Another Boston Celtics Calamity

K.G. calls Charlie V a "cancer patient" - trash talking is certainly something that's gone on in all of sports for decades, but this one just crossed the line.  Read the article, you'll see what a dickhead K.G. is.  And as far as Villanueva's tweet about getting Garnett into a ring and exposing him - I bet he would.  Granted, Villanueva looks a little different (he has alopecia universalis - no hair on his head or eyebrows) but that's uncalled for.

K.G. thinks he's a real bully - I'm sure Mauldin, SC is just as tough a place to grow up in as Queens, New York.  New York City basketball has always been a matter of survival of the fittest (read: toughest).

Let's do a city by city comparison based on the information Wikipedia offers.

Mauldin, SC - 8.6 square miles - 15,224 people (circa 2000) - 74.25% White, 20.82% African American, 0.30% Native American, 2.24% Asian - median income per household of $51,657 - notable natives are K.G. and Orlando Jones (the 7Up guy)

Queens, NY - 109.24 square miles - 2.229 million people (circa 2000) - 44.1% White, 20% African American, 17.6% Asian - median income per household of $37,439 - notable natives include John Gotti, 50 Cent, Rodney Dangerfield, Run DMC, Johnny Ramone, Donald Trump, and John McEnroe.

Charlie V would wreck you K.G.  Shut your mouth, keep cancer out of your trash-talking lexicon, and just play the game.

Just another example of the renegade NBA not patrolling it's players.  Stay hot.

Sounding off on the NBA

  I've rarely (read: I can only remember one) wasted time formulating thoughts about the NBA here on WRT (besides that one time I remember in April, when the Spurs were about to TKO the dimwitted, Mark Cuban-led Mavs), and this story I just came across backs my decision to ignore the NBA altogether in this type of forum.

  Time to sound off.

  Yahoo! Sports writing Kelly Dwyer reported yesterday that the NBA has banned players donning their headbands upside down - a trend apparently started in 2007.  Apparently, you aren't ballin' unless you flip that Jerry West logo upside down.  I am still trying to wrap my head around how the hell this actually constitutes a story in this early NBA season. 

  Here's two things I'd rather write about concerning the NBA:

  1. The fact that the Celtics original and older Big 3 defeated Miami's new and improved Big 3 in Boston on opening night and the very next night, the LeBron-less Cavs beat the original Big 3 in Cleveland.  Parity. 

  2. The Knicks and Nets won their openers and are sitting atop the Atlantic.  The last time this happened?  Funny enough, it was only the 2008-2009 season (NYK def. Mia 120-115; NJ def. Was 95-85).

  I digress.

  Rajon Rondo (known primarily for being a great PG and secondly for his headband-wearing) has decided against sporting his headband - simply because he wants to wear it upside down.  Maybe in some past life, he was a ninja (see: SF Giants closer Brian Wilson's 12-minute ninja class) and was able to stand on his head, but something inside me highly doubts that.

  Wearing the logo of the league you play for, the one that includes the team that pays you millions of dollars a year to dribble, pass first, and shoot second, is straight disrespectful.  Utterly disrespectful.  Wear it right or don't wear it at all (which is exactly what he did).  The equivalent of this is Josh Hamilton out in center field wearing his Texas Rangers hat backwards.  It's something that just doesn't belong.

  Ms. Dwyer's final light reads like this - "Why? Because, yes, the NBA is that petty."

   Petty?  Really?  Petty?  Defined:  Petty [pet-ee] -adjective 1. of little or no importance or consequence.  2. of lesser or secondary importance, merit, etc.  3. having or showing narrow ideas, interests, etc.

  In my opinion, this is absolutely the right thing for the league to do.  Many, many years back, they traded in the Larry Bird/John Stockton shorts for the modern day baggy, looser fitting garb.  They changed the pre- and post-game dress code a few years back in an attempt to clean up the league's image.  The league needed a facelift and with all the nonsensical bullshit that surrounds this league (Gilbert Arenas' gun problems, Chris Anderson's tattoo problem, Kobe's alleged rape years ago, yada yada yada) it seems to me that it's players have a hard time controlling themselves off the court.  It gives the players like Dwayne Wade a bad rap who always does community service projects (built and renovated church for his mother) and genuinely seem like decent guys.  I could be totally off the mark with my thoughts on DWade, but I'll back him. 

  Maybe all this behavior starts from what goes on between the lines.  There are rules, and I applaud the league for putting an end to this degradation of an NBA legend and logo.  Well played David Stern, well played.

  I can go on with this for another four hours and address plenty of other topics I haven't even begun to talk about.  But I won't, because this dog crap of a sport will not consume any more of my time.

  Jerry West, you will always be standing on your feet if (and that's a big if) I even wear NBA gear (or a headband).

Oh well, at least our seats were good

At least our seats were good.  (Section 106, Row 13, Seat 10) - four rows back, not 13

Andy Pettitte looked awesome early and worked out of some jams late.  Shane Victorino, the "Flyin' Hawaiian", smoked a ball to left field to give the Phillies a 3-0 lead.  Damn Carlos Ruiz was on base all night too - 2-3 with 2 2B's and 2 R.  Nothing like getting beat by the light hitting eight hole hitter.  Oh well, that's the way baseball goes. 

Robinson Cano seemed to be the only Yankee in the lineup to have a halfway decent approach at the plate tonight.  Granderson was taking check swings on 0-0 fastballs, Gardner seems to forget he flies and tries to lift everything.  And don't even get me started on Joba the Hut.  He was awful again - he didn't record an out.  Two hits and a walk, and then he turned it over to Damaso Marte who proceeded to let up Joba's runs - good for him.  Swisher was fed up too, he was in the stands the whole ninth inning.  Damaso Marte threw well I thought - besides the time he threw a 3-2 fastball to Utley to the backstop.  Chan (w)Ho? Park got torched too, but got bailed out when Raul Ibanez got hit with a ball just off second base, otherwise it would have been worse than the 7-1 loss.  Tough to win with only one run on the board. 

They lit up Roy Halladay in game one of the series and got shut down by Abe Vigoda, errr Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick.  Funny game baseball is.  Now Los Mets come in for a three game series.  I hope the Mets get pumped.

Lakers are about to win the NBA Championship, and if they were playing any other team in the league, I couldn't care less.  But I have Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Doc Rivers' raspy-ass voice. 

Paint it purple and gold, Lakers win, theeee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e Lakers win!

((((parentheses))))

MLB:  Former teammate of mine (with the NECBL's Manchester Silkworms) Chris Denorfia had the only hit (a double to right field) for the Padres (in the top of the third inning) as the Mets staved off a double-header sweep with a 3-0 win (Padres won 4-2 in game one).  Mets starter Jonathan Niese faced only one batter over the minimum and poured it in with an 0-0 count (19/28 first pitch strikes).  The game took a neat two hours and eighteen minutes (almost a half hour quicker than the first game).  The Padres did have one bright spot (or two, Denorfia saved them from falling victim to a no-no).  They rolled a 5-4-3 TRIPLE PLAY!!  Jon Garland got Ruben Tejada to hit a one-hopper to 3B Chase Headley, who stepped on the bag, threw to second base (Lance Zawadzki) who then completed the triple play by getting Tejada at first (by a step). 

It was the eighth triple play turned by the Padres, and the tenth the Mets have hit into (not this year, obviously).

NBA:  Lakers lead the Celtics at the half (45-42) and are looking to go up three games to one (I hate Boston).  Pau Gasol is displaying his dominance (13 pts., 3 reb., 2 blk.).  Ray Allen (0-13, 0-8 3pt. FG in Game 3) finally hit a jumper (at the 11:00 mark of the 1st quarter) to give the Celtics the early lead (3-2).  He still only has one FG (1-6, 0-2 3pt. FG).

How in the hell did these Jersey Shore idiots make it on the CMT awards??  I'm watching a repeat of the show last night - Snooki is a little troll, The Situation is kind of funny, and Paula Deal uses way too much butter, but is awesome (she just said she could grate cheese on The Situation's abs).  I'm glad she got TKO'd at the bar.  She reminds me of one of those little good luck trolls (minus the luck).

Sorry my Paint skills are (severely) lacking.

I need a better program to edit pictures (maybe that'll be a gift to me, from me).

(Later world!!)

Covering all bases

Despite the best efforts of DirecTV to prevent me from access to the happenings in the sports world, I still am able to access the internet. HAH! They're sending a technician over on Thursday morning to try to fix the problem, even though the lady on the phone told me that "97% of the time, what I'm walking you through now works to fix this issue." Yeah right lady, SIKE! I won't lay into this guy too much, it isn't his fault after all. I just hope he can meander his way through the brush in the yard - it's a jungle back there.

The internet has provided me some information, however: Stephen Strasburg put up a pretty dominant line against the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 14 K. He struck out the side in the 2nd, 6th, and 7th innings, and allowed three of his four hits in the fourth inning (single, single, 6-4-3, HR, P4). 94 pitches, 65 for strikes. Lastings Milledge was his first strikeout victim, to end the first inning - Andy LaRoche was his last, to end the seventh inning. Every Pirates starter struck out at least once. He even handled the bat OK, at least from the box score - two ground outs to SS.

I'm guessing this kid had pretty good stuff tonight.

In other baseball news, Mike McCoy singled in the 6th inning, after the Rays had scored 7 runs, to break up a no-hit bid by TB starter Jeff Niemann. 48 career at-bats coming in to tonights game - hitting 9th. Poor Jeff Niemann.

Yankees are doubling up the O's right now, 6-3 heading into the bottom of the 6th. Swisher and Granderson have hit HR's for the Bombers - Swisher a 2R shot in the first, Grand(slam)erson a deli-job in the third. That's all their runs right there.

Lindsay is out with her friends catching "Sex and the City 2" at a theater somewhere in NYC and Nathan keeps looking out the window waiting for her to come home (right now he's eating, but he's strolling back over to the window sill).

What's the top search trend on Yahoo! you ask? Why it's everyones favorite, Uncle Jesse (John Stamos), who will apparently be joining the cast of Glee next season for an undisclosed amount of episodes. Top search topics on Google, is "lakers celtics" - the #1 annoyance of mine - a lack of proper punctuation. Bing's top search is the 2010 MLB Draft. No Manhattan College player has been taken, and our only hope really is OF Kevin Nieto, but that'll be late if at all. Dogpile fans searched Tom Cruise MTV Awards as their #1, I am not sure if I recall what he did. And finally, the users of Ask.com want to know, "What are the components of blood?" Sounds a little too in depth for me.

NBA news, Lakers were up 26-17 after one quarter and lead by 15 now. LAL 10-12 from the stripe, BOS is 1-4. Pierce and Allen were a combined 0-10 from the floor in the first half. Garnett has 10, Rondo 6. Lakers led by Kobe (10), Odom (6), and Gasol (4). I hope the Lakers roll by 30.

Nathan just fell off the couch, I have to go tend to him. Later world.

Bad showing

Where have all the clutch performers gone?  We needed guys to step up today, and no one seemed to deliver.  We didn't help ourselves - 8 walks and a hit by pitch - 2 scored.  Can you guess the final score?  7-5 bad guys.  Did our freshman SS make an error, yeah - but even still, we had two outs with only one run allowed and it ballooned into a 6-run fourth inning.  Pitcher's need to be able to get an out - one single, solitary out, in a row.  They've gotten one out in a row thousands of times in their baseball lives.  We threw up 0's all day (except for a solo HR in the B6), and had a chance at the end.  It just wasn't meant to be today.

Got a big one tomorrow at 3pm.  Big is actually an understatement.  Lose, and the season is over.  Win, and live to play another day.  Whoever is tougher tomorrow will prevail.  Backs to the wall, fight your way out.  We need to deliver the first punch, right in the mouth, early on.


Yankees won both - 1-0 in the suspended game from yesterday (Jeter hit a HR 399' to left center).  The bullpen patched together the shutout.  In today's scheduled game, they won 3-2, behind a Nick Swisher HR to right field.  Mariano closed out both games, earning saves in both, his 9th and 10th of the year.

Boston finished off a surprising sweep at The Trop, beating the Rays 11-3 behind Adrián Béltre's 6 RBI. 

The Magic are up 13 on the Celtics with 8:59 left in the game.  Celts lead the series 3-1.  Maybe Dwight Howard read my blog and decided to grow a pair and play like a man - he's got 17 points, 7 boards, 5 blocks, and only 1 foul.  Go Dwight Go!

Big one tomorrow.  Act as if.

Tens-Day

Ten points of emphasis that are running through my mind this morning:

1. MAAC Tournament.  Game one at 3pm vs. Canisius.  Game one is ever important in a double elimination format, and I think we'll come out loose and ready to play.  We're the #4 seed after all, and we have nothing to lose.  Everyone else is supposed to be better than us, all we gotta do is play the game hard, have a little fun, play some defense, pitch well enough to keep us in the game, and score more runs.  That formula translates to wins.  That's pretty evident.
2. A Mosque at Ground Zero?  I don't think this is something that NYers should have to deal with.  I was watching Channel 5 and there was a debate on it and all three on the panel said it wasn't a good idea.  The money ($100 million) is being funded by Islamic countries, and how the hell do we know who this money is coming from?  It also serves as a reminder of that grim day on September 11, 2001.  "I don't deny anyone a church or a mosque, but if I were to walk by that mosque, I would think of my son's plane," Hanson, of Easton, Conn.  (NY Daily News).  I am not against it either, but the fact remains that almost 3,000 Americans perished in the 9/11 attacks.  NYers did a great job of coming together and bouncing back, but they don't need any more reminders.  Not 100' from where Tower 1 once stood.
3. DWTS winner announced.  I'll be honest, I watch this show but generally don't pay much attention.  The Bruno guy is hilarious though, and I look forward to hearing his comments.  Nicole Scherzinger beat out figure-skater Evan Lysacek and ESPN's Erin Andrews.  Not sure if this was a shocker or not, but either way, I'm looking forward to seeing this Bruno Tonioli guy again.
4. Phoenix Suns tie series with Lakers 2-2.  I hate the Lakers, as I've stated before.  What won them the game?  Simple, their bench, which was non-existent in the first three games of the series.  The Suns bench scored 54 points last night (76 previous three games).  Good for you Phoenix, take the series.  I don't need another Celtics-Lakers finals.
5. 2014 Super Bowl at Meadowlands Stadium.  Good to see a Super Bowl being played in a cold weather state.  Bloomberg said it, this region is a great place to come to.  NYC is an awesome place and I know people from all over the country attend the Super Bowl every year, and many probably have never been to the NYC area.  Bob Golic is saying that weather shouldn't be an issue in the biggest game of the year, but in 2007, Super Bowl XLI was played in the rain down in Miami.  It's cold in February, sure, but why not.  Why the hell not?  Good for you NFL, now let's hope the Giants or Jets are playing.
6. Yankees woes!  A.J. Burnett finally settled down and was throwing a good game - 5 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 K and 75 pitches before the rains came and washed out the game against the Twins.  His last three starts before last night were a mixed bag.  He got rocked vs. Tampa on the 19th, pitched well vs. the Twins on the 14th, and was tattooed by the Red Sox on the 9th.  I hope he uses it as something to build off, because his stuff is way better than he's showed the past few.  The Yankees, however, are 6-3 in games he starts.  Still waiting for a 10+ strikeout game.
7. King beds.  At home, me and Lindsay and Nathan share a double bed.  After sleeping in this king bed in the hotel last night, it brings me back to my thoughts whenever I stay in a hotel - king beds should be mandatory.  It's like sleeping in an in-ground pool.  The thing is huge.  Maybe it's the hotel bed idea, that they are always so comfortable (except at a Days Inn).  
8. "Future gay terrorists."  This is stuff that shouldn't happen.  A soldier is under investigation after a video was posted on Facebook.  The video showed two children who were asked, "Are you going to grow up to be a terrorist?", to which the children gave thumbs up.  Chances are they didn't understand English, but seriously, are you that stupid that you'd:  1. say something so ignorant to two kids, and 2. post it on Facebook?  Stupid ass.
9. Flying anytime soon?  Here's a few tips to securing some cheaper airfare.  1. Very few seats are ever on sale - when you see a low price deal, book it.  2. Tuesday is the best day to shop for airfare, at around 3:00pm.  3. Friday and Sunday are the most expensive days to fly, so plan accordingly.  4. Book at least two weeks in advance, maybe even three weeks.  Here's a test I just did on Southwest Airlines - if I wanted to fly from NY to Denver: in 5 days, $311; in 12 days, $219; in 20 days, $189.  5. Pack a carry on bag.  Baggage fees suck.  6. Fly midweek.  Have a good flight.
10. Back to the Bronx.  Some local news from the Bronx.  This morning, two parents are under arrest after leaving their baby in a parking lot near 161st St.  Both parents say they thought the other had the child.  Maybe they thought there was a Yankee game that the kid wanted to see. 

OK, time to get ready for a late breakfast.  It's nice not having to wake up at 7:30am and get to the park at 9:15am to start batting practice.  Let's hope we can dust the sand out of our eyes and play a great game today.  Lindsay is coming up today, Nathan is staying in Long Island.  We'll miss that pup.  He's become the unofficial mascot of the Jaspers.

Sports Free

The Celtics and the Red Sox.  They're both on television - and I am watching neither.  I am a New York sports fan - well, a Yankees fan.  I can really care less about the other teams in New York.  I do like when the Giants do well though, but I can't really get into the NFL all that much. 

Dinner tonight was at the Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem - some kids looked completely out of place.  It's not that hard to fit in, but a wool cap or brown leather flip-flops in Harlem?  Come on.  I went with the Elgin Sausage and the Brisket, with Macaroni & Cheese and Simmered Veggies as my sides - and of course the corn bread.  Y'all!  Oh yeah, and two pieces of PB Pie to go!

"The Best Thing I Ever Ate" is on, and funny enough, the Neely's are on right now ranting and raving about some cobbler.  I hate them.  But I like this show, a lot of the places are in NYC.  I can't afford any of them, but it's kind of cool to know that they're close, in case I hit the lottery.  Or win a scratch-off ticket for like a few hundred.

Night off from sports tonight.  We head up to Fishkill tomorrow and play at 3pm Wednesday against Canisius.  Follow it live at the MAAC Championship site.  Go Jaspers!!

It's hotter than hell in here, fan's on, sleeping's easy. 

WOW!  That's a LOW price!

Sunday Not-So-Funday

Today is shaping up like it's gonna be a wash - woke up this morning at around 6:15am, took Nathan out for a walk (he took care of business), felt some raindrops come down (forecast says 30% chance of rain), and remembered I have to break down 3,600 folding white chairs at 3:45pm after the commencement ceremony. 

I also saw that the Yankees lost to the Mets, 5-3, the Magic look like they just want to end their season already, showing no fight whatsoever against the Celtics, and I saw the Flyers shut out the Canadiens for the third time this series to bring them one win from a Stanley Cup appearance.  Are you kidding me?

I took Nathan out last night when the Yankees had bases loaded and one out in the 8th inning, expecting to hear a neighborhood erupt after a big hit - I was let down.  There was no big hit - all they did was get a bases loaded BB and a FC groundout by Derek Jeter.  I walked back in to see Mark Teixeira strike out in the 9th, and ultimately turned the game off, not wanting to see K-Rod's antics following the final out of the Mets win - apparently every save requires a song and dance.  Just take a flyer from Mariano and shake the catcher's hand, and talk about the inning. 

I flipped on the Magic-Celtics Game 3 - and immediately turned it off.  Boston was up 75-47 going into the 4th quarter.  Looking at the box score, Dwight Howard (7 pts., 7 reb.) is highly overrated.  I mean like Hideki Irabu overrated.  He's so coy and funny in press conferences, but he has way too many games where he doesn't even show up - you're supposed to be an NBA Superstar - nope.  I'll take a pass.  Nice shoulders though.

And Michael Leighton is a name Flyer fans are loving right now - the hottest goalie in the NHL shut out the Habs for the third time this series (111SA/108 SV) and have the longshot Flyers a game from the Finals.  I'll be honest, I haven't watched a whole lot of NHL Playoff hockey this year, but if the Flyers are in the Finals, I'm watching - I was a huge Flyers fan growing up, I have no idea why, I think I used them on NHL '94 all the time, with Lindros, LeClair, Renberg, Desjardins, Brind'Amour, the immortal Ron Hextall in net.  The wraparound was a classic goal scoring move.  Let's go Flyers!! 

Time to head to the diner again, I am getting close to being able to memorize the menu.  Then it's off to send off our seniors from ever sitting in a college classroom again.  Congratulations guys.  The only thing left for them to do in college after today is play baseball - good for them.

Signing off!