman mimicking NCAA 2005 Brian Huffman by missing short field goals all over the place. What made it worse was that I only had the money line on NU. So not only did my team lose, I didn’t even cash in on them covering the spread.

After deciding not to go partying again with some of the guys from the night before, I ended up doing a little walking down by some of the places I didn’t see the day before like the Bellagio, Paris and Bally’s. Eventually, I ended back at the Flamingo opting to play black jack instead of trying to get a couple of hours of sleep before having to catch a really early shuttle back to the airport. It paid off at the end as I won $150, more than making up for the botched football bets earlier in the evening. Sleep? That’s what the plane was for, and I think I did well on that end on my way home.

I’ve got a few pictures from the trip that may get posted one of these days. However, after that trip, I know I’ll be back in Vegas sooner rather than later. I still have the south part of the Strip, not to mention downtown, left to see.

A couple of other Vegas thoughts and observations:
-- I’ve never been on a flight that had as much energy as the one I took to Vegas, especially compared to the ones I’ve taken recently to places not Vegas.
-- It’s weird to see the dress code just go all over the place, even among some of the folks I was with. While most of us weren’t overly dressed up, a bunch of us did have the business casual going (at least at night) or casual business (replace the khakis with shorts or jeans, depending on your comfort with the heat). And then there were the t-shirts and workout shorts on some. And honestly, no one looked out of place, it just depended on where you went.
-- Maybe because I wasn’t in any hurry to get anywhere, but the Strip wasn’t too bad from a walking perspective. Vegas isn’t a New York in terms of walkability, but it serves a decent purpose, although I guess withstanding afternoon temperatures in the 90s and 100s isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
-- Did I mention that I want to go back?