Nickels & Dimes

Catching up...

2008-06-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

"Well I'm hung up on the past
Finished up in last
Idealistic, in case you missed it
Later, self-mutilator
Killing time, procrastinator
Why worry about my health
Ripping on myself
Idealistic in case you missed it"
- Work in Progress, Sister Hazel

Lots of fun things going on lately in my various worlds, so I gotta catch up...
- From the world outside of work: Ross is a great storyteller...what a fun trip to Minnesota that was...
- From the world of Chivas USA: Maykel Galindo is a character...and Preki still has a wicked left foot...

- From the world of Best Damn: Gary Payton is hilarious...and loves Seattle
- From the real world (not the MTV show Simmons loves, nor the Matchbox 20 song of some acclaim): If you're not watching Euro 2008, you're missing out...Keith Olbermann is an interesting cat, and definitely not a fan of our president...Cristiano Ronaldo is not for sale -- this happened with Beckham a few years ago, and we all know how that ended (perhaps I take the soccer knowledge of my rather limited audience for granted--Beckham grew too big for Manchester United, and manager Alex Ferguson won't stand for that, so after a lot of back and forth, they sold him to Real Madrid, which is probably what's going to happen here)...Arcade Fire playing in an elevator is a very cool idea...
And incidentally, Sister tickets for their September LA show go on sale this weekend...book it.

Tickets

2008-04-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

I've always been pretty good about saving tickets, especially from sporting events, and I have a bulging folder in a file organizer full of those things. I was just straightening out the shelf upon which said organizer is located, and I started flipping through the mass of tickets, just for fun...
I remembered a lot of them, plenty looked unfamiliar (I went to a Vertical Horizon concert?), and two in particular stood out (though I definitely need to do a more thorough search sometime soon):
1) Sunday July 28, 1991...1:05 p.m...Dodger Stadium...Aisle 311, Row F, Seat 14 (I'm guessing Michael had seat 13 or 15) in the Left Field Pavilion...Dodgers vs. Expos...Dennis Martinez pitched a perfect game...fat Chris Gwynn flied out to end it...
2) Tuesday February 10, 1998...8:00 p.m...L.A. Memorial Coliseum...Section 8, Row 61, Seat 117...CONCACAF Gold Cup Semi-Final...USA vs. Brazil...Kasey Keller's legendary performance against Romario and company...Preki's SICK cut, cut, shot and goal to win the game...
I know I'm just scratching the surface, and there are plenty of gems left in there, so I suppose it'll be a nice rainy day activity someday...for now, perfect game and perfect goal make for a pretty good start...

On the Clock

2008-04-24T09:43:00.001-07:00

Brady '07 = Jordan '96

2007-10-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

"Tell me what it takes to be number one?
Tell me what it takes to be number one?
This is the story of a champion"
--Champion, Kanye West

There's some explanation to be made here, but I realized this comparison while watching the Patriots eviscerate the Dolphins on Sunday. Everything was so easy for Brady, and I couldn't remember an athlete doing everything with such ease since MJ. So Tom Brady 2007 = Michael Jordan 1996. Allow me to elaborate...
1995 NBA Playoffs: For the first time in his career, Michael Jordan commits a turnover in crucial situation (driving down the court for the winning basket) in a deciding playoff game, and the Bulls go down to the Orlando Magic...
2006 NFL Playoffs: For the first time in his career, Tom Brady commits a turnover in a crucial situation (driving down the field for the winning score) in a deciding playoff game, and the Patriots go down to the Indianapolis Colts...
1995 NBA off-season: The Bulls, re-tooling for another championship run (it's been two years since they last won a title), make a questionable deal, trading a pittance (Will Perdue) for controversial figure Dennis Rodman, knowing that his particular abilities (rebounding, post defense) complement their current roster incredibly well...
2007 NFL off-season: The Patriots, re-tooling for another championship run (it's been two years since they last won a title) make a questionable deal, trading a pittance (a fourth-round pick) for controversial figure Randy Moss, knowing that his particular abilities (making ridiculous catches) complement their current roster incredibly well...
1995-96 NBA Regular Season: A rejuvenated Michael Jordan (thanks to his year and a half of baseball- and/or gambling-motivated rest) wins the scoring title, wins another MVP award, and leads the Bulls to an NBA-record 72 wins and another NBA title...
2007 NFL Regular Season: A rejuvenated Tom Brady (thanks to his new receiving corps) is on pace to win an MVP award, set all kinds of NFL records, lead the Patriots to an undefeated regular season and take home another Super Bowl...

A valid comparison, no? I emailed this to Simmons today, so I wonder what he thinks of it. The new Kanye (lyrics above) is pretty sick, by the way...

Deuce

2007-09-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

"Big hulking deuce
Spittin' truth in the booth
Stop drop and roll
I brings down the roof"
--Don't Tread on This, Clint Dempsey

I've been meaning to write about Deuce for a couple weeks now, and I've finally found the proper motivation to do so. It's the latest "literally" fiasco (coming on the heels of a text message from Side this morning: "O.J. gets away with murder...literally"--you're literally killing me, Side). Check this gem from Nick Webster on the wonderful FoxSports.com (granted, it was more than a week ago, but I have a lot to read, so I'm not always on top of it):

Well, in my humble opinion, he played the finest game an American outfield player has ever produced in the Premier League as he literally carried the Cottagers on his shoulders to a surprising and dramatic late draw.

I watched that Tottenham match, and while I did see Clint Dempsey rack up a goal and two assists in Fulham's comeback draw, I don't recall him placing ten other dudes on his shoulders and walking around with them at any point during the match.
Herculean feats of strength notwithstanding, the pride of Nacogdoches, Texas has been amazing lately. So he picks up the goal and two assists against Tottenham. Then he joins up with the national team and scores against Brazil. Then he's recognized as Fulham's Player of the Month. Pretty good couple weeks, right? Is there a better American footballer right now than Clint Dempsey?
I fell in love with Deuce (no, not literally) when he was a rookie with the New England Revolution. His goals and celebrations (several are viewable here--the dancing vs. Japan, the baseball swing vs. DC United, the stop drop n' roll against Chicago) with the Revs even allowed me to get video of him on Best Damn once or twice (the baseball swing at RFK was a genius touch) and while I was sad to see him leave MLS, I'm stoked that he's played his way into the starting lineup and is really proving himself in England.
I'm hoping to make another pilgrimage across the pond in March, and though I've been there once already, Craven Cottage (Fulham's home) has to be one of the desired destinations (others include, but are not limited to: Anfield in Liverpool, St. James' Park in Newcastle and Stamford Bridge in London).
One more Deuce note, because I don't think I mentioned it when it happened. At the end of last season, with Fulham struggling to stay up (relegation: if you don't get it, sorry, I'm not bothering to explain it), Clint grabbed the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Liverpool, a win which essentially kept Fulham in the Premier League.
I know I don't really write about anything except soccer anymore, so I figure I should branch out a tiny little bit before closing up shop today. Since the fall television season technically kicks off next week, it makes sense to share a little bit of what I've been watching, what I'll be watching, and what I hear other people might be watching.
STUFF I WATCH:
Sunday: "Fox NFL Sunday" (don't have much choice, since I'm in the building and working on the show); various NFL games (again, because of my location; only Charger games by choice); "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (hasn't been very good so far this season, but I'll probably hang in there) is the HBO show du jour, since "Entourage" and "Flight of the Conchords" are done; and of course, I Tivo one or two Premier League matches (and maybe even something from Spain as well, if Barcelona or Real Madrid are playing)
Monday: "Prison Break" (back in prison for the season premiere, which makes more sense than last season's on-the-run premise); "My Boys" just finished up its season, and for some reason I liked that show; eventually "24" take's Prison Break's place
Tuesday: UEFA Champions League on ESPN2 and Setanta Sports
Wednesday: more Champions League; waiting for "Lost"
Thursday: Tried "Mad Men" for a couple of episodes, and it's really good, but I don't have time; "30 Rock" for sure; "My Name is Earl" lost some of its luster for some reason, but I'll give it another shot this season, as long as there's time
Friday: "Psych" always gets Tivo'd and watched sometime over the weekend; Simmons says I need to try "Friday Night Lights," so maybe we'll give that one a shot
Saturday: all kinds of English Premier League action from Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports--usually I watch Newcastle, Fulham and Manchester United's matches in their entirety, and scan for goals from the other guys; MLS games on FSC, depending on the quality of the matchup (or if Chivas is playing)
STUFF OTHER PEOPLE LIKE:
"Heroes" - I'm sure I would like this, but it's another hour I don't have time for
"The Wire" - Simmons worships this one, and a bunch of people in the office enjoy it as well; unfortunately, it's another hour I just don't have
"The Office" - Every time I've watched this show, I love it (and I have the Season 3 DVD's to catch up on), but for some reason I never make time (probably because I'm already trying to watch one and half shows that night--never as they air, always on Tivo--and it's overwhelming to have more than that)
"Rules of Engagement" - sorry, nobody likes that show, my bad
"Grey's Anatomy" - mostly females, I think, and since a) I'm not female, and b) there's no female consistently watching television in my presence these days, I'm shying away from this one
And yeah, that's about it.
One thing before I go: I'm noticing that as I neglect this blog and as I struggle to write when I do occasionally pay it some attention, I'm only capable of expressing creativity in a certain number of venues at any given time. Unfortunately for the blog, those venues currently include my next Top 50 show (Dynamic Duos), Best Damn's daily shows (mostly the elements involving our new female cast member), and some pretty fun stuff with Chivas USA (all the Chivas USA features found here). Oh yeah, and some other writing on the side, which is a nice release as well (and may lead to something bigger, who knows).
Done for today, back to work. Jose Mourinho out at Chelsea. Wow. Peace.

Worth a Thousand Words...

2007-09-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

Everybody's Watching

2007-07-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

"There he goes
There he goes again
Pulsing through my veins
And I just can't contain
The feeling that remains"
--There He Goes, Sixpence None the Richer

In about a week and a half's time, I've had the privilege of observing, up close and personal, two world-class athletes in remarkable situations, the sole points of focus in their respective stadia, and bearing the weight of the world on their very differently-proportioned shoulders.

The broad, enhanced shoulders of Barry Bonds were on display for all to see during All-Star Weekend in San Francisco, and every with every step and every swing, a thousand cameras and the eyes of thousands of fans followed right along. Contrary to the gruff exterior he's displayed for the vast majority of his career, Bonds seemed to embrace the moment (possibly his last glimmer of true acceptance on a national stage), soaking in his inferred role as host and even offering glimpses of personality. I was down on the field for batting practice (a day after the home run derby yielded no splashes in McCovey Cove, his first swing deposited one into the kayakers), and the buzz surrounding his every movement was incredible. I have never been a Barry Bonds fan (living in Los Angeles and rooting for the Padres would preclude me from such things), and of course he took PEDs (he's already admitted that, lest we forget), but to watch him swing in that cage, smile and wave to those fans, joke around with his teammates--maybe it was all an act, but he got me, if only for a couple hours. On the red carpet earlier in the day, he played the same cards, smiling and waving from the back of a truck with his wife and kids, thanking the fans and conducting a very humble, gracious interview with our own Rob Dibble. He really seemed to be taking in the moment, knowing how much he's still loved in that town (and probably nowhere else), and who knows, maybe regretting some of his behavior in the past ("Next question. Because it was stupid."). And oh yeah, the guy is on the cusp of breaking one of the most hallowed records in all of sports, and his commissioner might not even be there to see it happen. It'll still be a huge moment, but isn't it a sad state of affairs when everyone just wants A-Rod (the same A-Rod who has been endlessly skewered for cheating, on the field and off) to break the record, at least so a steroid user won't hold it? Baseball has gotten a lot wrong over the last decade-plus, and this record chase seems to be the culmination. Despite all the crap surrounding Bonds and 755, his role at All-Star Week was still pretty darn cool, and when he knocked all those batting practice balls out of the park, steroids or no steroids, division rivals or not, I was in awe.

If anyone on the planet has endured more scrutiny over than Bonds the past few weeks (this is an exaggerated statement meant to limit the scope to the sporting world--yes, I'm certain that George Bush is scrutinized more than any athlete should be), then it would be David Robert Joseph Beckham, who made his Galaxy debut last night (that's "Galaxy" as a proper noun--he has been around the lower-case galaxy for almost 32 years) in front of a sold-out, shrieking and photograph-snapping crowd at HDC, a scene which pleasantly surprised the soccer fan in me. I think the best part about being there was getting to miss the ESPN coverage, which was guaranteed to be terrible (confirmation: I tried to watch it on TiVo when I got home and it was unbearable). Actually, the best part was just being there, and the atmosphere did not disappoint. I was more there to shoot Chelsea stuff, so I planted myself behind the end line just to the side of Joe Cannon's goal, followed Salomon Kalou around for awhile (he hung out with us at practice Thursday at UCLA), got a great look at Cannon's reaction save on Florent Malouda (Chelsea's wingers--are you kidding me? Malouda and Shawn Wright-Phillips started, Joe Cole subbed in, Arjen Robben sat) and some hard work from Ty Harden on Didier Drogba (the U-Dub kid played great), among other things.

The video restrictions allowed me to shoot only the first 15 and the last 15 minutes of the match (injury time is a bonus), so I took care of my Chelsea stuff early (Ashley Cole, who didn't play, and John Terry were the two other guys who spent time with us on Thursday) and then pretty much followed Beckham the rest of the way. A couple of Beckham and game-related observations, besides the craziness that surrounded his every move (no, I was not in the jostling throng that mobbed the bench when he came in--I was parked on the opposite end in peace):
- his first ball was awesome, flicked on and almost a chance...when Beckham is given time and space like that (and MLS defenses are more than happy to provide), I think Alan Gordon, Carlos Pavon and company are going to be getting all kinds of service
- hilarious that everyone cheered his first "touch," as the ball rolled over to him while he was stretching on the sidelines
- minus Chris Klein, who had been red-carded Tuesday, Frank Yallop was able to field his full-strength squad for the first time all season, and though I know Chelsea wasn't going all out, it was still nice to see a few chances generated, and some great work from Cannon and the back four--Abel Xavier came up big on numerous occasions
- tried to see if ESPN got Mourinho's reaction to the Terry goal, but I think they missed it (of course, they pretty much missed the fact that one of the world's greatest clubs was actually playing last night)--very strange to see him jump off the bench angrily and wave his players back, as if they shouldn't have been celebrating at all. He and his goalkeeper coach, Silvio something (he was kind enough to join in our Thursday shoot for a minute as well) were gesturing like crazy, either at Terry or at the whole team to just get back and play...kind of weird
- the crowd impressed me. I was worried that it wouldn't be a real soccer crowd, but they cheered at the right times, gave Cobi the loudest ovation (other than Beckham), chanted and sang, and really sounded like a European crowd at times. It wasn't Old Trafford, but it was a way better atmosphere than the Arsenal-Fulham match I took in at Craven Cottage last year, and certainly better than any match I've been to in the U.S.

- so stoked that Beckham did get to take a corner kick, and it was right in front of me (yes, I shot this video)...not important that it didn't result in anything, but important for him and the fans that he got to do something
He wasn't running too well and didn't even think about tackling, so I'm guessing he won't be playing in these next few SuperLiga matches, but I left last night feeling very good about the Galaxy for the rest of this season, as long as they can find a finisher (someone other than Landon).
Another random side story from last night: I had met a Chelsea season ticket holder after Tuesday night's game, a guy who now lives in Pasadena, works in La Canada, and whose kid is going to St. Francis in the fall (he actually used to coach at Franny, when Pete Vagenas was there). The dude, Mark, is from London, has lived here for like 16 years, but still has Chelsea season tickets, which is awesome. Basically, he told me that if (when) I want to head out there and catch a game, I just need to let him know. So I can get a free flight (thank you frequent flyer miles) and free tix; I just need a place to stay and I'm set for a little weekend jaunt to London. Anyways, I saw Mark again last night, just as I was explaining the ticket thing to Fox Soccer Channel buddy Zeus, and he tells me the random story: As he and his sons were parking their car, they parked next to a bunch of big guys, looked like football players. Mark had just watched the last five minutes of the Boise State-Oklahoma game with some friends the night before and recognized of of these dudes as Ian Johnson, the guy who scored the winning touchdown on the statue of liberty play and then proposed to his girlfriend (after Chris Myers spoiled it) on national television. Ian, as it turns out, is a Chelsea fan and a great dude. After that Fiesta Bowl game, somebody put him in touch with one of his heroes, Didier Drogba, and they had been emailing back and forth ever since. Drogba hooked him up with a bunch of tickets, and they were there for Johnson's bachelor party. They even had an extra ticket, which they offered to one of Mark's sons (the older one), because Mark came in one short. So he sent his 14-year old son off to enjoy the match with a dozen Boise State football players. At the end of the match, he gets himself back down to the media area, where we're talking again, and just then, Ian Johnson and friends walk by with John Terry, who now has Mark's son under his arm, walking into the Chelsea locker room. Pretty cool experience for a teenage kid, huh?
Back to somewhat normal work this week (cutting the Chelsea practice feature for air on Tuesday), but I won't soon forget how fortunate I am to be able to experience this kind of thing--to do it twice in two weeks is pretty ridiculous.

New Sister

2007-06-11T17:01:00.000-07:00

I guess this sort of applies to one Katrina Riddell, though I was intending instead to refer to a disc that arrived in my mail today bearing new (to us) songs from Sister Hazel. It's a collection of b-sides that didn't make their last few albums, and thanks to a nice relationship with the label, I have myself a complimentary copy (it could theoretically be complementary too, like if it came with a little stand that matched or something) and I'm listening to it right now.
On another note (the note that provided the impetus to post today), I had the pleasure (?) of taking in a 1-0 victory by the US National Team over Guatemala last Thursday night in the Gold Cup. Yes, we won, but it was a pretty underwhelming effort, and--Fox Soccer Channel is actually rebroadcasting the game right this second, I just noticed--was lowlighted by Oguchi Onyewu's ejection for a second yellow card (frustration built up from marking Carlos Ruiz all night). We added a 2-0 win over Terrible & Tobago (their first-choice players are in a contract dispute with the national federation, so they've got a bunch of scabs playing) on Saturday (I watched from my baseball-viewing seat at Fox and missed both goals) and look good for the quarterfinals (one more group match against El Salvador tomorrow).
Eric and I were talking on the way in about the last time we had each seen the national team play, and we came up with a January 2000 friendly between the US and Iran (for some reason I fell asleep multiple times during this game, which ended in a 1-1 draw). I conveniently forgot about getting to see the team play twice in Korea in 2002, and it's with that in mind that I've decided to come up with a list of the best games I've ever had the pleasure of attending. It starts today with soccer and will hopefully extend to every other sport before too long...

As I've started thinking about how to organize, this has become far too vast an undertaking for a list of just 10, so I'm putting them in reverse chronological order (16 games total), adding a few honorable mentions, and then I'll try to rank:
3/12/06 Manchester United 2, Newcastle United 0 (Rooney 8, Rooney 12) - Old Trafford (Manchester, England) - 67,858...being at Old Trafford (with B) was an amazing enough experience, but getting to watch my guy Alan Shearer (pretty much THE reason I'm a soccer fan today) and seeing Wayne Rooney net a brace (two goals, for the uninitiated) can't be overlooked
3/11/06 Reading 0, Watford 0 - Madjeski Stadium (Reading, England) - 23,724...boring game, but well played by Bobby Convey, and I had the best seat in the house--roaming the sidelines with my video camera. Got to meet and chat with Marcus Hahnemann, Convey and Jay DeMerit after the game as well
3/4/06 Arsenal 4, Fulham 0 (Henry 31, Adebayor 35, Henry 77, Fabregas 86) - Craven Cottage (London, England) - 22,397...best player I've ever seen in person: Thierry Henry. It wasn't even fair how much better he was than anyone else on the field
11/26/03 Santa Clara 1, Loyola Marymount 0 (Irvine 98) - LMU (Los Angeles, Calif.) -725...Eric scored the game-winner on a header off a crossbar rebound in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and a massive celebration ensued. We had a great Eric-centric crowd at the game as well, family and friends, so it was pretty awesome
9/18/03 Santa Clara 2, CSU-Monterey Bay 0 (Irvine 40, Irvine 69) - Buck Shaw Stadium (Santa Clara, Calif.) - 507...I made the trip up to NoCal for a couple different things, the primary of which was getting to watch Eric start and score, and he did one of the two. His first was headed home off a cross from Wolfe, and his second slid past keeper off another cross. I think I saw all three of his goals this season
6/10/02 USA 1, Korea 1 (Mathis 24, Ahn Jung-Hwan 78) - Daegu World Cup Stadium (Daegu, Korea) - 60,778...incredible atmosphere, great performance by Brad Friedel, huge goal from Clint Mathis, a deserved tie
6/5/02 USA 3, Portugal 2 (O'Brien 4, Jorge Costa own goal 29, McBride 36, Beto 39, Agoos own goal 71) - Suwon World Cup Stadium (Suwon, Korea) - 37,306...nothing really needs to be said about this one, right? Sitting right behind the goal on which all three of our tallies were recorded, and in shock for every one. The neutral crowd started with chants of "Figo" and ended with "USA"
11/6/98 UCLA 3, UCSB 2 - UCSB (Santa Barbara, Calif.)...NCAA record for quickest goals scored by two teams--Gauchos scored to tie it up, Seth George scored from midfield on the kickoff, over the backpedaling, still-celebrating 'keeper, to give us the lead and the win
10/1/98 Galaxy 6, Burn 1 (Pena 10, Hermosillo 16, Cienfuegos 20, Hermosillo 32, Welton 41, Washington 47, Pena 69) - Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.) - 10,047...Octavio Zambrano's team was the best offensive squad in league history, and this was one of its finest performances
2/10/98 USA 1, Brazil 0 (Preki 65) - Coliseum (Los Angeles, Calif.) - 12,298...greatest goalkeeper performance I ever saw (Kasey Keller), one of the greatest goals I've ever seen (Preki, as usual, cutting back to his left and letting one fly from outside the area), and great seats (thank you Marcelo Balboa, via Steve Shak)
12/14/97 UCLA 2, Virginia 0 (George 80, George 82) - UR Stadium (Richmond, Virg.)...NCAA Championship Game, almost anti-climactic after an amazing semifinal, but tremendous work by Matty Reis in goal to deny Brian West, Ben Olsen and cronies
12/12/97 UCLA 1, Indiana 0 3OT (Tennyson ?) - UR Stadium (Richmond, Virg.)...the Indiana native got the previously-undefeated Hoosiers in triple-OT, what a marathon
11/23/97 UCLA 3, Santa Clara 0...my Bruin friends against Joe Cannon's Broncos
11/2/97 UCLA 4, Duke 2...my Bruin friends vs. Josh Henderson, Jay Heaps, Gaston Haupert & co.
7/4/97 Galaxy 2, Revolution 0 (?) - Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.) - 51,704...4th of July, installment number two
7/4/96 Revolution 1, Galaxy 0 (?) - Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.) - 62,073...first MLS game, fireworks and 98 Degrees (the band, and the temperature, I think)

Honorable Mention for games watched:
11/13/05 Galaxy 1, Revolution 0 (Ramirez 107) - Pizza Hut Park (Frisco, Tex.) - 21,193...Pando Ramirez, who had done nothing all season or all game, knocked in the game-winner after Matt Reis had punched out Landon's corner, giving us Cup No. 2
12/15/02 UCLA 1, Stanford 0 (Lopez 89) - Gerald J. Ford Stadium (Dallas, Tex.)...I still had a few friends on the team, most notably Ryan Futagaki, who sent in a cross that Aaron Lopez converted for the late game-winner
10/20/02 Galaxy 1, Revolution 0 (Ruiz 113) - Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, Mass.) - 61,113...finally, after years of post-season frustration, we broke through and won an MLS Cup, thanks to El Pescadito (and Tyrone Marshall)
10/12/01 Santa Clara 2, San Diego 1 (Irvine 45, Martin 60, Cronin 90)...(didn't actually watch this one--listened to it on the internet) freshman Eric scored the first goal of his career and assisted as buddy Steve Cronin (a goalkeeper subbed in late as a forward) scored the winner in the final minute. Great drama sitting by myself and listening
9/1/01 England 5, Germany 1 (Jancker 6, Owen 12, Gerrard 45, Owen 45, Owen 66, Heskey 74) - Olympic Stadium (Munich, Germany) - 63,000...dressed up in a jersey and headed to an English pub (I think it was the Princess Pub) and watched Beckham, Owen and friends romp to an easy win (maybe the country's best since 1966?)
5/26/99 Manchester United 2, Bayern Munich 1 (Basler 6, Sheringham 90+, Soleskjaer 90+) - Camp Nou (Barcelona, Spain) - 90,000...the greatest finish to a match maybe ever, and I was definitely rooting for the Red Devils here. Nothing to show for an entire match, and then two injury-time goals to just destroy the Germans (the face of Lothar Matthaus was unforgettable)
9/17/97 Newcastle United 3, Barcelona 2 (Asprilla 22, Asprilla 30, Asprilla 48, Enrique 72, Figo 88) - St. James' Park (Newcastle, England)...Shearer was injured, so Tino Asprilla stepped in and collected a spectacular hat trick, thanks in large part to the running and crossing of Keith Gillespie. This was one of the first times I knew I was a Toon fan, even without Shearer in the lineup

Okay, so that's obviously way too much to digest (it took me two days to compile, and I'm sure I've forgotten a few things), but I think I can figure out a top ten (with a quick two-word summary):
10. Galaxy vs. Revolution on 4th of July '96 - FIRST. GAME.
9. UCLA vs. Indiana in the Final Four '97 - KEY. CLUTCH.
8. Santa Clara vs. LMU in the NCAA Tournament '03 - ERIC. WINNER.
7. Reading vs. Watford at Madjeski Stadium '06 - SIDE. LINES.
6. USA vs. Brazil at the Coliseum '98 - PREKI. KASEY.
5. UCLA vs. Virginia for the NCAA Championship '97 - MATT. REIS.
4. Arsenal vs. Fulham at Craven Cottage '06 - THIERRY. HENRY
3. USA vs. Korea at the '02 World Cup - FRIEDEL. MATHIS.
2. Manchester United vs. Newcastle United at Old Trafford '06 - ROONEY. SHEARER.
1. (easily) USA vs. Portugal at the '02 World Cup - WE. WON.

I have no idea how I'm going to do this for basketball (or baseball or football), but I'll try to come up with something...don't hate me for loving soccer

You'll Never Walk Alone

2007-05-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

"Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone"
--You'll Never Walk Alone, Rodgers & Hammerstein (from Carousel)

I'm merely continuing my soccer love here, so bear with me, real quick. For those of you who tuned in for the Champions League Final yesterday (AC Milan vs. Liverpool), you may have heard a song of some kind emenating from the stands during the pre-game and wondered what it was. One of the coolest traditions in the Premier League is the singing of "You'll Never Walk Alone" at Anfield by Liverpool fans (they do so on the road as well, obviously), and here's a great example (singing starts about 30 seconds in, after the guy stops talking):

Warum?

2007-05-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

"So tell me why I gotta feel this way
And tell me why I don't feel the same"
--Why, Pt. 2, Collective Soul

I never did hear "Why, Pt. 1," but I like this one enough, so I'm sure the original was great. It's just a shame that this band only has like one good song (that's a quote from Dave, nothing I would ever say myself, obviously). Okay, the relevance of the question asked in this morning's song lyrics (and in the heading, auf Deutsch):
Yesterday morning at the Fox gym (what's a gym? oh, a gym), I went through the exact same routine I enact every time I'm there: I entered, scanned my badge, put my bag into locker 130, placed the lock on said locker, locked said lock, placed my iPod in my left pocket and my keys in my right and exited the locker room. I then placed my keys on the floor, in the corner by the lat pull machine (out of normal traffic), because who wants keys in their pocket while they're working out, right? And it's not like it's a super-crowded gym, where there's a risk of many sets of keys getting confused or of them getting kicked around or stolen or something. Or so I thought...
I close out my workout (finishing things off with a 10-minute, 1-mile jog on the treadmill) and return to the scene of my key-dropping to retrieve them and head back into the locker room. No keys to be found. Quite vexing. It's possible that I picked them up before I went to the treadmill, I suppose, so I check that area, and again, no dice. Scanned all around the perimeter of the place (it's not very big, so that didn't take too long), and still, nothing to be found. Even took a look at the front desk to see if they had been dropped off up there. Nope. Ran into my friend Jerry, on the way in, and he suggested that I look in the back office. Actually, he first suggested that I not leave my keys on the floor (pointing to the key attached to his shoe as representation of a better idea), but while I appreciated his sentiment, that wasn't really helping me much at the time. The office is usually closed, but the door was ajar, so I poked my head in, and there, on the desk next to the employee with her back to me, were my keys. She was busy surfing the internet (as good gym employees are wont to do), so I grabbed them, said "I'm here to pick up my keys, thanks," and left.
Now here's the why part. At what point do you, as a gym attendee, make the decision that those keys on the floor over there definitely don't belong to anyone still here in the gym working out? Why are they misplaced, not placed? How many people would actually be able to leave the gym and go to work without their keys? WHY did you put my keys in the office and make me a) think I was being very forgetful, b) question my own sanity--I know I put these here, and c) waste 10 valuable minutes of my time so I could walk aimlessly around the outside of the room? This is not something to get worked up about (capital letters notwithstanding), but I really can't understand what would bring someone to that action. If you see a set of keys sitting on the floor, the absolute worst thing that can possibly happen is that they sit there until the end of business hours and get moved to the office at closing time, for the concerned party to pick up first thing the next morning. Otherwise, someone who notices their keys are missing (which would likely take place before they attempt to drive home, sans keys) would return to the scene of the crime and locate them at that time. I'm all for acts of kindness, but this, I'm afraid, would have to be categorized under acts of stupidity. There, I'm done.
Meanwhile, reason #642 why I love my job: As I'm writing, I'm watching a tape of Reggie Miller's 25-point fourth quarter against the Knicks in 1994. It's one of numerous classic NBA games I have on tape at my desk, and on dark days, I'm occasionally able to enjoy something like this. It's too bad the NBA is nowhere near what it was back then. I won't bother commenting on the Spurs-Suns debacle, but I am at least a little bit encouraged by the lottery (though it didn't benefit my Lakers at all). As much as I hated them when they were good, the NBA was better when Portland (1990-92, then again late 90's and early 00's) and Seattle (1994-97) were good. The Lakers often did battle with these guys (big upset to get to the Finals in '91, thank you B-Shaw in '00) and the league was better for it. Hopefully Oden and Durant can eventually bring them back to that level, or somewhere near it. It's pretty great that the Trail Blazers (nee Jail Blazers) have transformed the character of their team in the last few years (Simmons said something about how it says something about your team when a convicted sex offender--Ruben Patterson--isn't even the third-worst guy on the roster), and it looks like Nate McMillan (poorly-treated in Seattle, by the way) has a real solid core (Oden, Aldridge, Roy, Jack) to build around for the next few years. Maybe trade Zach Randolph for a small forward? I'm obviously not rooting for them (or anyone else in the Western Conference), but it won't be bad to see them back. As far as the Sonics are concerned, everybody watched the Warriors in this year's playoffs, right? Why wouldn't Seattle try to bring Rashard Lewis (free agent) back and run him out there with Ray Allen and Durant? Throw a decent big man in there, Luke Ridnour (or an upgrade) to get them the ball, and get out of the way. Good times...
UPDATE: Great video of Blazers fans celebrating like it's 1977 as they hear the lottery announcement...
I've been doing a lot of reading lately, not so much of the book variety (though "Breaks of the Game" by David Halberstam--featuring those Portland Trail Blazers, incidentally--is a very good read, and I should be finishing it this weekend), but more of the internet variety. My Google reader is filled to the brim every day, and I can barely get through everything that comes up before it refills the next morning. If you've never used Google reader (or a similar RSS feeder), it's quite worthwhile. Besides getting all kinds of hilarious stories from numerous sports blogs and news sites, I'm exposed to more bad grammar and misuse of words than a 6th-grade English teacher (or a local youth baseball story editor). Here's a sampling, from just the last two days, starting off with a favorite of you and your loved ones:
New Real Salt Lake Coach Jason Kreis, on Freddy Adu: "...the ball is in his court, literally and figuratively" - you're halfway there, Coach. The ball would be literal, but the court would not be. Unless he's also playing tennis or basketball...
Unnamed blogger on something Scott Skiles did: "...is going to illicit such a response..." - that would be elicit, sorry...
Several violations on this one lately, regarding the US Soccer roster for the upcoming Gold Cup: "...he would ordinarily be a shoe-in for the roster..." - it's shoo-in, but close
Another soccer story: "...both were booked for descent..." - when you talk back to the referee (Sir, Sir), it's called dissent; when you start up high and you come down, that's descent.
These are all off the top of my head, so I know there have been more, which means maybe I'll start keeping track. I'm like that. I care way too much about spelling and grammar and all of that, but somebody's got to, right? This is going to sound pretentious, because all writing does not have to be "proper," as it were, but I think the explosion of blogs has brought about another level of the "dumbing down" of America. More sources for news (and sports, in my case) are coming from less "properly-trained" sources (I mean less in the sense that the sources haven't received as much training, not in the sense that there are fewer sources; I would have used the word fewer in that case), and the AP Style Guide (and the dictionary...) goes out the window. I make no claims about its necessity, and I know it sounds lame to say this (and pretentious, I already said that), but I grow disheartened with improperly-presented opinions, great as they may be.
Speaking of improperly-presented opinions, I have never experienced a worse speech than the one given at my bro's law school graduation on Saturday night. I won't slander the man by mentioning his name, but he did everyone there a disservice by either failing to prepare or just being that bad. Fortunately, my brother already speaks much better than this cat (see Suss's wedding reception and best man toast #2), so I'm not too concerned. I'm just bummed I'll never have those 15 minutes of my life back.
One quick meeting today and then probably home early to prepare for a busy weekend: long work day tomorrow, baseball Saturday, 10 p.m. flight to Indianapolis for the Indy 500 (all day Sunday), back Monday afternoon and then prep for the week ahead before bible study that night. I'm already tired, thanks to a basketball game Tuesday night (Dimes comes in with 2:00 left, our team down 6; we force OT and win)--didn't get home until 11--and the Dodger game last night (much obliged, Shupe), dugout club-style, which landed me home at 11:30 (a conveniently-timed accident on the 110 South right after the game meant it took me an hour to get to the South Bay). Highlights of last night's game (since I was on the wrong side of the stadium, and we missed the game's one big hit--a three-run double by Russell Martin) included a Martin home run that was changed to a foul ball, followed by a pitch from Carlos Villanueva that sailed over Martin's head, followed by a walk, followed by some jawing between Martin and first baseman Prince Fielder, followed by some jawing between Mariano Duncan and the Brewers dugout, which became Duncan and Fielder, and then the dugouts (and the bullpens--God bless the bullpens for running out) cleared, but nothing too crazy happened. Oh yeah, and the sweet and sour turkey was outstanding.
Peace.

Segundo Tiempo

2007-05-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

"I pulled over to ask where we was at
His index finger he tipped up his hat
'El Segundo,' he said, 'My name is Pedro
If you need directions, I'll tell you pronto'"
--I Left My Wallet in El Segundo, A Tribe Called Quest

Man, I loved Tribe--Low End Theory is about as good as it gets when it comes to hip hop albums. You know, back when they had a few more topics to cover in that genre (money, girls and cars are about it these days). Speaking of hip hop, my buddy Zeus produced a collaboration with KRS-One, Kool Moe Dee and Young MC recapping the great sports moments of the 80's. Unfortunately, it can't be up on YouTube until the show airs, but the audio version exists here.
Anyways, the title of my post is Spanish and it means "second half" (I know certain terms from watching enough futbol on the television (which means "television"), and I'm merely resuming the history of me and soccer, as started here the other day. I left off with LC's victorious CIF final against Sierra Vista in '95, and made a brief mention of the UCLA effect. The story continues there...
My freshman year at UCLA wasn't quite as soccer-centric as the previous (basketball was still king, by a long shot), but we had a great team on campus, and I made it to a few games. Chris Snitko, Robbie LaBelle, Greg Vanney, Ante Razov and Eddie Lewis were the seniors that year (I think, since I didn't see them again after that), but I didn't really know enough to know how good these guys were. Eddie has gone on to a successful career in England, and Ante, having since returned from Spain, is one of MLS's all-time leading scorers. Vanney's had a great MLS career (with some dabbling internationally) and Snitko made it in MLS for a few years, but I don't recall LaBelle having much to do professionally. Meanwhile, I was trolling cable for college and international soccer games, alternately catching my boy Josh (teaming with fellow frosh Jay Heaps) earning national player of the week honors for a sick two-goal, one assist performance against Clemson, and various Champions League fixtures on ESPN, continuing to expand my knowledge of international teams and players. To be honest, there are very few specific soccer-related memories of the early part of this year, since I was a) consumed by basketball, a carryover from my senior year, and 2) I was home pretty much every weekend, still with a foot very much in LC. Once the college basketball season ended (a little early for my beloved Bruins--thanks, Gabe Lewullis), the debut of Major League Soccer was right around the corner, and I instantly became of fan of your Los Angeles Galaxy. Cobi (a UCLA alum), Cien, Jorge Campos, Robin Fraser, Dan Calichman, El Tanque Eduardo Hurtado (the first--and biggest--in a long line of Latin strikers), Vanney, Andrew Shue (!), Chris Armas--I could probably keep going, but you definitely don't care. Around the same time (I honestly don't remember the exact release date), Dan Ryazansky came out with Major League Soccer Manager, which meant I got to combine my geeky love of soccer management games with my newfound curiosity about MLS. Again, the major benefit here was getting know all the players in the league (and their supposed value). Having the Galaxy play games at the Rose Bowl meant I could (and did) go quite a bit, and the attachment to that squad would only grow.
I know that Shearer was torching his way through the Prem once again (though Kenny Dalglish's Blackburn side were unable to duplicate their success) and I got a little taste of Italy (courtesy of Juventus) and Holland (Ajax) as I watched the Champions League play out. So many great Dutch players on that Ajax squad, and all of them went elsewhere over the next few years, I think--van der Sar, Blind (I always thought it rhymed with find when I read the name on 1-0, but it actually rhymes with flint), the de Boers (great goal celebrations, those guys), Bogarde, Davids, Kluivert (he's like a Darryl Strawberry to me, never what he should have been) and (not Dutch) Jari Litmanen, who I loved to watch. Juve had Del Piero, of course (always my first purchase on 1-0), and a bunch of other studs, Italian and otherwise: Vialli and Ravanelli were a great strike duo (Ravanelli was the blond one, I think), Peruzzi in goal, Conte and Di Livio running the flanks, Ferrara and Montero at the back, Deschamps the midfield general (at least until Zidane arrived), and then guys like Jugovic and Paulo Sousa.
Besides my devotion to Shearer (and sort of Blackburn, though they crapped out in the group stage of this particular competition), I was at a point here, so early in my exposure to international football, that I was just rooting for great games and usually hoping English teams won (I definitely dug Cantona, who was a 1-0 star as well). As the summer came, I read about Euro '96 (none of the games were on here)--Gazza, who was much bigger a figure than I ever knew (I read his autobiography last spring upon my return from England, and WOW, what a character), Shearer's stellar run (and Sheringham, who was tall and skinny like me, so I kind of liked him too) and the unfortunate Gareth Southgate miss that sent England home. 1-0 was still an obsession, and MLSM became a similar addiction (setting the stage for soccer management games to consume my life for months on end), and the Galaxy lost in the first MLS Cup (darn you, Tony Sanneh and Eddie Pope--we had it).
After Euro '96, by the way, came a big moment in my club devotion history, because Newcastle United shelled out the big bucks to bring local boy Alan Shearer home to the northeast, immediately making the Magpies my favorite squad in the world (little did I know how much heartbreak awaited). I immediately became familiar with Les Ferdinand ("Wor Les" read the cover of my first FourFourTwo magazine), Kevin Keegan (knowing nothing of his playing career), former Rover David Batty, Rob Lee, Warren Barton, Pavel Srnicek, Lee Clark, John Beresford, Keith Gillespie, Shaka Hislop, Tino Asprilla, David Ginola and Peter Beardsley (among many others, obviously). Fortunately, I think, I wasn't able to watch very many matches, with the exception of a few Champions League encounters (one Asprilla hat trick against Barca in '97 or '98 rings a bell).
Sophomore year meant the addition of fellow Spartan Nick Paneno (part of a tremendous recruiting class--Sasha Victorine, St. Francis alum Pete Vagenas and Michigan native Shea Travis among them) to the Bruin soccer team, and my interest in the squad jumped exponentially. I was also living in a dorm with that whole group of freshmen, and got to know several of them very well. Kevin Hartman was the starting 'keeper that year, Tahj Jakins was the defensive stalwart (he might have even been the #1 pick in the ensuing MLS draft) and Nick Theslof was another senior I remember, a forward who scored a few goals. Don't even remember what the team did that year (some sort of disappointing tournament loss, no doubt), but I do remember going to an off-season scrimmage against the Galaxy in which my newfound crossword puzzle buddy Jimmy Conrad, a skinny walk-on who would probably have to start the following year after Jakins' departure, had to mark the enormous Hurtado. Dude held his own, which more than impressed me (not that I was much of an evaluator of talent), and I'm not saying I foresaw his international career, but there was something cool going on with that guy that day. Thinking UCLA might be joining me there, I had purchased tickets to NCAA soccer's Final Four in Richmond, and had a fun couple of days with your father, experiencing D.C. and Monticello and all of that before taking in a St. John's-Florida International final (Tyrone Marshall and Ignace Moleka were the losing strike tandem, don't remember much about St. John's, but they did win).
The summer of '97 included several more Galaxy games (I successfully campaigned the church youth group to get an outing there), and we'd always sit in the south end zone, with the drummers and the face painters and the real fans. Lothar's squad slipped to second that year (I know Hartman was drafted, but I don't recall too many of the comings and goings in '97), but the most important thing to me at this point was the UCLA squad. Adding another stellar recruiting class (they do this every year, I've finally figured out) that included McKinley Tennyson, Jr. (a huge forward from Indiana who spurned his in-state Hoosiers--I hate no collegiate athletic program as much as I hate Indiana soccer, by the way), Carlos Bocanegra (outscored Andrei Shevchenko in the Prem this season), Nick Rimando (an incredibly athletic 'keeper who's had an up-and-down MLS career) and Ryan Lee (athlete supreme--brother Rodney was a receiver on the UCLA football team), they had an amazing season, and I got to witness most of it. My friend Lori was still dating Mr. Paneno at the time (and she had a car), so any road games I wanted to attend were nice and easy, and the home games were a one-minute walk, so no problems there either. They played 24 games that season (went 22-2, not bad) and I probably attended 20 of them. I missed out on a trip to St. Louis (lost to UAB, beat SLU out there) and a NoCal trip (beat USF, destroyed Sac State), but was otherwise omnipresent. Specific games I recall include the season's other loss, at Cal State Fullerton (they seemed to own us, for some reason--come to think of it, I think they actually beat us in the tournament the previous year) that inspired a lot of muttering that Matt Reis shouldn't be the starting keeper any longer (since Rimando was so talented and breathing down his neck), a victorious performance in the UCLA Classic (easy 3-1 drubbing of UMass and then a highly-entertaining 4-2 defeat of Duke, which included my boys Josh and Gaston as well as Heaps, Ali Curtis, Troy Garner, Robbie Russell and Evan Whitfield), a 6-1 thrashing of UCSB in which Martin Bruno scored four goals, and then the post-season. Wow. A great 1-0 win over Stanford in the MPSF (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation--weird, I know) championship, then a 3-0 trouncing of Joe Cannon and Santa Clara (friends Kevin and Lars heckled poor Joe like nobody I've ever seen, and the guy ran over and shook all of our hands after the game--class act, always), a nail-biting 1-0 win over U-Dub, and then a rain-soaked 2-1 victory over Clemson (featuring the nation's leading scorer, Wojtek Krakowiak)--game-winner scored by the legendary Martin Bruno. So it was off to the championship weekend again in Richmond (this time I won tickets from Soccer America or something) and I got to spend some time in Virginia with my friend Brandon (and two of his work crew friends), then root on those gutty little Bruins in an epic final four. Amazing weekend. We upset No. 1 (and undefeated) Indiana in double-OT and then Reis stood on his head (a hockey term, I believe, but it applies) and we beat Virginia (Ben Olsen, Chris Albright, Brian West & Co.) 2-0 (both scored by Seth George, I believe. Fun times all around.
Spent much of the spring playing FIFA '98 at the "soccer house" (beat going to class, that's for sure), learning about Thierry Henry's ridiculous skills, and talking soccer with my roommate Matt, who had a bit of English blood in him, and journeyed over there to buy me a Shearer #9 Newcastle jersey (one which I still treasure)--that's not the reason he traveled, mind you, it was something about a grandmother, I believe--which was quite nice. Also by this time, MLSM had been upgraded to WoSoMan (short for "World Soccer Manager"), which allowed the heretofore confined-to-MLS manager to attempt world glory at Newcastle or Man United (I opted for the former, obviously, but the Red Devils were certainly growing on me as well, especially since they were on TV far more often).
Somewhere along the line I've left out what ranks as likely my most significant soccer-playing-and-watching friend, Eric Irvine. I got to know Eric on a ski trip when he was in seventh grade (and was about half as tall as me), and started watching his club (and school) soccer games sometime soon thereafter. We also played a little bit of FIFA and watched champions league matches (I'd even tape random games and give them to him, like a 5-0 win by Rangers in which some guy named Negri scored all five goals), so it was nice to have somebody else with whom to share my excitement for the game (the vast majority of my friends still don't get it).
More to come on all topics, but my goodness, this is getting unwieldy. I suppose a third tiempo will have to come sometime soon...

Smile

2007-05-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

Happy, I'm happy
But that ain't good enough for you
Happy, I'm happy
--Happy, Sister Hazel

I was sitting outside Moe's Cafe on the campus of the 20th Century Fox lot Friday afternoon, enjoying a meal (well, I was actually just enjoying a bottle of water, since I had consumed my self-produced sandwich about an hour prior) with my four best co-worker friends (they all fit both titles equally--"friend" and "co-worker"), laughing and eating and enjoying the sunshine, and it occurred to me that if I were to design the ideal work/lunch combination (and I'm not sure why I'd ever have cause to do such a thing), these four dudes and this sunny location would all likely be involved. So it got me thinking about combinations of places and people that really serve to make me happy, from the recent or not-too-recent past. In the interests of keeping this blog as PG-13 as possible, these will be pretty dude-centric (I can assure you that this has nothing to do with my, um, preference; I can certainly recall combinations of female persons and place that were rather, um, happy, but that's not what this is about). So without Freddy Adu, an seven-deep list of happiness-inducing places and people (in no particular order, but you can consider Moe's with Joel, Hughes, Schnider and Zeus number eight):
- Playing NCAA Football at my mom's house with both brothers (with Dave and Tim as alternates for the fourth spot). A tradition at Christmas time (and anytime the three of us are together), we create ourselves (you know, so we're "in the game") and dominate opposing offenses on the way to multiple national championships (and maybe even a Heisman Trophy or two).
- At a Sister Hazel concert with Charlie and Joel (Kim). The last show I went to with Charlie necessitated a phone call to include Joel, but the times we've been together have been overjoyous. The greater number of company the better, and I think we usually roll at least 15 deep, dominating the front center and having way too much fun singing along to everything.
- Speaking of concerts, at a Collective Soul show with Tim, Mike B, Michael, Kevin and Phil (this actually happened, in Vegas, so it's an easy list to compose). We got there early enough to hear the warm-up, sat through a decent opening band called Pound (the cover of "Pink Houses" was their highlight) enjoyed the heck out of the show. The road trip element added to the enjoyment factor, I think, driving the B's suburban there and back same day.
- Another specific event inspired this one: watching UCLA basketball with the Riddell family men. The last time I saw my grandfather (he died last year) was during the '06 Final Four, when my dad (his son), my brothers and I went over to his house and watched UCLA dominate LSU en route to the title game (we won't mention what happened there). The possible range of last memories to have with a loved one before there passing is so broad, and we're incredibly fortunate to have something to wonderful on which to look back.
- Shooting craps with the amazing bunch of guys who attended little bro's "bachelor party" in Spokane. After pizza and stix from the Pipeline, we headed to Northern Quest Casino and (three of us) made a bunch of money on the craps table, thanks to two red-hot rollers in particular, one of whom went by the name Matthew Shupper. So necessary attendees in this happy scenario would be both bros, Langford, Dave, Tim (who wasn't with us, but went back with a group after his late-night arrival), and Shupe, to roll and make us all the money.
- This one's a little older and has a few permutations, but it includes a) playing NBA Jam, b) eating at In-N-Out (back when I actually did that), and c) playing NBA 2K, and it involves B, Side and Ev. I've thoroughly enjoyed all of the above with all of the above, even though none of the above have occurred in approximately five years. I even wrote a song one time (I think Ev still has the lyrics) that included something about a particular trip to I-n-I in a rented Mustang. But now, one is married (and lives in Orange County), one is engaged (and lives in Santa Barbara), one lives in China, and one doesn't really eat burgers anymore. Oh well, it was all nice while it lasted.
- Last but not least, playing music with Elliott, Charlie and Joel, and (the only female to make this list) Vanessa singing. The thing I miss the absolute most about not working at the church is the music (and more importantly, the musicians). I have so many fond memories of practice, of recording, leading musical worship for the youth, for the whole congregation, all kinds of stuff.
Now here's the thing: as great as all of these place/people combos are, several of them can't really be recaptured, and even the ones that can be done again won't necessarily be the same, right? So it's not about wishing for what once was (because I'm really good at that)--it's about being thankful for the great things I've been able to do and the great people I've been able to know, and then building newer and better things, so there are more things to add to this list in the future. Easy to say, easier to write, tough to do.

In the Beginning...

2007-05-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

Here I am again, back where I began
Try as I may I can't get away from you
And all of these roads lead me to roam, bring me back home
Here I am again, back where I began
--Where I Began, Caedmon's Call

Inspired by Cardillo at That's On Point, I've decided to remember the path to football fandom that I've traveled over the last decade-plus, and the varying factors that have brought about what is now complete obsession. Since I never played anything but basketball growing up (with the exception of three-par golf and the occasional game of billiards at B's house), soccer took a backseat to pretty much every other sport, kickball and handball included. Evidently, your father attended a match at the Coliseum during the '84 Olympics, but I was completely unaware.
The first time I ever even noticed the sport was my junior year of high school, when two important things happened, both of which (I think) were inspired by the middle brother. He somehow obtained a copy of a computer game entitled "1-0" (or "One-Nil"), which changed my computing life forever. It was a text-based management game allowing the user to manage any club in English football, from the Premiership down to a collection of non-league teams, and encouraging eternal addiction. I don't know that I caught the bug right away, but it didn't take too long before I was guiding Blackburn Rovers to the top of the Prem (and eventually into the Super League) year after year. Granted, they were by default the top team in the league, so winning shouldn't have been all that hard, but to keep a team atop the table for several years running did take a little bit of foresight (to sell all the old players and buy young ones--Ryan Giggs, Alessandro Del Piero, etc.) and skill (or at least I'd like to think so).
One-Nil had a profound impact on all of La Canada, I'd like to think, culminating in one glorious night at LCPC where more than ten of us sat, spread throughout the offices (and illegally using the computers of various church employees), managing our respective squads to championships. I'm not sure, but I think Craig Baldi may have even been involved somehow. This was the night that we also pulled the piano out of hiding to perform a little bit of a late-night concert, forgot to return it to its safer (and dryer) home, and consequently removed the privilege of spending the night at LCPC (theoretically to watch the audio equipment through the life of the Pops concert, and allowing youth to raise money for camps and whatnot) from future generations. Needless to say, small price to pay for world (soccer) domination.
The main benefit of playing this game non-stop (besides an addiction that survives to this day) was gaining a thorough knowledge of teams and players, something I had easily developed for MLB, NBA and NFL teams, but had no means or motivation to do in soccer until that point. I think I can still name the entire starting lineup for Blackburn--actually, let's see:
G Tim Flowers, CB Colin Hendry, CB LB Graeme LeSaux, RB Henning Berg, DM Mike Atkins, CM Tim Sherwood (or DM David Batty), LW Joshua Wilcox, RW Stuart Ripley (those two wingers might actually be switched), CF Mike Newell, and last but certainly not least, Striker Alan Shearer. Ah, Alan Shearer. He's deserving of a post by himself, those he wasn't even accurately named until a few months into his entry into my life. Because the game simply abbreviated first names, we were left to wonder what the A in A.Shearer stood for, and for some reason settled on "Andrew," which lasted until the next of Michael's contributions, World Soccer magazine (I have no idea why he got this) told us otherwise. In addition to learning about English clubs (Man United had Beckham, Neville, Schmeichel, Cantona, Ince and many others; Kasey Keller was in Leicester, Roy Wegerle and Cobi Jones at Coventry, etc.), the Super League allowed us to meet other great clubs from around the world, most notably Barcelona (Romario, et al) and AC Milan (Maldini and Weah). I ended up buying a George Weah poster that summer (and I still have it), so I was sufficiently motivated.
The next release from heavenly Wizard Games was a national team manager centered around the '94 World Cup, and I was obviously quick on board for this one as well, though it didn't captivate quite as much, and with the exception of an LCHS version of the German national team dominating the competition for years (Josh Henderson = Jurgen Klinsmann, Chris Sawicki = Lothar Matthaus) I remained wed to One-Nil. Even future versions of 1-0 didn't quite make the same splash, updated rosters and everything. For some reason, they just never beat the original (much like NHL '94, I must say, though recent encounters with Dave, Tim, Shupe, Suss and the '06 version have caused me to rethink that one just a bit).
Now, speaking of LCHS, this would have to be stage three in the development, so I'll jump in with stage two real quickly before getting back there.
Having the World Cup in the U.S. in '94 came about a year too early for me, because I was just barely getting to know what was going on. I did watch the U.S. games (I knew enough to appreciate Wynalda's free kick goal against the Swiss at the Meadowlands), and watched in awe with the rest of America as we made it to the quarterfinals against Romario, Bebeto and the heavily-favored Brazilians on the 4th of July. A bunch of friends spent the day down at the beach (somebody's beach house? I honestly don't remember), and somebody else (Charlie Petit, I believe) had the foresight to bring a portable TV, so I (and my pale skin) spent a couple hours underneath the lifeguard tower (reducing the glare--I used to be smart) watching our boys fight valiantly in a 1-0 (appropriate) defeat. I have a picture in some album of me, Charlie, Ray Lee and Tony Rosa crowded around that little TV. Good times.
So after World Cup came and went (and I realized, much too late, that I should have gone to a game or two), we started school and I met a dude by the name of Josh Henderson (you might remember him from three paragraphs back), who had moved out to LC (along with four or five other, um, "out-of-towners") to play club soccer for the Flyers and high school soccer for La Canada. LC's soccer program was already one of the best in the area, and with this infusion of talent, it became the best in the entire country--just ask USA Today, which ranked Lou Bilo's Spartans No. 1 in the country in both 1994-95 and '95-'96 (I couldn't find the old USA Today polls, but I found a couple of things:
...a StudentSports article listing the historical #1 teams in the country (we were winter, and/or spring it seems)...
...the old champions list from the Dallas Cup, the best club soccer tournament in the country, which included the Flyers victories in U17 '95 and U16 '94...
...and the SoccerTimes article that listed them as the Boys' U-17 national champions in 1995 (holders of the Don Greer cup).
Something like 10 guys from that team played Division I soccer (I'm sure I'll forget somebody, but: Cardis, Sawicki, Dyslin, Paneno, Haupert, Sweeney, Cropley, Henderson, Cuellar, , which is absurd, and the goals for and against numbers from both of those seasons were criminal (like 136-7 and 141-5 or something like that). Without going into too much detail (these teams, like Alan Shearer before them, are worthy of an entire post), having the chance to watch these guys play (and I didn't always get that chance during league, because we'd play at the same place, usually later) made me appreciate "the beautiful game" that much more. Seeing guys I knew just destroy other guys our age, mixing in all kinds of pretty tricks (Gaston was the master of the pointless back heel, an early forerunner to the pre-2006 Cristiano Ronaldo) gave me a higher level of understanding of the sport and how it could be played at its highest level. Josh was worth the price of admission himself, scoring goals at a record rate and rarely staying in for the second half (once he got his hat trick, Louie would sub him out). He's the best I've ever seen among people my own age playing the sport at which they excelled, if that makes sense. Without fail, whenever I think about these guys, I want to remember to ask Lou for a copy of the season highlight tape, something I've never done for some reason. It could be the greatest soccer highlight video ever assembled.
So needless to say, these guys went on to capture the CIF title our senior year (and again the year after), and I was able to watch every playoff game (since we, uh, lost to Franny in the basketball version), including a ridiculous 5-goal, 2-assist effort from Josh in one early-round match. The semi-finals happened to be against league rival San Marino (including defender Nate Decker, who I ended up working with at Abercrombie, and who was a real solid dude, but I'm sure that I was disparaging him on this day), and the finals against future Mexican national teamer (and APU standout) Carlos Ochoa, and Carlito knocked one past Cardis for the losers' lone goal. I could obviously write about these guys all day, but I won't.
There are numerous other stops along the way, but once I left for college, I was sold. UCLA allowed for a similar appreciation of the top level of the sport (traveling to Virginia in '97 to watch my boys upset Indiana--thanks Key--and Virginia--Matty Reis standing on his head--to win the title was awesome), and the fact that several of the guys on the team became good friends didn't hurt either. Work beckons, another day without soccer on our show...

Jackie

2007-04-17T11:58:00.000-07:00

"Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball?
It went zoom in cross the left field wall
Yeah boy, yes, yes
Jackie hit that ball"
--Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball, Woodrow Johnson

Every once in awhile, while on assignment for something from work, I'm able to step back and appreciate the magnitude of what I have the fortune of witnessing in person. It's rare that these moments have any sort of historical significance (Hooters girls? Playboy mansion?), so it's awesome when those occasions do arise. One such occurence took place in Chicago in January (photo here), though with nowhere near the significance of this past Sunday.
As a Padre fan, I was obviously excited to be producing a shoot at Sunday's Dodgers-Padres game (especially on the heels of Jake Peavy's dominant performance Saturday night), spending a couple of hours on the field before the game, talking to players and coaches and veterans about the impact of Jackie Robinson, who was honored across Major League baseball all day. This was the featured game, nationally-broadcast, and the last game of the day, so all of baseball's eyes were upon it.
Some of the highlights included meeting Peter Gammons (the BEST baseball writer ever, no question), to whom I could listen for hours on end; chatting with ESPN soccer sideline reporter Allen Hopkins for awhile (and realizing how much I need to find a way to mix some soccer into my work); interacting with Don Newcombe (another guy I could listen to forever--stories about having dinner with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Martin telling him how important he and Jackie's work was before he could even try to do what he did), Dave Winfield (Padre hat in the hall of fame, by the way, not Yankee), Mike Cameron (he and Dibble evidently rode the "Jordan bus" together in Birmingham back in the day, and Nomar (a fellow South Bay-er); standing behind home plate for the entire ceremony, and literally being moved to tears at the end of the national anthem, when fireworks went off and Don Newcombe saluted directly in front of me--all the weight of the day, the trials guys like Jackie and Newcombe went through, the work they did to make baseball such an international, interracial game, and the impact they had on America and the world, not just MLB, all hit me at once, and I was overcome.
There was a great episode of SportsNight in which Casey McCall telephoned his son, sleeping at the time, and woke him up to watch a runner about to break a world record (there was a back story about his struggles to get to that point), and it spoke of the rare moments when sports can be so much bigger than just a ball and a bat (or just a ball), and this was definitely one of those times. I was fortunate just to be in attendance, a witness to a great tribute to a great man.
And oh by the way, I was also fortunate to head up to the Shuppers' suite after the pre-game festivities, enjoying a few Dodger Dogs (and assorted other edibles) in the company of Bill, Nick, Joel & Kristi, and Bob McGlashan. Good times.
Final non-Jackie-related note: I've found myself becoming more and more obsessed with the Premiership as the season has gone on, not just Newcastle and Manchester United. I found it sad (but kind of cool) that I could accurately give the name of every Premier League manager when looking at the list of club names. Just finished watching Manchester City-Arsenal live on FSC (and I'm TiVo-ing Man U-Sheffield U at home right now), watched two or three matches over the weekend, and the fixtures are coming fast and furious now, with games almost every day of the week (all the matches that were rescheduled for the FA Cup or Champions League schedule are being forced into midweek action now). Here's what we could be headed for as the season winds down: Chelsea and Man U both won their FA Cup semifinals over the weekend, so they'll face off in the FA Cup Final (at the new Wembley Stadium) on May 19. They're also both in the Champions League semis, so if they win (the Red Devils over AC Milan and the Blues over Liverpool), they'll match up in that final as well. And finally, only three points currently separate the two squads atop the Prem, which makes their May 9 date a HUGE one. I can only wish more people I know were as into this stuff as I am.

Mejor del Mundo

2007-04-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

"I'm that star up in the sky
I'm that mountain peak up high
Hey I made it
Mmm..I'm the world's greatest"
--The World's Greatest, R.Kelly

I think that means "best in the world" or something roughly equivalent (for a great example of loose translation, see Ichiro's quote from yesterday before facing Dice-K: "I hope he arouses the fire that's dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul. I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger."). It's on the occasion of watching my Padres win another one last night (4-0 over the TERRIBLE Giants) that I've decided to generate a list of some of the greatest things in the world, in their respective categories.
World's Greatest...
- Bullpen: The Padres. The reason for this post. Of course I'm probably jinxing them now, but Linebrink tossed a scoreless seventh and Brocail tossed a scoreless ninth (up four, no need for Trevor Time), running the pen's streak to 28 1/3 scoreless innings to start the season (club record is 32, should be eclipsed by the time I make it out to Dodger Stadium for Sunday's series finale)...
- Footballer: Cristiano Ronaldo. Two goals in Man U's 7-1 thrashing of AS Roma on Wednesday, and countless pressure-inducing runs, back-heels, stepovers and other acts of brilliance. He's 22, the source of a $107 million rumor (Real Madrid wants him badly), and has been the most dominant player on the best club in Europe this season. If United manage to capture the European Cup (they're in the semis against AC Milan), the FA Cup (they're in the semis against Watford) and the Premiership (they've got a three-point lead over Chelsea with six matches left), this will go down as one of the great team and individual performances in European football history...
- Pitcher: Could it really be Felix Hernandez? Watched most of his outing last night and he was ridiculous. I had heard last year that he had the stuff to be the best in the game, but wasn't all there mentally (and physically--he evidently dropped a bunch of weight in the off-season). He's been lights-out to start the season, so we'll see if it keeps going. According to Buster Olney, "seven of the 58 batters he's faced this year have hit the ball to the outfield -- and only one has mustered an extra-base hit, for an .075 batting average." Wow...
- Idiot: Don Imus. Enough has been said about him that I don't need to pile on, but after reading a list of some of the crap this guy has said in the past, it's about time that something went down. My only two cents on this: if this leads to misogynistic videos leaving the airwaves (read a good post on that from SI guy Roy S. Johnson here) and hyper-awareness about offensive (racist, sexist, whatever) behavior from people like Imus, then it's one of those good-that-comes-from-bad things that God's so good at...
- Music video: This one...
- Weekend: 3/30-4/2 (the exact days vary from year to year, and I'm including Friday and Monday, which might be technically stretching the concept a bit, but bear with me). It should be pretty obvious, but here's why: NCAA semifinals (even if UCLA did lose) and finals. MLB opening day (even if the Padre haters in the league office don't let us open the season until Tuesday, two days after the freaking Cardinals). Premier League in full swing (even if Newcastle United lost), nearing the end of the season (nice 4-1 win for Man U over Blackburn, poor Brad Friedel; Chelsea sneak out a late win over Watford, poor Jay DeMerit). You know, now that I look at it, even if the sports action was great, my squads were either losers or neglected, so maybe I won't make such a grand assertion...
- Video game: Still this one, after all these years. Thank goodness for emulators.
- Computer game: Still this one.
- Basketball commercial: This one is a close second (and was the inspiration behind a certain Top 50 show open, but I've always loved C-Webb at the barbershop. If you want a few more (including KG's fooseball game with Brandi Chastain, which probably would be third on my list), look here...
- Job: Mine. And I have to do it now...

Mad Props

2007-04-02T16:31:00.000-07:00

For the record, about 90 minutes before game time, I'm going to record some bets I will (not) be making tonight with (fake) money. I don't often (ever) gamble, so this is just an experiment to see how I'd do if in fact I did place small amounts of money on various prop bets for tonight's championship game. Here goes...

Spread: Ohio State +5 - $100
Largest Lead of Game Either Team Under 13.5 (110) - $110
Made Free Throws M Conley Jr Over 2.5 (-150) - $600
Points & Rebs by A Horford Over 23.5 (-120) - $240
Points & Rebs by C Brewer Over 18.5 (-125) - $250
Points Scored by Florida Over 72.5 (-130) - $390
Points Scored by L Humphrey Over 10.5 (-140) - $140

That's all for now...
[4/2/07 4:31 p.m.]

Okay, now to see how I would have done...
1) lost $100
2) won $210
3) won $1000
4) won $440
5) won $450
6) won $690
7) won $240
Wow, I should try this more often...I "wagered" $1830 and ended up with $2930, an overall profit of $1100. A few more days like that and I might end up able to buy a house in Manhattan Beach after all. All those props really did seem easy (though I obviously missed the game pick), but I'm sure that's not always the case. I'm going to extend this experiment over a few more sporting events before opening a betonsports.com account...

[4/3/07 9:28 a.m.]

Quick Questions

2007-03-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war"
--Question, The Moody Blues

Time for a few questions, rhetorical and otherwise, on this dark day Thursday...
- Is Landon Donovan the best player in American soccer history? Granted, he followed up Sunday's hat trick against Ecuador with a goose egg against Guatemala last night (he must have been afraid of their Guatemalan-ness), but the Sunday performance was unbelievable. Wearing the captain's armband, he scored on a volley off a bad clearance early, followed up with a nice conversion on a breakaway mid-second half, and capped it off with a thunderbolt from 25 yards out after a lovely ball from DMB (not Dave Matthews Band, though that would have been interesting to see him--or Boyd or Carter--roaming the left flank, but DaMarcus Beasley). It's not like we have this amazingly rich soccer history, countless players to put above him on the American totem pole, so I think he's probably number one or two (among field players, maybe Claudio Reyna would rank higher)...
- Is it ever permissable to put your t-shirt on before your underwear after a shower at the gym? Dude with the locker next to mine pulled this the other day, leaving me completely bewildered. I understand that the older generation feels very okay about nakedness in locker rooms, and while I'm slightly (vastly) more conservative on this front, I don't think I'm alone in assuming that underwear goes first, am I?
- Are HBO Sports documentaries the greatest things in the history of the world? First "Nine Innings to Ground Zero," and now this? If their headquarters could somehow relocate to Manhattan Beach, I'd be set for life...
- Is Greg Oden the only player in the Final Four to give credit to me for inspiring him to this point? Probably, but I'd say having even one person in that category is enough, right? From Rick Telander's column in Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times:
"The big fellow talked about his vicious dunks after the [Memphis] game, saying he had gotten fired up watching 'The Best Damn Sports Show Period' on Friday and witnessing the 50 best dunks in history."
Not bad, huh?
- Do youth baseball and softball coaches still write as poorly this year as they have in years past? Thankfully for the loyal readers of this feature (hmm, Side and Josh, maybe?), there's been no visible improvement. To wit (names not changed):
"The Rip Tide came up short in a wet and slippery 7-2 loss to the Barbie Dolls." - not sure I have any desire to know what this was about...
"The White Sox's offensive attack was lead by Christopher Walch, Andrew Nettles, and Jack Wilson, each had 2-3 hits to help score 11 runs." - the "lead" is one of my favorite (and most frequently-seen) errors, and I love the estimation in statistics--wonder if an NBA game article would go over well saying that "Bryant had 23-42 points, somewhere in there, and the Lakers won."...oh yeah, and "the White Sox's" is a nice touch as well...
"A severe Storm warning was forecast, with lightning-bolt pitches from Cox. The Nightmares showed up as expected, no fear from their hats to their socks...Hilsen kept her head down while at bat, as instructed by her coaches shout. Then Thompson played flawless shortstop, while Markowitz refused to strike out. So with fast speed in their legs, and dirt clods in their shoes; Nightmares aren't too bad, and for all that's good news." - Poetry, really? There's plenty more, but I've spared you from reading the whole thing...
"Great defense, particularly an inning ending web jem from Belcher also sealed the victory." - first of all, the fact that one of Belcher's kids (maybe?) made a play worthy of mention in the wrap-up is awesome...second of all, "jem?"...does this have anything to do with that pink-haired cartoon singer?...if she somehow made a play with little Belcher, then I want the video on YouTube right now, but if not, then we probably shouldn't be writing about it...
"I don't get it? This is not supposed to be fun. We end up on the losing end of a huge come-from-behind victory by the determined Dream Girls and our team comes running off the field smiling and laughing like they're at party or something. Maybe it was because of Tess's big hits and delayed steal home or was it because it was her birthday and the Stenzels brought lots of tasty cupcakes and sodas to celebrate...The only tears on the field were shed by our mascot, 3 yr. old Keaton, who was left out of the pitcher's circle cheer after the game. Both teams even did an extra circle cheer with him just so everyone was left happy. Maybe win or lose, this is supposed to be fun after all."
That's all I had time for on that one, since the editing took me like three hours on Monday night/Tuesday morning...good times...
- Will Jack Johnson be anywhere near as cool as Jack Johnson? I'm talking pre-"Curious George" Jack Johnson (such a sell-out). The hockey one makes his debut tonight against the Canucks, and while our beloved Kings' season has been over for, oh, about four months, they can salvage some hope (and maybe sell some season tickets?) over the next two weeks with Johnson, Patrick O'Sullivan and Anze Kopitar playing substantial minutes and (hopefully) providing a glimmer of hope for the future? Hope? Future? A Kings fan knows not these things...
- Is Kobe better than MJ? Tex Winter tackles this topic on Lakernoise. My take (obviously coming from a huge Kobe-lover): No. He's amazing, possibly the greatest scorer in league history (his streak this past week or so is more impressive than Wilt's, no doubt), and probably the best player in the game today (though he's not in the MVP discussion, and rightfully so), but he's not Michael. Nobody before or since has been like Michael. There's a reason everybody gets compared to him--he's the standard. I wish Kobe could assume a few more of Michael's traits, but it's not gonna happen. We just need Lamar to be more like Scottie, Kwame to be more like Horace...yeah, I know, not gonna happen...
- Am I the worst student ever? If you've ever asked yourself this question (and I have a few essays from my senior year of college that could provide a pretty strong argument in my favor), be relieved by the ineptitude (and humor) displayed by these students...
- Can the Bruins really win this thing? We're better defensively than we were last year, we have more offensive options, we have the same great coach, and they're the same team as last year, but haven't been playing as well. Plus, Florida's team leader is actually a lion, which may come back to haunt them at some point (hoping for Saturday, some crazy incident where he rips Al Horford's head off or something)...
- Who's going to win the Best Damn 3-on-3 Tournament this weekend? I'd pump myself up here, but I haven't played a minute of basketball since our Aviation High rec league team lost in the playoffs sometime back in '06. I feel like Tim in his "I hate basketball" stage, except I don't hate it, I just don't have time for it (in fairness to Tim, I believe that was the issue for him as well)...if bookies took action on this thing, I'd bet against my team in an h-beat...
- Any further questions?

LC Basketball

2007-03-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

"These are more than words, this is more than rap
This is the streets and I am the trap
Standing ovation, standing ovation"
--Standing Ovation, Young Jeezy

So I've had the good fortune of attending two La Canada High School basketball games in the last week or so, one of which was the amazing CIF championship game against heavily-favored Campbell Hall, and the most recent of which was a state quarterfinal triumph over San Diego section champion Mission Bay this last Saturday. Because I'm working today and don't have a ton of time to blog (something new, right?), I'm just going to copy the article I wrote after the CIF title game that ran in last weeks LCF Outlook (one of my three employers--I still edit articles for them a couple hours a week, and this was my first column in four years)...LC basketball alums will no doubt appreciate more than others, but hopefully it'll make sense nonetheless...

Spartan Family Watches With Pride
By SCOTT RIDDELL
LCF Outlook
15 years ago, Ryan Asplund played in this game. The senior guard was a huge part of LC's 62-53 victory over San Dimas in the 1992 CIF Division III-A final at the Sports Arena, good for the lone CIF basketball title in school history.
Saturday, he was in attendance at the Honda Center in Anaheim, watching this year's version of the Spartans battle mightily and come within four points of the No. 2-ranked team in the entire state.
12 years ago, Chris Evelyn was pouring in a career-high 30 points in a first-round playoff game.
Saturday, he was sitting behind the bench, admiring the relentless effort put forth by Coach Tom Hofman's squad through 32 grueling minutes of regulation and four more minutes of overtime.
11 years ago, Danny Bush was earning all-CIF honors, scoring in bunches, and leading LC to the second round of the playoffs.
Saturday, he too was in the building, watching in awe as Adam Malik connected on 10 of his 16 shots, four of his seven three-pointers, and played every minute of an intense, physical game.
Nine years ago, Tim Chung, Bryan Stevens and John May were playing their way to within a game of the CIF finals, falling just short against Barstow in an epic semifinal contest.
Saturday, they cheered themselves hoarse, watching an inspirational bunch of undersized, overmatched Spartans match a nationally-ranked Campbell Hall squad, shot for shot.
This group of seniors has its own connections to the Spartan basketball past. Most were coached at the freshman level by Brent Ballard, another member of the 1992 championship team, and on the junior varsity by Evelyn.
Numerous other former Spartans made the trip to Anaheim, including (but not limited to) Chris Jones, Ryan Candelora, Jeremy Drake, Mike Riddell, Steve Gilmour, Rob Seastrom, Dan Niemann, Nick Racklin, Joel Kim, Chris Wang, Alan Schaefer, R.T. Van Valer and Umar Khan. And they all walked away amazed by what they saw.
A Campbell Hall team that had defeated its previous playoff opponents by an average of more than 55 points per game needed overtime to defeat-barely-this resilient group.
“I’ve never been more proud of a team,” Hofman said after the game. “I think they earned a lot of respect out there, playing as hard as they played.”
Respect indeed. Every Spartan player left everything he had on the floor, and each one is deserving of praise from a grateful and admiring group of alumni.
Malik dominated on the offensive end, added a team-high eight rebounds, was a constant support with his help defense and did more than enough to prove he's worthy of a Division I scholarship.
Tucker Heaton and Jackson Ridd ran themselves ragged defending a future NBA player in Jrue Holiday, and Heaton somehow still found the energy to hit a big three-pointer in the second half.
Garrison Grimes shook off early jitters and knocked down a three-pointer at the end of the first half to give LC a six-point lead, its biggest of the game.
William Baldwin played totally unafraid, posting up, grabbing offensive rebounds, finishing strong inside, and even stepping out to nail a baseline jumper.
Darren Ho handled a college-level pressure defense with great determination, scoring seven points and fighting off constant harassment at every turn.
Christian Nitu was a physical presence on defense and on the boards, and hit a huge three-pointer in the fourth quarter (he definitely called glass).
With the pulses of every single Spartan in the building quickening, Ross Grandolph stepped to the line with 22.6 seconds left and hit two cold-blooded free throws to tie the game.
Awesome. And magical. And amazing, and any number of glowing words of tribute that can be thrown out there. They all apply.
And a legion of La Canada basketball alumni could not be more proud.

It's been way too long since I've written anything original in this space, so hopefully this was okay for now. My Top 50 Unforgettable Shots show (greatest shots in basketball history--Jordan, Bird, Magic, Laettner, etc.) airs tomorrow night, so that's been taking up most of my time, and then I'm supposed to be heading to Phoenix the rest of the week for some stuff with Jalen Rose and the Suns (possibly a dinner with Jalen and C-Webb, who'll be in town with the Pistons--wow)...

Partial Greatness

2007-02-15T15:15:00.000-08:00

There are movies that rank among the greatest of all time (or among my greatest of all time) because, much like athletes whose careers earn them berths in their sports' respective halls of fame, they endure and display greatness over time, not just in a short burst. This is why Larry Walker is not a hall of famer (he had a few great years, but not enough of an entire career) and Tony Gwynn is (undeniable greatness over a 20-year career). So I got home from work last night and turned on the television (as I am wont to do on occasion), intending to play the still-TiVo'd Studio 60 episode from Monday night, but I was instead greeted with "That Thing You Do" on HBO. Highly underrated film, but its greatest moment is the scene in which the band members first hear their song on the radio. I arranged my lunch-making and bag-packing schedule around the scene, which (if you'll recall) comes just after the Oneders sign their first deal with Phil, and it did not disappoint. The set-up is great: the lovely Faye (Liv Tyler) is mailing letters and listening to her radio; T.B. Player (seriously, the bass player's name in the movie is 'T.B. Player', look it up) is doing likewise as he exits the Marine recruitment office; Guy is working in his dad's store, showing a few female customers the different colors of stoves they have available. All of a sudden, "Erie's own oh-nee-ders" are playing, and Faye goes crazy, running down the street, grabbing T.B. and careening into the appliance store, where Guy turns on all the radios in the place and they proceed to dance like maniacs. Jimmy and Lenny eventually join them, and the sheer joy is so fun to watch. There are several moments like this in the movie (running through the throngs of screaming girls on their way to the limo) where the excitement of "making it" as a band are so deftly displayed, but this is the defining moment, and one of my favorite movie scenes of all time. Others that came to mind as I started to consider great scenes...
- The hockey scene in Swingers. Video gaming in movies has never been done better, though it's been imitated often since then.
- The "You know how I know you're gay?" scene in 40-Year Old Virgin. They're also playing video games in this one, but it's hardly the focal point. The extended version on the DVD, the two dudes just riffing on this topic forever, is hilarious.
- The climactic scene in Scent of a Woman, in which Pacino earns his Oscar, putting Headmaster Trask in his place and getting Charlie out of any punishment for his so-called crimes--Charlie may have been many things, "but not a snitch!"
- The scene at work where I have way too much to do to finish writing something fun like this. Oh well.

Seeking Answers

2007-02-13T08:41:00.000-08:00

"Forget about the reasons and the treasons we are seeking
Forget about the notion that our emotion can be kept at bay"
--Seek Up, Dave Matthews Band

I had a thought the other day at the gym (the new corporate gym on the Fox lot, now replacing 24-Hour Fitness in my daily routine, at half the cost and twice the convenience) about how gyms are often like churches, and not in a good way. A big problem with the youth group which formerly employed me (and with many youth groups, I would assume) was the way the core group of attendees would respond to visitors, mostly those of the not-so-"churchy" lifestyles. Say there's somebody you go to school with who's known to be a drinker and a drug user, and you're the typical good Christian boy, how would you, the latter, view the former's presence with you in church on Sunday morning? Ideally, he'd be welcomed with open arms (as Jesus often spoke of how he came to heal the sick, not the well), but in reality, it was often far from that. The looks and whispers say "what is he doing here?" instead of "thank God he's here," and that sucks. So the thought I had at the gym was that the fit often view the unfit in the same light, right? Thankfully the Fox gym is made up of a vastly different clientele than, say, Gold's Gym (my buddy Mike, who's a member at Gold's, speaks fondly of his rise up the relative manliness charts in his move to the Fox location), but I think the thought process is universal. For whatever reason, there's an "I'm better than you" feeling that permeates both of these institutions (churches and gyms, not Gold's and Fox), and I'm certainly not saying I'm exempt, which also sucks. I think there's a sermon in there somewhere...
Speaking of churches, I had a chance to check out Mosaic in Downtown L.A. Sunday night, which reminded me very much of Hillsong in London, but with better teaching. Erwin McManus (I believe I went to a seminar of his at Youth Specialties one year) is one of two people that I now realize I'm able to listen to for more than 20 minutes. It's a sad reality that I fall asleep in almost every church service I attend (especially the Christmas Eve service at LCPC, moreso because it's late), which probably represents ADD of some kind (though it's never been diagnosed), and the odds go way up the longer the sermon goes. When I used to speak on Sunday mornings, I'd try real hard to keep it to 20 minutes or less, because I know the attention span of teenagers is even worse than mine, so when I'm trying to hear a sermon, it's real tough to stay up the longer it goes. That being said, I've had one big exception to the rule (until Sunday night): Britt Merrick, who I got to hear speak two or three times up at Reality in Santa Barbara a few years back. He'd speak for 40-50 minutes and I was into it the whole way, which was shocking at the time. Erwin spoke for close to an hour on Sunday, and again, I was there with him the whole way. It remains to be seen whether this was a one-time thing (was I better-rested than usual? did the fact that I was seated in the second row--as opposed to my normally further-back location--mean I had to be extra careful, subconsciously?) or whether he's got the power to keep my attention for an unlimited amount of time. Girls have that power (only certain ones, obviously), but it'd be nice to get that at church too...
Wonderful weekend in the Premiership, highlighted by a HUGE Newcastle United win over Liverpool--Oguchi Onyewu was outstanding in his home debut for the Magpies, Obafemi Martins scored another great goal, and old favorite Nolberto Solano knocked in a penalty for the winner). Manchester United kept its six-point lead over Chelsea, thanks to Ji-Sung Park and Darren Fletcher (though much of the work was done, as usual, by Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney), and they remain favorites to bring home the title. Elsewhere (in American-centric circles), Reading (Bobby Convey and Marcus Hahnemann) continued their remarkable rise up the table (they're currently 6th) with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa, Jay DeMerit's Watford beat Jonathan Spector's West Ham, 1-0, and Clint Dempsey/Brian McBride/Carlos Bocanegra couldn't keep Fulham from falling to Bolton, 2-1.
I still haven't had time to blog about Miami, and I don't know that I'll ever be able to adequately sum up the 10 days I spent down there, but I suppose I'll have to try at some point. Highs include two Heat games (including the TNT game against the Cavs, where we saw everyone who's anyone--Ladainian, Andy Roddick, Enrique Iglesias & Anna Kournikova, etc.), extended work with the lovely ladies of the Irene Marie modeling agency (four days' worth of model challenge segments, such fun), coordination of our DJ's (DJ Irie, the Heat DJ, for three days, and DJ Khaled--with good friend Rick Ross--the other two) and dancers (most notably, the Heat dancers), and several fun shoots (an eating contest with Leeann at Hooters, tattoos with Rodney and Dibble at Miami Ink, Salley in the locker room and on the floor at that Heat game). Lows, hmm, how about none? Besides being pretty tired at the end of the week, I can't come up with something bad about the trip, and I'd say that's a small price to pay...
My television show selection is quite thankful for TiVo, I must say, since the only three shows I watch with regularity all air on Monday nights--Prison Break, 24 and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Missing two weeks' worth (Miami, remember?) meant I spent much of the day Saturday (after the EPL, of course) catching up on everything. It bears mentioning that this was my first full weekend at home since early December, which is pretty ridiculous.

That's pretty much it for now. Oh yeah, except for this...

Chicago Style

2007-01-25T07:40:00.000-08:00

"I walk through the valley of the Chi where death is
Top floor the view alone will leave you breathless"
--Jesus Walks, Kanye West

Every once in a while, I'm reminded of how blessed I am, and how many ridiculously fun things I get to do because of what I do. This past weekend in Chicago was one of those occasions, as I strolled out onto Soldier Field early in the fourth quarter of the Bears' shellacking of Reggie and the Saints, snow lightly falling and Chicago fans going crazy all around us. Thankfully Joel was on hand to document the occasion photographically...

Yeah, I was pretty stoked to be there, obviously. I had been to Chicago just once previously (en route to South Bend), and hadn't really gotten to experience the city, as it were. This time, we stayed right on the Chicago River, walked a little ways (through wind and snow, so great) to dinner (Giordano's, Chicago-style deep dish) with Eddie George (he treated, good man) and then cruised down to the game the next morning.

Anyways, on this occasion, I thought I'd reflect back on the last 12 months or so, and some of the amazing things I've been able to do (though I'm likely to forget some, I'm sure) and any previous blog references, if they exist. Though the tone might appear somewhat braggadocious (that's a real word, I promise), but it's honestly coming from a place of awe, like am I really this fortunate? Wow...

March '06: Spent a week in England (and two days in Norway), including three football matches. Arsenal-Fulham (Thierry Henry is the best player I've ever seen in person), Watford-Reading (Bobby Convey's not bad) and Manchester United-Newcastle United (my Magpies lost, but it was worth it to see Wayne Rooney score twice). Briefly discussed here

April '06: My first real feature shoot was in Denver for the Clippers-Nuggets playoff game, which didn't go as well as I had hoped (not my fault, I was assured), but I still got to meet a bunch of players and coaches and hang around courtside for an NBA Playoff game, which didn't suck. Also got to sneak up to Boulder for lunch with Pat after the morning shootarounds. Mid-way through the trip here

May '06: My second big feature shoot, hanging out with Jalen Rose at Game 7 of the Suns-Clippers series. In hindsight, two things are pretty cool--I was introduced to Jack McCallum, who was (as I know now) working on a book about the Suns' season, one which I just finished; and two, Jalen is now a Sun, and the chemistry between him and those guys was very evident back then (though I think Jalen would get along with pretty much anybody). At the time, it was obviously pretty cool too, chatting with (among others) Billy Crystal, Penny Marshall, Matt Leinart, T-O and Fred Couples (don't think Jalen knew who he was, but that's okay). A note about it here (also includes a note and photo from the next two...)

June '06: We did a show from Hermosa Beach, which meant hanging out with Hooters girls, SI swimsuit model Marisa Miller, US soccer player (and model) Heather Mitts--oh yeah, and our guys and Michael Strahan too. Also went to the Reno Rodeo with Leeann, which was very different for me (I even had a few cowboys lecture me about my choice of attire--long-sleeve button-down shirt and boots were the correct choice). Those people love them some rodeo, let me tell you. Best event by far was the mutton-bustin', where little kids ride sheep like the big boys ride broncos, and the crowd goes crazy for it. We were actually out on the dirt for that one, and one of the sheep (after losing its rider) almost jumped over Leeann's head, kinda crazy. Also was treated to a nice dinner (mexican place, I had fajitas) by Leeann before heading to the airport, which was obviously nice.

July '06: Got to sit in the booth for the Yankees-White Sox game at Yankee Stadium (Fox game, I was hired as a runner for the day), the highlight of which was walking through the Yankee dugout and then monument park after it had been closed to the public, and watching A-Rod drop bombs into the bleachers during BP. Mentioned here

August '06: Two days in Alabama for a fishing show, which was along the lines of the rodeo in that it's not something I've ever done or ever thought I'd be doing. The highlight was meeting Bo Jackson (Ken Stabler too), and spending a couple hours with Salley and Rose, fishing and trying to keep up with Dibble and Rodney (we lost, four fish to one).

Also worked the Evander Holyfield comeback fight in Dallas, which was amazing. Too much to recall, but it's blogged about in great detail here

September '06: Weekend trip to Arkansas for USC's season-opener. Managed a sideline pass, so I got to hang out down there and take some fun pictures, then hand it off so Michael and John could also experience the excitement. Real tight.

In addition, the most meaningful shoot I've ever been a part of, spending a day in New Orleans with Joe Horn (and interviewer Graham Bensinger), walking around the Lower 9th Ward (one of the most devastated areas) and then the Superdome, to which Joe hadn't returned since their last game there, more than a year prior. One of the days that I've felt most proud to be doing what I'm doing, definitely.

October '06: Journeyed to Notre Dame with a fellow producer for the UCLA game, which turned out to be as heartbreaking an experience as I've had in sports (in person). We still had an awesome time (how couldn't we), spending a couple hours on campus before the game to take in all the tradition.

November '06: Holyfield fight number two, this time in San Antonio, home of perhaps the greatest all-night Mexican restaurant in the world, Mi Tierra (it's actually the only one of which I'm aware, so I have a limited pool from which to draw). Fun times with Evander once again, though he wasn't as convincing this time around.

The dunks show also came to fruition (and aired), including an awesome shoot at a playground with T. J. Fontenette (And 1's "The Air Up There"). Talked a little about it here

December '06: Two weeks of vacation were pretty nice, including a Kings game with Michael and Jeffrey, and a UCLA basketball game with Dad (and a BCS national championship or two with the XBox version of the Washington Huskies). The holidays should always be this relaxing.

January '07: This is where it picks up and gets pretty ridiculous, starting with the Rose Bowl on the 1st, continuing with a week-long jaunt to St. Maarten on a private jet (weeks in the sun are pretty solid no matter how you get there, but still), then a weekend in Arizona for the BCS Championship game (on the field with Florida the whole time, so cool), and then this little Chicago trip. Geez.

Fortunately, there's still more to come next week (leaving for Miami on Saturday), since we're doing our show every day from the Surfcomber Hotel on South Beach, and I'll be taking in the Heat-Bucks game on Tuesday night, among other things (Joel and I are in charge of two segments entitled "Model Challenge"--I'm guessing that won't suck).

I suppose this post would qualify as a clip show, in that I didn't do much original material, just kind of looked back at previous work, but it's a post nonetheless, and I haven't been producing those with much regularity at all these days, so I'll take it. Hoping to add at least one from Miami next week, but we'll see...

Super Size Me

2007-01-11T13:02:00.000-08:00

"Super size, super size, the American way
Going down, throwing down, all day, every day
Super size, super size, the American way
Getting fat, getting broke, either way you're gonna pay"
--Super Size Me, Toothpick

There are a few different connotations for the title of today's post, one of which is the movie of same name (the theme song of which is featured above), viewed for the first time in our hotel in St. Maarten last week, and a combination of images impossible to get over in any short order. After seeing said film, were I a fast-food eater of any repute (I don't consider my semi-monthly consumption of an El Pollo Loco Ultimate Grilled burrito to represent me as any kind of fast-food eater), there would be no possible way I could continue along that culinary path.
I'm not writing any longer on this topic, but allow me to make the Big Mac-Big Mac connection and bridge myself to the real thought du jour--the supersized baseball slugger (in general) and the left-out-of-Cooperstown Cardinals' former Big Mac (in France they call him Le Big Mac). I'm obviously quite pleased at the induction of Fat Tony, and Cal deserves to be there as well (what a great class of two), but the bigger news story on announcement day was that Mark McGwire received just 25% of the vote (far short of the required 75%), and will face a long, uphill battle in his quest to make it in future years. Much has been written on this subject by vastly superior sources, so I won't bore (all three of) you with preaching on either side of the argument, but I will offer my opinion, briefly, and with solid reason.
Mark McGwire belongs in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I walked out of an elevator in my building today and stared right at reason number one for this assertion. A series of promos for Fox Sports (or maybe Fox Sports Net, doesn't matter) depicted fans experiencing great moments and affirmed our (the royal we) connection to them (the fans) through these memorable moments. The tag line was something along the lines of "We understand" or something more clever (slogans have never been my strength, and recalling the slogan in this case is not integral to the success of my argument), and these crazed Cardinals fans were leaping out of their seats (at home, on couches and recliners) to celebrate McGwire slamming home run number 62 back in 1998. Joe Buck's call is written out on the poster as well, and since you can't see what's on the TV, that's your only reference to the event taking place. These guys were good actors, and the joy on their face is quite evident, but there were millions of people--no actors necessary-- in the summer of '98 who celebrated just the same, watching an historic (I'm not sure why people tend to use "an" in front of "historic," but I think it makes me sound distinguished in this case, so I'm going with it) period in baseball.
I care not for the Cardinals nor the Cubs, and my Padres made it to the World Series in '98 (darn you, Tino Martinez), but I'll forever remember '98 as the year of McGwire, not of Caminiti, Gwynn, Kevin Brown and Greg Vaughn. He and Sammy essentially saved baseball that year (another point that's been made numerous times), and whether or not Mac's feats were chemically-aided (and who in their right mind didn't think so, even at that time), they brought great joy to all the people (starting to sound biblical, sorry) at a time when the whole sport (and its vast fan base) needed just that. Based on those on-field accomplishments (and they are numerous) and his bigger-than-the-game influence on fans across the country, I don't think speculation should be sufficient to bring him down. In fact, I don't even think factual confirmation of said speculation (should it ever become available) should be sufficient either, because there's no way we'll ever know how many players in the late 90's and early 00's were using "performance-enhancing drugs," hitters or pitchers (and don't even get me started on Clemens).
The whole period's numbers are skewed, but the best players from the period should still be in the Hall of Fame. Baseball's history will reflect that drugs (and the surrounding suspicions) dominated this time period, and the players who enter the Hall from said period will (unfortunately, in guys like Gwynn's case) be linked to all that shadiness. Baseball writers should not blackball a generation of players, because everyone (from MLB itself down to owners, managers, players, and even writers) is to blame for the epidemic that this whole steroids thing has become, and for one member of that group (the writers, most of whom turned a deaf ear to any speculation, as long as it was good for the game--and for readership of newspapers and magazines) to decry another (the players) reeks of hypocrisy to me.
Okay, so I wasn't as brief as I initially intended, but hypocrisy is one of the most frustrating things in the world, in any field, so I'm obviously quite passionate in my assessment of the situation. I'll lighten up from here on, I promise.

Quick recap of that last week-plus, starting on New Year's Day, with an associated thought or two:

1/1 - Rose Bowl game (Michigan vs. USC), 10th row up in the Vince Young corner - Dwayne Jarrett is rather good (though I talked to Keyshawn Johnson on our set yesterday, and he's not convinced Jarrett's going to be an amazing pro); the Big 10 is slow (more on this in a bit); flyovers are really cool
1/2 - flew from LA to St. Maarten via private jet (steak dinner at like 4 in the morning, fell asleep on a recliner watching "Talladega Nights"), spent the next week or so on the beach, napping and reading (and improving my skin tone from ghostly white to pale white)
1/7 - flew back to LA, spent the next day coming to grips with the fact that I was no longer on an island paradise in the Caribbean - watched some NFL playoff games, and by far the worst thing that happened on Sunday was Subway Jared's appearance in the CBS post-game studio
1/8 - flew to Phoenix, spent Monday night on the Florida sidelines with Leeann Tweeden, a venture (paired with my buddy Joel's time with John Salley on the Ohio State sideline) which turned into an excellent piece that aired on our show Tuesday night - the Big 10 is REALLY slow (Troy Smith, 6 yards? Really?); Chris Leak seems like a pretty weird dude; Florida's cheerleaders were way cuter; found out during a quick dinner break in the 2nd quarter Leeann and I were at the same beach in St. Maarten, within about an hour of each other, last week
1/9 - flew back from Phoenix and came right into work, which included a nice chat with Antonio Gates before his appearance - his humility and dedication to team first are inspirational (tough game this weekend, but I'm feeling pretty good)

I'm out, afternoon meeting AT THE PLAYBOY MANSION to go to. No joke.
And one last thing before I go: greatest music video of all time? Quite possibly. Wow.

West Coast Bias

2006-12-30T10:12:00.000-08:00

Come back, to this very day
Cause losing's one thing we don't play
If you're ever in a fight and you're beating one of us
Break out, before you get bumrushed
At the wild, wild west
--Wild Wild West, Kool Moe Dee

Other than Jimmy Eat World, I don't know that I've quoted too many artists more than once, and http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifyet somehow, Kool Moe Dee has now made his second appearance on the blog. It's the holidays, which means I've had very little to do, and still haven't made enough time to blog, so here's the December entry, boys and girls...
First thing is to share the excitement (?) of getting blasted by the Sports Guy in . Granted, he doesn't know it's me that he's blasting, but he evidently watched my Top 50 Dunks show (officially titled "Best Damn's Top 50 Spectacular Dunks") on the 26th (its first re-air; three or four more showings to come) and while he thoroughly enjoyed it, he had quite a few problems with the "unconscionable" decision-making of the producer (yours truly):

(And by the way, is there a better solution for a failing, irrelevant sports show than to just start counting down the top-50 of every conceivable subject? Wild horses couldn't have dragged me away from the "Top 50 Greatest Dunks" episode, even if some of the choices were absolutely unconscionable. How do you have five Vince Carter dunks, five Kobe dunks and one Dominique dunk? How does Darryl Dawkins not crack the top-10 for the Robinzine dunk? How was Pippen's dunk over Ewing "honorable mention"? Where was Doc's tomahawk dunk over Bill Walton in the '77 Finals? And why isn't ESPN doing shows like this? I'd watch a "Top-50 Gatorade Baths" show, for God's sake. Why are we conceding this franchise to Chris Rose? Arrrrrrrrrrgh.)

I'm conaidering the contents of an email to him, to explain some of the difficulties of the process (the NBA's stubbornness high among them), and to ask for some feedback on my next show, the greatest shots in basketball history.
A few quick thoughts on the shots show, which will hopefully be airing sometime in February: Christian Laettner, number one? Tyus Edney, top 10? Probably not, but I'm biased, so we'll see. MJ's switching hands against the Lakers (lots of people call that one overrated)? Tough one to decide, since it's a combo of the dramatic (Laettner, Gar Heard, Jerry West from half court), the spectacular (MJ, Doc's baseline wraparound against the Lakers, J.R. Rider's behind-the-back flip falling out of bounds), and the inspirational (Bo Kimble's lefty free throw, that J-Mac kid in the high school game last year). Looking forward to the process, for sure...
Okay, so the reason I used this particular title and song lyric combination was that I'm beyond excited about Pac-10 basketball this year. No less a regionalist than Billy Packer called it "the best league in the country" during the Ohio State-Florida (basketball) game last Saturday (yes, I know they're also playing in football in a week or so--I'm going to be there, so I'm well aware). I've been to four UCLA games so far this year (only paid for one--Christmas present for Dad), and by far their toughest test was the other night against Wazzu, which was picked to finish last in the conference. Wow, talk about depth, huh? My guess is that ASU (sorry, Herb Sendek) will be the cellar-dweller, so without further ado, here's my extremely biased, one-game-in, top-half-of-the-Pac-10 preview (everybody except the Oregons have played once).
1) UCLA, if only because I'm a homer and they're the number one team in the country, so how can I pick against them, right? Howland has them playing even better defense than last year (if you want to know how, just watch Jordan Farmar try to guard somebody--anybody--during a Laker game), and as long as Josh Shipp is healthy (bad wheel limited his offense Thursday night), they've got two or three guys (Afflalo and sometimes Collison) who can create their own shot. Minus Hollins, they're a little smaller down low (whoever imagined, before last March, that we'd be missing Hollins?), but Mata has been pretty strong, and Luuuuuuuuuuc is a crazy defensive presence (three steals and three blocks Thursday). Side note, something I've shared before: every team needs a Luuuuuuuuuuuc-sounding name--nothing like a whole arena joining in the cheer after a block or a dunk ("No sir, they're not booing. They're saying, 'Boo-urns.'")
2) Arizona, who scored 94 points against Cal and looks like they can top the century mark every time out. What a contrast in styles between the Wildcats and the Bruins, right? (By the way, my 5th-grade basketball league championship game was between the orange-and-blue Wildcats (featuring my two best friends, Jeff Petit and Jeremy Rabe) and the baby blue-and-gold Bruins (featuring me). We lost.) They've got several guys who can fill it up, including Marcus Williams (please leave early, please leave early), Jawann McClellan (they really missed him last year) and Billy Hoyle, er, Chase Budinger, who's just as happy scoring 10 with eight assists as he is dropping 30. Shakur has actually been pretty solid at the point (seniors do get better, I suppose), and Radenovic pretty solid down low. They scare me because so many guys can score, and even though we really defend well, they have a lot of answers. I think we split the two games, but they drop at least one more of the at Oregon, at You-Dub, at SC, at Cal combo than we do.
3) Washington, because Spencer Hawes is the best post-up player I've seen since George Zidek (respect the Czech), and Ivan Drago is not a bad complementary player (I'm now being told his name is actually Jon Brockman. My bad.) I had the pleasure of working a high school basketball tournament in Vegas in August of '05 with Best Damn--we broadcast the two semifinal games and then the championship, and while one of the teams (coached by Kyle Lowry's older brother, Lonnie) was more of an overachieving, no-stars squad, the three others provided several big-time players. We got to see Hawes (I immediately told my UCLA buddies that if we signed him, we'd win multiple national championships--hopefully Kevin Love brings that sort of success along next year), Kevin Durant (evidently the best freshman--and maybe the best player--in the country right now), who did not impress at all--shot way too many threes, and never took it inside against much smaller opponents), Tywon Lawson (carolina's point guard), Brook and Robin Lopez (Collins twins, part II at Stanford), Derrick Jasper (caused us a little bit of trouble in Maui when he came in at point for Kentucky) and Quincy Pondexter, who's UW's leading scorer. Pretty awesome experience, and now getting to see these guys dominate where they are is pretty cool too. All that to say I like Washington, especially Hawes and Pondexter, Dentmon gives them backcourt experience, Opie Appelby can bomb from anywhere (six threes against the Trojans), and then they have a guy named Hans Gasser, who I think was a bad guy in one of the Die Hard movies. Oh yeah, and Lorenzo Romar is my favorite coach in the country not named Howland.
4) Oregon, I guess. They did beat Georgetown, but do we really know how good they are? They'll beat Oregon State today, but we'll see in the long run. They do have some talent, for sure, with Brice Taylor and Malik Hairston the big names, and Aaron Brooks running a solid point (when he's not throwing picks and throwing his teammates and coaches under the bus in Oakland--busy year for this guy, wow). The wildcard is Tajuan Porter, who nobody had heard of until he went 27, 28, 38 (10 of 12 threes?!?) in the Ducks' first three games. He's 5-6, he's from Michigan (did Hairston help bring this guy in?), and he's kinda sweet (though he didn't score against Portland the other night). Leunen is their main inside guy (I swear he's been there seven years), and he's been in double figures so far as well, which seems to give them as many offensive options as anybody in the conference. Senior point guard, numerous scorers, a huge homecourt advantage--they could surprise and move up a few slots here, for sure.
5) either USC or Wazzu, because they both impressed in their respective conference openers. SC is only going to get better, with Pruitt now back (and playing well after two terrible games) and a lot more depth than last year. This Wilkinson kid is great, ball-handler, rebounder and garbage scorer--good teams need guys like that. Nick Young's bad haircut is gone, and he's capable of 20 a night, and Taj Gibson has been a truck down low. Wazzu will win some games because they play great defense, much like UCLA. I don't think we're great offensively, but they made us look terrible, holding us to less than 33% from the floor. Steve Nash play-alike Derrick Low really surprised me, making a ton of difficult shots (though he settled for a bad trey on his team's penultimate possession) and keeping Collison (the best defensive point guard in the country?) on his heels the whole way. Besides Low, they've got a bunch of interchangeable guys (which allows them to switch everything on defense) and a few shooters, and Bennett the younger is a solid coach.
The rest of the conference goes like this: 7) Cal, 8) Stanford, 9) Oregon State, 10) Arizona State.
A few more observations from the world, sporting and otherwise, this holiday season (and yes, these will also likely come from very biased perspective):
- The Kings (Los Angeles, nobody cares about Sacramento) really suck, but thank goodness they decided to play well when the bros and I went on Tuesday night. Hockey really is the best spectator sport there is--we had a fight, a 3-3 tie at the end of regulation (Kings pulled the goalie, tied it up in the last minute) and then a nice shootout win (rookie goaltender Barry Brust, already a crowd favorite, came up big). We're a far cry from the Gretzky-Kurri-Sandstrom-Granato (I could seriously name every player on that roster, thanks to a) watching every game in the '93 season, and b) playing NHL '94 religiously) Stanley Cup finalist squad, and even a far cry from the Allison-Palffy-Deadmarsh playoff squad, but there's certainly some young excitement out there (Brust, Frolov--sometimes--and Kopitar), and it's still fun to go watch (as long as they're not getting blown out 7-0)...
- I don't like where this season is headed if Kobe is scoring 58 and we're losing to the Charlotte Bobcats (in triple OT, but a loss nonetheless). Lamar needs to come back, real soon, or we'll be reverting to the bad parts of the '04-'05 season in no time. Best stat from last night's game was Adam Morrison's shooting: 1-of-15 from the floor. Seriously...
- First year in forever that I haven't watched a bowl game yet, except for fast-forwarding the TiVo to catch up on the UCLA score while our out-of-town cousins were over (I still haven't mastered the appropriateness of entertaining guests and watching sports--depending on the importance of the event, I'm probably about as bad a host as you'll find, but as soon as FSU blocked the punt and took it back, I was good to go). I'm not sure why that's been the case (I probably would have watched Cal, but they were on while I was at the UCLA game), but Michael and I are going to the Rose Bowl, so that's one I'll have to watch (and the rest of the BCS games, of course--they're all on Fox)...
- Did the Diamondbacks actually watch Randy Johnson pitch last year, or were they just watching the '01 World Series DVD and getting nostalgic? And they want to sign him to an extension?!? His ERA was 5.00 and he didn't allow less than five runs in a start after September 1. He's 43 (looks even older, obviously) and I really hope it's Arizona that makes this deal, not my Padres...
- My boy Shawne Merriman got blasted by Jason Taylor and Champ Bailey (likely his two top competitors for defensive player of the year honors) this week, saying that he shouldn't be eligible for the award because of his (alleged) steroid use. Merriman evidently responded this week:

Merriman, nicknamed "Lights Out" for his punishing hits, said he sent Taylor a T-shirt and hat with his "Lights Out" logo. He also sent a bag of popcorn, "So he can watch us in the playoffs."

I heart Shawne Merriman. Oh yeah, and I heart A.J. Smith too--here's why:

All nine of their Pro Bowl players are under contract through at least 2008. In all, 19 core players - defined as starters, kicker, punter and projected 2007 starters - are under contract through 2009.

Yeah. Show me your lightning bolt.
- Last thing: followed a link on this other dude's blog yesterday to vote for MSN's Artist of the Year (music, not art), and the David Crowder Band is up for the award, along with INXS, Prince, Christina Aguilera and Kenny Chesney. I really don't know who comes up with the nominations or how it works, but however they got there, I'm amazed at how far these guys have come. They used to be (maybe still are?) the worship leaders at University Baptist Church in Waco, TX (the guys went to Baylor) and have spent the last decade or so rising to the top of the Christian music scene. I used to attend the Youth Specialties Conference every year and they were one of the main attractions, usually playing a concert one night and leading worship sessions throughout the week(end). They'd always be jamming on something instrumental as people were filing into the daily sessions, and it was always awesome--the Top gun theme, Sweet Child O' Mine, always something cool. The best part about Crowder himself, and the band as well, was (and no doubt still is) their humility. Always deflecting praise upward, they set a great example to other Christian artists, and to Christians in general. I have certainly lost touch with their music and their level of success, but I'm stoked that they've arrived; they definitely deserve it...

Zen MASTER

2006-12-01T08:06:00.000-08:00

Master of Puppets, I'm pulling your strings
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams
--Master of Puppets, Metallica

Phil Jackson is a freaking genius (for the record, I just think the song title's relevant, I don't believe he's actually smashed your dreams--unless your name has a "Maloof" or an "Adelman" in it). Not that I'm breaking any sort of ground with this observation or anything, but the guy is better at what he does than anybody I've ever seen in any sport (I obviously didn't get to see Wooden coach, so he doesn't count). At the NBA level, the mental edge is so huge, and Jackson consistently finds ways to get it and maintain it--over his players, his opponents, the referees, anybody. His most recent stroke of genius came on Thursday, a day off for the Lakers, as he questioned Kobe's physical capacity since surgery. Phil said something to the effect that he didn't "think Kobe would ever be back to 100 percent" after his off-season knee surgery. Kobe himself had said it might take until January for him to feel his best, but Phil kind of kicked him in the ass with that one, inferring that he couldn't be the 81-point-dropping Kobe of old. Well, last night (coincidentally--or not--against the Jazz, the team with the best record in the NBA), he was indeed the Kobe of old. If he's not 100 percent, then that third quarter was even more amazing than it appeared, and I'm not sure if that's even possible.
If you missed it (TNT broadcast, the always-entertaining team of Marv Albert and Steve Kerr, the never-entertaining sideline schmuck Craig Sager), here's what Kobe did in the third quarter alone: 10 for 10 from the line (no big deal, I suppose), nine for nine from the floor (what?!?), including two threes, for a grand total of 30 points. In one quarter. Seriously. He tied his own franchise record for points in a q, and came within three of the all-time record (held by the Iceman), and more importantly, helped his team blow out the best team (so far) in the West. Not too shabby for a guy who's playing below capacity. He finished with 52 in just 34 minutes and on just 26 shots (yes, that was more than the rest of the starting lineup combined, but come on, he was feeling it).
Kobe's pretty much the most competitive guy alive right now, and Jackson still has the ability to light that extra fire under him, which is unbelievable. It makes sense that a guy like Brian Shaw or Ron Harper would have an extra level and be able to play over his head for Jackson, but Phil has also been able to get more out of the best that have ever played, and that's what makes him the best ever.
MJ was better than everybody before Phil got there, but Phil helped him buy into the team, lean a little bit on Scottie, take over when he needed to, and they won six titles. The number of egos on that team was incredible (MJ, Scottie, Rodman, Kukoc at the very least), and besides a few Jordan punching guys in practice stories (and Scottie sitting out the Kukoc game-winner), Phil never allowed them to let those egos get in the way of winning.
By the time he got to L.A. (and several years before, I'm sure), he actually was one of those egos himself, which made the break-up of the big three (no, Rick Fox was not one of those three) inevitable. Shaq was dominant before Phil got there, but he too learned the trusting teammates thing, and took over when he needed to (then let Kobe handle the ball in the last few minutes so he didn't have to shoot free throws).
Now Phil's got Kobe locked in, totally trusting him (did you see the high five when Kobe checked out last night? These guys are boys now), and he's working on Lamar Odom. He thought he could figure out Kwame Brown, but he might have just moved on to Andrew Bynum, who seems to be picking up things very quickly. And I can't resist a plug for my boy Farmar, who earned steay praise from Marv and Kerr last night for his quick adapatation to the triangle. If he could play defense, he'd be starting right now (sorry Smush); as it stands, he still might take over by the end of the year, especially if he keeps shooting well.
The fact that Phil has this Laker team (whose only improvement was supposed to be the addition of VladRad, currently averaging a robust 4.9 points per) alone in first place in the Pacific division is remarkable, and it's the second straight season in which the majority of pundits (including too many to name that work on my show) ranked them well outside the top eight in the conference), yet we're in the early stages of another playoff appearance, and they're only going to get better. Thank goodness for Jeanie Buss, right?

Happy Days

2006-11-22T15:02:00.000-08:00

"I don't think that I'm complaining
Sometimes it keeps on raining
Oh but dont be frightened by thunder and lightning
The sun comes out and the flowers grow
And you find you're already on the road
To be happy"
--To Be Happy, Sara Evans

So this girl I'm hanging out with happens to be A) a Denver Broncos fan (she grew up in Colorado) and B) a Kentucky Wildcats basketball fan (her entire family is from Kentucky; two of her aunts have missed maybe five games in 30 years), two facts which, in and of themselves, would be no big deal, right? But with whom did my Chargers have a huge first-place showdown Sunday evening? And whom did my Bruins battle in the Maui Invitational semifinals last night? So these (not so) casual rooting interests became immediate sources of conflict in this brand-new relationship, but definitely a good kind of conflict (I would categorize violence as among the bad kind). Nice that I got two wins out of the deal, too, because I don't know what I would have done in the role of the sore loser--I'm much better at being the magnanimous winner, so that made it easy.
Anyways, this week got me thinking about how fortunate I am as a fan these days. So many of my friends and co-workers have teams they care deeply for and yet never have anything to be happy about, once their respective seasons are about two weeks old and their teams' playoff hopes have dwindled to zero. I've got a pretty darn good thing going right now: UCLA basketball is coming off a national championship game appearance, looks like they'll be at least as good this year, and could win the Maui Invitational tonight. The football team isn't great, but they won a bowl game last year, and with a respectable display against SC next weekend, should get a chance to duplicate that feat again this December. The Chargers currently sit upon almost every set of NFL power rankings you can find, and they're alone in first place in the tough AFC West (well, three out of four's not bad, right?). I have the pleasure of watching the best player in the NFL (and probably the best running back since Barry Sanders) score four touchdowns a week like it was mandatory, and watch the rise of one of the league's better QB's (though I admit I was VERY sorry to see Drew Brees go--how about him throwing for 510 in a loss the other day?!). Sure, our best defensive player did steroids, but when he comes back (CLEAN), the dude is just plain dominating, and almost more fun to watch than LT. Enough about the Chargers (though the very idea that anyone could ever say enough about the Bolts is an absurd one), how about the Padres? Two division titles in a row for the first time in franchise history? The best closer of all time not named Mariano Rivera? One of the coolest ballparks in America? Not too shabby. The Lakers made the playoffs last year, improbably, and were within one defensive rebound of upsetting the eventual conference finalist Suns. They're back and better this year, winning the battle of L.A. last night and now sitting alone in first place in the Pacific Division (I had to check that in a couple of different places to make sure I wasn't misreading the numbers. Sure enough, 8-3, first place, wow). We've got at least the second-best player in the world (I'd still like to think he's the best, but dang, LeBron is something else), Lamar Odom is becoming a strong number two, and Andrew Bynum might be an All-Star by next season. I was much more into the UCLA game last night (Darren Collison and Lorenzo Mata were both outstanding), but it was nice switching over to the pro guys afterward and seeing Kobe come up big down the stretch.
All of this goes to say that I could very easily be following and rooting for bottom-of-the-barrel squads, and I am aware of plenty of folks in this situation. How much would it suck to be a Packers-Brewers-Bucks fan over the last five years (pretty much since Favre became the interception machine)? Or like a Blazers-U. of Oregon fan? Constant disappointment, right? A friend of mine represents the Oakland Raiders and Golden State Warriors. Sure, he has the Oakland A's to temper the former two's disappointment somewhat, but how brutal is that? In the NFL and NBA seasons, your teams are out of it before they even start.
Of course, I conveniently didn't mention the Los Angeles Kings (bad for several years now) or the LA Galaxy (missed the playoffs this year after winning the MLS Cup last season), but there's more than enough positivity to outweigh anything else that might be going on, and for that I am quite thankful.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend...

Long Train Runnin'

2006-11-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

"A lot of things have happened
Since the last time we spoke
Some of them are funny
Some of them ain't no joke"
--My Thanksgiving, Don Henley

The other song I thought about quoting was that Mystikal classic, "Danger (Been So Long)", but the "get on the floor" part wasn't quite as friendly, so I'm sticking with the greatest drummer slash singer of all time (apologies to Phil Collins and Ringo Starr). Got a flat tire on the 2 freeway on my way to see Henley tour for this particular album, actually, fond memories (as opposed to the "bad memories" the boys from Kentucky b-b-basket-bawl have about Duke)...
I'm rambling right now, and I love it. It's been almost three months since I last entered blogdom, and I've now worked another Holyfield fight in the meantime (see last entry), so when a 44-year old man is boxing more often than I'm blogging, it's time for a serious priority re-evaluation. A few things that have scaled past blogging since August 24:
- the NL West champion San Diego Padres, first-round playoff losers (again) and now managed by former Angels pitching coach Bud Black
- the tied-for-first-place San Diego Chargers, whose comeback win over the Bengals on Sunday was, as LaDainian Tomlinson (better known as the best player in the NFL) put it, "like something out of a cartoon." If you didn't see it, hopefully you've heard by now: down 21-0, down 28-7 at half, 42 second-half points (four TD's from LT), and a four-down defensive stand at their own 15 in the final minute, staving off Carson (that knee looks pretty good, huh?) and Co. Thank goodness Chris Henry's still on that team, right?
- reading real books, fiction and non-fiction, sports (mostly) and other (rarely)--I just finished my second Ben Mezrich book, "Busting Vegas", and it's as good as "Bringing Down the House", if not better. Recent completions include "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis and "How Soccer Explains the World" by Franklin Foer (SportsGuy recommendation, actually).
- work, duh. Just got back from San Antonio (Holyfield fight), and the month or so before that was spent working on my own show, the Top 50 dunks of all time, NBA, college and otherwise. It's scheduled to air November 29, so you can argue with the order then, but be assured that MJ and Vince are both prominently featured. The best part of working on the show was organizing the shoot, a two-hour deal down at a park a few blocks from the Fox lot. We had Rose and Salley down there to run through each segment, and then we brought in a guy named T.J. Fontenette (better known as the "Air Up There"), and he pulled off some crazy stuff, including a 720 (twice around in the air)--he's done it before--check it out--and he did it again for us, incredible.
- rising and falling with the UCLA football team. Since the previous four weeks were abysmal, I'm just going to speak of the brilliance we saw from Team Dorrell on Saturday. Defense played well (Bruce Davis is an amazing defensive end for somebody who weighs like a buck-forty) and Cowan ran the offense very well (a wide receiver actually made a play, too, which definitely helps). I'm not saying we're going to beat SC, but a bowl game is not out of the question.
- rising and falling with the Lakers. Too many things going on to figure out what I feel about them right now. It's like the most hot/cold relationship you've ever been in, where you wake up some days and can't wait to see her, and other days wish you didn't know her. I hope 24 starts to play a little more like 8 in the near future or this schizophrenia is going to get out of control.
- the Billy Hofman Class of '95 pre-season tour. Made it to the first two stops on the tour, for me (big loss to UCLA) and Ev (close loss to LMU), but missed the Side portion (close loss to USC). I think they only get three pre-season games, or else he'd be on his way to Yale (Chey), Cal Poly SLO (Foley), UCSB (Banks) and USD (Rosa). And just so all three of you readers know I'm not forgetting anybody, T-O (the original) was represented with me at Pauley. Billy's starting at the two (his point guard dribbles more than Evander when he's eating--not good for the flow of the oh-fence) and shooting it pretty well, from what I can tell. The LMU game was great--his Broncos were down 20 and cut it to one, with the ball, in the final minute. Quality stuff from a D-II squad, and hopefully he'll have a successful final campaign. Also at the LMU game, talked to Coach Hofman about this year's squad, and his plans for a crazy, up-tempo, bombing threes offense. Definitely would have fit our squad, right?

This is a very old line of thought, but it bears repeating this morning: SportsCenter sucks. They showed a minute-long highlight of Emmitt Smith on "Dancing With the Stars" (plus a minute-long post interview of the erstwhile noble running back), continuing their shameless ABC-ESPN-espn.com-ESPN2-ESPNews-ESPNRadio self-promotion circle. It's obviously a necessary part of television (we whore ourselves out to any number of sponsors, so I know what that's about), but it doesn't mean I can't think it's obnoxious. I realized yesterday that I pretty much get all of my sports information from the internet these days, rarely (if ever) watching SportsCenter (I actually watch Sky Sports News more frequently, since Premier League updates are not quite as forthcoming in Best Damn circles), and not using my TV for anything more than Laker/Bruin games and my TiVo'd shows ("Prison Break" and "Studio 60"). I'm sure there are plenty of people like me at this point, which means there are increasing media available for consumption, and a possible trend away from straightforward television--I'm fortunate to be in the TV business, obviously, but maybe this isn't the future. I'm not sure what is, but it's worth thinking about...

Busy day today, and then some time to relax--LC football playoff game Friday, two HUGE college football games Saturday (with a lunch date sandwiched in between--that was a very intentional pun) and NFL Sunday (come home in time to watch the Bolts wrest first place away from the hated Broncos)...next week is finishing the dunks show and then enjoying family and food for a couple days, can't wait...

Holyfield V: The Final Chapter

2006-08-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

"Don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years
Rockin' my peers and puttin' suckas in fear"
--Mama Said Knock You Out, LL Cool J

(May I first apologize for the obvious nature of today's lyrics. I could have been a little more subtle, I know, but it's hard enough to find time to write, so I'm saving time in other ways). Now, the story. I remember hearing a few months ago that Evander Holyfield was planning to come back and fight at the ripe old age of 43, and my first thought was obviously, "Why?!" It appeared in a list of stories that we go over every day in our editorial meeting, and the powers that be asked that we not talk about it on the show that day (the guys would likely have bashed the idea) because there was something in the works. That something turned out to be FSN's rights to broadcast the fight, a decision we learned of just a few days later, and I was forced to reconsider that initial notion. I still disagreed with the premise (dude made something like $250 million in his career, so there's no way he needs the money), but since we were doing it, I definitely wanted to be a part of it. Fast forward to Tuesday night (8/15), and I'm cutting the last few elements for the show--a feature on the main undercard fighter, Julio Cesar Garcia (managed by former champ Roberto Duran), and a couple teases--then getting packed on Wednesday afternoon and flying to Dallas. There's no way to accurately re-create my four days in the Big D, but my best effort will have to do, based on the big bullet points...
- Wednesday night arrival in Dallas, checked into the hotel and then headed to a place called The Loon for a late dinner. Watched highlights of the Angels-Rangers brawl (great stuff) and saw Mavs forward Adrian Griffin among the clientele. Had to deal with something we definitely take for granted in L.A.--smoking in restaurants and bars, definitely a bummer.
- Thursday morning up early and over to the arena to help with set-up for the fight. American Airlines Center is a pretty cool place, and we got to go check out the locker rooms and spend plenty of time working on the floor, doing all kinds of manual labor--good times...
- along with my buddies Joel and Mike, spent about an hour pretending to know what we were doing, measuring the fighters (16 on the card in all) and recording those measurements for our graphics people during the weigh-in (the image of Holyfield spreading his arms, Joel and Mike each holding one end of a tape measure, and me at a table writing down the data is quite humorous)...
- had to sit in the chairs on the set (Joel was Chris Rose, Mike was John Salley and I was Chris Byrd) for about two hours while our director set up his shots for the next day (can't say I've spent many more boring hours in the recent past), and it was made far worse by the presence (at the other end of the arena) of a seminar for customer service representatives working in the arena. What it basically amounted to was four or five executives telling this group of 200 people all the things they aren't allowed to do. Highlights included a 30-second speech from Mavs center Desagana Diop (they played "Jump" by Kriss Kross for his walk up to the stage, seriously) and a few questions from the audience at the end of this marathon--"What am I supposed to do when somebody's ordering a hot dog and they call me a wetback?", "When somebody comes at me, how am I supposed to call my supervisor? I'm just gonna react and go at them, you know?", and after the gauntlet had been laid down about no crazy hairstyles and no earrings, "So I know no crazy hairstyles, but what about a mohawk?" We were all dumber for having heard any of that seminar, but obviously not as dumb as the patrons attending said seminar. Thank goodness I don't work in guest services (or, for that matter, any job that would require my attendance at a three-hour blight on humanity like that)...
- finally made it out of there at 9:15 (our dinner reservation at Bob's Steak & Chop House was made for 9, then pushed back to 9:30, and we had no time to go back to the hotel and change) and hustled over to dinner at Dallas' number one spot (according to Dallas native Mike). Got to meet Boyd Tinsley on the way in (Joel, Jaime and I stopped, shook his hand and chatted with him for a few minutes, in town for a concert on Saturday night), and then enjoyed a tremendous dinner (steak, rarity for me) with the Hughes family (father, mother, brother and Mike) and the four of us...
- first thing on the day of the fight was the boxer meetings, which allows the talent and the producers to chat with each of the (main) boxers for a little bit, learning more about their background and their strategy for the fight. Holyfield came out first, and sounded pretty good (for a 43-year old guy who's been taking blows to the dome for more than 25 years). He told a few cool stories, one about his experience in the '84 Olympics, where he was disqualified in the semifinal round, and made us all laugh a few times. I had seen him during the weigh-in, but wow, is that guy yoked. He's 43 and probably shouldn't still be fighting (though my view on that has changed somewhat), but he's in incredible shape. The opponent was up next, a guy named Jeremy Bates, and though he obviously had no business getting in the ring with the Real Deal, he thoroughly entertained the group with his back-country humor and overt desire to sell insurance to anybody in the room. My buddy Joel proudly proclaimed that Bates would win in three rounds, drawing laughter from the rest of us, but he stuck to his prediction. Roberto Duran (remember him? contemporary of Leonard, Hagler and Hearns) came in to accompany his boxer, Julio Cesar Garcia, and was hilarious as well (don't worry, nobody said "no mas"). I struggled to get my camera out as he was giving Chris Rose the massage of his life, working those "stone hands" into Rose's shoulders like it was his job. Good times all around.
- had a few errands to run around town, getting video fed in from L.A. (last-second requests from the network execs), running people back and forth to the arena, and then finally settling at America Airlines Center for the final countdown to fight night. We had a very busy time setting up the stage, the ring, the dressing rooms, and then got changed into suits (three of the four of us, anyway) to class up the joint as the on-air hour approached. Had a few different responsibilities before we started, including getting fighters into the ring for the first bout and finding a ring announcer for said fight. Wandering around the arena with free rein from security, wearing a suit and a headset, I pretty much felt as important as I ever have. After helping our ring announcer, Jimmy Lennon, Jr., get the crowd pumped up for the opening jib shot (sweeping over the crowd) and hearing my producer loudly exclaim his excitement at how it turned out, the swelling in my head continued--"Great job, Scott! They sound great, and it looked amazing! Great job!"
- once the TV show started, we had only two fights to cover, but still plenty of work to do. I was running back and forth (in incredibly uncomfortable shoes), from the ring to the dressing rooms to the TV truck to the stage, never really getting a rest. I marched fighters into the ring, found an interpreter for a post-fight interview, collaborated with trainers and boxers to keep the schedule tight, and even got to mingle a little bit. Two big celebrity experiences here: the first was walking Salley over to the ringside seats to interview Deion, which went very well. Unfortunately, the producer kept getting in my ear and telling me "two more minutes," "five more minutes," so I had to keep telling Sal we were delayed, but fortunately, he and Deion were having a great time goofing around, so there were no ill effects. Secondly, during the Garcia fight, I had the opportunity to meet the director/executive producer of "Prison Break" and several of his cast, all in town through March to shoot the show in Dallas. The obvious standout of this group was Sarah (her real name and her character name), the doctor who falls for Michael (if you're unfamiliar with the show, just trust me, she's hot--big crush on her before I even got to meet her). We got to stand next to each other for about ten minutes, as it turned out, and I got to talk to her for a bit, getting her to discuss her love of sports (and even of boxing--she was pissed when they stopped the previous fight eatly) and the merits of Dallas (one of which was evidently the new Ghostbar, where we were supposed to go afterward--that's another story). Great time. I IMDB'd her when I got home and it turns out that she's exactly one day younger than me, so I think that means there's some potential there, right? Yeah, I didn't think so.
- Holyfield's fight was the obvious highlight of the night (Doctor Sarah excluded), and I had more to do for that than I could have imagined. The "money shot" was Holyfield's walk-out through a back-lit tunnel, where his silhouette gradually became his lit figure, the revealing of which brought the crowd to a frenzy and pretty much gave all of us chills. I was on the canvas for the introductions, helping with various stuff, and then went back a bit for the start of the fight. Sal and I were ready to go talk to a few more people at ringside, but when Bates was saved by the bell at the end of the first round, we knew it was going to be over quickly, so he headed back to the stage and I got ready ringside.
- once the knockout had happened (late second round), they took care of the post-fight interviews (my buddy Zeus threw an FSN cap on his head, so that was in all the photos across the country) and then I walked him from the ring to the dressing room, which was one of the crazier things I've ever done. You haven't lived until you've had thousands of people yelling and cheering in your face, leaning in to get a piece of the guy behind you, taking pictures and jumping up and down. Amazing. So we get him to the dressing room, Joel and I alongside his whole posse, and immediately the group forms a circle. We're not sure what's going on, but as everybody grabs hands, it's clear that we're in a prayer circle. Joel and I shrug at each other, turn down our headset volume (so producer Bob can't be heard for a few moments) and bow our heads in prayer. Pretty cool, actually. After the "amen," we let him get changed and then walked him over to the set, where he rapped with our guys for a few minutes until the show was off the air.
- after everything was done, we had a ton of work to do, breaking down the set, loading up the truck that would eventually carry all of our gear back to L.A., and then we were allowed to go out, but not before snapping a few photos, one with Duran and one with the Real Deal himself
- unfortunately, "out" did not mean the Ghostbar, where Doctor Sarah was waiting (Sal went too, so there would have been familiar company), but instead a place called the Candle Room, where local guy Mike's boys were hanging out. My friendship with Mike goes a few feet deeper than my thing for Sarah, so I wasn't that upset. We had a pretty good time there, as tired as we were, and even saw former Laker (and former every other NBA team) Jim Jackson, laying low in the booth next to us.
All in all, an exhausting trip, but probably the greatest professional experience of my life thus far. Hope it was even 2% as much fun to read about...

Things I Don't Understand

2006-08-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

"Y'all better leave dat boy alone
Cuz if they dont
Yall know he goin come back on 'em
And they dont want him to come back strong
I wouldnt durr get that thur boy goin"
--Leave Dat Boy Alone, D-12

There are some things I will never understand. One of those is the appeal of poker on television, despite our network's marital commitment to the idea (and it really is a successful one, for some reason). Another of those is the concept of pitching to David Ortiz with the game on the line. Big Papi went yard in the bottom of the ninth last night, turning a two-run deficit into a three-run victory and ringing up his fifth game-winning hit of the season (three of which have been of the home run variety). Going back just a few years, let's remember that this guy was waived--WAIVED--by the Twins, who believed that he wasn't worth even a million dollars to keep around in 2003. So the Red Sox snagged him, and he hasn't stopped winning games ever since. He's hit seven walk-off home runs with the Sox (including the three this year), and his arrival on the walk-off scene pretty much came in the historic '04 playoffs, when he beat the Angels with a home run in the divisional series and then beat the Yankees twice on the same day with walk-off hits, beginning and then continuing the most amazing comeback in sports history (maybe--Frank Reich's Bills would argue that point).
More things I don't understand:
- How anyone could not be a Will Ferrell fan. Had a discussion about the Ricky Bobby movie yesterday, and there was actually somebody in the conversation who called him "overrated." No, that word is reserved for Peyton Manning, Dan Patrick and Penelope Cruz. Not Will Ferrell. From his bit parts in "Austin Powers", "Jay & Silent Bob..." and "Starsky & Hutch" to his lead roles in "Old School", "Anchorman" and even "Elf", he's really defined himself as the leading comic genius of this generation. Not sure when that era is going to end, but with "Old School 2" coming out at some point, and this NASCAR movie guaranteedt to be hilarious, there's certainly no end in sight.
- Why on earth O.J. Mayo would want to go to USC. Kevin Love coming to UCLA I understand--more tradition than any program in the country, and a recent return to prominence behind a tremendous head coach (plus Sonny Vaccaro feeds us all the good Adidas players). The Trojans? Under .500 in the Pac 10 last year (and 19-35 the three previous conference seasons), and boasting a head coach with mediocre NBA experience (he posted a glorious .284 winning percentage while he was there). Yes, they have a nice new building opening up next season, but if building quality was a determining factor in recruiting, the football team wouldn't get anybody at all (the Coliseum is surpassed in terribleness by only Stanford Stadium). If Mayo ends up at SC, even for just one season, I'll be very surprised. Of course, he's like 23, so I guess it'll be nice having a 25-year old freshman leading the way in '07-'08.
- Why more people haven't picked up on European soccer. One of my favorite Sports Guy columns of the past few years came out a couple weeks ago, detailing his decision-making process in finding a premier league team for which to root. My Newcastle boys finished third in the end, behind runner-up Liverpool and his new squad, Tottenham Hotspur (or "Spurs"), the former club of such greats as Paul Gascoigne, Jurgen Klinsmann (next USA coach?) and Teddy Sheringham. They're good, but they're no Newcastle. If you haven't read the article, it makes a great case for European football, especially the English variety, on the (back) heels of the World Cup. I needed no convincing, but it's still a good argument. And oh by the way, the world's richest club, Chelsea, have been practicing at UCLA all week and nobody cares.
- What on earth ESPN is doing (the Harold Reynolds edition). Yes, I know he harassed a P.A. (at Outback Steakhouse, of all places), but seriously, what on-air talent hasn't had a bout with the big SH at the worldwide leader? Legend has it that Mike Tirico is the all-time worst (I've heard more stories on this guy than I've ever cared to hear), and yet he's somehow still the voice of the NBA on ESPN/ABC and major golf tournaments. Doesn't take much, I guess. Meanwhile, HR was one of maybe three analysts I actually like watching on that network (Kirk Herbstreit and Peter Gammons being the others, but Kirk is out of season and PGammons is out of commission for now), and now he's free to go anywhere else, hopefully Fox, and hopefully soon. Their penchant for driving news stories (contrived or real) into the ground is sickening, and because there are so many outlets (SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, NFL Live, Outside the Lines, all the radio shows, ESPNews, ESPN the Magazine, ESPN the constant headache), we're inundated with whatever blather they feel like unloading (T-O, Bonds, and A-Rod's recent saga come to mind). I liken ESPN's fall to that of MTV, where they've forgotten the reason they went on the air in the first place. Kevin & Bean were talking about MTV's 25th anniversary today, and one of them (never can tell which) made the joke that they stopped showing music videos 23 years ago. Exagerrated, but almost true. Meanwhile, SportsCenter has become less enjoyable by the day (with the notable exception of Scott Van Pelt) and the rest of their programming--don't even get me started (Dominos? Seriously?). I certainly don't claim that our show is going to win awards for journalistic excellence anytime soon, but we're not under any guise other than having a good time for an hour, whatever that means (and yes, hanging out with Hooters girls is definitely included).
- How summer television can suck as much as it does. My DirecTV is out this week, and except for "Entourage" (which I'll watch on repeat whenever my service returns), I don't even care. I can watch baseball on my computer, I've got enough Seinfeld episodes saved up to last me for a couple weeks, and there's pretty much nothing else I've even heard about that I'm missing. I guess they figure everyone's on vacation, so why bother with new shows, but I'm going on record in complete disagreement with this idea. Didn't "The O.C." come out in the summer? People (myself excepted) seem to love that show, so why wouldn't more shows try this? Oh well, just waiting for the fall--the return of "My Name is Earl" and "Prison Break" and the debut of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". By the way, the reason my DirecTV doesn't work is that painters came to my neighbors house and a) dislodged the dish from its working location and b) splattered paint all over the dish, which probably doesn't aid its ability to receive satellite signals. Not a word of this was mentioned to me, by either the neighbor or the painting crew (and it wasn't mentioned to my roommate either, since he's the one who's actually at home more than two hours a day), which is pretty disrespectful. I always try to look at the best in people and save judgment, but the neighbors have been a little tough to smile at the last few weeks.

Yeah, so that's about it for this Tuesday morning. Heading to Alabama this weekend for a fishing show, which should be very interesting, though we're including a few non-fishing guests to tailor it more to our style. Bo Jackson will be there, which will be one of my bigger guest-related thrills--I remember reading "Bo Knows Bo" when I was much younger and following closely his whole baseball/football career, the rise and fall. Besides MJ, I don't think there was another guy who made you say "Oh my goodness" (or some more colorful alternative) more often than Bo. His All-Star Game home run off Rick Reuschel, leading off the '89 game (he stole a base in that game too, and I still have the LA Times sports section with the Bo-related headline). His running up the wall after making a great catch in the outfield as a Royal. Breaking bats over his head and knee. Trucking Brian Bosworth on Monday Night Football on his way into the end zone, then running all the way into the tunnel on a super-long TD run in the same game. Going three for three with three home runs uin a random game, and then me having to leave home for a church event (so I called a buddy to check on his last at bat--no home run). Such a bummer that he couldn't play longer, but he still provided enough memories to last a lifetime. Can't wait for Friday (except for the humidity)...

Why I Love Baseball (revisited)

2006-07-20T08:24:00.000-07:00

"Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
Why dont they stay young"
--Forever Young, Alphaville

Real quick: I debated between this and the Rod Stewart song of the same name for about five seconds before I remembered how sweet the last line of the first verse is: "Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?" So good.
Now, on to baseball. You only needed to watch two games this week to understand how great baseball is right now, and fortunately, since I have a) every baseball game on TV at work every day and b) a subscription to mlb.com's package that allows me to watch every game on my computer (padres, obviously), I was able to watch most of these two showdowns.
SHOWDOWN 1: Devil Rays @ Twins, Tuesday night - Scott Kazmir vs. Francisco Liriano.
There hadn't been a matchup of 10-win guys younger than 23 in like a hundred years, and these are just two of the young stars that are killing opposing hitters these days (Jonathan Papelbon comes to mind). Liriano is filthy, and he gave up just three hits in 8 2/3 to get the win, improving to 11-2 (with a ridiculous 1.94 ERA). Kazmir fell to 10-7 (he is on a terrible team) with a 3.40 ERA. Both of these guys are lefties, so they're especially close to my heart (like Dontrelle Willis), but it's just awesome to watch pitchers--especially younger ones--deal like this.
SHOWDOWN 2: Astros @ Cubs, Wednesday night - Roger Clemens vs. Greg Maddux.
So this would represent the opposite end of the spectrum, right? Rocket is about to turn 44 (343 career wins) and Maddux is 40 (325 wins), and both guys are definitely in the hall of fame. It's unbelievable that both of them are still pitching at such a high level (though it's been speculated that it's not been entirely natural), and to see both of them mowing people down last night was great. Clemens picked up the win, tossing six scoreless innings, and Maddux gave up three in seven to get the loss (again, a terrible team). Clemens came back (again) to a team that can't hit for him--he's now 2-3 with a 2.43 ERA, and his team has scored just 20 runs in his six starts, which isn't helping their effort to get back to the playoffs.
BONUS SHOWDOWN: We have to go back to Sunday night, but this was Mariano Rivera making history in an incredibly difficult situation. Light is often made of the number of "easy" saves a closer gets, coming in with a three-run lead and having plenty of leeway to get three outs in the ninth. No such luck for Mo on Sunday as he chased career save number 400. Because the Yankees' bullpen is not good (an issue that has plagued them consistently since their last title), they had to Enter Sandman in the eighth inning against the defending champs with the bases loaded and nobody out (thanks, Kyle Farnsworth). So what does he do? He gets Juan Uribe to pop out, advancing no runners. He then gets leadoff man Scott Podsednik (Mr. Lisa Dergan to you) to ground into an innning-ending double play. No runs in, Yankees maintain their 6-4 advantage. Of course, he's not done, so he comes back for the ninth and lets the first two runners get on, just to make things interesting. Then comes another double play, from All-Star Paul Konerko, with the lead runner advancing to third. Fellow All-Star Jermaine Dye strikes out to end the game, putting Mo in some exclusive company and rescuing his Yankees yet again.
Here's the thing about Rivera: there is nobody even close to him in the history of his position. I'm a huge Trevor Hoffman guy, obviously, and even though Trevor has more career saves, he hasn't been close to the clutch, consistent performer that Rivera has been for a decade now. His postseason numbers are absurd, and one could argue that he's the main reason they won those four championships (and with a little more help in the 'pen, he'd have a few more). A couple of interesting observations I heard on the radio the other day:
- Keith Olbermann said that he submitted an All-Time 25-man roster to Sports Illustrated last week and had to put two closers on the list. He tried to do research on every position, but had incredible difficulty with the closers--not with the top spot, because that's Rivera's without hesitation, but with spot number two. He couldn't find anybody in the same galaxy as Rivera, nobody else even worth considering for the team.
- Rivera is THE difference between the Braves and the Yankees since 1995. Both teams have been in the playoffs every year since then, but Torre's boys have four titles in that span and Bobby Cox has none. Why? They've never had consistency from the closer position (except for a year or two from Smoltz, but that kept him from making the necessary impact as a starter). Mark Wohlers? Mental. John Rocker? Insane. Kerry Ligtenberg, Dan Kolb, Chris Reitsma. Terrible, terrible and terrible. Mo is the difference.
- If you had to pick one player from the last ten years of the Yankees to make the hall of fame, it would have to be Rivera, wouldn't it? Jeter's been incredible, A-Rod's numbers have been great (though for only two-plus years in pinstripes), and other guys have been solid (Bernie, Posada, etc.). But if it's just one, it's gotta be Mo. No question.

Had a chance to visit Yankee Stadium over the weekend, and though Mariano didn't pitch (the Yanks put a 14-3 drubbing on the defending champs), there were several highlights...
- Walking around monument park before the game, with just a handful of people allowed in after it had been closed to the public. So cool to see all those guys who have worn the pinstripes over the years--I finished up a book by David Halberstam called "October 1964", about the pennant races and World Series that year, Cardinals over Yankees for the world championship, so a lot of those names were fresh in my mind--and even the more recent entries, like Donnie Baseball.
- Watching batting practice from the booth with Tim McCarver doing his pre-game preparation. A-Rod was up there, just killing the ball, and McCarver put down his notes to watch the show. Each swing sent a ball further than the previous one, and each one evoked a cry of admiration from McCarver. "Oh my goodness! Take some of the shine off that thing! Are you kidding me?! He just killed that ball!" Pretty cool to see a guy who's been around the game as long as he has still getting excited about something like that.
- Getting a visit from Keith Olbermann in the booth. He often visits the press box at both Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium (evidently a huge fan of Dan Shulman and Soup Campbell, the Mets' announcing team), and he came by to say hello to Tim and Joe Buck. I didn't speak with him personally, but I still enjoy his sarcasm, getting on Buck for his Fox Sports shirt and the fact that he's now sold his soul for eternity (Fox having extended their deal with MLB for another seven years).

Upcoming destinations include Dallas, Texas for the Evander Holyfield comeback fight (while I don't agree with the concept, I definitely had to be a part of it) and Birmingham, Alabama for an outdoors show that will hopefully include Alabama natives Bo Jackson and Charles Barkley, among others. Hopefully I'll be able to find the time to write about those...

Big and Ugly

2006-07-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

"But wait, I hear big footsteps
Thud, thumbing out of the past
Sure enough, that big dumb guy is here at last
That big dumb guy is here at last"
--Big Dumb Guy, Carly Simon

There's a lot about the NBA off-season that I love. With nothing officially allowed to happen until July 12, there's still been a crazy amount of activity, starting with draft day, and most of it makes sense--max deals for D-Wade and 'Melo, a pending max deal for LeBron, extension for Dirk, big money for Jason Terry (he earned it with a great post-season), new destinations for Radman, Tim Thomas and others, and trades involving T.J. Ford, Charlie Villanueva, Shane Battier, Shane Battier's wrinkled dome, and various draft picks. However, there are still a few moves that leave me scratching my head. So scratch along with me:
- The Bulls sign Ben Wallace to a four-year, $60-million deal. On the surface, this would seem to be an amazing coup for the Bulls. It was a foregone conclusion that Big Ben would re-sign with Detroit, allowing the league's most consistent starting five to remain intact for another couple years, but alas poor Dumars, 'twas not to be. Here's why the deal isn't actually such a great thing. Wallace will be 32 when the '06-'07 season starts, his rebounding averages have decreased in each of the last four seasons (15.4 down to 11.3), his blocked shots have declined in each of the last five seasons (3.48 to 2.21), and his scoring, never wonderful to begin with, fell to 7.3 last season (after 9.5 and 9.7 the previous two years). He still can't shoot free throws (career .418--for comparison, Shaq's career mark is .528) and even though he was the NBA's defensive player of the year this year, the consensus is that the award was based much more on reputation than actual execution. Meanwhile, the Bulls led the league in field goal percentage defense and were right in the middle of the pack offensively. They certainly don't get any better at putting the ball in the hoop with this deal (and isn't that the ultimate goal?), and they might be better on D for a year or two, but with Miami, Cleveland and New Jersey still above them in the Eastern Conference pecking order, will it be worth it? Pretty soon, Ben's going to be 34-35-36, getting paid $15 million to average 5 points and 10 rebounds a game, and to miss free throws down the stretch. The Bulls were already unbearable to watch (they've been exactly that since June of 1998), and this just makes it worse. This hurts Detroit a great deal more than it helps Chicago, I'm afraid, and I still have no desire to watch either team play.
- Teams were battling to sign Joel Pryzbilla. Seriously, am I missing something here? He's played in the league six years and has yet to average double figures in points. In fact, his career high was 6.4 per game, back in '04-'05. He doesn't really rebound that well for a seven-footer either (5.6 per game for his career, 7.0 last season), and though he's a pretty good shot-blocker (2.32 per game last season, 7th in the league), he's another terrible free throw shooter (.492 career).
- Similar battles are underway for Nazr Mohammed, Jackie Butler (?) and Darius Songaila. I'm not an NBA GM, and for good reason, but just having a guy who's tall doesn't make your team better--just ask Isiah how that Jerome James deal is working out for him...

June Gloom

2006-06-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

"Some people laugh in the dark
Some people cry alone
Some people talk without sayin' a thing
And ev'rything turns out gloomy"
--Gloomy, Creedence Clearwater Revival

This definitely doesn't apply to the weather in Manhattan Beach the last few days (spent a wonderfully relaxing hour on the sand yesterday afternoon, hoping to spend more such time today), but rather the inspiration behind and the frequency of my writing. There was a time not long ago when I was writing two or three times a week, but numerous factors have contributed to the decline of western civilization (or the number of my blogs, whichever is less significant). In the meantime (my last entry was May 12), there's been plenty to discuss, so let's begin this morning with the three most significant work-related items of the last month:
- MLB on Fox started up again, which means my Saturdays (from 9-4:30 or so) are now spent in the captivity of America's pastime; I can certainly think of worse ways to spend a Saturday (than watching five or six games at once and being fed twice), but with the sun shining as it has been, it's sometimes tough to justify spending another work day indoors. Our first week boasted Barry's 714th (who cares), a Yankees four-run rally to beat Billy Wagner and the Mets, and the sweet Michael Barrett-A.J. Pierzynski brawl in the Cubs-White Sox game. By the way, I recently read (in a great book called "Juicing the Game" by Howard Bryant) that the five-year contract Fox signed with MLB in '95 was worth less in total than the previous contract with CBS had been worth per year. That's how far baseball had fallen in the immediate aftermath of the strike, to the point that it was Fox that was taking a gamble, despite the extremely low number.
- Had my greatest day as a Best Damn employee, attending Game 7 of the Suns-Clippers series in Phoenix with Jalen Rose. Not only was producing the feature an amazing experience (by far the biggest element I've overseen), but just hanging out with Jalen in between shooting time was awesome. We mostly shot before the game (talked to Steve Nash,
- Had my second greatest day as a Best Damn employee, escorting a group of Hooters girls at our Hermosa Beach show on June 9. Among several other responsibilities, I was in charge of getting "tease" shots of Marisa Miller for our various elements being cut back in studio (don't worry, I saved the tape). You do need to see these girls, though...

Unfortunately, the main work-related, blog-relevant topic is that I've had way more to do in the mornings, and therefore have no time to a) think for myself, or b) transpose those non-existent thoughts and manifest them in blog form. Responsibilities seem to grow by the day, but I'll attempt to get back at this sometime before the end of the month...

Barry Sad

2006-05-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

"If I could, then I would
I'll go wherever you will go
Way up high or down low
I'll go wherever you will go"
Wherever You Will Go, The Calling

Pedro Gomez is nothing without Barry Bonds. Way up in San Francisco, or down low in the depths of steroid-induced depression, Pedro goes wherever Barry goes. Frankly, I kinda feel sorry for the guy, because his entire career has been made by one guy, and once Bonds goes away, ESPN probably won't have use for poor Pedro anymore. Maybe he can start the Delmon Young watch or something.
In regards to this Bonds thing, I just watched the Giants highlight from yesterday, and there's about a hundred things that come to mind, but I'll just touch on a precious few:
- If I'm Barry's teammate, I'm about as tired of all this as possible, and I'd be about a thousand times happier if he just retired. He's obviously a huge focal point of the baseball world because of the home run chase, the steroids and the perjury investigation, among other things, but he's an absolute jerk to the media, so more often than not, he just refuses to speak with them after games, leaving teammates to answer questions in his stead. After yesterday's highlight, Pedro got a sound bite from Ray Durham, who looked about as happy answering a question about Bonds' 0-for-3 performance as Mike D'Antoni looked after Raja's idiotic clothesline in Game 5 last week...
- Is there anything sadder in the history of sports than a record chase--one that should inspire all kinds of excitement and joy--steeped in ridicule and apathy? Though it's since been tainted somewhat, the summer of '98 was a source of great excitement for sports fans everywhere, turning on the television every day to see Sammy and Big Mac teeing off on NL pitchers. The race was unbelievable, and people wanted to see both of them succeed. Granted, Sammy's almost reached Barry status as a villain in all this steroid madness and Mac isn't far behind, but that's all years after the fact. Barry's at the bottom of the nation's sentiment right in the middle of everything he's trying to do. In fact, people didn't really enjoy Bonds' 73 season that much either...
- I really, really hope that Albert Pujols hits 74 home runs this season, as ridiculous as it may be...
- And I really, really hope A-Rod hits more career home runs than Bonds too, so no matter where he finishes, he won't have to be anywhere in baseball's record books. Pujols could do it too...
- Finally, I honestly don't know what everybody in San Francisco (and anyone who still roots for Bonds outside SF) is thinking if they don't think he took steroids for a significant length of time, starting in 1998. I suppose it would be possible for a guy like that--one who supposedly takes better care of his body than anyone on the planet, but whose best friend is a known steroid dealer, whose former trainer and advisor is a known steroid user and supplier, and whose body has expanded faster than Jon Favreau's in that time--to be clean, but come on now.

Mile High Morning

2006-04-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

"And the Colorado rocky mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
You can talk to God and listen to the casual reply
Rocky mountain high Colorado..."
-Rocky Mountain High, John Denver

I find myself awake a little earlier than I need to be, and with room service breakfast on its way up in about 20 minutes, I've had a little time to peruse the internet (reading up on a tremendous night of NBA playoff games, wow) and even blog a little. Some thoughts at 8 a.m., Mountain Standard Time:
- Is there anything more cliche from a tourist couple than matching shirts? I honestly don't know where these people come from, that the husband wearing a big floral print hawaiian shirt and his wife wearing a sleeveless version of the same thing is by any means acceptable. I didn't take the time to ask them (at LAX yesterday), but they seemed very content with that morning's apparel decision (and my guess is that they've got four or five matching outfits, so they can coordinate every day of their vacation). Of course, they could be L.A. natives and not even on vacation, which would be even worse.
- Crazy weekend for the folks at Pepsi Center, where I'm headed in about an hour. They had the Avalanche-Stars game last night (Dallas won to stay alive in the series), the National Lacrosse League playoff game between the Colorado Mammoth and Arizona Sting today at noon (did you know that the NLL has been around for 20 years?!?), and then the big one--the Clips and Nugs at 8:30. Lots of work for those game operations folks, changing three different playing surfaces in less than 24 hours.
- Are the Texans serious? Mario Williams is not going to be Julius Peppers, I'm sorry to break it to you. More like Courtney Brown (Browns took him No. 1 overall in '00), I'm thinking, but even if he's close to Peppers, how on earth do you pass on Reggie Bush? The rationalization I heard on SportsCenter this morning was that they feel a need for defensive help to compete with the Colts ("We can't outscore the Colts, so let's try to stop them instead"). Right. 'Cause a rookie defensive end makes the worst defense in the league able to keep up with the Colts. Good call. Meanwhile, the team that gets Reggie makes their entire offense tons better, special teams too. How pissed are you if you're David Carr right now? I suppose the only happy party in this whole scenario (besides Mr. Williams) has gotta be Domanick Davis. I will say this for Williams: If he doesn't have a Freeney-esque rookie year (at least), Texans fans will have a hard time accepting him.
- As stoked as I am to be here this weekend, today is one of the worst possible Saturdays to be working, isn't it? I'll be checking my cell phone pretty much every 15 minutes until the Chargers pick (likely a corner, Jason Allen or Jonathan Joseph, from what I hear), and then I'll be excited to see where Marcedes and Drew Olson (and Mo Drew) go later in day one.
- I'll repeat what I said the other day about Kobe finally "getting it" and trusting his teammates--didn't get to see any of the game, but the numbers don't lie. Phil Jackson is the greatest coach of all time, without question. Red Auerbach never had a team like this, I promise you.
- What is this, 1998? Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez are the first two pitchers in baseball to 5-0? Those two are amazing, (and to paraphrase Paul Simon) still dealing after all these years.

Breakfast is here (a couple eggs, some sausage, potatoes, toast and OJ--nice to have a $45 per diem on the road)...go Clips

What's the Problem?

2006-04-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

"Each piece of life is like a puzzle, can you solve ‘em
Stress’ll drive you crazy when you’re dealing with these problems
Problems, problems - How you gonna solve ‘em
Man, I’m going crazy trying to deal with these problems"
--Problems, Rappin' 4-Tay

Yesterday morning on ESPN.com, after appreciating the headline story (the Lakers' triumph in Game 2, featuring a photo of Kobe's ridiculous and-one dunk on Nash--more on that game later), I was almost depressed reading through the other headlines on the front page. Is sports really this sad?
• Bonds hits No. 711, but Mets beat Giants
• Favre's company: Packers, Woodson agree to deal
• GM says Texans won't draft Young | Bush saga
• D-Rays prospect Young throws bat at umpire
• Canadiens' team eye doctor to examine Koivu
• Washburn, M's hand Buehrle first loss of season
• Crawford's double off Rivera lifts Rays past Yanks
• Martin suspended for next two Nuggets games
• Duke lacrosse players cite money dispute
• USC suspends Sanchez after sexual assault arrest
There are maybe two stories in that list that are in any way uplifting, and that would only be if you're a Mariners or D-Rays fan (Lord knows there's plenty of those to go around, right?). Bonds has pretty much earned the ire of every baseball fan outside the bay area, Favre frustrated more than a few fans with his delayed return announcement, C-Wood is an underachieving bad dude, the Reggie Bush fiasco (though perhaps overblown) is another strike against the NCAA, is Delmon Young kidding?, K-Mart's an idiot (I wonder if I'll see him this weekend--I definitely wouldn't say that to his face), and Mark Sanchez--ouch, don't wanna say anything just yet. More days than not, I'm very excited about the world in which I work, but there are are just so many negative things about sports that it's tough to remain positive all the time. "SportsNight" had a real good episode along those lines, where one of the guys (can't remember if it was Casey or Dan) was getting depressed about all the bad stuff in sports, and was finally vindicated by an inspirational moment on TV at the end. Maybe I need one of those (or maybe I just need to watch "SportsNight" again).

That being said, a couple of my buddies put something together that is about as positive as it gets (if you've seen SNL's "Lazy Sunday", you know exactly where the inspiration comes from):

This aired on the show Wednesday night and it airs again tonight--great response from people already. Watch for the cameos, especially the last one. FYI, Bernie (the one on the right, in the Derrick Mason Ravens journey) is a graphics producer (and a fellow guitar aficionado) and Jason (the white guy, Carson jersey) is the senior segment producer--both real good dudes, and hilarious in this video.

Now Lakers stuff, real quick: There becomes a tendency in the NBA Playoffs to make huge generalizations and rushes to judgment based on just one game, so I don't want to get too carried away about a series that's merely tied at 1-1, but there are so many good things happening that I really can't refrain. Frankly, the biggest thing in all of this is that Kobe is finally becoming MJ. How is this possible, you say? He's finally trusting his teammates, sorry as they may have been all season. It's only been two games that this trust has been in evidence, but they may have been the Lakers' two best-played games of the entire season, and what better time for those to arrive, huh? I was reading a list of the worst draft picks of all time (in any sport) yesterday, and Kwame Brown was No. 77 on the list. I understand that his career to date has been nowhere near representative of a No. 1 overall pick, but the case made in the article was that the Wizards (MJ) passed on the following players: Pau Gasol, Jason Richardson, Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Troy Murphy and Tony Parker. In Kwame's defense (and Michael and Doug Collins as well), would anybody on this list other than Gasol have been the right pick here? Everybody else in the first round passed on Parker too (he went No. 28 to the Spurs), so that's not really their fault, Troy Murphy sucks, and none of the swing players would have made any sense (MJ was coming back, and they still had Rip Hamilton). Anyways, after all of the crap he went through in Washington, and a pretty lackluster initial regular season in L.A., Kwame has really stepped it up here against Phoenix. He's a definite presence defensively, and though he's still got terrible hands, he's been much more assertive offensively than ever before. Luke is still sweet, Sasha has even made a couple shots, and Lamar has been the third-best player in the series (behind the two MVP candidates, obviously), which is better than he's been since his first or second year with the Clips. I have acknowledged on several occasions how much I allow my emotions to be affected by the Lakers, and the past two seasons have taught me to temper my expectations somewhat, but I can't help getting excited about the possibility of a Lakers-Clippers second-round showdown.

Flying out to Denver tonight, thank goodness we've got a series...

Playoffs?

2006-04-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

"Time is winding down, but only for this life
I want to be found enjoying the next life
I see leaves and they are starting to turn brown
But they'll be green and growing when the second season comes around"
--Second Season, Five Iron Frenzy

Since it's playoff time and since I haven't written in about a month--it really saddens me every time I start a new entry (as rare as that may be) and I have to realize that the last entry was at least three weeks ago--I'm going to ask a few questions, some of the rhetorical variety, and some of the more normal answerable type. On with it...
- Do the Lakers have a chance in the first round? Well Scott, glad you asked (I heard Barry Bonds use the third person in an incredibly annoying way yesterday--like there's any other way--and I wanted to see how it would feel to do it myself; I'm feeling dirty). They absolutely have a chance, and there are three big reasons:
- Amare Stoudemire: Anybody who watched last year's conference finals knows how ridiculous this guy can be--he almost singlehandedly won Game 4 with 31 points and a game-saving block on Duncan in the final 30 seconds, and he averaged 37 for the series. His absence is gigantic, because nobody else gives Phoenix a real inside presence, except for...
- Kurt Thomas: Confusing trade in the off-season, unloading last year's big bomber, Quentin Richardson, and picking up the former Knicks power forward, and now Thomas has been hurt for a couple weeks. If he's unable to return at full strength, there's no way the Suns will be able to hang with Lamar and Kwame down low (I can't believe I'd be viewing Kwame as an advantage at anything), but if he's back and able to give them 10 and 10, Phoenix should be in good shape.
- Kobe: Obviously. In the office last week, we had our playoff player points draft (10 guys, 6 players apiece; credit for every point scored by your guys in the entire playoffs, so there's equal parts team success and individual scoring ability considered--great concept), and I had the number two pick. After D-Wade went one, I had to go Kobe. If they win the first-round series, he could score 500 points and not even make the conference finals. A guy like Rip Hamilton, who went fourth overall (after Dirk), could win it all and still not score as many as two-series-Kobe. And if the Lakers go any further? Whoa. Anyways, his inclusion on this list, though quite overt, is necessary because he's the only player in the league who can shift the balance of a series on his own. If he's feeling it (and feeling like a teammate, at least sometimes), the Lakers (who have been playing as well as anybody the last month or so) could be very dangerous.
- Could this Duke lacrosse thing get any worse? Our stand-up guy, Brody Stevens (he warms up the audience for the show) said that he doesn't have a comment on the story, because, and I quote, "I don't follow lacrosse." Kinda funny, I guess, but the whole scenario is pretty awful for everybody involved. It's like all the work Coach K has done there in his 20-plus years has been negated, because right now (and for a while to come, unfortunately), the first thing people will think of when they think of Duke (and more specifically, Duke athletics) will be this ridiculousness.
- Could the writing of youth baseball and softball coaches in the La Canada area get any worse? I really hope that the answer to this question is no, because this week's stories are unbelievably bad. I hope to have time to include as many as possible (with a special cameo from an old friend):
- "The A's and Dodgers played an exciting game of baseball last night, with the Dodgers edging the A's in a nail-biter, 7-5" - this is like the way-too-often-overused golf announcer's friend, "that was a great golf shot". Duh. The loyal readers have assumed a few things when they've made the jump to reading these summaries, the first of which would be that they're reading about baseball.
- "Will orr had the fans screaming when he stole home with a face first dive in the 3rd inning" - I'm not sure if I should be scared about this or excited for the kid, you know? It just reads a little too gory, like the kid tore his face off or something (quick quote for Side's movie game: "You wanna face-off with Castor Troy?" -- anybody?). And I do think this coach needs to work with his kids on the fundamentals. I'm no Tom Emanski, but face-first doesn't seem to be the right way to do it, does it?
- "A tight game where pitching predominated...Schwartz batted .1000 with 2 walks" - Could he have meant 1.000? It would take a lot of at bats, probably more than you can get in a regulation youth baseball game, to hit .1000, and even if you did, it probably wouldn't be worth bragging about in the ensuing write-up, would it?
- "In the third inning, McAleenan reached the PCY asphalt for the first time this year with a two run shot" - just put that one in there for Side, for nostalgia's sake
- "...Dana then fired the ball to Niamh to catch another Wahine Surfer at second base to complete a TRIPLE PLAY. Woooww!!!" - I think I saw this line in Steve Henson's Dodger recap from last night. Whoever said there's no such thing as objective journalism?
- "The White Sox struggled to keep up with the fast pased Red Sox today. Our pitching was struggling along with our bats. The spring break (Coach Williams)" - ...evidently meant that Coach Williams wanted to take a break from typing the rest of his summary, which, if the first portion is any indication, would have been stocked with numerous spelling and grammar mistakes.
- "Defensively getting help from Don Pontrelli and Collin Ramini keeping the Yankee's close to the bag. Infielders Collin Ramani and Chris Knapp making put outs. The White Sox lost the game to the Yankee's but it was a very good game and each team should be happy with thier play. By the way this was a really fun game to watch also. (Coach Williams)" - That old Coach Williams is at it again, with pretty much the worst piece of writing I've seen since Miss Canavan's English class. Trust me, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The apostrophe in "Yankee's" defies description, the second sentence is more fragmented than a Handsome Boy Modeling School album, and the last line seriously looks like it was written by Coach Williams' seven-year old son, if not his cocker spaniel. Struggling...
- "Jonathan Lee augmented exemplary play at catcher with a lead off home run and perfection at the plate, going 3 for 3 (scoring all 3 times!); inspiring chants of 'Destroyer! Destroyer!' and earning the game ball in a game that featured several outstanding performances." - Do you really think people were chanting at this game? If so, how exactly do you chant "destroyer"? It doesn't exactly flow, does it? Of course, I don't want to knock this guy too much, because he did use "augmented" and "exemplary" in the same sentence, which is about two more polysyllabic words than the rest of the coaches could muster, combined.
(this next one is my favorite)
- "Both teams thought the game ended in a tie, until Leo re-instated a run for the Giants from the 3rd inning. If you're confused, you're not alone. Either way, it's not about winning and losing, when you lose. This was one of those youth sporting events that will be remembered for the many great plays by the kids, despite the many perplexing events. (Coach Stephens)" - Can't you just hear Jeese saying this? It's possible, nay, probable that this was not Jeff Stephens, but I'm choosing to believe that it is. It's way better that way...
- "The Cardinal offense exploded in the first inning, with consecutive singles by Papi, Tex, Ben-10, A.K., and Slugger resulting in 5 runs" - this is the same "Destroyer" guy, who obviously seems hell-bent on giving every kid in the sixth grade a nickname, no matter their objections. I can visualize poor Tex telling his evil coach, "But I don't wanna be Tex. I grew up in Riverside." And I'm hearing that A.K.'a parents have grown a little uncomfortable with their son's association to a semi-automatic weapon.
- "The Golden Retrievers fought hard and led for the first half of the game with great pitching from Meghan Lacey & Madison Witt. Meghan also hit a double combined with Delaney Brower's RBI to score the Retriever's one run, but bases were left loaded too many times on the third out for the team to win" - first of all, whoever decided to name a little girls' team after dogs is downright cruel. Second of all, does this allow the coach to use the b-word in talking to his/her players? Technically, that's what they all are, right? I should stop talking about this...
- "Also, Hannah Martinez came to play ball to support her team even with an injured toe!" - Well Coach, I guess we should just start putting young Hannah in the conversation with Willis Reed and Terrell Owens, shouldn't we? Courageous, undeniable spirit--I mean, her TOE was hurt, and she still showed up to the game?!? How is this even possible?!? Get HBO Real Sports on the phone and send Bryant Gumbel out to talk to Hannah, like today. America deserves to hear this story...
- "Unexpeced to play due to injury, Cox threw a no-hitter, striking out 10 and walking two over four innings" - there, now that's better (even though you can't spell "unexpected")

Due to time constraints, I'm forced to conclude this extended mocking session, but I'll do my best to write again this week. Leaving for Denver on Friday to produce an NBA Playoffs piece (Game 4 Nuggets-Clippers), which should be lots of fun; maybe time to write in the hotel or something, we'll see...

Basking In the Glow

2006-03-27T10:09:00.000-08:00

"Hail to the hills of Westwood
To the mighty sea below
Hail to our Alma Mater
She will conquer every foe"
--Hail to the Hills of Westwood, UCLA Alma Mater

As I mute Kara Lawson's NCAA Women's Elite Eight breakdown on SportsCenter (can't they just give them their own channel?--you know, equality; they could take over KCAL and call it Title 9), my thoughts are with the real NCAA tournament and the amazing UCLA Bruins. I'm still not quite sure how it happened, but we're really going to the Final Four (it's always nice to use "we" when we're winning and "they" when they get beat, as happened far too often to far too inferior opponents in the Lavin regime), which is beyond mind-boggling. My buddy (and fellow alum) James sent me a text message yesterday, stating, "I just heard that Ryan Hollins was named Regional MVP. Should I start getting ready for the four horsemen?" While it's not quite apocalyptic, the ascension of the erstwhile John Muir benchwarmer to Honorable Mention status on Chad Ford's "Who's Hot" for the NBA Draft (sorry if you don't have Insider) is nothing short of a miracle. Other stories of note include Cedric Bozeman's transformation from do-nothing freshman to do-everything senior (let's not talk about that airballed three on Saturday), the ability of the team to win despite below-average performances from its most important player (Jordan Farmar), and the best tourney showing from a UCLA freshman since Toby Bailey (Luuuuuuuuuuuc--let's hope and pray that he actually does improve in the next few years, something we can't say for Toby). Something else nobody has really mentioned: we're in the Final Four without our best offensive player, Josh Shipp, who's been out for the season, and will hopefully return next year to help these guys get back there. While I'm on the Final Four subject, just saw some interesting numbers from ESPN's bracket contest, stating that four people actually did have this group of four teams picked--how on earth does that happen? Speaking of bracket contests, I only entered one (and it was rapidly put together), but somehow I emerged from this weekend on top of the Best Damn pool (something like $800 at stake). Basically, if UCLA wins it all, I lose, but if anything else happens, I win. Pretty much a great scenario, because if UCLA wins, I'm stoked beyond belief, and if they don't, well, I've got some cash to ease the pain (just in time for that England trip credit card bill). I think I'll be basking in this Final Four glow all week long...

I haven't bought a new CD since "Futures", but I'm strongly considering picking up the new Pearl Jam disc when it comes out, having heard the first single on KROQ the other day. "

It's got nothing to do with UCLA, but I can hardly contain my excitement--that's right, youth baseball is back, and better than ever. My first editing session takes place tonight (during "Prison Break" and/or "24", I guess), but I need to scan for a sneak preview (Side, this is for you):
"The Astros offense were led by Al Kassir, Patrick Xu and Anthony Mizrahi with 2 runs scored each" - At least they got "led" right, right?
"Despite being battered with balls, bats, and bodies, the tough Chicks continued to fight to the end" - This sounds like a pretty messy situation, good thing the chicks are tough
"The sparks were led by Leanis Stepanian, who had a bases clearing homerun in their last at bat" - I believe the term you're looking for is "grand slam"
"The Daisies offense was powered by the big bats and great base-running of Amy Giboney, Kyla Sayre, Breanna Chan and the Wonder Twins: Melissa & Rebecca Klein! (Coach Gay)" - I think I'd have a tough time playing for this guy, or at least keeping a straight face everytime I addressed him (and who else could come up with a name like "Wonder Twins"?)
"Sarah Hughes was Miss RBI Hitter" - Is this an official award they give out every week, like with a sash and everything? Not quite as prestigious as, say, Miss America, but it's gotta be an exciting time for little Sarah
"The La Canada Books and Toys', Battling Bears, were battling till the end" - I guess this guy was just looking for a place to stick a comma or two

Off to work, hoping to get Ben Howland on this week, though I don't want to take anything away from his prep time. Go Bruins.

Addendum

2006-03-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

There are very few things in the world that get me really fired up, but women's basketball is definitely one of those things. Candace Parker dunking in a game--twice--is possibly the worst thing to have happened in sports so far this calendar year. Here's why: in the aftermath, some female analyst on SportsCenter actually had the gall to state "Anyone who wasn't watching women's basketball before HAS to watch now, because face it, the dunk is a part of the women's game. It's here to stay." I might be a little off on the exact wording, but the general idea is still conveyed. And oh by the way, the lower-third font read "The Dunk is Now a Part of the Women's Game". Ridiculous. I could honestly write for an hour straight about this (remember the Pat Summitt stupidity a couple years ago?), but I'll let Sports Guy take it for me, short and sweet:
"Laying the ball in and grabbing the rim is NOT a dunk. End of story."
Peace.

Backed-Up Thoughts

2006-03-23T09:37:00.000-08:00

"The consequences that I've rendered
I've stretched myself beyond my means"
--It's Been Awhile, Staind

With apologies to Aaron Lewis and Staind, it has indeed "been awhile", and for that, I apologize. Every so often, I'll have a thought that I'll start to write, and then I end up with way too much to do, so it falls by the wayside. It's been that way for a little over a month now, and despite the workload facing me today, I'm going to do my best to power through and actually write something. Far too much has been going on in the sporting world and in my traveling world to ignore, so here goes, in no particular order.

NCAA Tournament: I just heard on SportsCenter that out of more than three million brackets filled out online, not a single one had all of the Sweet 16 correctly picked, and only 12 even had 15 of them. That means the tournament has been exactly what it should be--full of Cinderellas--and with all four No. 1 seeds still in, the big boys are in the mix as well. In what amounted to pretty much perfect timing, we started our new three-days-a-week schedule last week (shooting two shows each on Tuesday and Wednesday), meaning that we were all free to sit around the office and watch games all day Thursday and Friday, several at a time of course, and cheer on our respective squads. I only filled out one bracket, did it in about five minutes the morning the sheets were due, and I'm 19th out of a few hundred, so I can't complain, and my Bruins (Final Four selection) are still very much alive. Have I mentioned how much I love Ben Howland? He goes to my church, and my buddy T.J. (the music leader guy) got tix from Big Ben for last weekend (San Diego) and this weekend (Oakland). Coach Calipari (Memphis) is supposed to come through for tickets for us (though I will obviously be rooting against his Tigers should we meet in the Regional Final), so I might also be heading up--would be pretty sweet. A few tourney observations thus far:
- Best Team: Besides UCLA, it's gotta be Florida (also one of my Final Four picks). Joakim Noah has been sick, their guards are sweet, and they pressure the heck out of you. Billy Donovan is fun to watch on the sideline too, especially with that slick-backed hair that won't quite make it to Pat Riley status, but you know he really wants it to.
- Worst Team: Syracuse. If G-Mac were healthy, this would be different (and by the way, I've made DVD copies of their Big East Tournament run for posterity), but they looked so terrible against A&M, and they didn't have anybody else who could score once he went down. It's a tough way to end his career, but he'll always have '03.
- Best Player: Other than Noah, I've gotta say that Marcus Williams has impressed me the most. There's no doubt that UConn loses either or both of those games without him (and there are those who will contend that stealing laptops should mean that they should be playing without him); he's pretty much the best point guard in the country, and he can score when they need him to.
- Worst Player: This is just among guys that are supposed to be good, 'cause I'm sure there's a walk-on at Murray State who's worse, and I'm leaving G-Mac and his two points off the list because of the injury. I'm going with Derek Raivio, who came in averaging over 11 points and three assists for the Zags, but who ended up with two terrible shooting games, minimal assist contributions (hard to avoid assists when Adam Morrison is on your team, I would think) and ceding critical minutes to Jannero Pargo, Junior. Maybe I'm just hating on the Zags 'cause I want them to play terribly on Thursday, but I really wasn't impressed with the little guy--I thought he was better last year, to be honest.
- Most Annoying Cliche: "They're not freshmen anymore". Unfortunately, the phrase that gained popularity with the Fab Five's run to the '92 final game (where they fell to G-Hill, Chest-Stomp Laettner and Dook) regains some momentum around tourney time, when freshmen apparently become sophomores somehow. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Marcus Williams (the Arizona version) and Brandon Rush (the youngest and hopefully best member of the heretofore talent-wasting Rush family) all received mention on this front, which is meant to show that these guys have now gained a lot of experience by this late stage of the season, but here's the thing: they're still freshmen, and this is still their first NCAA tournament. If they weren't freshmen anymore, they'd have post-season experience--which they don't--and their junior teammates would have become seniors--which they haven't. If Ben Howland hadn't been among those proliferating this awful cliche, I'd be even more hateful of it, but I can't really hate anything that guy says or does, so I'm done.
- My Favorite Player (that doesn't wear a UCLA jersey): Glen "Big Baby" Davis. Dude is hilarious to look at--think Tractor Traylor, but even a little rounder--and he can really play. My boss sent me this e-mail this morning, so I'll pass on a couple of notes about this kid: "A few of Glen Davis' freshman-year feasts became legendary at LSU: The time he downed a bag of 25 Chips Ahoy cookies -- about 2,200 calories worth -- in 20 minutes; the study hall session when he poured two bags of M&M's into his mouth at once; the late-night snack when he ordered a family-sized bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and ate every piece himself." This kid is awesome.

Chargers: Drew Brees was in studio yesterday, which would normally be an exciting moment for me, but due to recent developments on the NFL free agent front, I was faced with mixed emotions at the arrival of this cool Brees. For those in the dark, my quarterback was signed by the New Orleans Saints and the Chargers, having failed to apply the franchise or transition tag to their two-time Pro Bowler, are now left with Philip Rivers at the helm. For the record, I hate this. Rivers may indeed turn out to be as good as Brees, but it certainly won't be this year, and it probably won't be next year either. A.J. Smith can spin it any way he wants, but it's definitely a step backward for the organization. Very frustrating. I don't want to talk about it anymore. I think I'll turn to TV now...

Sopranos: I've heard mixed reactions to this past Sunday's Sopranos episode, but I absolutely loved it. Complaints about a lack of action are valid, but there was so much else going on, I didn't miss the violence at all. Deep, dark, thought-provoking, everything. The fact that it generated so much office conversation (at least here) was a testament to its ingenuity. And you know it just sets up and episode where at least one or two people are going down next Sunday.

England: I need to be brief, 'cause I don't have time, but it was an absolutely amazing trip. Watching Fulham vs. Arsenal, visiting Sky Sports News, spending two days in Norway, watching Reading vs. Watford from the sidelines, watching Newcastle United vs. Manchester United with B--words wouldn't do it justice. For those who have never been to Europe, please do yourself a favor and go. I have no doubt that I'll be back sometime next year (during soccer season, of course), and many more times beyond that.

Quick Sweet 16 predictions: all the favorites win today (Duke, Memphis, Texas, UCLA) and then BC, Mason, Florida and UConn tomorrow. My Final Four still looks good: Duke beats Texas, UCLA over Memphis, Florida beats BC and UConn (such an easy region) cruises past Mase.

Chasing Earl

2006-02-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

"Even Izzy, Slash and Axl Rose
When I call, you put 'em all on hold"
--Suzanne, Weezer

After bible study last night, I returned home looking forward to a viewing of my second-favorite show on TV (and one of only three shows I even attempt to watch on a weekly basis), "My Name Is Earl". Unfortunately, there's this sporting event going on somewhere overseas that seems to have put the rest of NBC's programming on a short hiatus, and there was no new episode of Earl to watch. How sad. Last week's episode, guest-starring Mrs. Ben Stiller as a professor and the temporary object of Earl's affection, was probably the best in the show's brief history (I thought as much, and had my opinion verified by two avid viewers in the office--my place of work, not to be confused with the show immediately following Earl in NBC's Thursday night lineup). They've had a great run of guest stars, including Adam Goldberg a few weeks ago and Jon Favreau before that. Also, the Taco Bell commercial guy has made a few appearances in what seems to be a pretty similar character to his burrito-touting alter ego. Jaime Pressly is amazing, Crab Man is hilarious, and Ethan Suplee hasn't been this good since he was trying to see that stupid sailboat in the mall. But the genius of the show, obviously, lies in the title character, and Jason Lee is just awesome. Dude has really exceeded expectations, hasn't he? After watching "Mallrats" for the first time, freshman year of college, there's no way I would have foreseen a hit NBC comedy landing anywhere near this guy. He was definitely funny--one of my favorite movie characters of all time, right up there with Trent from "Swingers" and Colonel Frank Slade--but very unpolished, which is pretty much what you'd expect from a professional skateboarder turned actor. He's done plenty of work from that point to get to where he is now, so in the word of Ali G, "respeck".
I alluded to the grand sporting event that's taken over the airwaves (and has rendered BDSSP dark for two glorious weeks), and I'm wondering if I've ever cared less about games of any olympiad. I really don't think so. I've managed to watch about five minutes of downhill skiing (at Rocky Cola Cafe in Hermosa on Sunday--Bode didn't win), two static-filled minutes of some snow-related event (at Suss' new apartment on Monday--they don't have cable yet) and maybe three minutes of USA hockey (at work on Wednesday--we tied Latvia, which had "Like Wall" in net), which amounts to a grand total of 10 minutes in the games' first week. Why don't I care? And why isn't anybody at work talking about it? I've come up with a few reasons so far...
- The world at large cares more about this kind of thing than the sporting community, and this is my first winter games working within said community. I'm exposed to enough, day in and day out, to know that I'd much rather be watching UConn-Villanova or Cavs-Celtics (ridiculous overtime game the other night; deserves mention later) than Johnny Weirdo skating his pretty little heart out.
- The summer Olympics are about nine billion times better than their winter counterparts, which makes these kind of disappointing. The only events that really capture me in the same way the summer ones do are women's figure skating (I'll try to watch Sasha Cohen; I would have watched Michelle Kwan) and ice hockey (but probably just the medal rounds, unless it's Kazakhstan v. Italy or something like that). Figure skating is the winter equivalent of gymnastics, except the girls are usually taller than four feet, and the music is better, for the most part.
- The delay factor makes suspense for these events almost non-existent. I'm not sure if NBC is trying to pretend the internet doesn't exist or what, but attempting to put people on the edge of their seat when the thing their watching happened like six hours ago just seems stupid to me. I guess because they need to get prime time advertising dollars, they keep everything late and try to make it seem new. It would be possible to avoid hearing about results (like taping a game, trying to avoid all score updates before you get home and watch it), but it's not easy when you spend almost the entire workday in front of a computer.
- I don't watch TV at night (except for the three shows--usually just watched on TiVo at my convenience anyway), so the delayed stuff doesn't work for me at all, even if I didn't know what was going on. There's nothing about these events that's inducing me to watch anymore evening television than is already on my docket.
Yeah, so quick note about this crazy Cavs-Celtics games the other night, because I can pretty much guarantee that nobody I know watched it. After the Suns-Sonics game a month or so ago (Ray-Ray's trey at the buzzer won it, 152-149, in double OT), this has been the game of the year so far in the NBA. Here's why:
- Paul Pierce. 50 points for the Inglewood native (to go with 7 rebounds and 8 assists)--he's very quietly having a First-Team All-NBA-type season.
- LeBron, LeBron, LeBron. Not to be outdone by Pierce, King James went for 43 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, 4 blocked shots and 2 steals. He's so ridiculous sometimes. Having him and D-Wade running the wings on Sunday is going to be obscene (and Vinsanity coming off the bench).
- Three guys played 50+ minutes. Delonte West was one of them; I'll give you one guess for the other two. Yeah. LeBron played 54 (out of a possible 58), and Pierce had the same number.
- Delonte West. Sports Guy's favorite Celtic is quickly turning into a very good point guard. In addition to his marathon display, he put up 15 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists (and 3 blocked shots!).
- Lots of scoring. Not quite as many points as that Suns-Sonics game (most entertaining regular season game I can ever remember, honestly), but 113-109 is still a great scoreline for a league that's finally seeing offensive numbers on the rise again. Gone are the days of the Bad Boy Pistons and the ugly Knicks. Mike D'Antoni has started a revolution, and it's far more entertaining.
That's it for today, I'm off to a meeting and then to Mammoth for a snow-filled long weekend. Obviously making time for All-Star Weekend and the UCLA-USC game in there somewhere, but I'll have plenty of time on the slopes...

Queens

2006-02-09T08:16:00.000-08:00

"Terrible, what ya know about terrible?
Terrible, you don’t know what’s terrible"
--Terrible, Insane Clown Posse

Actually, I do know what's terrible: the Kings, especially their not-so-special teams, which gave up two more power play goals last night (and went 0-for-3 on the power play) and sent Andy Murray's reeling squad to their seventh straight loss. Ouch. After an abysmal display on Tuesday (5-1 loss to Minnesota; all five Wild goals scored on the power play), I was stoked to look at my coordinating producer's monitor in the control room yesterday and see a 3-1 Kings advantage on ESPN's bottom line. I was unable to watch any of the rest of the game, but needless to say, getting the post-game text alert reading 7-4 was quite stunning. I don't know where to place the blame, because they've been dealing with injuries all season, and are probably healthier now than they've been in forever. I know we're still in 2nd place in the division, still in the playoff picture, but this is getting ridiculous. I'm thinking Davie T needs to make a move sometime soon and shake things up, or this season is going to end up in the pits...
One of my favorite things about Google is having three quotes of the day on my search page every day. I don't always pay attention to them, but every once in a while, something comes up that evokes a positive response. Number two this morning is just such a line, from a guy named Bertrand Russell (no idea who that is): "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." Two things here: first of all, the fact that I have no idea who Bertrand Russell is means I could probably just say something, attach my name to it and submit it for use on Google quotes of the day. How important do you think you have to be to get on there? I might investigate the submission process, and who knows, maybe you'll see some disparaging quote about women's basketball on your Google quote page sometime soon. Second thing: on my NFL weekends, when Saturday (or parts thereof) represents the only time away from work in my week, this quote rings loud and true. On the outside, one might view a day spent watching soccer and college football, napping, eating, playing guitar, reading, writing, and playing ncaa 06 (or just lazing around on my bed or the couch) a bit of a wasted day. But alas, according to Mr. Russell, 'tis no such thing. I'm feeling very validated. I might try to waste some time at work today.
In the interest of appearing somewhat informed, I clicked on his name and a sizeable list of quotations came up, several of which I find to be agreeable. Another one I like: "To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness." This is in direct correlation to my daily struggle to find time for everything, one which consistently results in me finding time for nothing other than work. I know I can't do everything (or have everything), which is good, but I never really looked at that deprivation as a means to happiness. Kinda cool, actually. (By the way, according to his quote page, Bertrand Russell is an author--or WAS an author--from the 20's and 30's, so maybe I can't just be nobody and get on the page.)
Kareem is on the show today, and we've been cleared to use his scenes from "Airplane!", which is just about the happiest news I could have gotten today. The cokcpit scene with the kid, which includes not only Kareem getting in the kid's face and challenging his dad to run up and down the court with Walton and Lanier, but also the classic Captain Over lines ("Have you ever seen a grown man naked?" and "Do you like gladiator movies?", among others). I've already been watching it at my desk this morning, you know, doing research for the segment, and it's been quite enjoyable (maybe a waste of time as well?). We're also using a clip from "Game of Death", in which Kareem fights Bruce Lee. I'd never seen it before, but there's a sweet five-minute fight scene towards the end of the movie from which we'll cut a 30-second clip. Great soundtrack and sound effects (and when I say great, I definitely mean terrible). Well now, it looks like we've come full circle...

J.J.'s J

2006-02-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

"How do you think he does it? I don't know
What makes him so good?"
--Pinball Wizard, The Who

Dude can shoot. Wow. I know I'm partial to Duke (and most people seem to hate Coach K and his spawn), but even the impartial need to be impressed with J.J. Redick, who continued his incredible senior season with a DeanDome-slump-breaking 35-point performance (tying Len Bias for the second-highest point total in the building's history, by the way), including two dagger treys in the final minutes.
Unfortunately for me, I had work that kept me at my desk until almost 8:30 last night. Fortunately for me, I have a television set at said desk, one which receives just about every sporting event on any station at any given time (tree-climbing and curling excepted), and I was therefore able to witness the entirety of the Duke-Carolina second half while I finished up my work. Before getting to a little more J.J., a couple other thoughts evoked by last night's rivalry game:
- Shelden Williams is not as good as I thought he was. He's a solid rebounder and a good shot-blocker, but he's not a consistent enough low-post scorer to be a great four-man in the league (and he's way too small to be a center). At best, he's a poor man's Ben Wallace. At worst, he's a shorter Collins twin (Jason or Jarron, is there really a difference?)...
- Josh McRoberts is going to be good. Very good. He does need to bulk up a bit, but he's only a freshman, and I came away much more impressed with him than with fellow frosh Tyler Hansbrough, Carolina's leading scorer and rebounder. If he and Paulus (also solid--big free throws late) stay together for a couple years, there'll be a few more titles heading there way (but speculation has him turning pro after next year at the latest). Oh yeah, and that reverse oop from Sean Dockery was sick...
- Roy Williams is a darn good coach. That move he pulled in the second half, sitting all five of his starters and ripping into them on the bench while his no-names hung in there for a few minutes was brilliant. The starters re-entered and turned a 17-point deficit into a five-point lead before J.J. took over. I've had a debate with one of my bosses about where we'd play college basketball if we had offers from everywhere in the country--I go with Duke, he goes with Carolina, and I can see the value of playing for Roy...
- I enjoy USC-UCLA (in all sports), and Ohio State-Michigan seems to have some significance, but no matter where these two teams are rated, this is the best rivalry in sports, without question. Before I die, I need to witness one of those games in person (and I would prefer to do so sooner than later--gotta make this media thing work for me somehow)...
Okay, so watching J.J. Redick this season has gotten me thinking about a number of things, the most notable of which is trying to figure out the last time the two best players in college basketball were white guys. J.J. and Adam Morrison are the two guys basically considered the best in the nation (they're 1-2 in scoring, 28.4 apiece), and off the top of my head, I don't think it's happened--I have therefore done a little research:
Besides Andrew Bogut, who won the Wooden Award last year, only four white guys have ever won the award: Christian Laettner, Chris Mullin, Danny Ainge and Larry Bird. In '92, Shaq was probably the best player; in '85, I'd say it was Ewing; in '81, I was four, but I do know that Isiah and Ralph Sampson were among the game's best; and in '79, it was obviously Magic. Last year, Redick was also a first-team All-American, but I think Dee Brown, Sean May and Chris Paul would all be considered better than him at that point. Basically what I'm trying to say is that we're on the brink of history here, and it's probably not something we're going to see for quite awhile.
Last J.J. thing, because I don't think I mentioned it when it happened a few weeks ago. A little over a week ago, I watched Duke play Virginia (another work night thing), and saw the Devils cruise to a pretty easy 82-63 victory over the Cavs (if you'll recall, it was former Virginia coach Pete Gillen who uttered the famous "Duke is Duke--they're on TV more than 'Leave it to Beaver' re-runs" line). J.J. had another great scoring game, his third-best scoring total of the season, but the fact that he scored 40 points wasn't the most impressive thing. It was that he scored those 40 points on just 13 shots. Seriously. He was 11-of-13 from the floor (including 8-of-10 from downtown) and 10-of-11 from the line. It was unbelievable. He didn't force anything, just took (and made) open shots all night long. It was the anti-Kobe, actually. Kobe has taken as few as 13 shots exactly once this season, and he managed 24 points in a 76-74 loss to the Rockets. His 40-point games have required 36, 34, 36, 33, 24, 31, 37, 29, 41, 32, 29, 35, 46 and 17 shots, respectively, and that last game required a 23-of-26 from the line performance that got Larry Brown ejected for his disagreement with the officiating. Redick's display against Virginia was indeed a remarkable display of efficiency.
And now, for those of you who find anything affiliated with Duke extremely nauseating, I present the Redick-free portion of this morning's blog:
- solid, but not flashy 24 on Monday--introducing a few other uncomfortable elements to deal with (kidnapping and child abuse, suicide by hanging) to complement the monopoly on torture already enjoyed by the show, and giving us another apparent dead end in the search for the nerve gas. I think that having the Russians involved is a cool thing--brings us back to the days of "Wargames" and "Top Gun", all those great Cold War movies...
- if you are A) a viewer of our wonderful television show, B) a fan of the Oakland Athletics (specifically Eric Chavez and/or Huston Street), C) a guitar player, and/or D) familiar with the Martin DC-1E model, then you might want to tune in tomorrow (Thursday) night, 9 or 10:30 pm, and you'll see the American League Rookie of the Year picking out a little Dave Matthews Band tune on my guitar. Evidently Street has been learning to play from Barry Zito, and "Lie in Our Graves" is one of the songs he's picked up--we decided to let him play on the show, and my guitar was nominated. Having appeared in a comedy sketch or two, I must say that this is way cooler--the Martin on national television, I love it...
- on another show-related note, Chuck Norris is in studio today. I've just started reading all these Chuck Norris facts on the internet, and it's definitely one of the funniest phenomena I've ever seen. For those heretofore unbaptized, a sampling:

- Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried. Ever.
- When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
- In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World Records it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris, and those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone else has ever gotten.

I have no idea how something like this gets started, but the guy is probably more famous for this than for anything else he's ever done, and I'm stoked to meet him today, no doubt...
- I've finalized travel plans for my trip to England in March, and I don't know if I've ever been as excited for anything, ever. Maybe the trip to Korea in '02, maybe meeting Antonio Gates (maybe meeting Chuck Norris today--not really), but I don't think anything is to this level of anticipation. I'm flying out on a Friday morning, arriving in London the next morning, in time to head over to Craven Cottage (it's a stadium name) for the Fulham-Arsenal match (former Bruin Carlos Bocanegra and USA star Brian McBride both start for Fulham). Sunday through Friday are wide open (though they'll probably include a trip to watch Blackburn practice (Brad Friedel plays there), a jaunt to Norway to see my friend Kristene, and hopefully a few other stops in European cities. I'll return to London Saturday for a Division 1 match at Reading, where Americans Marcus Hahnemann and Bobby Convey play, and then Mike B flies in that night. We're capping the week off with the ultimate: Newcastle United at Manchester United. It's Alan Shearer's final season, so I get to watch him play, and it's a game at Old Trafford, which is pretty much Yankee Stadium, the Boston Garden and Lambeau Field all rolled into one (except with hooligans). I seriously can't wait...

81 & Change

2006-01-24T09:14:00.000-08:00

"I don't know if I can hear another tale
Of how amazing you can be
I don't think that I have really ever seen
Just how amazing you can be"
--Sunny Day, Dave Navarro

Since I devoted this space to LeBron last Friday, it's only fair to give therapist equal run after that ridiculousness Sunday night. Two things to discuss in the aftermath of the greatest non-Wilt scoring night in NBA history (of course, there's no video of the 100-point game, so maybe it didn't exist): where does Kobe rank among the all-time greats and why do so many people continue to hate him?
He begged off any and all comparisons to MJ last night after the game, saying it's not fair to MJ and Magic to try to compare today's players to those guys, since they're the all-time greats, and it's not the same game (his words, not mine). Jalen Rose, one of several Raptors torched on the night, has my favorite quote so far: "I've never seen anything like it...from ANYONE! It was like playing NBA Live but on the arcade level...just...BANANAS...WOW!!!" I also read Mike Downey this morning, the erstwhile LA Times columnist now in Chicago, and his view is that this is the start (if not the continuation) of a public re-embracing of Kobe, of his emergence as an MJ-level draw across the league, and of his possible hero status if he can indeed play a role in bringing a World Championship and/or Olympic gold medal back to the US. I can only hope that whatever he's doing and wherever he's going, Laker wins will be coming along. I do believe that we're a year or two away from seriously challenging Phoenix and San Antonio, but being a seven-seed for a few more seasons wouldn't be the worst thing ever. We'll be back. Soon.
And now, some loose change...
- We've essentially replaced Leeann Tweeden with Lisa Dergan as the correspondent on the show, a move I equate roughly to the Dream Team bringing Karl Malone off the bench to replace Charles Barkley (note: the analogy begins and ends with that; I certainly don't equate our show to the Dream Team)...
- Seahawks-Steelers, huh? The last Super Bowl I didn't watch was the Redskins-Bills clash in '92 (didn't much care for Mark Rypien; shooting hoops in my neighbor's yard the whole time), and even though it's pretty much my job to watch things like this, I have a hard time getting excited for this matchup (I honestly wouldn't have watched either of the championship games if I weren't getting paid to do so--literally)...
- It seems like 24 is trying to move faster than it has in previous seasons--a mole is revealed (to the audience) and then discovered (on the show) within the hour, the president's chief advisor (Walt Cummings), shown to us early on to be a traitor, is given up already (it would have been easy to assume that his concealment would last most of the season), and then Audrey and Jack are immediately rekindling the old flame (despite the presence of other chick and her son)...I'm obviously hooked on season five...
- Saw a note on rockham about Karl Dorrell looking to hire DeWayne Walker (former SC guy and current Redskins assistant) as his defensive coordinator, and the operating opinion was that Dorrell is trying to "be like Pete". I take a different view, however, just observing a typical path of upward mobility: USC to the NFL, and then to the apex, UCLA. I can't say this with a straight face, so I type and hide behind the printed word...
- Sven Goran Eriksson is leaving his job as England's head coach after the World Cup this summer...is there anyone who reads this that has ever heard of him before? What country is he from? Where has he coached previously? I know none of you know, since there's nobody I work with that has any idea either. Being a soccer fan is a bit of a lonely existence, frankly...
- Darn you, Mike Gansey...
- Stacy Keibler was on the show last week, and I think I'm still breathless. Without question, the most beautiful girl I've ever been in the presence of. I even had the privilege of standing with her in her dressing room for a second (I had to hold the door for a shot we needed of her; it required me being in the room with her, with the door closed, before she opened it to emerge for the shot)...okay, maybe it was only 30 seconds, but it was 30 glorious seconds...
Long day, peace...

LBJ

2006-01-20T15:10:00.000-08:00

"Time alone, oh, time will tell
Think you're in heaven, but ya living in hell"
--Time Will Tell, Bob Marley

Since I have time today, on this dark Friday (and since I've been inspired by a comment that would seem to suggest the fact that people--okay, a person--actually still read(s) this stuff), I'd like to expound the rivalry between LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, something that (unfortunately) only manifests itself twice a season (and, therefore, only six times thus far in their careers). Fortunately, however, a national television audience was privvy to said rivalry, in full bloom, on Wednesday night. Due to a fatherly dinner commitment, I was unable to witness the event live, but that's just one of the many wonderful things about working in sports television: I watched the necessary portions of the game on tape the next morning. A few thoughts on these cats:
- LeBron is unbelievable. He's over 30 points a game as a 21-year old, which is absurd. He's bigger and stronger than every single guy he matches up with (unless, for some reason, Ben Wallace is guarding him on a switch)--did you see the end of the Cavs-Lakers game when he posted up Kobe and just abused him to draw a foul? It's like that all the time. He's also pretty much faster and jumps higher than any of these guys, which, when you combine it with a jumper that's become remarkably consistent, is resulting in an offensive arsenal that will be totally unstoppable in about two years' time.
- 'Melo has rebounded from the whole sophomore slump/Athens debacle of '04-'05 and is putting together an All-Star season of his own. He's as good offensively as anybody after Kobe, AI and LeBron (Dirk, Arenas and Vinsanity probably fall into that group with him), because he can shoot the j and put it on the floor and finish. Fun to watch, for sure.
- The one thing (and it's a big thing) separating LBJ from Kobe at the moment is his inability to take and make the last shot. He's been remarkably unclutch in the last few weeks, including that Laker game (Kobe hit two huge jumpers, and LeBron missed a tying free throw and a possible winning jumper) and this tilt with the Nuggets (after a 'Melo dunk, he had two free throws to tie, and he missed the second). Is it cause to believe that he's not going to figure out and eventually be the guy who takes and makes those shots? No, because remember Kobe's airballs against the Jazz? Granted, he was 18, but still, it takes a little time (and LeBron's team is still terrible, especially with Larry Hughes out).

Other thoughts entering and leaving my head this week, in no particular order:
- The Wedding Crashers commentary is very high-quality. Vaughn and Wilson are hilarious all the time, especially when they seem to forget they're being recorded. They started talking about the Texas-Ohio State game at one point, watching random NFL games, the specifics of the food that was delivered to their booth--and yes, they did talk a lot about the movie and they were quite entertaining in that regard as well.
- The funniest part of 40-Year Old Virgin is the "you know how I know you're gay?" scene, without question. It's been going around the office this week (for once, I'm actually not the butt of gay jokes), and I understand there's an extended version of the scene on the DVD extras--definitely checking that out at some point soon.
- I think I chose the wrong Kings game to go to this week. Had great seats Tuesday night, but watched a lousy effort from our boys and saw them crash to a 4-1 defeat at the hands of your Tampa Bay Lightning (Martin St. Louis is nice), and then I was forced to turn down Joey's tickets Thursday night (working until 7:30, not conducive to picking up tickets in the South Bay and then heading over for a 7:30 start), where I missed 14 goals and a Luc Robitaille hat trick, one of which was Lucky's franchise record-breaking tally. Going with the bros Saturday--hopefully more like 8-6 and less like 1-4.
- Time is a difficult thing to manage, especially when at least 12 hours of it is occupied by the same thing every day. If I add an hour of driving, an hour of working out and another hour of eating/getting ready in the morning, and, say seven hours of sleep (I'd prefer eight, but that's darn near impossible), it leaves me with a whopping two hours of free time every day. Wow. I don't spend much time stepping back and thinking about time commitments and relationships and how much they require, but it seems pretty clear to me why it's so goshdarn difficult to maintain a relationship. I'm sure that if I really wanted to, I could make the time (I can't make excuses for being retarded), but the math makes it pretty apparent how difficult all of that is.
- "24" is so stinking good. I've become very critical of television shows, but there is very little, if anything, I would change about this show, ever. I almost want to go back and watch all the other seasons just to keep the fix going, because once a week is nowhere near enough. It's worse than drugs.

January

2006-01-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

"I forgot to remember to forget her
I can't seem to get her off my mind
I thought I'd never miss her, But I found out
Somehow I think about her almost all the time"
--I Forgot to Remember to Forget, Johnny Cash

I may as well start naming these posts after the months in which they appear, since they are appearing monthly, at best (I noticed this morning that I've posted exactly four times since the end of September--aargh). It's already been a good month, 12 days in, so there's plenty to write about, and plenty to look forward to. Let's start with the past:
- The Rose Bowl was the best game I've ever viewed in which I did not have a true rooting interest. I wanted SC to win, of course, but wasn't devastated by the defeat as I may have been in, say, the '04 NBA Finals or the '97 Elite Eight (or the Week 17 Chargers-Broncos debacle in the rain in San Diego--I was there, of course--that saw us fall to 9-7 and lose our quarterback--thank goodness for Shawne Merriman, he's real good).
- Christmas (and its accompanying break) was wonderful (I did see "Walk the Line" last month, leading to the above lyrics and a mini-obsession with Cash's music--Johnny, not Walter). It wasn't just taking a full week off that was so nice, but spending that time with family (mostly just playing video games, but still) and recapturing the ability to sleep in. Waking up at 10 or 11 every morning was so different and so sweet--I really thought I had lost the ability to sleep past 9, but it seems I just need a few days to get used to it.
- Not sure who watches Desperate Housewives, but it's obviously a pretty good portion of America, so it would have no doubt been more exciting for that segment of the population than it was for me to have James Denton (a plumber in the show? maybe a gardener?) hanging out at our editorial meeting yesterday. Cool guy, actually (made a few rather humorous remarks directed at one of our producers), and just another in a rather lengthy list of pretty darn cool things about working in television.
- One of the not so cool things about working in television, however, is the impermanent nature of employment, and we went through another series of "trimming the fat", as it were. Lost a good eight people from the show staff, and we'll be losing several more from the crew (cameras, sound, wardrobe, etc.) in the near future. All part of a concerted effort to keep the show viable and making money (which means it's a good thing for those of us that aren't going anywhere), but it still sucks because there are people involved--people I like.
And the future:
- 24 starts Sunday. 24 starts Sunday. 24 starts Sunday...
- The UCLA basketball team is on the verge of something great. Despite the loss of Josh Shipp for the season (the story of me meeting his brother Joe's girlfriend on a plane is a good one--I'll tell it sometime), we're led by an amazing sophomore backcourt (Farmar and Afflalo) and our top eight guys are still just freshmen and sophomores. I've been to two games thus far (and will hopefully be attending more in the near future, based on my re-connect with assistant coach Kerry Keating), and in the second, we beat up on Stanford without a junior or senior playing a single minute. The old guys suck anyways, so they won't be missed when they graduate.
- From various work sponsorships, I've now obtained a number of new DVD's that need to get viewed at some point: Cinderella Man, The 40-Year Old Virgin, Wedding Crashers, Airplane (already seen) and Office Space (already seen). Saw Wedding Crashers in the theater and seem to recall that the first hour was as funny as any in cinematic history--I'll probably need to revisit that possibility at some point this weekend.
- I think I might be going to England. Just sort of thought about it as I was looking at our upcoming dark week schedule (two full weeks in February for the Olympics and a week in March for conference basketball tournaments), and recalled my desire to see Alan Shearer play once before he retires at the end of this season. I'm going to take in two or three matches in a week's time (one of which will definitely include big Al), which will be more than enough to quench my thirst for live European football. Can't wait...

Looking forward to bible study tonight--first installment of the new year, and always a lovely way to spend a Thursday night. God bless...

2005-12-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

Since it's obvious that I'm a blogging slacker, I won't even attempt to defend myself at the beginnings of these semi-annual entries, so I'm just going to get right to the point and start writing. Understand that even if I don't overtly mention it, I am truly sorry that you're only privy to my cogitations once in a blue moon these days. I make no guarantees about the future of this space, but optimists opine that better days await the Nickels & Dimes, so have hope and carry on, good readers. And now...

I read a lot of articles every morning in my preparation for the show, usually starting with the links on Buster Olney's blog and then perusing a few other link-related sites. Not to knock the FoxSports.com website (well, actually yes, to knock it), but ESPN.com is obviously the location for the best original sports content on the internet, so I'm there quite frequently. Stumbled across a column by Pat Forde last week, lauding the BCS for "getting it right" this time around. Is he serious? Is there a system, real or imagined, that could have possibly gotten something wrong with the national championship picture this year? Only two teams played their way into such a game, unlike years past when three or four teams had valid cases, and many people felt the title game wasn't actually a match-up of the country's top two squads (USC vs. Oklahoma instead of Auburn and LSU vs. Oklahoma instead of SC both come to mind). My mom's two annoying dogs could have bumped heads and come up with this one, quite frankly. So leave your praise for the BCS out of my sight, Pat Forde, I'll have none of it.

Speaking of sports (and I do, quite often), something just occurred that has brought me to a great realization: I've wasted far too much brain space on things related to sports. I glanced at a monitor with the sound down and knew (without the aid of fonts) that I was looking at Rex Kalamian and Marney Gellner. If you know who either of these people are, you're afflicted with the same disease I have, though maybe a milder case. If you could pick these people out of a lineup, you're very sick. And that's what I am, no question about it. For those that care at all, Rex Kalamian is an assistant coach with the Minnesota Timberwolves (used to be a Clippers assistant) and Marney Gellner is a sideline reporter for FSN North (the T'Wolves' affiliate). It's a sad, sad thing...

If I may deviate from sports for a moment, I'll toss something cultural your way (the collective you, of course) and see if it sticks. Had the privilege of taking in a lovely play the other night at Pantages, a place of which I've grown quite fond over the years. "White Christmas" was awesome, all the great music I remember from the movie (except "Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army") and some fine performances by, among others, David Ogden Stiers, he of MASH fame. Cliff from IHOP was also in the production, which was a pleasant surprise. I don't get to the theater enough, but every time I go, I love it. I'm four for four at the Pantages now ("The Producers", "Movin' Out", "Les Miserables" and now "White Christmas"), so I anxiously await my next visit)...

Christmas is rapidly approaching and it always takes me a while to get into the spirit of the season, as they say. Not sure why that's the case (probably because my old job involved advent services and Christmas concerts and my current profession has me watching Rex and Marney on TV), but it's a tardy arrival again this year. Shopping hasn't happened, my thoughts for my own present-type desires are quite cloudy, and work continues to consume. I'm brightened, however, by two big things:
1) daily devotions from Bel Air's advent calendar, a wonderful addition to my morning scripture reading, and...
2) the three weeks off that hovers on the horizon.
Week one of this break will still have at least three days where I come in and get some stuff done, but the week in between Christmas and New Year's will have nothing whatsoever. I do love my job, but I love time with my family and time to relax even more.

Here's hoping something gets you into the spirit sometime soon, and since my prolific blogging rate means I'll probably be writing again sometime in 2007, I'll take the liberty of wishing everyone a merry Christmas and happy new year right now...peace.

Withdrawal

2005-11-17T08:42:00.000-08:00

"I'm not running away, no, don't say that - don't say that...
I've got to protect my life, running away
And I don't want to live with no strife, running away"
--Running Away, Bob Marley

I like writing, I really do, but it's becoming harder and harder to justify spending half an hour or so on a work morning just blogging, providing material that's largely irrelevant for the benefit of a small handful of readers, as opposed to work that's quite relevant, for the immediate benefit of a few dozen co-workers and for the eventual benefit (hopefully) of the legions of Fox Sports Net viewers across the land. Last Monday I saw the disadvantage of losing my entire morning of preparation, as I didn't make it into the office until 9:15, and I was playing catch-up all day. There's a little back story there, by the way.

So I wake up on Sunday morning, lounge around a little bit and eat breakfast, then head down to the garage to take my car into work, a standard 8:30 departure on Sunday morning. Roommate Jason's Mustang was sitting behind the 'Turn, and no keys were in sight. I went back upstairs, knocked and then opened his door to reveal no roommate and, again, no keys. I called his cell phone, which went straight to voicemail, and quickly realized I was in a bit of a bind. So after calling a Fox friend in the neighborhood (he was actually in Vegas) and one of our Associate Directors (he was already well on his way), brother man came to the rescue, turning around and heading all the way back from Fox to pick a brother up. So we were both late, which was fine, but the car deal had yet to be resolved. After returning home from church with no sign of the roommate, I called again, and found him--in Mexico. Yeah, kinda tough to move a car in Manhattan Beach when you're in Mexico. So after our game (a routine win, lots of missed layups for me), I had to make alternate arrangements for travel to and from work on Monday. Thankfully, the South Bay is home to numerous Best Damn employees, and I had several options--Joel, who had returned from Vegas (shooting Leeann Tweeden at a Bullriding competition--she was talking about it, not in it) was gracious enough to oblige, so that was no problem. Got home fine, and the problem was solved by the next morning, so no further worry, thankfully...

So there's work that's fun, there's work that's really fun, and then there's spending a weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia with Leeann Tweeden. Wow. Probably the greatest experience of my Best Damn career to date, and it turned into a pretty good piece, I must say. Hanging out at the Georgia Tech-Virginia game on Saturday, with all the tailgating and festivities and whatnot, trying to accurately convey how much fun it is to be at a college football game (especially when you're with Leeann), trying to sell Mitsubishi cars (sponsor money rules all) and doing all this while managing what was essentially my first solo field shoot. Good times, for sure. And if it wasn't enough to enjoy the whole weekend, I got a text messagwe Tuesday asking how "our piece" turned out. Exchanged a few messages throughout the day (she gets to hang out with Will Ferrell on the set of his new movie this week--he's a NASCAR driver, and she does work for the Speed Channel, so it makes sense), and it looks like I have myself a new friend. So I suppose there are occasional perks to this job, huh?

This is where the blog gets a little bit sappy today, so I apologize in advance. By the way, it's a dark day and my day-long edit session doesn't start until 9, so there's a little bit of writing time before I start on the soundbites of the year (I have a feeling that T-O and Drew Rosenrosen will be prominently represented). So I think you can measure the importance of something by the amount you're willing to sacrifice on its behalf, if that makes sense. My job is important enough to me that I've been willing to sacrifice a lot of free time and a lot of social life to be here, to put in the 12- and 13-hour days, to work six-day weeks almost all year-round, and it's worth it. Church on Sunday nights is worth forsaking another several hours of free time (since my weekends don't otherwise possess much at all), "24" will be worth less sleep on Monday nights when it returns in January--you get the idea. So it's been a long time since a girl has really been worth that sort of sacrifice to me--my free time, my sleep, my eating habits, my work schedule--and it seems like I might have arrived to a point where I'm willing to start giving things up. It's only been a few weeks here with the lovely Miss K, but already I've been sleeping way less (probably the reason I'm sick right now, frankly), I'm becoming inclined to leave work a little early some days (she lives like two miles from Fox), and my highly-valued alone time doesn't hold quite the same esteem as it once did. I'm wary of sudden, drastic changes, ones that would represent infatuation and an unhealthy start to things, but I'm balancing my gut with my head, keeping logic as involved as possible with emotion. So things are good, and getting better, and I continue to be as cryptic as ever in this space, but I'm okay with that. Sappy section over...

Hopefully some more writing time will present itself over the next few weeks--no new shows until the 28th, so my work days have a lot more flexibility in them, and when I'm here, I'm not necessarily under the gun all day, as I normally might be. It'll be a nice change of pace (especially when there's somewhere else I'd like to be spending a lot of my time). Peace.

I've Been Warned

2005-10-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

"She woke in the morning
She knew that her life had passed her by
She called out a warning
Don't ever let life pass you by"
--Warning, Incubus

Sorry Side, I didn't want to eclipse the one-month mark, so here I am, most of the way through a dark week and sitting with time to write. It's a rarity these days, so enjoy...
It's not just the literally stuff that these people have trouble with; it's a giant assortment of mis-used words, including this morning's entry from the Pac-10 football notebook: "A mid-November trip to Oregon State also is hardly a shoe-in." The correct term is "shoo-in," because an easy victory is in no way associated with
footwear, sorry. I just wish I had some youth football stories or something to make fun of...
Said Pac-10 Notebook (a weekly feature on espn.com) also brings up this little Heisman-related nugget: "UCLA tailback Maurice Drew is rightfully receiving Heisman Trophy hype, but quarterback Drew Olson deserves some sort of kudos." I'm not making any claims about the Bruins being SC's equal (mostly because doing so would no doubt jinx us and cause us to lose to inferior Stanford or Arizona), but one of my editors (a fellow Bruin) and I were comparing Drew's numbers with those of current Heisman favorite Reggie Bush. Reggie seems to have wrapped up the award with his amazing performance against the Domers, but Mo is right there with him in the all-around numbers (I won't bore you with the details, but Drew has more touchdowns, more receiving yards and more return yards). And Olson actually has slightly better numbers than Leinart (though the concussed Trojan QB wasn't quite himself for about three weeks there), which gives me a little more confidence than usual in the month-long build-up to the big game. Let's just hope we both take care of business, because that would make for the biggest game in the rivalry since '88 (we were No. 6, they were No. 2, Troy vs. Rodney and all that). It actually might end up bigger than that, since it's the regular season finale (that year, SC went on to lose to No. 1 Notre Dame the following week; no such follow-up game exists for either team this time around) and the winner should be playing in the Rose Bowl for the national title (as long as Va Tech slips up somewhere, and they should). One more note about our amazing offense, also courtesy of the notebook: "They've scored on 32 of 34 trips to the red zone, and an astounding 27 of those scores were touchdowns. They [also] have no red zone turnovers..." Nicely done, boys...
Awful awful awful world series came to an end last night, thank goodness--I think they could have played a hundred games and Houston still wouldn't have been able to come up with a clutch hit. I love Morgan Ensberg (no Suss, not literally; I like girls) and hated to see him struggle so much, but they kept walking Berkman to get to him and he never made them pay. Houston's pitching wasn't terrible (Backe was great last night), but the hitters never pulled their weight, and it's definitely hard to win when you don't score runs...
Full weekend ahead, including two football games (LC JV, coached by Big Wave Dave--I won't try to spell his last name, and SC), two Mike Langford-related functions, a Fox NFL doubleheader on Sunday and sleep and NCAA 06 mixed in there somewhere (coming to the end of season number two with Penn State, led by the dynamic sophomore duo of Justin King and Derrick Williams, and it looks like a second straight title game showdown with USC--Booty and Reed-led USC, this time--is in the cards)...
One more quick observation before I head home for the day (leaving before 3; I love the dark week): NBA pre-season basketball is about the worst sporting event to watch on television. There's no energy from the crowd, the stars don't care, the guys who get all the playing time are the ones fighting for the last spots, so you've never heard of any of them--it's just bad. Had the Cavs-Celtics replay on this morning when I arrived, and after watching LeBron and Paul Pierce trade careless jumpers (LBJ was 3-of-11 from the floor), the newly whitened Celtics trotted out their scrubs and came back to win the game. Raef LaFrentz, Brian Scalabrine (yeah, he's definitely worth $15 mill over the next five years), Dan Dickau and Curtis Borchardt, allowing all those old-school Celtics fans to start liking the team again--there's finally enough white guys out there. Anyways, the point is that I paid attention to that game for less than a minute in the hour-plus that I sat and had it on. Anything was more interesting than watching Mike Wilks run pick-and-rolls with Jahidi White (they both play for the Cavs, by the way). The regular season is tough enough, as little as veterans care about games until May, but the pre-season just takes it to a whole new (abysmal) level...
Out.

Comatose

2005-09-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

So stay away....stay away
While I’m in the arms of slumber
And I’m leaving it all behind
--Comatose, Eagle Eye Cherry

Waking up at 5 a.m. every day isn't such an awful thing, I promise. If I'm able to get to bed between 10 and 10:30, that's still 6-7 hours of sleep, which is enough for me to function, and it allows me to get a nice workout in, minimize the drive time from the South Bay to the West Side, and gives me an early start at the office. It's not such a wonderful thing, however, when I don't leave work until 12:45 a.m., get to sleep after 1:30, and still attempt the same schedule. That's the difficulty facing me this morning, the after-effects of a night edit session spent on boxing material. It all looks great (for our fight in Sacramento Friday night), but at what price? Missed "Prison Break" and this amazing Bob Dylan show put together by Martin Scorcese (thank goodness for TiVo), and I'll be missing "My Name is Earl" tonight (solid debut last week--maybe a little too much narration, but pretty darn good). If I don't get to sleep by 9 tonight, I'm going to be done for the rest of the week...

A day late on the b-ball update, but we collected another win Sunday night, a ten-point victory over our rival squad, Storm. We upped our career record against the league's second-best team (need you ask who's the best?) to 3-2 and maintained our unblemished record on the season, hoping to keep that going with just two (I think) regular season games left. We played as well as we've played all season, I think, because of the level of competition and the quality of finishing (not layups, but the game itself). We've had previous encounters with this squad where an 11-point lead quickly becomes an eight-point deficit, and they did come back at one point in the second half, tying the game after they had trailed by double figures. At this point, however, we decided to regroup, run some good offense (with one notable exception) and get layups the rest of the way. We won the previous week's game by 40-something, but this was a much more exhilarating encounter. We'll see how next Sunday's clash with "Joint Effort" goes--hopefully they'll be high or something...

I wish I could come up with new things to say each week about USC, but I just keep coming back to awe and amazement. They showed a few chinks in the armor Saturday, but you never really felt like they were going to lose. Even with all the bad breaks in the first half (punt bouncing off Will Buchanon's foot, Jarrett drop in the end zone turning into a pick, Reggie drop on third down), they battled back and only trailed by three at the break. From that point on, they showed their dominance in typical fashion. Leinart was Leinart, Jarrett caught two, LenDale ran for two, and Reggie--well, what can you say about Reggie. Just when you think you've seen everything there is to see from that guy, he goes and makes like six more highlight-film plays. Losing his shoe and still juking a guy on a nice run. Total reverse of field on a touchdown run, leaving the entire Ducks defense in his wake. Coming face to face with an Oregon defender in the backfield after getting a handoff, stopping on a dime and spinning away for a two-yard gain. Catching a punt with two guys literally less than a yard away from him, and managing to juke both before getting surrounded by five or six other guys and finally going down. I could seriously go on and on, but it's not nearly as cool to read about it as it is to just watch. By the way, the Bruins are still undefeated. Yeah, they haven't been unbeaten this late since 2001, when they went 6-0, rose to No. 4 in the polls (under the great Bob Toledo), and then dropped four in a row (including a 27-0 drubbing at the hands of those Trojans). The time before that was 1998, you know, the team that couldn't tackle...

How am I even writing right now? Running this morning must have given me a temporary reprieve from this imminent sleep onset (by the way, a small pet peeve has emerged with people confusing the words "imminent" and "eminent." The former refers to something that's pending, something that's going to happen--imminent danger, for example. The latter is totally different, referring to the best of something--like an eminent scholar, or when they use "pre-eminent" to make it the ultimate. Hope you enjoyed the English lesson).

One of my tasks last night was picking music for a few of these pieces that are going to air Friday, so I made a short trip to the music library and came away with not only the required tunes (Tracy Chapman, Public Enemy, Ying-Yang Twins, among others), but a pair of compact discs put out by a duo calling themselves Handsome Boy Modeling School--long a musical inspiration of mine. The first disc has two tracks that sample the TV show "Get a Life" with Chris Elliot, an episode where he signs up for the HBMS and then discovers the seedy side of the male modeling business (it was Zoolander before Stiller). The second album includes multiple tracks with Tim Meadows as the Ladies Man, discussing his experiences with the HBMS--priceless. I've just completed the process of copying all those tracks onto my computer, so Prince Paul and Automator will be keeping me company (and hopefully awake) all day...

WARNING: SAN DIEGO SPORTS SECTION -- SKIP IF YOU WANT TO
Two quick things, one for each squad. Throwing to L.T. on the first play of the game and handing it off to him the rest of the way--nicely done, Cam Cameron. Bolts needed that win in a big way, and they remembered how they win games (LT 192 and 3 scores plus a passing TD, Gates 92 and a touch). Tough stretch coming up (though I'm hoping the Pats miss Rodney A LOT), so we'll see how this team comes through the New England-Pittsburgh-Oakland-Philly-KC gauntlet that's spanning the next five weeks. If we come out of that at .500 overall, I'm overjoyed, because I honestly think we can go 7-1 the rest of the way (meaning 11-5 overall), the only possible loss being a visit to Indy December 18th.
Second, Jake pitched well enough to win, but Trevor blew a save last night, and our lead is down to three. I'm not nervous. Yet. But we do need to win tonight--come on Adam (Eaton).

20-1

2005-09-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

"GET DOWN! Cause I ain't got nothing to lose
I'm having a bad day, don't make me take it out on you!"
--Get Back, Ludacris

No, these are not the odds on the Bills or the Rams to win the Super Bowl (actually, I just checked, and they really are the odds for the Bills and Rams, but that's not why I put it in the title; Chargers are 17-1, by the way), it's not Jake Peavy's strikeouts to walks ratio (that's actually 4.50, third in the NL), and it's not Drew Brees' touchdown to interception ratio (though last year it might have been close, we won't discuss the 2005 number at this particular juncture)--no, ladies and gentlemen, that is the scoreline from Tuesday night's NL West clash that had the division-leading Padres on the wrong end of an absolute shellacking by the last-place Rockies. What's so great about baseball (among a thousand other things) is that you can come back the next night, behind a guy like Jake Peavy and dominate the same team. When you play a 162-game schedule, it's much easier to put a game like that behind you than it would be in a 16-game NFL slate. The Chargers have lost two in a row and it's like the season's already over (not really, since we're going to be rebounding with a big win over Eli and the Giants on Sunday night), but the Padres, who lost eight in a row and 12 of 13 at one point this season, never even gave up the division lead (granted, this is the worst division in the history of baseball; never has a team this bad been in first place in any division ever). But my point is still made. The other part of the 162-game schedule is its marathon nature, as the White Sox can unfortunately attest. After last night's loss (and Cleveland's win), the Sox are creeping ever closer to missing out on the post-season, after maintaining baseball's best record for the majority of the season. They aren't done yet (1.5 game lead as of press time), but they're fading fast, and the Indians (Hafner? Sizemore? Peralta? Aaron F-ing Boone?) have been on absolute fire.

I think I need to set up a separate blog just for Dontrelle Willis, because it seems like I write about him in about every other entry. Granted, he's worthy of such acclaim, but it's starting to get ridiculous. I made sure to have a monitor in front of me at 4 p.m. yesterday so I could catch as much of the Dontrelle-Pedro duel as possible (and Johan Santana was facing the White Sox around the same time--good thing we have two TV's in the edit bay). His pitching exploits are well-known, and he continued to dominate last night, beating Pedro with 8 innings, 1 earned and 7 K's. It's his hitting, however, that might be even more impressive. I thought it was amazing that he batted eighth in his last start, something most pitchers definitely don't do, but McKeon batted him SEVENTH last night! That means that the Marlins have two position players who aren't better hitters than a guy who doesn't even take batting practice and isn't in the lineup four out of every five days. I don't know if it's more of a compliment to the D-Train or a slight to Joe Dillon (batted eighth last night) and Robert Andino (ninth).

I really am rooting for the Marlins to make the playoffs, not only because it would mean that the Padres (er, sorry, the NL West winner) will face the Braves instead of the Cardinals. I know we (whoever) have no shot in St. Louis, but the Braves definitely aren't the Braves of old, and they've got so many rookies that it'll be tough for them to do much. Jake and Eaton, maybe Woody and Lawrence--I like our chances. Of course, we still have to clinch, something I hope will be happening before next weekend, but just in case, I'm in touch with a PR guy with the Padres, acquiring tickets for next Saturday's tilt with the disappointing Dodgers (I don't know if that's more true or alliterative; probably equal amounts of both).

That Padre game (and the post-game fireworks) will be the meat portion of a sports weekend sandwich that begins with Glen Johnson vs. George Khalid Jones, live from Cache Creek Casino outside of Sacramento. It's our latest Best Damn Fight Night, and should be a good time--we fly up Friday morning, do the fight thing all day, goof around at the casino and fly back the next day around noon. Upon returning to Los Angeles, I'll continue the southward journey to S.D. and come back late-night after those fireworks. Sunday, as usual, will be all about football, and then another basketball game at night (if the fight and the football are the bread, maybe our b-ball game is the toothpick?). Fortunately, the following week is dark, so the fatigue generated by such a whirlwind schedule will theoretically be short-lived. It also remains a possibility that I'll be traveling that week, either to San Diego or to the Padres' road destination for the first round, if Fox should decide to carry a game or two of that series. I'm not holding my breath, but it would be pretty awesome to get to a playoff game.

'Literally' Mis-Use of the Week:
It's been a while since I've heard a good one of these--either my ear for it has been deafened, or the world is finally picking up on one of my pet peeves and limiting its exposure. Anyways, this morning, L.A. Times writer Gary Klein was on with Colin Cowherd, discussing his new book, "Conquest," and the Pete Carroll era at USC (incidentally, it sounds like a real good book; some inside stuff that a lot of people wouldn't be aware of). Cowherd talked about how Dennis Erickson and Mike Riley were considered for the job before Pete, but once the now-king of L.A. came in to speak with Associate A.D. Daryl Gross (then in charge of the hiring process, but has since become the A.D. at Syracuse), it was over. And I quote: "Pete Carroll literally knocked the socks off USC officials in his interview." Wow. It would have been fun to have a camera at the proceedings, huh? You don't have to say literally to drive your point home. We understand that he was impressive, but to destroy a metaphor by adding that word just sucks. I'm tired of hearing it in general, but it really peeves me when it's people who are paid to talk.

Good start to the fall session of bible study last night--I've really missed it the last two weeks, and it'll be real cool to get into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18 - "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit"), what that looks like, and how we're doing that (or trying to, at least) every day. Two big things I like about this passage, our starting point: 1) "unveiled faces" - that we come to church, to bible study--pretty much anywhere--without pretense, without having to hide who we are or what we're doing; and 2)"ever-increasing glory" - that as great as God's glory is in our lives today, it's going to continue getting better, all the time.

Looking forward to another Saturday off, and even a short day today (hopefully consisting of a noon departure and a relacing afternoon at the beach), followed by a typically-packed Sunday. Glad to be back in the blogging world, at least temporarily. Peace.

I Got a Fever...

2005-09-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

Cleveland, Toronto, and all the other teams
Lie broken on the Yankees' field of dreams
Their arch-foes, the Red Sox, are their big treat
They torture them into glorious defeat
--Baseball's Mortal Sin, Joe Pickering Jr.

As if baseball needed to get better, the end of September is starting to shape up with some ridiculousness all over the place. Last night alone we saw (or read about, or don't care about) the on-fire Indians getting a few late runs to beat the White Sox and cut a once-insurmountable lead in the AL Central to just 2.5 games, a dude named Bubba hit a walk-off homer at Yankee Stadium to bring the pinstripes within a half-game of the BoSox in the AL East, Khalil Greene (yes, that scrawny, surfer-looking shortstop Khalil Greene) hitting two home runs, the second of which came in the ninth inning and propelled the Padres to an 8-7 win over the Rockies, giving said ballclub a record above .500 and a six-game lead in the division, the A's get a great start from Barry Zito and hold off the Twins to pull within 1.5 games of the idle Angels, Roger Clemens get beat by a Pirates rookie, dropping the Astros to just a one-game lead in the NL Wildcard race--and we only had eight games the whole day. Monday Night Football had two games, the second of which provided a tremendous finish, but they've got nothing on baseball right now. I'll readily admit that Sunday needs to be about football (despite the 0-2 record of a certain Southern California squad), but in two weeks, the final day of the regular season falls on a Sunday, and there can (and will) be all kinds of playoff implications: among others, the suddenly vulnerable White Sox visit the Indians and the Yankees head to Fenway, both of which should be epic encounters. The Angels and A's are both on the road, playing division foes, and the Marlins and Astros get home games while the Phillies have to play at Washington. Who knows how the 11 or 12 games between now and then are going to play out, but it's going to be quite exciting down to the finish. Who would have guessed that the Padres would be far more comfortable about their post-season status than the Yankees, Red Sox or even the White Sox? By the way, that's pennant fever I've got, in case it took you this long to figure that out...

Gotta flash back to Friday real quick to wrap up a great USC-centric show we did, on location in front of Tommy Trojan. Coach Pete Carroll was the big draw, in addition to a piece with Rodney Peete hanging out with Matt Leinart (and running into Reggie Bush on campus--funny stuff). Old school Frank Gifford brought at least a hint of respectability to the show, and the band and song girls (yes, Kristen was definitely in the house) brought a little flair. Didn't have the pleasure of heading down there for the day, because bigger responsibilities existed in-house, and while it would have definitely been fun to be out there, being here was a very good thing--a sign of things to come, if you will. Got to go to the actual game on Saturday (our show was basically a promotion for the FSN college football opener, USC-Arkansas), and I'm firmly convinced that I've never seen a better offense in college football. Ever. I wrote about this not long ago, and now I have no doubt. They aren't great defensively, but they cannot be stopped. People say this Oregon game is going to be a test, but I can't see Oregon coming close to slowing down this attack. The Ducks gave up 24 points to Houston and 34 to Fresno State, so I'm imagining a little trouble keeping up with Leinart and Bush and all the nineteen other weapons they have on offense. Awesome performance earlier in the day by the Bruins, earning easily the biggest win in Karl Dorrell's three-year tenure. I had to go into that one a little hesitant, so as to avoid the disappointment that has plagued the Dorrell era thus far, but it's hard to hold back the excitement at this point. Drew Olson is having his Drew Brees '04 season, Maurice Drew and Chris Markey aren't quite Reggie Bush and LenDale White (okay, they're nowhere near it), but they've been outstanding, Marcedes Lewis is the best tight end in the country (one of three positions at which we actually have an advantage over those Trojans), and Spencer Havner came up with a HUGE fumble return for a touchdown (he's advantage number two; Justin Medlock is number three). I know Oklahoma is down and I know SDSU and Rice are SDSU and Rice, but we're 3-0 for the first time in quite awhile (lost the opener last year, two out of the first three in '03 and the third game in '02) and I'm excited about it. We're still going to be undefeated next week (bye on Saturday), heading into a match-up at home with the University of Dub, likely coming off a rough loss to the Fighting Brady Quinns. We then get Cal at home (beatable--their quarterbacks are AWFUL), and then don't play another real tough game until the last two: hosting ASU November 12 and then at the Coliseum (hopefully in a showdown for the Pac-10 title) December 3. We need this to be a good year...

Sports Guy's links came in handy the other day, with an advisory about turning one of the buttons on the TiVo remote into a 30-second skip button, meaning that watching anything with commercials becomes a much quicker deal. Watched "Prison Break" as such last night, which meant I could start it at like 9:20 and finish it on time. That Earl show is on tonight, if I have enough energy after church, which doesn't seem likely, given the normal weeknight energy level these days. Looking forward to a dark day Friday, and hoping that this whole less-than-one-entry-a-week thing doesn't last too much longer. Peace...

Why Should the Fire Die?

2005-09-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

"I can't see my reflection in the waters
I can't speak the sounds that show no pain
I can't hear the echo of my footsteps
Or remember the sound of my own name"
--Tomorrow Is a Long Time, Bob Dylan

It just feels that way when I don't blog like ever, so it's become almost unfamiliar territory now, which sucks. The blog title is the name of Nickel Creek's new album, something I mentioned briefly last time, and a disc which has received constant play at home, in the car and at the office. The song here is covered by the bluegrass trio, and done quite well. Best song is "Doubting Thomas," a track I had not yet reached at last week's press time, and a song that I now skip to upon each listening. Pretty much three discs I've listened to all year (with very occasional exceptions): Jimmy Eat World - Futures, Coldplay - X&Y and now this one. It's like my food strategy: why branch out when you're happy with what you have every day? I used to feel that way about TV shows as well, but when "24" finally broke into my rotation and jumped immediately to the top, my world was shaken and I had to start considering other possibilities. Unfortunately, time has not permitted many new entries, but "Prison Break," despite its ridiculously unrealistic plot, continues to keep me in after three weeks.

Okay, so speaking of TV, I got on a random train of thought the other night on my way home from work about my priorities when it comes to sports on television. On Saturdays and Sundays, I have every baseball or football game in front of me (as well as relevant soccer, basketball, tennis or whatever), so there's no need to put one game in front of the other, but there are plenty of other times (at my desk at the end of the day, at home weeknights or some weekend days) where priorities are necessary. Thankfully, there isn't an unbelievable amount of overlap of the major sports, allowing for limited conflict between desirable events, but what if everything ever was on at the same time and I had to choose? It's a tough process, but I'm attempting to answer the question the same way the Sports Guy does his NBA player rankings. He asks if you would trade a guy for everyone above him (and not for anyone below him), and I'm asking if I would change the channel to games above a particular one, but not to games below it. A very limited example of what I'm talking about, though this is not by any means official:
1. Padres playoff game
2. Padres regular season game
3. old Padres game on Classic sports
4. other MLB regular season game
And so on...If I was watching a game from the '98 NLCS on ESPN Classic and I found out that the Padres-Mets regular season game was on ESPN2, I would immediately change the channel. However, if I heard that the Phillies-Marlins was on ESPN, I would not change it (unless Dontrelle was pitching--things like this make the whole process very complicated). So yeah, I'm going to be spending free time on this. Rather lame, but I'm okay, I swear.

Other important things occupying my rather limited free time:
- Reading: finished "Life of Pi," which was outstanding. I didn't think I would ever appreciate so many details about animals and the cannibalistic nature of castaways. It's a very inspiring story, full of religious questions (and some answers) on all fronts (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism). Started "The World According to Garp," by John Irving, who wrote the Owen Meany book I really enjoyed. Need to finish this one quick, 'cause there's a big line forming of stuff I've recently acquired (and a David Halberstam book on Bill Belichik coming out soon).
- Video games: had a nice four-player Madden session the other night, losing once and winning once with a quasi-Bills team that featured safeties Ed Reed and Sean Taylor (the brothers) and linebackers Kendrell Bell and Julian Peterson (the Scotts). My hometown team, however, has been the Karl Dorrell-led UCLA Bruins, playing amazingly well (at least offensively) in real life, and playing even better on my X-Box. After an undefeated 2005 season saw Maurice Drew win the Heisman and Marcedes Lewis join him on the All-America first team, we took care of Florida in the Rose Bowl and captured the national title. Drew Olson had a great senior season and Spencer Havner was my defensive go-to-guy, but all four of the above departed for the next season (Drew left early, the others were seniors), so an untested squad (and the nation's top recruiting class) started the '06 season ranked #6. Ben Olson has definitely stepped up, and Chris Markey makes me not miss Mo Drew at all. Freshmen starting everywhere means it's a bright future in Westwood. Unfortunately (and fortunately), I only have time to play on the weekends (kind of like the real team), so we'll see how long it takes to complete this run for a second straight national championship.
- TV: I already mentioned the "Prison Break" experiment, which looks like keeping me locked in for the whole season (though I'm trying to figure out how they're going to come up with season two once the guys get out--I'm assuming they get out; the show will suck if they don't and the guy gets the chair). Don't really have time for anything else now that Entourage is done (I feel like I don't have to use quotes for that show, not sure why), but "My Name is Earl" starts next week and Curb (no quotes here either) starts on Sunday the 25th, so something's going to have to give.

I do need to get to work, at which I think I'll be moving up again rather soon. I'm learning that moving up doesn't necessarily mean more fun stuff, but the best of the fun stuff comes with more hard work, so I'm definitely okay with that. Example number one: I was supposed to be going to our show on campus at USC on Friday, but now I'll be managing people back here in the studio, being of much more value here (to make sure there's the highest possible level of quality in what actually airs that night) than I would be there, probably just hanging out with the talent and the audience. A good wake-up call, actually, because I often do find myself valuing what's important to outside people (wow, you got to go to Connecticut--how cool) instead of what's really most important to the show. The powers that be recognize the latter, and now I'm starting to do so as well.

Bible study tonight, looking forward to it for sure. Blessings...

No Labor Pains

2005-09-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

"On the stereo, listen as we go
Nothing's gonna stop me now
California here we come
Right back where we started from"
--California, Phantom Planet

And what a lovely Labor Day weekend in the O.C. it was (though my recap comes a day late), including plenty of time with family and friends, a little soccer and relaxation galore. The important points:

Friday - Left work early in order to enjoy a two-hour drive across town to Fullerton (curse you, Labor Day traffic) for Eric's game against UCLA. Santa Clara went up 2-0 on two first-half PK's and then grabbed a late winner after the Bruins had managed to tie it up in the second stanza. Chatted with Eric for a bit and then drove down to San Clemente, where the family awaited. Got to the hotel and headed out for dinner at Cassano's, down by the pier. Lovely food, lovely company and to bed at a decent hour sometime thereafter...

Saturday - Up for complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel (unlike the continental breakfast at my hotel in San Jose, which I assumed was complimentary and then came with a nice little $13 price tag) and then back to the room for a fantasy draft with Michael (Tim's league - he's been very excited about this thing). I know I'll only care about it for about two weeks, so I might as well share my thoughts on the team while I'm still interested.

QB - Daunte Culpepper, Drew Bledsoe, Kyle Boller
Daunte's better than Peyton, in my estimation, and Bledsoe will be better than people think. I'm really not sure why I took Boller, to be honest.
RB - Fred Taylor, DeShaun Foster, Michael Bennett, Chester Taylor, LaBrandon Toefield
A little bit of injury potential with those first two, so I'm covering Taylor with Toefield, and the second Taylor could be okay if Jamal Lewis is rusty coming back from that whole jail thing. Bennett misses week one, but should be the main back in Minnesota.
WR - Torry Holt, Nate Burleson, Muhsin Muhammad, Eddie Kennison, Keenan McCardell
Torry's a lock, Burleson will let me double up with Daunte, Muhsin is great (but Kyle Orton?), Kennison was an accidental pick but is still KC's number one, and I needed a Charger, so Keenan's the man.
TE - Dallas Clark
Can't go wrong with a Peyton Manning target, right?
K - David Akers
Killed for me last year, he's solid.
DEF - Chargers
Who else would I pick, come on?

Other Saturday activities included a little trip to a used bookstore, some good lunch at a Berge's-esque sandwich place, watching USC be USC against Hawaii (more to come on that ridiculous offense) and then heading up to Angel Stadium for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim against the Seattle Mariners of Washington. Got hooked up with some amazing seats through Fox (fourth row behind home plate, the first seats outside the net area) and thoroughly enjoyed the game, despite the Angels' losing effort. Ichiro was raking, going 3-for-5 and coming up with the game-winning RBI. Too much fun watching that guy hit (and Suss got some great photos as well; his whole Ansel Adams act at family holidays over the years is starting to pay off, I think).

Sunday - Breakfast again (free again), a lot of reading ("Life of Pi," a Side recommendation and a very enjoyable read), and then church at San Clemente Pres, where Mike B played guitar in the big service and a dude spoke about marinated steak. Mmmmm, marinated steak. Got to have a wonderful post-church lunch at the Bautistas' beach house, sandwiches and burritos and hot dogs (and of course, steak) with Bob and Cathie, Mike and Suzy and Joel and Kristi. Good times. Suss and I then headed up to soccer game number two (Santa Clara vs. Cal State Fullerton) and Michael and Mom headed home. The Broncos came through again, scoring in the last five minutes to eke out a 1-0 victory. They're No. 6 in the country this week, according to Soccer America, so that doesn't suck. Back up to LC and then off to Bel Air with Darren, where I took communion for the second time that day (in two different counties) and saw my second Stryker sister (Kimmy or Kimmie, how is that spelled, I wonder?), which was also a treat. Enjoyed a Baja Fresh dinner, which had me breaking tradition to order fajitas, something I definitely enjoyed. I think it's been years since I ordered anything but a baja burrito with chicken, so it took a little bit for me to break the mold and do something different. After dinner, we went over to LCPC (my first time in Harris Hall Congdon room in forever) to see Mike, Billy and Ross, who were recording music with all the fun equipment down there. Hung out with John and Mike a bit later before heading back to the beach.

Monday - Absolutely nothing. How nice is that. Watched parts of the UCLA-SDSU and USA-Mexico games, the season finale of Entourage and a few other random Tivo selections, got more reading done and enjoyed that sunshine, but pretty much took it as easy as I've been able to at any point in a very long time. Wonderful.

So the few sports-related thoughts I carry out of the weekend, non-fantasy related:
- Has there ever been a better offense in the history of college football than this year's USC version? I know it was just one game and I know it was just Hawaii, but still, WOW. There have been better rushing teams: the mid-80's Oklahoma option squads, the mid-90's Nebraska Tommie Frazier teams, probably the old Army teams with Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard, and probably a few others. There may have been better passing teams, like Houston's run-and-shoot squads featuring Andre Ware and David Klingler, some of the many BYU teams (Steve Young, Robbie Bosco, Ty Detmer?), Florida's fun-and-gun with Danny Wuerffel, the vaunted Cade McNown-Freddie Mitchell-Brian Poli-Dixon offenses of the late 90's, and probably some other really cool ones I don't know anything about. But has there ever been a unit with so many weapons? So brilliantly able to combine the run and the pass? They've got lottery picks (I know the NFL Draft doesn't have a lottery, but you know what I mean) at quarterback, first- and second-string tailback, wide receiver and all over the offensive line. When your backup tailback ran for 1105 yards and 15 touchdowns a year ago, your fifth (sixth?) receiver is the top freshman at his position in the country, your backup quarterback is capable of starting anywhere else in the country, your offensive line brings back everybody plus an All-American who missed last season--well, you get the picture: this team is ridiculously talented, unbelievably deep, and boasts more weapons than any offense I can recall. I'm looking forward to doing our show out there next Friday, but I'm seriously dreading December 3--the final game of the regular season, and UCLA's death knell.

The Bruins actually looked pretty good themselves, at least offensively, where Drew Olson, Maurice Drew, Chris Markey and Marcedes Lewis all were stellar. The problem is that we still can't tackle (Justin London, I'm looking at you) and we still get run over. But hey, a win is a win, even if it's just San Diego State. Rice at the Rose Bowl this weekend, look out.

I love the USA-Mexico rivalry, not only because we've dominated it lately (at least here on our soil), but because the two teams genuinely hate each other, from the coaches on down. A sample of the comments following Saturday's 2-0 US victory:
Rcardo LaVolpe, Head Coach, Mexico: "The U.S. is a small team. They play like my sister, my aunt and my grandmother." Dude, your team just got beat, 2-0. That's like 55-0 in football. How can you talk like that? A lot of confidence in your guys, saying that a team consisting of the female members of your family would be capable of a 2-0 defeat of your squad. Can't imagine why there's so much controversy surrounding this idiot.
Bruce Arena, the American coach, was far more tactful in his post-match assessment, asserting only that it was "nice to qualify against our rivals."
Landon Donovan, however, held nothing back: "They suck. I'm so happy. After we got that first goal they were never in the game. Hopefully that will shut them up for the next three or four years."
I love it.

Also got to watch a selection from the F.A. Archive on Fox Soccer Channel, the 1999 F.A. Cup Semi-Final replay between rivals Manchester United and Arsenal. It was Man U's best squad (the one that eventually won the treble: Premier League, FA Cup and European Cup) and a very formidable Arsenal side, making for some tremendous football. David Beckham scored on a dipping shot from well outside the box to open the scoring in the 17th minute and the Red Devils never looked like surrendering a goal in the first half. Arsenal picked it up a bit after the break, however, and equalized on a Dennis Bergkamp deflected shot in minute 69. Great chances both ways, but after Roy Keane got sent off, it looked like United would just have to hope for a draw and penalty kicks. In injury time, Philip Neville took down Ray Parlour in the box and Bergkamp stepped up to take the resulting penalty. The Great Dane, Peter Schmeichel, came up huge and stopped what would certainly have been the match-winner, forcing two periods of added time (30 total minutes). After a scoreless first 15, Ryan Giggs--a second-half substitute--scored one of the greatest goals in the history of the competition on a ridiculous run that started within his own half, proceeded through five Arsenal defenders, and ended with a rocket that went over David Seaman's head (yes, the Arsenal keeper's name was David Seaman) and into the net. Great stuff, even though it happened six years ago. And yes, it makes me feel old to think that I was finishing up my senior year of college when that happened.

New Nickel Creek is tremendous, especially tracks 3 ("Jealous of the Moon") and 5 ("Tomorrow is a Long Time," Bob Dylan cover). Just got it last night, so I haven't gotten all the way through, but I'm a big fan already.

Ahh, it feels nice to have been able to write again this morning, even though it was menial details of a weekend that nobody but me cares anything about. I'm hoping for some time Friday, because we've got a short day (which also hopefully means some beach in the afternoon), so until then, at least...

Because I Love Baseball...

2005-08-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

I'm going to give you three reasons, all from last night, that you should feel the same way. Yeah, football's right there on the horizon--fantasy drafts are underway, pre-season games are in full swing (allowing backup Charger running backs to destroy the Rams defense), and Pro Bowl tight ends are finally rewarded with big contracts (anyone notice Antonio Gates' "Best Damn" t-shirt at his first day of practice?)--but it's still baseball season, and we've got another month or so before another awesome post-season gets underway...

1) Got back to my desk last night after finishing up the show and was alerted that Freddy Garcia had a no-no going against the Twins on channel 114 (FSN North). Tuned in and quickly learned that Freddy's opponent, the electrifying Johan Santana, had allowed just two hits to this point (the seventh inning) and we had ourselves a 0-0 ballgame. Bottom of the eighth now, Jacque Jones leads off with a solo shot to center and the Twins now have one hit and one run. Johan gives way to closer Joe Nathan, who mows 'em down in the ninth and sends the Sox down to their eighth loss in nine games. Despite Minnesota's bad second half (they're still 2.5 out of the wildcard), the Metrodome was rocking and going crazy on every one of Nathan's ninth-inning pitches. I just love that kind of atmosphere...

2) At commercials of the Twins game, I flipped over to channel 57 (YES Network) to check out the Yankees-Blue Jays tilt. Having discovered a little more rooting interest in those Yanks since my pilgrimage to the Stadium two weeks ago, I was looking forward to them taking a one-game lead in the wildcard race over the A's, who had already lost. Down 2-0 heading into the sixth (and having gotten a surprisingly good outing from Al Leiter), Bernie hit a sac fly to score Tino, and they're within one. Leiter gets threee in a row after a leadoff double by St. Francis alum Gregg Zaun, and the Yanks tie it up in the bottom of the seventh on a Posada sac fly. Sturtze in for Leiter, Blue Jays get a run (Hillenbrand single), then Bernie singles in Womack to tie it up again. Mo's on to maintain the tie, but Russ Johnson singles in Orlando Hudson and the Jays are up 4-3. Bottom nine, Godzilla leads off with a homer to tie it up, and a nice little rally ensues. After they walk Jeter to load the bases, superstar Felix Escalona singles up the middle and Posada comes home with the winner. Tremendous back-and-forth action over the last four innings, culminating in a role player's game-winner. The Indians won as well, tying them with the Yanks, a game up on Oakland--great race...

3) Left the office as soon as the Twins game was over, so I got home for the majority of number three. I'd been looking forward to the final game of the evening for a few days now, after seeing that Roger Clemens and Jake Peavy would be matched up in game two of a three-game set at Petco. During a commercial at the very end of the Twins game, I saw inning number one, which consisted of a Dave Roberts leadoff triple and a B-Giles RBI single, and I then got to listen to Ted Leitner and the great Jerry Coleman for a few innings on the drive home. Tuned in on MLB.com when I got home (still very happy I made that purchase) and watched the rest of the thing on the computer screen. Rocket quickly overcame his first-inning woes and gave up very little, retiring 17 straight after the Giles single. However, Mr. Giles came back up in the seventh (unfortunately, I was in the kitchen preparing my meals for the following day) and bombed one to right, giving us a 2-0 lead. This was more than enough for big Jake, who went the distance and scattered three hits, collecting his 11th win. Yes, I'm biased, but it's unbelievable to watch this guy at his best--he's going to keep getting better, too, and it's just a shame that Clemens had to lose this one.

This represents like a three-hour stretch in a random regular-season day, and there's way more that I didn't even get to: Pirates phenom Zach Duke pitching a perfect two innings before leaving with a sprained ankle, the Mets destroying those second-place Diamondbacks 14-1 (David Wright, the future of major-league third baseman, was 3 for 3 with a pair of doubles), and those in-fighting Dodgers made some more news with the Milton Bradley-Jeff Kent racism debacle. Good times.

On any given day in the baseball season you can watch Vladimir Guerrero swing the bat (the single greatest thing in sports right now), Manny be Manny, any number of Yankees go yard (A-Rod spearheading a ridiculous lineup), some random Oakland A's pitcher throw a shutout (Harden and Zito have been sick in the second half)--and that's just the American League. Should be a great finish to the regular season and, like I said, another wonderful playoffs. Enjoy it...

Reflections from the Road, the Long Version

2005-08-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

"If you could be inside my head
You’d see that black and white is read
Flying high again"
--Flying High Again, Ozzy Osbourne

Who ever knew a Southwest Airlines flight could be so much fun? A period consisting of 11 days of travel in just 25 total days came to an end last week with the most unique hour I've ever spent on a plane. First, however, I need to back up and give a long-overdue rundown of this crazy travel schedule.

July 25-27: Las Vegas Prep Basketball Showcase; Las Vegas, Nevada.
This one's been mentioned before--you know, the whole staying at the Wynn, doubling my money and watching some amazing high school basketball.
Highs: My room, Spencer Hawes, Lorenzo Romar, Kristen and blackjack.
Lows: Kristen not being able to operate a digital camera properly, thus preventing me from a pictorial memory of the game experience.

August 6-11: Mohegan Sun Casino; Uncasville, Connecticut.
The first time I've been present for one of our road shows, and a thoroughly enjoyable experience. We flew into Newark on Saturday night (the 6th), then took a couple 15-passenger vans up to Connecticut (I haven't been in one of those since the former life required me driving them, full of loud young people, to places like Redding and Mexico--don't miss that too much) and got in around midnight. Staying at a dirtball hotel the first night (Mohegan Sun was full until the next night, so they made alternate arrangements for about ten of us), we drove around looking for alcohol (I was obviously the ringleader of this quest) and quickly discovered that this state gets dry at 8:30 p.m.--no alcoholic beverages sold after that magic hour. There was, however, some stuff available in the hotel lobby, so we made a few trips there and back and basically just hung out in a pair of rooms (about 8-10 of us) until the wee hours.
After about three hours of sleep, Joel and I got up and headed out to Southington (a one-hour drive) with Rob Dibble to shoot a "Going Home" piece. It's Dibs' hometown, so we visited his old high school (with his old coach), his little league field, his house growing up and the firehouse where his older brother has worked for 25 years. Upon the conclusion of the shoot, Joel and the crew drove back and I proceeded up to Hartford, where I sat in front of TV monitors for two hours and fed all the stuff we had just shot to Los Angeles. Good times. Jetted back in time to miss our production meeting and then grab some (free) dinner in the employee cafeteria before crashing very early in my new, nice room at the casino. The next two days looked very similar to one another, as we shot two shows each night in the lobby of Mohegan Sun, following meetings throughout the afternoons. I got to interact with a great group of guests, supervising our roaming camera crew and literally running the tapes we'd shoot (of guests doing various things) out to the truck for air. A partial list: Jim Calhoun, Manute Bol, Ben Gordon, Lisa Leslie, Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, John Starks, "Oil Can" Boyd, Mark Fidrych and WWE champ John Cena. If you read Sports Guy's SummerSlam recap yesterday, you know that Cena is a "mediocre rapper" and I actually got to shoot him freestyling for us, using "Best Damn Sports Show" in the lyrics. Funny stuff. Tuesday afternoon we got to shoot a piece in the arena on the casino grounds, which is actually a pretty sweet facility. John Salley playing a version of HORSE (B-D-S-S-P, how creative of us) against two of the Connecticut Sun players. That's a WNBA team, if you wanted to know. I'll speak of this later.
After we wrapped show number two on Tuesday (show number four overall), I spent the rest of the night with this girl Ashley (something about that name I'm drawn to, I guess), who worked there in the hotel, walking around and seeing the whole place, then kicking back for a while. Got to bed rather late and up early to take another van into New York City.
Arrived at 79th and 1st (Chris Rose's brother's apartment) around 11 a.m., dropped off our stuff (there were nine of us who continued the journey into NYC; the rest of the crew went home) and walked to the subway station to head over to Yankee Stadium. Day game, Yankees and White Sox, Aaron Small and Freddy Garcia (I would have preferred Randy Johnson vs. Mark Buehrle, but what can you do?). Our seats were ridiculous (thank you, Jaime), fifteen rows behind home plate, right under the netting where that kid had fallen the night before, and the Yanks lost a close game. Though I was actually rooting for the home team (complete with my new hat, thanks to hat day, and my new A-Rod shirt, thanks to the roadside vendors), just being there was more than enough for me. All that history, the proximity to the biggest stars in the game, the fans--everything.
Took the subway back to Rose's and then took a much-needed two-hour nap to charge up for the evening. Showered up and five of us (me, Joel, Bardia, Rose and his bro) headed to the meatpacking district (evidently the new place to be in the city) for dinner at a little hole in the wall called El Faro. Since it only seated about 25 people and there were about 23 in our party (mostly work associates of Bob Rose, an executive at Court TV), we had to wait about two hours to be seated. The food was well worth the wait, Spanish-style, something with which I was not too familiar, but something I will not hesitate to eat again. So following this wonderful meal, we set out on a native-led tour of the local nightlife.
Spot number one: Haro, a Japanese-themed bar in the downstairs of the Maritime Hotel. Not many people there at 11, which was when we arrived, but we had a table and hung out for a little bit. I can see how it would be cool when it's full of people (this was a Wednesday night, mind you).
Spot number two: The rooftop bar at the Gansevoort Hotel, which had an absolutely breathtaking view of the city. Looking off one side presented a gorgeous look at the Hudson River and at New Jersey there on the other side. The other sides provided various looks at different parts of a beautiful metropolis. Drinks were a touch expensive (Joel paid $14 for a miniature Jack & Coke), but water's still free, so no worries there. Left here around 1.
Spot number three: As shady a place as you'll ever see, a place called Red Rock West. While the other two spots were upscale and trendy, this one was the dive of dives. Pool table, jukebox, bartender girls that a) wore far less clothing than their respective figures should require, b) possessed a microphone that allowed them to screech something close to the lyrics of the song on that 80's-blasting jukebox, c) got up on the bar on occasion to dance to said music (think coyote very ugly) and d) took out a belt on one occasion to whip a willing patron on his hind quarters. I don't think I could have made this place up, and it only got worse. After we had been there for an hour or two (Bob had raved about the place all night, so we had to oblige), sticking to ourselves, shooting some pool and ignoring those scary, scary bartenders, one of the video screens (there were two, pretty much just playing music videos on mute all night) started showing something a little bit sketchy. Big, naked butts on screen, leading someone to comment that a girls gone wild video was on. Not quite. Full-blown porn quickly followed, much to the shock of our party (and I'm sure, to the delight of some). That was pretty much our cue to depart, and it was after 3 a.m. by this point anyways, so there wasn't much resistance. To his credit, Bob was still raring to go. Knowing full well that his brother Chris had a car picking him up at 6:45 a.m., Bob's request at this point went something like this: "Okay, just one more place, and then we'll go have breakfast. Bacon and eggs sound good to anyone?" Wow. Not happening.
Bedtime finally came (Bob's family was gone, so I slept in his little daughter's bed, about a foot and a half shorter than me, but it was free, so no complaints. Got home to the still-new apartment (plenty of boxes still not unpacked from the move) and crashed.
Highs: Yankee Stadium, Ben Gordon, Earl the Pearl, Ashley, NY nightlife.
Lows: Dirtball hotel, a WNBA shoot I actually enjoyed (causing me to actually watch part of a game after I got back because I now know a couple of the players--it's painful)...so the low wasn't the shoot itself or the people involved, but the fact that something positive about the WNBA has now permeated my brain.

August 18-19: Best Damn Fight Night; San Jose, California.
Since this was going to be the best card we've had (three relatively big-name Olympians) and the best venue we've occupied (HP Pavilion at San Jose, where the Sharks play), I decided that I wanted to fly up and, go to the fight, whether I'd be working or not. Fortunately, they decided to send me up, not even knowing what I'd be doing, so I jumped at the chance. I had to finish up a promo for the show to bring with me on the plane (8:10 flight), so I was still on the lot at 6:50 and griping just a bit. Fortunately, traffic was very kind, and I utilized airport parking (the reallty expensive one right across the street--work-related expense) and made it in plenty of time. After a nice quick flight, Eric picked me up at the airport (he started practice last week, so he's already up there) and we went to get something to eat in downtown San Jose. After a glorious burrito, he had to be back in the dorms (coach-imposed curfew), so I met up with a couple buddies at the hotel and then headed out to see San Jose. A nice laid-back evening at a couple of local establishments (Joel went to college at SJSU, so he knew his way around) was followed by a good night's sleep, thank the Lord.
Up at 9 for a production meeting, then to another hotel for meetings with the various boxers, which was a very cool experience. Basically, we sat in a conference room (the producer Bob, Chris Rose, commentators Barry Tompkins & Rich Marotta, "sideline" reporter Sean O'Grady, Joel and myself) and chatted with each boxer for about 15 minutes, getting their stories, their strengths and their plans for the fight. So anytime you hear an announcer saying, "He told us he's going to...," that's where it comes from. Cool to have that info while watching the fights play out. Headed over to the arena shortly thereafter for a few more meetings (and lots of food) before real preparations began around 4 p.m. The fights themselves were incredible--I've never been to a fight of any kind (except for the ones where a hockey game breaks out), so that in itself made it unique, but the three guys we were promoting were great, two of whom should be stars someday very soon. Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward both looked awesome and will be forces in the middleweight divisions before too long, and Audley Harrison, a heavyweight, should get a shot at one of those belts within the next year. I'm stoked to see these guys progress. We got out right at 7 (when our show ended) and headed straight to the airport to get on the 8:30 flight (we were originally on the 9:50 version) and get home as early as possible. It worked, so we were on with about 20 other folks associated with the show, making for an incredibly entertaining flight.
I don't think I can accurately encapsulate the flight, but I'll give little bullet points, first of all listing who joined us on the plane: John Salley, James "Lights Out" Toney and a couple of his people, Chris Rose, George (the big boss), John (the boss), Roy Hamilton (a former UCLA basketball star who now produces these fights), and then me, Joel, Matt and Mike in close proximity.
- We got to pre-board with Sal, which is very ridiculous, but the ticket guy couldn't say no to our claims of being Sal's posse...
- Toney is one of the funnier human beings I've ever met, and was the most entertaining passenger by far: eating Whoppers he'd stowed on board (he's got a fight in a month, by the way), stealing Matt's I-Pod and refusing to give it back to Joel, telling me to comb my hair down because my forehead was blinding him with the reflection of the light, smearing make-up all over the wall of the plane (and yelling at us when we laughed at him about it), signing autographs for kids and sparring with one kid (even lifting the kid's fanny pack over his head at one point and declaring him the heavyweight champion of the world)...
- A very attractive girl sat directly behind me, and we quickly learned that she's a Clipper girl. Unfortunately, our obnoxiousness to that point had pretty much already ruined any shot that any of us had with her. Oh well, I'll just have to say hello when we sit courtside on Thanksgiving...
- Hooked up VIP passes to the AVP in Manhattan before the end of the flight, because the big boss was very gracious with our spur-of-the-moment request...
Landed, drove myself and Joel home, and then attempted to get sleep for a normal day of work on Friday...

So yeah, I'm finally into a normal week of work, at home, and enjoying my new place very much, though I'm sure I'd be enjoying it more if I was actually there. Hopefully this will mean a bit more time to blog, because it's something I miss--writing is an enjoyable activity, so the more the merrier. We'll see, though, habits are tough to break...

Photographic Evidence

2005-08-02T08:30:00.000-07:00

"It's in the photograph
It's in the photograph
It's in the photograph of love"
--Photograph, Weezer

I needed to add a shot taken from my hotel room window in Vegas last week...this doesn't do the view justice, but hopefully it comes close...And I would have had a nice picture of myself at the announcers' table during the championship game as well, but the girl with whom I entrusted the task of photographing my job at some point during the game failed miserably; there were five photos taken of my side of the arena, and none came close to including me. Not sure how that happens, but it just goes to show: you can't trust women with anything.

Greatest Staff Ever?

2005-07-29T18:17:00.000-07:00

"And you can fly
High as a kite if you want to
Faster than light if you want to
Speeding through the universe
Thinking is the best way to travel"
--The Best Way to Travel, The Moody Blues

I'm a big stats guy, so it's always fun to compare numbers and see how different eras and different teams stack up against one another. A thought occurred to me the other day, and I decided to put this theory to the test. So, with apologies to Jake Peavy and Adam Eaton, I present to you what could possibly be the greatest pitching staff in history, numbers first...

- No. 1 Starter: 19-11, 3.28 ERA, 329 strikeouts - one of the great power pitchers in the game, was traded and led his team to the post-season...
- No. 2 Starter: 18-7, 2.38 ERA, 257 K - dominated the league and brought his squad to the World Series...
- No. 3 Starter: 17-6, 2.47 ERA, 174 K - a World Champion the year before, he signed as a free agent and continued his dominating stuff...
- No. 4 Starter: 13-10, 3.49 ERA, 175 K - consistent, great stuff every year...
- No. 5 Starter: 12-10, 4.72 ERA, 140 K - started game seven of the World Series the previous year, continuing to develop...
- Spot Starter: 6-9, 4.21 ERA in his rookie season...

An impressive group, no? Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz? Nope. Koufax, Drysdale and any other dummy? Sorry. This is actually the current New York Yankees' starting rotation, but those numbers aren't of the 2005 variety. This would have been an unbelievable staff, had they been together in 1998, from whence these statistics came. Randy Johnson (No. 1) was traded to Houston at the deadline and caught fire, going 10-1 down the stretch and leading the 'Stros to the playoffs. Kevin Brown (No. 2) was actually healthy, dominating the NL and helping the Pads take the NL pennant. Al Leiter (No. 3) still had some stuff, helping Brown and the Marlins to the World Series the previous year and then signing a free agent deal with the Mets. Mike Mussina (No. 4) was the model of consistency in Baltimore before signing with the Yanks in '01. Jaret Wright (No. 5) pitched extremely well in the '97 series against Florida, winning a game and compiling a 2.92 ERA in his two starts therein. And Carl Pavano (spot starter) was just a rookie with the Expos, on the verge of great things. Now, however, they're all seven years older, most of them are hurt in some way, and the staff is terrible. The combined numbers of those six guys in '98: 85-53, 3.33 ERA, 8.49 strikeouts per 9 innings. And in '05: 32-28, 5.50 ERA, 7.99 K/9.
It's unbelievable to me that a team boasting a 5.50 ERA among its main starters (though he's currently injured, Chien-Ming Wang brings that number down a bit with his 6-3, 3.89 mark; this Aaron Small character won his second straight start, they've signed Hideo Nomo--are you kidding me?--and now a trade for 1-7 Shawn Chacon?) can still be just a game and a half out of first place (at press time), but that's what happens when you've got that kind of lineup. You've gotta score six or seven if you're going to give up five or six every night. A-Rod, by the way, has pretty much re-solidified his claim as the best player in the game, right? He's got triple crown-esque numbers and has been the main reason they're still very much in the thick of this AL East race.

Now for the point relevant to my Moody Blues lyrics: Unbelievable three days in Vegas (got back Wednesday), consisting of high school basketball, blackjack and the most unbelievable hotel room I've ever inhabited. I got to work with a producer and director who spent 13 years apiece doing Monday Night Football, I got to meet some of the greatest college coaches in the country (a 20-minute conversation with UW boss Lorenzo Romar--and assistant Cameron Dollar--being the highlight), I got to sit at the announcers' table with Chris Rose and Marques Johnson, keeping our on-air pair apprised of the game stats and any other pertinent info, I doubled my money at the blackjack tables, and oh yeah, I stayed in the most amazing room imaginable at the Wynn, the newest resort casino on the strip. Wall to wall, ceiling to floor window, overlooking the entire strip. Huge plasma TV folding out from the wall to accomodate any viewing angle. Gigantic, comfortable bed with about a hundred pillows. Several outstanding restaurants on the premises, one of which was the scene of a dinner purchased by the big boss (Executive Producer of the network) for me and a few of my co-workers. A $45 per diem meal account that allowed me to enjoy room service breakfast my final morning. It was, needless to say, a nice trip.
Part of the trip's enjoyment was getting to watch some of the best high school players in the country, up close and, in some cases, on more than one occasion. We got to see three games from this kid Spencer Hawes, a seven-footer from the Seattle area who is generally regarded as one of the top three players in the U.S. He's narrowed his college choice down to North Carolina, Connecticut, the University of Dub, Stanford and UCLA. He won't go to Stanford, because they've already received commitments from seven-foot twins in the same class (the Lopez twins, second coming of the Collins twins), so UCLA has a realistic shot of getting this guy. I've been watching high school basketball for a long time (since at least 1990) and he's definitely the best I've seen at that level. He's got more skill than half the big men in the NBA, and just needs to bulk up and get some more experience. Our show helped get Canadian stud Ryan Wright to Westwood, so we're already volunteering our services to get this kid Spencer on campus. Look out for this guy in a little over a year (he's going to be a senior in high school this fall, dunking all over poor little Washingtonians), wherever he ends up. Spencer Hawes. Remember that I told you.

Now that I'm home, moving becomes the focus of the week, as Jason and I are on our way to 40th Street on Sunday night. Looking forward to the new place (and its proximity to the sand), but I will definitely miss Lynngrove--Side, Phil and the numerous memories. I've been quite fortunate to live in some great places with some great people, and I'm hoping this trend continues at the new spot.

Pretty much as soon as I settle in at the new place, I'm hitting the road again (and I'm writing about it now because blogging time has been ridiculously scarce of late), this time to Connecticut for a week of shows at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville (evidently about an hour and a half east of Hartford). At the end of four days of shooting, a select group will be heading into NYC for a day game at Yankee Stadium. Missed out on a trip there about eleven years ago on the greatest vacation ever (though I was outvoted that day and we went to the Statue of Liberty instead of the Stadium), so I'm definitely looking forward to it this time around.

Again, in reference to the alarming lack of blogging frequency that has manifested itself in my recent history, I probably won't have anything to say until the return from back east, so hopefully it's all good until then. Peace.

Just Older

2005-07-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

"I like the bed I’m sleeping in
It’s just like me, it’s broken in
It’s not old -- just older"
--Just Older, Bon Jovi

I've decided that I feel old this morning. Not old like aching-back, trick-knee, thinking-about-retirement old, but more like responsible old. There are still definitely large parts of me that are quite young (immaturity does have a way of frequently rearing its ugly head), but the last few weeks have given me a different sense of feeling grown up. Most of this is work-related, as I've been fortunate enough to receive an increasing level of responsibility on almost a daily basis, putting me in situations to lead and supervise, allowing me to feel more and more significant in the show's framework. It is a pretty cool thing to realize that I'm old enough (and capable enough) to be in a higher-level, decision-making, action-taking spot. I like it...

A weird corollary of the whole old thing is a push to the periphery of less significant, less productive activities, one of which is blogging. While I do love to write, I'm almost conflicted about where that writing energy should be going now--this little on-line journal thing, the show, the Outlook (um, no), a book (the Clausens?), a screenplay, songs--lots of different possibilities and definitely not enough time for all. Obviously the show gets the bulk of my attention, but there's other stuff up there in that noggin that needs to go somewhere. It'll all work itself out, I know...

Other less productive activities that have been moved to said periphery:
- XBox. Fell way behind in my Padres season on MLB 2K5, so there's no use trying to catch up (though I will say that the Roberts and Klesko for Beltran deal was an outstanding move on my part), Halo's just not the same without Charlie or Side (did manage one session with Side his first couple days back), and even FIFA has lost its luster...
- Evening television. Other than occasional "Seinfeld" viewings and the one show I'm about to mention, it's out, even SportsCenter. Of course, if the Padres are playing on the West Coast, I'm watching on the computer, but that doesn't really count. I'm around enough TV all day--I don't need any more...
- Nikki Time. Yeah that one was quick. Maybe it's part of feeling old, I don't know...
- Chess. Not really. I never played chess to begin with, though it seems like an interesting hobby...

I'm a day late, but "Entourage" continues to impress on Sunday nights. I don't know how I missed out on this last year, but by all accounts it was on a similarly genius level then, and has only gotten better. Piven drives the show, but the four dudes complement each other so well, and now there are guest star spots from people we know? It's getting a little out of hand. The lone drawback at this point is the move to a 10:00 Sunday night air, which guarantees me at least a 10:30 bedtime (usually much later, unfortunately). Not so great when 5 a.m. comes and I've gotten less than six hours of sleep. Still, I'm willing to make the sacrifice, at least until January, when "24" makes its triumphant return for season (and day) 5...

I need to qualify the following statement by asserting that I do not believe in karma at all. It's a convenient way for people to explain the rhythm of the universe, but there's no such thing. That notwithstanding, I was on the wrong end of some karma the other night in our rec league game. After ripping on one of the bonus teammates we had in our loss two weeks ago (the one who couldn't find a loose ball to save his life and couldn't make a simple layup), I proceeded to miss five or six layups myself and brick five of my six free throw attempts. I played okay defensively and on the boards, even making a big layup late in the game, but I jinxed myself big-time with the layup-missing comments. Of course, in reality, it's got nothing to do with this other cat, it's just that I decided to really suck in this particular game, but it's nicer when I can blame it on someone--and something--else...

I've decided that Buster Olney (need password) is to baseball what Peter King is to football. He's not that good on TV (yet), but he does two things very well: 1) he spans the globe (not literally) to provide the most interesting stuff from all of baseball every morning, and 2) his opinions on everything baseball-related are very well thought out and explained, never arrogant and always asking for input. He's touched on a lot of different things all season, from controversial things like steroids and Kenny Rogers to fun things like the All-Star voting, and it's always balanced. He doesn't stray from the sport as much as King does (coffee talk and random other observations from big Pete are commonplace), but it's everyday and it's incredibly insightful. If you do have the benefit of an Insider password (and you don't hate baseball), check him out...

Moving sucks. We have to move out of our lovely little Manhattan Beach home by the end of the month, and I'm not excited about that prospect. Every annoying thing that goes into it, not just the packing and carrying and throwing stuff away, but the changing of address forms for the credit cards and banks and money managers and payroll people--it all sucks. People move all the time and I know it's not that awful, but I can still be annoyed by it all. Looks like it'll be a two-bedroom place somewhere in Manhattan, but there's a bit of searching still to do...

Major League Baseball All-Star Red Carpet Show today at 4 p.m. PST. Fox actually gave us another shot after the Super Bowl debacle, and while this one does air on FSN, it's a big stage. I got here at 6:30 this morning, so it better be a good show. Should be fun...

Back in Session

2005-07-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

"And now I rub my eyes, for he has returned
Seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned
For he still smiles, and he’s still strong
Nothing’s changed, but the surrounding bulls***
That has grown"
--Off He Goes, Pearl Jam

It's been way too long, and I'll spare y'all the apology, but an entire week of getting into the office at 5:30 in the a.m. doesn't exactly lend itself to blogging frequently. So I'm back to a relatively normal schedule this week and had a wonderfully relaxing weekend to prepare. But wow, I just noticed that my last entry was way back on June 23, so there's a little bit of catching up to do:
- Got to two Dodger-Padre games last week, a loss on Monday (though it was definitely a win in other respects) and a real win Tuesday. Somehow we've gotten through a rough June still sitting in first place, 4.5 games up and with the Dodgers fading fast (now no J.D. Drew? Big trouble). Currently getting blitzed by Morgan Ensberg and the red-hot Astros, but thankfully, the rest of the divison still sucks (Colorado over Los Dodgers and St. Louise over 'Zona last night)...
- Have I mentioned before how much I love living in Manhattan Beach? Spent Friday afternoon totally relaxing down on the sand (followed by a quality Mama D's dinner), Sunday afternoon volleyballing it up (I've found that if I can be limited in responsibility to about five square feet on the court, I can do some damage at the net; otherwise, my volleyball skills are negligible) and Monday enjoying some sunshine as well as the peace and quiet of our neighborhood...
- Heartbreaking finish to the Galaxy game Monday night: a UCLA rookie named Mike Enfield came in late (80th minute or so) and totally flubbed his first touch, a breakaway chance that could have given L.A. the lead, but then came back and scored on a diving header in the 87th minute that should have meant victory for the Galaxy. Instead, New England got the equalizer in injury time, frustrating the assembled masses and leaving Landon-less L.A. winless in its last five matches. The fireworks after the game were well worth the (free) price of admission (thank you, Fox Soccer Channel)...
- I think I've also failed to discuss last Sunday's debacle of a rec league game, our first loss of the season. Besides the whole 5:30 thing, I often choose to stifle unpleasant memories, so this is one that's gonna have to stay most of the way below the surface. I think I scored 10 points on tip-ins alone (meaning there were lots of missed shots), but we struggled (understatement) defensively and couldn't make a three to save our lives (figuratively...though what if that ever was a literal statement? Could you actually make a three-pointer if your life was literally on the line? I'm assuming that I'd choke...)
- Coldplay's new CD still hasn't left my CD player (except for once: right after the Dodger game Monday, when it was deemed necessary to blast Linkin Park & Jay-Z throughout our lengthy exit from the parking lot; X&Y returned quickly thereafter), and I'm still quite enthused by it. In addition to the tune on the radio right now ("Speed of Sound"), "Fix You" (track 4) and "Swallowed in the Sea" are amazing, and "Til Kingdom Come" (track 13) is rapidly approaching all-time top-ten status. I'm learning it on guitar as well, which is accelerating the process...
- Good show yesterday, with Torii Hunter and Jacque Jones in studio (Torii is probably my favorite non-Padre in all of baseball, except maybe Vladi), followed by hit king Pete Rose, who cracked up the entire control room when he told John Salley, "Now, if you were a betting man, you should bet against [Derrek Lee winning] the triple crown." We've been warned repeatedly to stay away from wagering references with Pete, so it was hilarious that he brough it up, then followed with, "I'm going to the Forum Shops [at Caesar's Palace] tomorrow, so give me some money and I'll put it down for you." It's sad that such a great career had to be tarnished by a gambling problem, so maybe it was a bit of tragic laughter, but he seemed to find it funny, so I'm okay with it...
- The old Summer Pro League gets underway in Long Beach on Friday, kicking off two weeks of all-day hoops at the Pyramid. Andrew Bynum should be there with the Lakers' squad (and hopefully Turiaf and Wafer as well), and the Raptors, Grizz, Heat and Mavs have squads in the league also. The rest of the teams (somewhere around 18 in all) are wanna-be pros or random groups (like the Senegalese National Team??? and the Percy Miller All-Stars--that's Master P, for those not as in tune with the hip hop culture as I am)...
- "Entourage" continues to guide me through the 24- and West Wing-less summer television schedule, with yet another hilarious episode this week. I'm quite certain that it wouldn't be nearly as funny without the cameos--Ralph Macchio and Pauly Shore last week and Bob Saget this time around. Johnny Drama's weakest episode so far, but I'm actually enjoying the quasi-suspense surrounding this "Aquaman" casting...
- Lou Piniella has evidently gone off the deep end in Tampa Bay. Since his relivers continue to suck (they blew another game last night in the late innings), he decided that he's going to start a reliever, hope they can give him a couple decent early innings, and then bring in his starter, who will hopefully get to the ninth and closer Danys Baez. I don't think bad pitchers are any better when they pitch early as opposed to late, but I guess it's easier to handle a 6-2 loss when you've been down 6-0 since the third inning than a 6-2 loss when you led 2-1 going into the seventh. It's Tampa Bay, after all, when does football season start again?
- London gets the Olympics in 2012. France lost again. Ha...

Dark Day Musings

2005-06-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

"Playing Solitaire till dawn,
With a deck of fifty-one.
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.
Now, don't tell me I've nothing to do.
--Counting Flowers on the Wall, Eric Heatherley

As I sit at my desk having done almost all I can do to get ready for tomorrow's show (a road show from a Walmart parking lot in Baltimore--I wish I could make this stuff up), I'm finally presented with the ultimate condemnation of this year's NBA Finals: I would much rather watch Dontrelle Willis pitch (in a mid-June regular-season game against the Atlanta Braves) than watch game seven of the NBA Finals. I glance to the shelf of tapes above me and long for the NBA of Michael, Magic, Hakeem and Larry. I can't get into a Finals that features the weirdest dude on the planet ('Sheed--I mean, the guy wears a wrestling belt around) and the most boring dude on the planet (TD--I'm contemplating the creation of a tape of all of Duncan's playoff press conferences, one that I can bring home and use to put me to sleep). Meanwhile, Dontrelle's thrown six innings of two-hit ball as of press time (and just beat out a bunt for a single), and is as fun to watch as any pitcher in the game. 11-2, 1.92 ERA, and he's on pace to improve both of those with tonight's shutout. Not too shabby...

Got to leave "campus" for lunch today, so I headed up to WeHo to dine with Phil, his buddy Mike (a new Dailey employee and our houseguest for the last week or so) and Garett Awad at a little pizza place just up the street from Dailey. I'm reminded again of how much fun it would be to work for Brian Morris; I just need to find a way to get him into television first. I left a note for him in the office (for the uninformed, he's a good friend and the CEO of Dailey), and placed mine right on top of a phone message, reading: "FROM: James Worthy. RE: Wanted to follow up on conversation at dinner last night." Dude, I'm the one working in sports, and he's having dinner with James Worthy? Must be nice...

I've expressed before the lament of the "when it rains, it pours" problem, and it again seems that a plurality of phone numbers have now worked their way into my rotation in a rather short amount of time, thus rapidly making up for a long period of inactivity in that area. I'm mildly encouraged by one and quite excited by another, so we'll see what happens. I know I tend to become rather wordy and unnecessarily vague when it comes to matters of the heart; perhaps that is one of the reasons why said periods of inactivity tend to vastly outnumber the current, active ilk...

Halfway through the first quarter of game seven (I just checked ESPN's scoreboard), one more hitless inning from Dontrelle, and I still care way more about the baseball game...

Speaking of baseball games, a second straight tough loss for the Pads today, this time in extra innings to the Dodgers, who are finally showing some signs of life. We're still up four in the division (pending the D-Backs' result tonight), so I'm not too worried, but we need to right the ship a little bit against the Mariners this weekend (including Saturday's Fox game). Having Adam Eaton on the DL doesn't help, but having Jake Peavy still on the staff does...

One more shutout inning from Dontrelle, and I think the Pistons and Spurs are on pace for a 12-10 first quarter. I'm making the right decision...

One thing I do want to mention about the NBA game is the big deal being made about game sevens in general. Like because Robert Horry has played in a game seven before, he needs to impart some wisdom to the rest of the squad and tell them how to do it. Or because Greg Anthony played in two game sevens (and LOST both, by the way--with the Knicks to the Rockets in the '94 Finals, and with the Blazers to the Lakers in those glorious '00 Conference Finals), they need to pick his brain about the mentality. The Pistons have faced elimination so many times, whether it's a game five, six or seven, the mentality is all the same. If you know that a loss sends you home, you're going to be playing your arse off, no matter the number. Yes, it's kinda cool to have some finality (or some last-ditch marketing ploy to actually get America to watch for a second), but I think it's a vastly overrated thing. They actually found it necessary to have John Smoltz on "Outside the Lines" last night to talk about it--he plays baseball, for crying out loud. What on earth would he have to offer us about Manu Ginobili's turnover-prone fourth quarters or the bench scoring from Antonio McDyess--you know, things that might actually influence the outcome of this game seven? These guys are professionals, and as unattractive as the basketball may be, I think they all have a pretty good sense of the whole lose-and-you're-done thing...

As the first quarter ends, putting us on pace for a 72-64 final score (Whooo! Can't believe I'm missing this!!), we're also going to the bottom of the ninth in the Marlins game. I have one more thing to finish writing for tomorrow's show, so it looks like Dontrelle's final out will be marking my departure. A brief running diary of the bottom of the ninth...
6:47 p.m. - Miguel Cabrera is highlighted, following his six-RBI performance tonight. Not bad for a 22-year-old kid.
6:48 p.m. - Our FSN Florida announcers are talking about Dontrelle's control. 23 first-pitch strikes out of the 27 batters he's faced tonight. That'll get it done.
6:49 p.m. - Rafael Furcal singles to right, improving the batting average of my fantasy team from .2234 to .2235. My team sucks.
6:50 p.m. - Kelly Johnson singles up the middle, Furcal to second. This is getting interesting.
6:51 p.m. - 1-2 count to Marcus Giles, the smaller, feistier, bigger-dip-packing version of his older brother Brian.
6:52 p.m. - Marcus flies out to Juan Encarnacion in right. I've always wondered why it's okay in baseball (encouraged, even) to say that a guy flied out, but you can't say that a guy flied to Miami
6:53 p.m. - Andruw Jones grounds into a 6-4-3 double play and Dontrelle's shutout is complete. His third shutout, his fourth complete game, and he's 12-2 with a stinkin' 1.76 ERA. Wow. I'm glad the game ended right there, because Chipper's not playing, so after Furcal, Giles and Andruw, I would have been done with Braves I've heard of (unless John Smoltz was to pinch-hit or something). How do they keep winning division titles? Their third baseman is Andy Marte. He's hitting .200. And Kelly Johnson is...? Bobby Cox definitely does not get enough credit.
6:55 p.m. - Post-game interview with Dontrelle, who is dripping with sweat and covered in dirt from when he dove headfirst into first base (on the aforementioned bunt), extending his hitting streak to six games. He's a pitcher with a six-game hitting streak...

Dontrelle is done, blogging is done, show stuff is done, and it's time to head home. I think it's Pistons 9, Spurs 7, late second quarter or something close to that. I couldn't care less...

Less Than Jake

2005-06-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

"I’m free to do what I want any old time
I’m free to do what I want any old time
So love me, hold me, love me, hold me
I’m free any old time to get what I want"
--I'm Free, Rolling Stones

I'm refraining from such a pro-Padre post on the Rockham page, because I know it'll be met with a great deal of animosity. On my own blog, however, I'm free from all restrictions--real or implied--and I'll give Jake Peavy his due:
Wow. My jaw is still locked in agape position, having been there since about 7:10 last night, or the hour of Peavy's first strikeout of the evening. I don't think I've ever seen him better, striking out 13, walking one and only giving up two hits in eight stellar innings of work. He had everything working (Jeff Kent was the only Dodger starter who didn't strike out at least once), and went out with a bang--striking out Phillips and Grabowski to end the 8th and end his night). The offense gave him one run (fill-in catcher Robert Fick scored on a B-Giles double) and that was plenty. I won't spend too much time Dodger-bashing, because Brad Penny was almost as good, but Jake's just showing that he's the best pitcher in the league not named Pedro or Roger. There's a band that bears the same name as this post, and I'm just now realizing that they must have named themselves after every other pitcher in the majors. Great start to a big series, one which could have brought the Dodgers within half a game if they had swept, and one that could now serve to put some serious distance between my Padres and the rest of the awful NL West. Three more against the Dodgers, followed by three against the Mariners (bad, bad Adrian Beltre & Co.) and then up to L.A. for three more (I'll be there on Tuesday)...

Hey, it's Pedro Gomez on ESPN, and he's telling us that Barry Bonds isn't quite ready to come back and play this season. You know, I think I've heard that from Pedro sometime before. Oh yeah, like every single day since spring training started, that's right. Are you kidding me? Does this guy do anything else? His whole job is predicated on providing daily updates about a guy who hasn't done anything baseball-related since last September, and probably the most hated player in the entire sport. I'd rather hear Devil Rays minor league pitching updates than "Bonds played catch with Moises Alou today" and "Bonds wiped his nose this morning." Maybe it's just me. I suppose that if ESPN can send like forty people to the NBA Finals (37 of whom are essentially unnecessary--Tirico, Anthony and Walton are all they need; Tirico and Anthony for halfway-decent analysis, Walton for comedy), they can spare one to be Barry Bonds' cabana boy...

Double the basketball on Sunday, and I was much worse for wear yesterday, but it was still worth it. Did the Brentwood thing in the afternoon (lost three out of four, not a very good effort) and got a couple Galaxy tickets from Zeus for the 4th of July (not that anybody else cares, but it'll be the MLS game of the year so far: Landon and the Galaxy taking on the first place Revolution and Clint Dempsey). Had a nice nap after the forever drive home down the evil 405 and watched "Entourage" (epic cameos from Ralph Macchio and Pauly Shore), marking my second consecutive viewing of a show that is quickly approaching watch-every-week status (a level heretofore only achieved by "West Wing" and "24"). Nikki, by the way--the Iowa intern--started watching season one of "24" over the weekend, moving her up even further on the figurative charts. Our evening game was a joke, and exactly the type of game Michael and I wanted to play after such a tiring afternoon. We won by 44, and the game was never even that close. 36-11 at halftime (after we gave up a three-point play on the final play of the half) and 33-14 in the second half (don't worry, I'll do the math for you: 69-25 final score). So we're 5-0 now, rolling right along and having a darn good time. We even shot well this time out, which hasn't always been the case, despite our undefeated record. Hopefully we'll be able to take some momentum into the showdown with last season's champs, whenever that may be...

Coldplay, X&Y, not a bad disc at all. Haven't gotten all the way straight through it yet, but the bits and pieces of tracks one through eight or so have been outstanding. Not many bands at their level right now, frankly. Obviously I'm putting Jimmy Eat World up there, but is there anyone else? I'm unsure...

I am sure, however, that Jake Peavy is the best pitcher to don a Padre uniform since Kevin Brown's ridiculous '98 campaign, and I'm excited about where this team's heading...

I made a note on Rockham yesterday about the case for gay against me, and as much as I'm encouraged by the relative silence on that issue in the recent past, I do feel compelled to elaborate on it at some point. That point is not now. Nikki and I have work to do. Ha...

Not a Betting Man...

2005-06-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

"He gambled in the White House and in the railroad yards
Wherever there was people, there was Willie and his cards
He had a reputation as the gamblin'est man around
Wives would keep their husbands home when Willie came to town"
--Rambling Gambling Willie, Bob Dylan

I'm not one to wager all that often, but in hindsight, here are a few bets I should have taken this week:

- That I would watch less than a quarter--total--of the NBA Finals. Of course, you're probably not allowed to bet on things you control (ahem, Pete Rose), but I don't think I even came close. Didn't catch a single second of last night's debacle, watched a few minutes of the fourth quarter Tuesday and nothing Sunday. Not only do these teams play unattractive basketball, but the games haven't even been competitive. Four games in a row decided by more than 15 points? That's never happened. Ric Bucher said on the radio last night that he couldn't remember a worse performance in a playoff game by one team, EVER. The Spurs, who were supposed to be one of the great teams of all time like a week ago, now can't even stay within 30 of a Pistons team that can't go more than seven deep? Just start the lockout now...

- That Evander Holyfield would be off that ridiculous Dancing Stars show within three episodes, parlayed with a guarantee that America still wouldn't have figured out that this is not good television. Evidently it's been winning its slot easily, which makes zero sense to me. Of course, I work on a show that decided to make Tom Arnold a talk show host, so who am I to question the quality of TV...

- Every NL West team to lose every single game (the teams are a combined 18-32 in their last ten games). Wow is this a bad division right now. The Pads are still in first place, but only because the Dodgers and D-Backs manage to lose all their games too. The Royals and Tigers just swept the Dodgers and Padres, respectively, this week. That should never, ever happen...

- The over on the number of times the word "bubble" would be uttered at LCHS graduation. I set it at 6 and I believe we hit 8 or 9 (and yes, this is definitely my last LCHS graduation until cousin Will commences, and then no more forever--when you work with kids for a few years, those kids all grow up and graduate, and the ones I spent the most time with are finally done. And so am I.)

- That the next female intern we'd hire would not possibly measure up to the previous four (see yesterday's). No offense to this girl (haven't gotten her name yet), but the bar was just set too high...

It's a short one today...looking forward to actually (hopefully) getting some sleep tonight (a combined seven hours the last two nights), a nice single-header of baseball tomorrow (we get to watch Dontrelle pitch against the Angels, likely the viewing highlight of the season thus far) and a double-day of hoops on Sunday (Brentwood at 1, rec league at 7)...

Addenda

2005-06-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

"I guess it's something to do with luck
But I waited my whole life for just one
Day, after day"
--Add It Up, Violent Femmes

A few quick things I missed yesterday (and I definitely haven't been listening to enough Violent Femmes lately)...

Sports Guy has the exact same view of "24" that I do. He evidently caught onto the show a little late (much as I did, only after repeated encouragement from multiple sources), and basically ripped through all three seasons on DVD in like three weeks (I took care of season one in a weekend, season two in about a week and now I'm about halfway through season three, taking a little more time). I experience the same problem he mentions about getting into new shows, reacting stubbornly and then being bummed out when I'm so behind because I waited too long. At least I watched the second episode of "Entourage" on Sunday, and enjoyed that quite a bit. It'll take me a little bit to fully grasp the characters, but Matt Dillon's brother cracks me up (his concern in this last episode had to do with other dudes' calves, including Lamar Odom--hilarious)...

Gotta touch on Phil Jackson real briefly. Is there any reason a Laker fan should not love this decision? If there remains any frustration, any doubt about the future of this franchise, it should not center on the coaching situation, that's for sure. This year's team wasn't as bad as its record indicates (Vlade's injury, Rudy T's sudden retirement and the complete lack of attention to defense all season long--I didn't think it was possible for our point guard position to be worse defensively than it was the previous few years, but Chucky Atkins, as Paperboy would say, "Not from the ghetto, but yo, takin' it to another level"), so I'm confident in a playoff berth next season, some serious roster reconstruction at that point, and contention shortly thereafter. I'm a Laker fan for life, not just a championship team fan, so these slightly lean years will make the successful ones that much sweeter when they return...

Speaking of coaches, remember the whole Pat Summitt-Dean Smith ridiculousness that had me so fired up a few months ago? If not, a quick refresher: News stories were promoting the fact that Summitt had tied and then broken Dean Smith's career victories record, but my vehement disagreement centered on the fact that she coaches GIRLS. Dean Smith coached MEN. They're two totally different entities; don't combine them (I'm sorry, I'm getting fired up about this all over again). Anyways, the concept is rearing its ugly head once again, this time involving the Japanese leagues in baseball. Two separate things happened over the last two days that brought this into question: Ichiro collected career hit number 1000 Tuesday night, which is a great accomplishment for a guy in just his fifth season. The argument was raised about considering his Japanese numbers when he's eventually eligible for the Hall of Fame (he had like 1300 hits over there). Hideo Nomo won a game last night, and the ESPN Radio update (I think it was Bob Picozzi--did you knowsie?) mentioned that "Nomo collected his 200th career victory...[pause for effect...I think to myself, 'Does Hideo Nomo really have 200 wins? Wow, that's a lot. Good for him. I remember when he was rookie of the year, but then he sucked for a while, didn't he? Oh well, 200 wins. Cool.' End of pause]...78 of them came in Japan." Come on now. If more than a third of his wins happened in another country, why is this even being mentioned? Major League Baseball is a single entity, and all of its records--however steroid-inflated they may be--are set and broken in Major League Baseball games ONLY. Not Japanese leagues, not minor leagues, not the Fox softball league (or else my buddy Bernie would be ahead of Ty Cobb with a career batting average over .500), and not anything but Major League Baseball. Dr. J's career NBA numbers don't include his ABA marks, and that's a much closer affiliation than Japan and MLB. As far as the Hall of Fame goes, the answer to that question is in the institution's title: The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. See that first word? "National." Not international. Just one nation. I'm sure he'll be a Japanese hall of famer, but his numbers here (Ichiro mostly; I don't think Hideo's in any danger of nearing hall of fame status) will have to be sufficient (and if he can last 'til the age of 40, they just may be good enough).

Ah, youth baseball. I think the playoffs weeded out not only the lower-quality teams, but the lower-quality writers as well (I should research the correlation between writing ability and team success, but I won't), so our vault is not quite as full for the final week of editing. Oh but don't worry, we still managed to unearth a few gems to send the LCJBSA into the summmer:
- "After blowing a 7-5 lead on too many walks and some charitable defense..."
This is a much more euphemistic way of approaching the awful game than the coach we had a week or two ago that talked about the awful defense and walks. These guys are learning (maybe somebody gave them the Nickels & Dimes link)--"charitable" is about as nice as you can put it when your little guys can't catch anything...way to go
- "While our hats are off to the A's, no team has ever won 16 games in Babe Ruth before and all the players on the Red Sox are to be congratulated on one of the finest season's in Babe Ruth history."
This was the sour grapes from the Red Sox coach whose undefeated season came to an end in the championship game. "Sure they won, but we were still better than them!" Not sure that logic works. Bob Stoops, after the Orange Bowl: "Okay, yeah, so they ran and passed all over us and didn't let us do jack squat offensively. So they blew us out and showed us that we didn't even belong in the same stadium. So Auburn should have been here instead of us. I know, I know. But we had an unedfeated regular season. Doesn't anyone care?" Wouldn't fly, Coach, trust me.
- "Ragsdale says good bye to La Canada this month, as their family moves back to Texas (we'll miss you Ragsdales). James Toomarian (playing smart at first for two outs in the game) got a hit in the 3rd..."
Two great ones here, the first of which is an incredibly unnecessary personal note to the Ragsdale clan (nice people though, for sure). You already know how I feel about these things. If you're really going to miss them, the league website isn't the best place to tell them. I'm fairly certain of this. Buy them a nice little card (there's a Hallmark store right there next to TJ Maxx that should have plenty of options for you), have your wife pick up a flower arrangement from Eiji's and maybe even a knick-knack or two from the Apple Cart (came up last night as the personification of the word "gossip"), then drop them by the Ragsdale home some random afternoon. You could even rcognize the youngster and his parents at a team gathering, if you so desire. Just keep it away from my territory, that's all I ask. The second thing is the phrase "playing smart at first for two outs." How does one do this, praytell? Catch the ball that the third baseman throws in your direction? Is that smart enough? Stand on the bag when the shortstop is getting ready to throw it to you? Maneuver under a pop-up so that when it comes down, it'll hopefully end up in your glove? I wish I'd been privy to this display of smarts at first, because I'm really having a tough time grasping it. Did he stop playing smart after two outs? I've gotta know...
- "Congradulate the Cub's for a great season and finishing in the final four. The Pirate's advance to the Final's on Saturday."
Congradulate? I suppose I can forgive that one, but this guy has no concept of pluralization, a problem which is a constant annoyance in my editing experience. What does the Cub own here? Does the Final possess something too? "The Pirate's advance?" Is he writing a book and got a bunch of money up front from Random House? I'd be interested in this, I think, if there were a real pirate living in La Canada, hanging out at youth baseball games, and writing a book about his experiences. "You know, I really had a great time sailing the seas and pillaging boats, but there's only so much of that a man can take. After the last episode with that ghost ship, I knew it was time to turn my focus elsewhere: to training America's--correct use of the apostrophe here--youth in the finer arts of the sacrifice bunt. Of course, the kids do ask about my eye patch, and I have a tough time recounting the story for them. I probably shouldn't bring the jugs of rum around the dugout, but I don't think it's a huge problem just yet. I'll admit, it is hard to show the proper grip on a bat with the hook I've got instead of my left hand. I do have to find a place for my shoulder parrot too, because the umpires think it's me yelling at them most of the time. But I'm convinced these obstacles will only make me stronger, and a better baseball coach in the end. Arrrr." I'm captivated already...
- "Thanks to all who supported the Pirate's and congradulations to the Red Sox Mustang 9 champs."
After winning his semifinal contest, the same coach showed how much he had learned with this nugget from the final game. Just for fun...

Yeah, Nikki's in today, so I'd better get to work right quick. LCHS graduation tonight, watching the kids I started hanging out with as eighth graders now exiting high school. Makes me feel pretty darn old...

Quickness

2005-06-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

"Slow down, you move too fast
You got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobblestones
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy"
--59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), Simon & Garfunkel

Like Earl Boykins making his way down the lane (or like any point guard in the league going around Chucky Atkins), like Ichiro getting up the first base line and like Ed Reed breaking on a ball over the middle, I'm going to be quick today. Work this week has been a bit more involved in the mornings than usual, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. If it really does keep up like this, I might have to figure out a way to blog in the evenings or at the end of the work day, but we'll see.

In spite of the hectic mornings, there is one thing that has brought a different level of enjoyment to work these days, and I have our internship coordinator to thank for that. After a year and a half of mostly worthless male interns (with a few females sprinkled in here and there), most of whom didn't care enough about the job to actually pay attention and try to learn things about working in television, the powers that be changed strategies and decided to pretty much just hire hot girls this summer. Not a bad alteration of the plan as far as I'm concerned. Three tall blondes from USC (one of whom just so happens to be a song girl, though she doesn't ever wear the white sweater to work) and another very cute blonde girl from Iowa. The Iowan has quickly become my favorite, not only because she's probably the cutest of the four, but she's also a couple years older (not nearly as full of giggles and whatnot) and actually wants to learn. She's helped me out the last two days (and will be helping again tomorrow), and has picked up a ton already, so it's been mutually beneficial. Not only do I get to hang out with a great girl through my entire workday, but she's helping me get video, take tapes to different places, log highlights--all stuff that makes the work go much smoother and faster--and she's getting more out of her internship than most because of all the hands-on experience (no jokes here). Found out yesterday that she loves Tim McGraw (if I don't end up being able to play a Tim song for her on guitar sometime before the summer's over, I've failed), the Brewers and Packers (maybe I can work my NFL connections in the fall??) and she smiles more every day. Not sure yet about crossing the intern line, but I'm becoming less and less concerned about that as the days go by. A few other things that came up over the weekend...

"Mr. & Mrs. Smith": Saw it on the lot (mostly because, as the dude would say in one of his many imitations, "it's freh") with my friend Kristin on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Very tongue-in-cheek, requiring suspension of belief, but a lot funnier than I thought it would be, and of course Vince Vaughn is great. I'm not sure about the last movie I saw Angelina Jolie in ("Gone in Sixty Seconds" or "Pushing Tin," maybe) but I still can't figure out if she's really hot or kinda looks like a dude. Obviously she has physical features that distinguish her quite well from a dude, but there's something about her face, I don't know. That confusion notwithstanding, she's as good a female action star as there is and did a great job with this role. Brad Pitt plays his typical cool guy, pretty much the same character as he played in the Ocean's Eleven and Twelve movies, except with a lot more firepower at his disposal. A good time at the movies.

Jet-skiing is probably the most fun you're allowed to have in one place at one time. I came to this conclusion after an hour-long stint on a couple Sea-Doos with your Father, Sharon and Michael on Sunday out in Marina Del Rey. After a slow trek out past the breakwater, the wide open space of the ocean is an incredible playground. I did fall off three times, but that's gotta be a good thing, right? If I hadn't fallen off, I wouldn't have been satisfied with the amount I pushed myself and tried to do some stupid things. I'm hoping this happens again sometime, no doubt.

Youth baseball concluded last week, so my work on Monday night was more limited than usual (thank the Lord). I'll be sure to bring a couple final gems to the blog very soon.

If you didn't know, Ramon Hernandez is the best catcher in the National League. I'll just leave it at that...

Tids N' Bits

2005-06-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

"I know - some things
Well they don't feel right and I can't sit tight
Still there's some other things they can make you smile
they can make you high..."
--Little Things, Sister Hazel

Nothing huge to mention this morning, so I'm going with a couple of tiny things...

Saw "Crash" yesterday, upon the recommendation of several friends and co-workers (thank you, Kelly, for being the first to suggest it), and though I didn't know much about the premise heading in, it was a thoroughly enjoyable film with a great cast. A lot of "that guy's in this" or "she's in that" kind of actors, but some good lead people as well: Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Ludacris, Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser (a terrible actor, but a name nonetheless), Larenz Tate (remember "Menace II Society?") and about ten other recognizable names (IMDB it if you're interested). Pulp Fiction-esque plot, where a bunch of seemingly unrelated stories converge at different points in time, and a lot of good fodder for discussions about racism. It essentially presents every stereotype out there, about almost every possible group (white, black, asian, hispanic, middle eastern), and the racist jokes abound. Had a group of people (no ethnicity stated here) not been yelling at the screen the entire time (draw your own conclusions), we might have been able to enjoy the movie even a little bit more. Bottom line: see it; it'll make you think...

If it wasn't already evident from his "crap in the closet" incident, Najeh Davenport is not the most well-educated individual on the planet. Here's Najeh on whether or not he's going to hold out now that Drew Rosenhaus is his agent: "No. Why? What have I did?" asked Davenport, Green Bay's backup running back. "I'm Najeh Davenport, second-team tailback. What would I look like holding out?"
What have I did? Good question, Najeh...

Haven't written about the Padres much this week, but they ended a four-game slide with a nice 3-2 win yesterday. Adam Eaton continues to amaze and astound, racking up his eighth straight win and matching Livan for second in the NL in victories (behind only the inimitable D-Train). We still aren't doing much offensively, but three runs is better than no runs any day of the week...

I tried--honestly I did--to be a basketball fan and watch the Finals last night, hoping that I could learn to appreciate the subtle nuances of Tim Duncan's post game, Detroit's team defense and Manu Ginobili's out-of-control-ness, but I just couldn't. I mean, the score was 55-51 at the end of the THIRD QUARTER. This isn't okay. If Phoenix and/or Miami were playing, we'd actually have some basketball being played, not Knicks vs. Heat-style, circa the mid-90's, which is what we're presented with at the moment. I might give them one more chance, but I doubt it...

Funny commercial on ESPN right now, kind of along the "literally" lines: Guy gets a breakfast burrito from Sonic's (never been there) and tells his buddy, "Man, breakfast burritos are the only things that get me up in the morning." Unwilling to let such a drastic statement go unchallenged, the buddy responds, "Come on, there must be something else that gets you up sometime, right?" (an alarm clock? your wife? the aroma of some nice colombian coffee?) "No, not really." "Come on." After some consideration, the dude responds, "Well, sometimes an afternoon burrito." Yes, it's a commercial, but I still appreciate the challenge made--don't let people get away with such ridiculousness...

A Glaring Omission

2005-06-08T09:55:00.000-07:00

"Sorry is the fool who trades his love for hi-rise rent
Seem the more you make equals the loneliness you get
And it’s fitting. he’s barely living a day he’ll soon forget"
--Soon Forget, Pearl Jam

In my haste to get through the weekend wrap-up and get to the good stuff (youth baseball, obviously) yesterday, I forgot to mention the most meaningful experience from my two-day stint in beautiful San Diego. No, it wasn't waking up at 4 a.m. on Sunday to make sure my friends got to the marathon on time (nor was it returning to the hotel room to grab four extra hours of sleep once they departed). It was a chance encounter on 6th Ave. as I stopped at my car to change tapes in my digital video camera before heading down to the game...
Sitting on the passenger side (of his best friend's ride--sorry, TLC reference) of my car with the door open as I worked on the camera, I was approached by a homeless gentleman on a bike, a little shaggy but quite friendly. I was in no hurry at this point (11 a.m., game didn't start until 1:35 p.m.), so I stayed in my seat and engaged in some conversation. My new friend (Halbert is his name, I quickly learned) has lived a rough life, no doubt. Until a few years ago, he lived in Mississippi, and moved out to the West Coast after a divorce took his kids. He worked in telemarketing (he repeated for me the pitch he used to give, word-for-word) until one crazy night in an emergency room parking lot. He had just come from getting a cut on his thumb sewn up and was sitting in his car in the parking lot (much like I happened to be as the story was recounted for me), when a man approached him and asked for directions. After giving the requested directions to this stranger, the guy grabbed the gold chain around Halbert's neck. Halbert didn't seem to me to be a guy you wanted to mess with, and this guy quickly found that out. Hal jumped out of his car and slugged the guy, knocking him to the ground with a series of body shots, yelling at him as he beat him down: "You don't touch me! You don't take my s---!" After about thirty seconds of the beatdown, he heard a sickening sound from directly behind him. A shot rang out. BANG! And then another. The second, he said, sounded muffled, and he fell to his knees. He glanced down at blood and unidentified guts now spilling into his hands, and then...nothing. He woke up two months later in the hospital (as lucky a place as any to suffer such a horrific calamity, meaning he didn't have to be moved very far), with no family around and no money to pay the rapidly accumulating hospital bills. After recovering sufficiently to leave the hospital, his employer did nothing to help, and he was basically S.O.L. Even though they kept him alive, there was another procedure that they didn't do, something that needed a whole lot more money to take care of. It wouldn't kill him to leave it be, but wow. At this point, he lifted up his shirt (I was obviously more than a little uncomfortable with this) to reveal the strangest thing I have ever seen on a human body. I almost can't describe it with words, but I'll try. Just above his waist, surrounded by an incredible number of scars, was a Nerf-football-sized growth,. Absolutely disgusting (though I hid my disgust quite well, I hope). We got into more conversation about the problem, the impossibility of affording the necessary medical coverage to have the operation (he's looked into it, and it would actually take two separate operations, probably costing six figures), and then discussing the difficulty of even making it through each day without a place to sleep. The thing that touched me the most (not literally, thank goodness) was when a few other people walked by, not even looking in our direction. "See that?" he said. "That's worse than anything. They walk by and pretend you're not even there." I was definitely convicted by this. While I was talking with him at the moment, I knew that I do what the other people did far more often than I stop to talk, or give money, or anything else. After probably half an hour of standing and talking, I gave him a twenty and my business card, telling him (genuinely) that if he ever finds a way to get close to this medical procedure, he should get in touch with me, and I want to try to help him get it done, whatever that would entail. He seemed really touched by the latter gesture (much more than by the twenty measly dollars), and started into a little discourse on how God touches people and God puts people in other people's lives for a reason. I agreed, and we talked about God's role in his life for a little while at this point. He even said that he's thinking about becoming a preacher, because he's seen the worst and he's seen how programs that minister to the homeless fail--he's been refused admittance to numerous shelters and outreach programs because of his "condition." I probably would have stayed and talked with him all day--part of me even wished I had a third ticket to the game--but he set off in search of the next meal as I bid him farewell. Now this part almost brought a tear to my eye--almost. "God bless you, Halbert," I told him as he rode off. He stopped and replied, "He just did." Dang.

Without proper time to digest all that, I'm trying to segue into the normal tone of this blog. So take the necessary break to move from heartfelt to sarcastic, from human emotion to the insignifance of sports...proceed whenever you're ready...

There are few things as exciting in sports as a Mike Tyson fight, and we've got another one coming up on Saturday night--against the immortal Kevin McBride (his nickname is "The Clones Colossus"--what??). It's unbelievable to think that he's been fighting for 20 years (Tyson, not the Colossus), and that there hasn't been a real star in the heavyweight division since his decline. Holyfield, Bowe and Lewis were all decent, but nobody can touch Iron Mike, the train wreck that he is.

Baseball, sure. Football, okay. Even boxing. But curling? Dude got suspended from CURLING for two years after testing positive for a banned substance. I really can't come up with anything clever to say about this. It's CURLING.

Reasons I could never coach girls' basketball, No. 79: SportsCenter just aired a WNBA highlight featuring Suebiscuit (Sue Bird) and the Seattle Storm against some team (I'm ashamed enough that I know one team's name), and something hilarious happened. Bird went in for a layup (may I never again write a sentence about basketball where "Bird" does not refer to Larry), and on the ensuing runback, one of her teammates got all pissed off at her because she was open on the play. Sue proceeded to put up the hand and shake her head as they walked to the bench for a timeout, giving every impression that she was saying something to the effect of, "Oh no she didn't!" See, even when they're playing basketball, chicks are still chicks. Catty and moody and prone to blowups like this, probably having something to do with a nasty look Sue gave the unnamed teammate on the way out of practice yesterday, but Sue didn't mean anything by it, she just had something in her eye and sorry if it looked that way, but who really cares, I don't like her anyway--and all of this emotional crap plays itself out on the court. How does a guy like Bill Laimbeer handle this kind of a job (he's the coach of the Detroit Shock, by the way, and I only know this because he's been on the show as such)?

Can't wait for the worst NBA Finals in history (maybe second-worst, behind the Knicks-Spurs debacle in the strike season) to start tomorrow night. Pray for Halbert.

Weekend O' Baseball

2005-06-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

"We all got a little bit of something
We all got more than we bargained for
Got a need for something
But you and I we made it more"
--We Made It More, Ocean Colour Scene

I knew the weekend would be full of baseball, but it became even moreso (if that was even possible), and resulted in what would no doubt have been the worst three days of Suss' life--even worse than three normal days in Spokane, if you can imagine that. Thankfully, it was I that got to experience the baseball extravaganza--not him--so it was quite enjoyable. A few notes...

Friday:
I got to watch a few games at work on a semi-lazy afternoon, the first of which was the Angels-Red Sox, including a standing o at Fenway for returning hero Orlando
Cabrera. The second was the Marlins-Nationals tilt, featuring a great pitching matchup between Josh Beckett and Livan Hernandez (he shall be a Livan, and he shall be a good man). It took extra innings to decide (both guys gave up two and didn't lose), but I wasn't around for the finish, because I departed work at 6 p.m. for Dodger Stadium and an inside look at the epic Brewers-Dodgers rivalry. It's a good thing we (Dad, Sharon and myself) arrived in time for the first inning, because the game was essentially over after four batters. Jeff Weaver has great stuff, but he's so mental, and he always gets beat up early. Dad asked me about that very thing, and then Weave proceeded to load the bases and give up a grand salami to "El Caballo," Carlos Lee. Those who haven't had the privilege of watching this guy mash need to check him out, no doubt. The Weave settled down the rest of the way, but as Vinny would say, "the damage has been done." Other thoughts from the evening:
Worst pitching change: Lefty Kelly Wunsch came in for one batter and gave up a single to Lyle Overbay...the next batter hit a three-run homer, and the Dodgers were done.
Craziest play: Jason Phillips got hit in the head by a Bill Hall throw home. He was standing in the coach's box and dropped to the ground like a ton of bricks. He started to get upset, but there's no way it was intentional--a run scored on the play, so Hall was obviously just trying to throw home.
Funniest looking dude besides Weaver: Brewers closer Derrick Turnbow, who got the save throwing some ridiculous heat (96-97 on every fastball). Turnbow, by the way, was the first guy ever to get suspended for steroids, as a member of the Angels organization last year.
Worst decision by me: Eating an entire bag of peanuts in two innings. Still feeling it.

Saturday:
Normal Fox workday, one which I hoped would end relatively early, thus allowing me to escape to San Diego for the 7:05 Cubs-Padres game. I had the Giants-Mets (great outing by Tom Glavine, Giants still really suck. Really suck.), Rangers-Royals (career win number 100 for Park Chan Ho, Jose Lima looked awful--both his bleached hair and his pitching) and Indians-White Sox. The final game started late because of a rain delay, so my hope of a 4 p.m. departure was looking bleak from the beginning. I remember nothing about the game--I was looking at the clock the entire time--but it finished at 4:30, and I jetted out. Took me a quick two hours to get to the gas lamp district, but another half hour to navigate stadium traffic, park and walk to Petco. Met my friend Bill at the gate and headed in for the bottom of the first, Darrell May vs. Greg Maddux. I won't have much to write about the two unfortunate Padre games, so let's just say that Maddux is a great pitcher. 11-5, Chicago. Oh yeah, and Derrek Lee is AMAZING. Dude looks like he should never get out. I doubt he'll win the triple crown, because that's really hard, but he'll be close all year.

Sunday:
More bad news for the Pads, this time coming in the form of a 4-0 shutout by Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs' bullpen. He's good, even if he does throw like 150 pitches in every start and won't have a right arm after the age of 26. The Padres, on the other hand, decided not to be good, at least as long as I was there. Oh well, it's still pretty amazing sitting in Petco Park, sold-out crowd in attendance (lots of Cubs fans) and a ballgame unfolding before you. And oh by the way, there are more beautiful girls per capita in San Diego than anywhere else on earth. I firmly believe this. So yes, I had a great time, no matter the sporting outcomes. The drive home, on the other hand, was far less than a great time. With the mass exodus following the San Diego Rock 'N Roll Marathon (including two of my friends, Mike and Bill), traffic was ridiculous. Stopped in San Clemente to say hello to Mike B (and to grab dinner--a burrito from Rubio's) before heading home. I think this particular Rubio's has decided to violate state employment laws, because there's no way the guy helping me was any older than nine. Seriously. He could barely see over the register. And they serve Coronas there! What if I had ordered a beer (yes, I know this is a big if, but bear with me)? Would they allow the seven-year-old clerk to serve it to me? What if he got booked for a lunchtime shift sometime? Would the playground matron allow him to leave recess a little early to get into work on time? Would his first-grade class take a field trip to see him at work? Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. Slightly.

Monday:
And of course, what baseball weekend would be complete without the youth summary debacles? My internet wasn't working when I got home from work last night, so I thought I might have an excuse to put it off this week, but it kicked into action just before I was ready to go to bed, meaning I was up way too late doing that thing...Here you go:

- "The Angels' loss to the first place Sox resembled many of the team's losses this year: too many walks and several miscues in the field led to too many gift runs for the opposition."
I was getting used to the overly optimistic view of games, where these coaches are endlessly praising their kids, but this guy was having none of it. Be a little more blunt, Coach, especially in the newspaper. I hear that little kids really enjoy reading about their failures in print. At least he didn't name names; that would have been awful (and I definitely would have deleted it): "We really suck. We lost, like we always do. Too many walks by Timmy 'Just a Bit Outside' Johnson and several miscues in the field by Joey 'Brickhands' Smith and Johnny 'Why Are You Even Wearing a Glove if You Don't Know How to Use It' Davis led to too many gift runs for the opposition." That would be classic.

- "The Marinrs beat a tough Angel team 9 to 4. Leading the offense was Aidan Apel, Andrew Park, Richie Maloof and Daniel Swick each scored 2 runs. Chad Nahigian chiped in with another run. Richie Maloof had 3 RBI'S and Justin Higa added 2 more. Brian Park pitched another strong game."
Do I start with the spellcheck or with the grammar nightmare in the second sentence? First of all, you should probably know how to spell your own team's name. If you're not sure, just look at your shirt, although you'd have to take it off to do so--looking in the mirror might confuse you.

- "the dirt devils bowed out in an internantional tiebreaker 6-5 to the blue crush. for the dirt devils the defense featured a throw from outfielder katie robbins to cutoff kelly trueblood who relayed to catherine horner for the tag out. also caley trujillo fielded a grouder at third and threw home for a force out. on offense trueblood added two bunt singles, claie mudoe drove in two runs with a double, becca whalen addede and rbi and sarah rubin kept a late rally alive with a clutch single. good luck to the crush in the fianls."
We're not talking on AIM here, Coach, it's okay to use upper case letters, like at the beginning of sentences or even for proper nouns (that would include team names and individual people's names, if you weren't clear on the concept). I'm also wondering what on earth an "internantional" tiebreaker is. Besides the misspelling, I've really never heard of this. Do you guys go to Mexico to settle things? I'd really like to know. Coach English Teacher also came up with "grouder," "addede" and "fianls," in addition to spelling one of his/her girls' names "claie," which I believe is short for "Claire."

- "FIRST PLAYOFF GAME. Red Sox 10, Dodgers 9. A root canal might have been less stressful...Brooks Ragsdale and Ryan Bohannon both got their bats on the ball but couldn't buy an error from a well-playing Dodgers team."
I love the creativity on this one, seriously one of the funniest things I've read this entire season. However, I'm not sure I appreciate the Coach's offensive strategy. So your boys "couldn't buy an error" from the Dodgers, huh? How about actually trying to get a hit? Hasn't that proven to be a more effective method of scoring runs? What does he tell them in the on deck circle? "Let's hit it right at them, guys, and hope they make an error." "But Coach, they've got the whole right side of the field stacked--there aren't even any fielders on the left side. Shouldn't I hit it where there's nobody?" "Good thought, son, but no. We're going to make those guys commit some errors, okay? Now get out there and hit it right at 'em."

- Angels 12, Cubs 11: loss (Coach Fuelling)
I couldn't have said it better myself. Seriously, this was in the playoffs, so your season is probably over, and the most you can come up with to give these kids some credit--despite their loss--is "loss?" There are different levels of disappointment I experience in the course of these stories, most of which has to do with the coaches and their surprising lack of language education, but this is a different type of disappointment. Say something nice about somebody, because this is the last time this year that these kids will have a chance to read about themselves. Instead, they get "loss." You're better than that.

As I was going through these, thoroughly criticizing all these adults who give hours of their time to volunteer with kids and coach these games, I felt a twinge of hesitation about continuing to call them out like this. I pictured the scene in "High Fidelity" where Jack Black's character gives this random dude a hard time in the record store because he wants to buy "I Just Called To Say I Love You" for his daughter. "Do you even know your daughter, because there's no way she likes that crap! Oh, I'm sorry. Is she in a coma?" His condescending tone is hilarious, based on the premise that he truly knows music, and get a load of this guy, trying to come into a record store and be hip--it's not working. The guy obviously gets pissed: "I didn't know it was 'Pick on the Middle-Aged Square Guy Day.' My apologies." Black's character, Barry, defends himself to Rob (the store's proprietor, played by Cusack), because the guy didn't know anything about music, so they wouldn't want a customer like that. I picture myself as a writing snob (like Barry was a music snob), willing and able to come crashing down on anyone who doesn't measure up (a group that obviously includes the vast majority of youth baseball coaches). However, I will readily acknowledge that if I tried to jump into the banking or marketing or financial worlds that these guys run in their normal lives, I would be similarly lost. I acknowledge my supercilious tone in these commentaries, but I still firmly believe that bad writing should not go unpunished.

Long day ahead. Peace.

Full Disclosure

2005-06-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

"Dare to be stupid, come on, join the crowd
Dare to be stupid, shout it out loud
Dare to be stupid, I can't hear you
Dare to be stupid, OK, I can hear you now"
--Dare to Be Stupid, Weird Al Yankovic

If I had to single out one pet peeve that clearly demonstrates itself in my life almost every day, it would have to be ineptitude. I can't stand it when people can't do their job, can't use grammar correctly, can't write about youth baseball with more than a six-year-old level of sentence fragment-type expression--you get the idea. So in the interest of full disclosure, I need to relay a story of extreme stupidity on my part, an event which actually may serve to give me a little more patience with others and their mistakes in the future. Probably not, but we'll see...
The tale begins about two months ago on a little street off Pico Boulevard in Century City, adjacent to the 24-Hour Fitness establishment of my choosing. After a typical morning workout and a stop at the Trimana Coffee House (for a turkey-egg white-avocado breakfast b), I returned to my car, only to find a little white piece of paper wedged underneath the driver's-side windshield wiper. Alas, I said to myself, is this a parking violation? But I park here every day at this hour, so how can this be? As I read through the information, I finally came to the reason for the $25 fee: no visible front plates. Quite confused, I circled around to the front of the car, and sure enough--no front plates. Evidently somebody had decided to steal my license plate while I was parked at the gym. Now, I understand that Saturns are pretty high-class vehicles, and that my license plates in particular would be quite valuable in the right hands, but why take just the front one? Why not also jack the back one, you know, the one with the updated registration and the Trans Ocean Volkswagen frame? I've tried to figure out what somebody would have done with a single license plate reading "3JUP816." It's not like I had "ASSMAN" or "3DEL794" (I would probably steal a license plate that said 3DEL-anything) or something desirable, so who knows. At any rate, I was pretty annoyed by this turn of events, and wondered what my next step would be.
Because my job essentially requires me to put real life on hold until the weekend most of the time, I held off any investigation until the following Saturday, at which time I logged onto the DMV web site and tried to find a way to order a new plate. I printed out the form, which said that in order to get new plates, I had to surrender my remaining one to DMV. I didn't like the language of this: I had something stolen from me, and now I have to surrender? Sufficiently miffed, I phoned the DMV helpline and spoke to a representative, who urged me to come into the office, rather than sending away to Sacramento for the replacements. She didn't seem to understand my repeated assertions that my job doesn't let me just leave for a couple hours, so I was going to have to send away. After one final plea from her for an on-location visit (I think she was just digging the sexy voice on this end...yeah), she relented and told me how much I needed to pay for the new plate (she told me it was just one; that I could keep the existing one), then wished me well in my efforts.
So four to six weeks later, a license-plate-sized package arrives from the DMV. It's like getting a basketball for Christmas, though, getting a package, but you already know exactly what's inside--no room for imagination. Again, I left it for the weekend, so I opened it up and much to my surprise, it's a license plate--no wait, here's the surprising part: it doesn't say "3JUP816," which my car and the form I submitted both clearly display. No no, it says "5MZF131," of course. So I've now waited for more than a month, dodging another ticket possibility every morning, and here's the solution to my problem? Geez, these DMV people really know what they're doing. Side note: I put DMV and Post Office people in the same boat: government employees that really aren't qualified to do much else, right? They must have some of the worst job satisfaction rates around (seriously, any job that lends itself to shooting up your old workplace and co-workers at some point in your life has some frustration issues), and they never seem happy to serve you.
Yeah, so now I'm sitting here with two different license plates, annoyed that the lady told me I only had to order one, annoyed that I have no time to visit the DMV (until a dark week) and annoyed that I'm probably going to get another ticket in the meantime. As this dark week approached, I was able to start looking for appointments, because I definitely didn't want to go into any DMV and wait around without an appointment. It's the equivalent of going to the Soup Nazi and not being sure what you want to order. You need to be prepared, or it's gonna get messy. Real messy. (Wow, two Seinfeld references already today. Not sure why.) I check all the local offices, but no appointments are available until the following week, when real life must again be put on hold, so the only one I could find was at the Culver City branch, fortuitous in its proximity to Fox, but annoying because I had planned to be in LC all day for my birthday. Instead, having made said appointment, I decided to put in a few hours and then head to my 10:30 a.m. date with destiny.
Dateline, Culver City: the day of truth has arrived. I've basically been waiting two months for this, though only the last three weeks or so were actually with the license plates in hand, and I'm going to finally settle the problem, clear myself of any future plate-related crimes, and hopefully not have to visit the DMZ--er, DMV--again for several years. I arrived promptly for my 10:30 appointment, complete with a snack (some almonds) and some reading material (the current issue of Men's Health--did you know that you can unleash your abs in just two weeks? Tell me more!), so I wouldn't be too bored or too hungry when the inevitable sit-and-wait period came. I walked up to the info window with my appointment printout and the envelope containing my replacement plate in hand, and proceeded to tell the woman my quandary. I said that I had my front plate stolen, so I ordered a new one, but I got a totally different one in the mail, so now I had two different plates--what was I to do? She tells me, "No, we send you replacements, so you take off the one you had, and put these on." Ma'am, I know what "replacements" are. When something is called a "replacement," it's very clear to me that it's designed to "replace" the old whatever it is. Replacement parts, replacement players, I get it. So I restated my concern. "No, I only got one plate. So now I have two different ones." She looked rather annoyed, and the woman next to her stopped to look at what we were doing, as did the entire line of people behind and to the side of me. The audience of a dozen or so had a great view of what happened next. She motioned toward the envelope and said, "No. We send them out in sets. There's two plates in there." What? A quick check of the envelope revealed the cold, hard truth. I mean, license plates are kinda thin, right? It might be okay, hypothetically, if someone received an envelope of two new license plates, pulled them out, and thought they looked like one, right? They kind of stick together and, um, well...
I definitely had both new plates all along, and had gone to all this trouble to fix a problem that didn't exist. The two women obviously laughed at me, and though she didn't really need to provide a finishing blow, she had to ask, "So will you still be needing your appointment?" Ouch. That cuts deep. I'm already well aware that I'm an idiot, thanks. Your final reminder, basically just for the viewing enjoyment of her friend and the strange Culver City DMV clientele, wasn't appreciated. Though I suppose I was well-deserving, considering my penchant for extreme sarcasm and criticism when someone else displays simiilar idiocy.
I am now the proud owner of TWO new license plates, and I've made the change, so I won't be ticketed for this again. The $25 ticket was a small price to pay, however, in comparison to the ego check that took place on Tuesday. Yeah, happy birthday, Scott.

Unfortunately for my readership, but fortunately for my sanity, it looks like the youth baseball season is nearing its conclusion. Those coaches really helped this whole institution make a quantum leap this season, moving the summaries from mildly amusing to largely unreadable. I can't wait for football season, to see whether or not the Gladiator coaches graduated from the same school of sports journalism: "We ran a lot of plays." "Tyler had a six-yard run (Way to go there, future hall of famer!)" "The Junior Midgets played a good game." Summer just won't be the same...

This weekend is going to contain as much baseball as is humanly possible, from an entire Saturday of Fox games to an evening at Petco Park for the Cubs and Padres, and then a return trip to the ballpark Sunday afternoon for what should be a showdown between two of the best young pitchers in baseball: Jake Peavy and Carlos Zambrano. Can't wait. Full report to come...

Youth Baseball Spectacular

2005-05-31T09:06:00.000-07:00

"Yeah, right.
Does that make any sense to you?
No, it doesn’t make no sense to me.
And the guy that spoke--I don’t know who he is.
Yeah."
--Untitled, They Might Be Giants

It was indeed a holiday yesterday (hope yours was lovely), but bad writing about baseball never takes a vacation, so we're fortunate this morning to have as much good stuff from the youth baseball summaries as we've ever had. Enjoy...
- "the cubs got some good hitting from Kevin Hurlbutt Nick Yoka, Ian Donnelly and Anthony Greco.Jonathan Marsh played well as did James Chhristensen Dominic Orlandini and Conner Ring also did a good job Sean Finkelberg and Jeremy Jacob also played well"
So there's one period in the whole thing (but no space afterward), and one comma, which is definitely insufficient. The first sentence (other than the lower-case 'the' and the lack of a comma between Kevin and Nick) isn't horrible, but the second is unbelievable. Run-on doesn't begin to describe it. Nice to get those kids' names in there, but it would also be nice to make some sense along the way.
- "The Frogs give the Greased Lightning a big 'Ribet' and wish them the best of luck in the rest of the playoffs!!"
I can't stand these sentiments of post-game goodwill in the articles--that's what the 2-4-6-8 cheers are for, so leave your sucking up on the field. I will admit, however, that it is kinda funny that a "Ribet" is how this squad shows their appreciation. They really get into that Frog nickname.
- "The Mariners never really got started and the game was called early to go to Open House."
In the aftermath of a 10-3 loss, the coach can't even name a kid who did something well? You're better than that, Coach, quit making excuses. "Yeah, we lost, but it's only 'cause everybody had to go to open house. We definitely woulda won otherwise."
- "Great Game! (Coach Canyon)"
I'm in awe.
- "In a thrilling regular season ending finale the Astros edged the Padres 6 to 5."
Maybe it's just me, but doesn't the word "finale" usually mean the season is ending? I watched the "24" season finale last Monday, and, strangely enough, there are no more new episodes this season.
- "Gabrielle Badie was rock solid at first base by making great catches - good Job! Late in the game Becca Stoker smacked the ball into the outfield for a hit and a crucial RBI (wow)! One of our team leaders, Emily Villapondo, also had an important hit that resulted in a single and a RBI (way to go Emily)! Faye Oaks is one of our most dependable players on the team and she proved it again with excellent catching and a monster double (well done)! Lastly, Robin Jamison played extremely well; 6 stike outs, plenty of plays to first, two singles, and an RBI (great job Robin)!"
Sorry for the length of this one, but we needed to get the full spectrum of parenthetical comments from this coach. Again, if you've got something to tell Robin about her RBI, just go ahead and mention it to her at Round Table after the game between slices. Emily would love to be complimented on her single, perhaps in the dugout immediately following that half-inning. Kindly keep these away from me.
- "Will Mudie participated in all three outs one inning when he played pitche... he through out two runners at first and he caught a pop fly."
Two gems in this one, starting with the use of the ellipsis after an incomplete word. Were we supposed to finish the word "pitcher" for you, Coach? It's like a friend of mine who abbreviates "El Pollo Loco" by saying "El Pollo Loc"--you're really saving a lot of syllables there, huh? Now, even if you don't want to complete your words, the ellipsis is reserved for "when you are including only part of a quotation or when you deliberately want to leave a sentence unfinished." So which one was it? Second thing is using "through" instead of "threw." Yes, they're homonyms, but that doesn't mean they're interchangeable. I know you're only a little league coach, but "throwing" is an important enough part of the game to merit some understanding of its usage, in all tenses. Throw, threw, has thrown. I'll send out a little handbook if you like.

There's not a day that goes by that doesn't give me something to brag about when it comes to the Padres, so I'll have to mention last night's 2-1 win, courtesy of a bottom-of-the-ninth game-winning double by Miguel Ojeda, scoring Geoff Blum all the way from first. I stayed up and listened to it on mlb.com, hoping it would end in regulation because a) I was exhausted and b) I wanted to watch another episode of "24" before I went to sleep. Everybody went home happy--Padres win (three-game lead, now 17-4!!! at home, 21 wins in May--most in franchise history for any month), I watched one and now only have four episodes left of Season Two, and I got enough sleep to make it through a workout and to work this morning. Okay, so maybe not everybody went home happy--the Brewers lost that heartbreaker, and the D-Backs and Dodgers fell even further behind in the NL West. Can't wait for games this weekend (definitely going down to watch us beat the Cubs Saturday and Sunday)...
(By the way, I use the ellipsis at the end of my paragraphs to continue my thoughts, to pause before resuming what is essentially a stream-of-consciousness essay here.)

Good things that happened this weekend (besides the Padres' five-game winning streak):
- sleep
- beach volleyball in Hermosa all day Sunday (though a splotch of sunburn in the middle of my back has spoiled it somewhat in the aftermath)
- Collective Soul at House of Blues Sunday night (made even sweeter by the presence of John and Mike B)
- barbecue at Jason's yesterday (getting to hang out with former roommates Jason and Ryan, among others)
- My Real Madrid squad won the Champions League behind a stellar final-game performance from England midfielder Steven Gerrard (another star who was unavailable for England's real-life 2-1 defeat of the U.S. on Saturday)
- Saturday baseball, obviously
- news that friends Ryan and Vanessa are engaged, which trumps all of the above (yes, even the Padre stuff)

It being my birthday and all, I should probably have something introspective and wise to offer this morning, but I'm feeling kind of lazy. It's a dark week, so my motivation to do anything other than eat and watch "24" is pretty low, and I'm sure I'll be inspired at some point today or tomorrow--you know, lessons I've learned in 28 years, 28 things I'm thankful for or something like that. Yeah, I think the latter sounds good--I'll try to work that one out soon...Peace. (See, after the ellipses--plural of ellipsis--a period here indicates finality. I'm done.)