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.

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.