The Raiders WIN!!; Yankees lose; Lady J's win

  The Silver and Black are tied for the 2nd best record in football after two weeks of play after former Toledo great Bruce Gradkowski led them to a 16-14 win over the hapless Rams.  It was a battle of former L.A.-based franchises who've since moved to greener pastures. 

    Jason Campbell was ineffective, so Tom Cable let loose some Bruce.  Good win heading into next weekend's game with the Arizona Cardinals, who got pumped 41-7 by the Falcons.  I mean they only managed 11 first downs and 20+ minutes time of possession.  Tim Hightower had 115 yards on the ground, so the Raiders need to key in on him in order to possibly put together a winning streak.  I'm not all that worried about Derek Anderson lighting them up through the air.  He did throw for 23 yards in a full game last season on 2-17 passing - in a 6-3 win over the Bills.  Looking to make it two in a row. 

  Al Davis isn't smiling yet, but he'll crack once they win two in a row.

  Yankees blew a two-run lead in Baltimore to lose to the pathetic Orioles 4-3.  They were up 3-1 going into the 8th, let up a run in the 8th and 9th and lost the game in the 11th.  On the bright side, Andy Pettitte looked pretty good in his first start since July 18th.

  The Manhattan Volleyball team beat St. Peter's yesterday in the first home match of the year for the Lady J's.  They could have wrapped it up a little sooner but took a snooze in the first set, before winning the next three.  St. Peter's had some height, but their lack of communication led to their demise on Sunday.  Plenty of balls dropped in between girls, and the Jaspers kept pouring it on.  An hour and 40 minutes later, the madness was over - 3-1 Jaspers.

  Time to scour through the fall stats and put them into a document, see who's doing what, and who needs to work on things.  Hitters first, then the arms.  Hope my eyes don't bug out.

Baseball and Birthdays

Well, the Yankees almost pulled it off last night against the Phillies.  Brad Lidge's ERA went up from a 1.12 to a 2.00 and he made the game pretty interesting.  He's been pretty automatic since he's been healthy this season, so it was good that the Yanks showed a little fight.  I was on the flight back from Dallas, so I missed it.  We flew AirTran but I wish I would have gone JetBlue.  AirTran has some of the most cramped seating of any airline I've ever been on.  K, K, BB, 2B, 1B, K.  He struck out the side, but all the drama started with a two-out walk to Mark Teixeira and could have ended with a walk-off. 

The Rays are reeling (7-6 in June), the Yankees have been fairly steady (10-4 in June), as are the Sox (10-5 in June).  The Blue Jays have fallen back down to Earth and the O's are still looking for an answer.  Shaping up to be a three horse race again, for like the fifth straight season. 

I am going to the Yankees game tonight - and am just counting my blessings I don't have to suffer through a Jamie Moyer start.  Kyle Kendrick vs. Andy Pettitte.  Andy is going for win #201 as a Yankee and #238 overall.  He is putting up incredible numbers thus far, with his only real bad outing being against the Rays on May 20th (5 IP, 9 H, 7 R) in am 8-6 loss.  Looking forward to the game - it's always nice seeing a game at the Stadium, freaking thing is awesome.  It's really a sight to be seen.

The Rays are on the docket too, as Big Game James Shields takes on Tim Hudson in Atlanta.  The Yanks could take over first place tonight.  Hudson has been nothing short of dominant this year (6-2, 2.43 ERA).  He's had some command issues (30 BB in 85.1 IP) but has pitched out of the jams for the most part.  His last outing was a 2-1 CG loss to the Twins (8 IP, 7 H, 2 K).  When he's on, he's tough to hit.  Let's go Timmy.

Party at the "Copacabana", Barry Manilow turns 64 years old today.  He's still knocking them dead - I mean he should be, he's probably had a lot of $$ pumped in and out of his face.  He's made quite the transformation - I mean normally, you go from left to right, he went the opposite direction.  Wrinkles be gone, poof!!  I am kind of glad he chose Barry Manilow, seeing how he was born Barry Alan Pincus.  He was raised in Williamsburg Brooklyn.  He started off writing jingles, and his most famous being State Farm Insurance ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there...") and Band-Aid's (I am stuck on Band-Aid, 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me!").  Happy Birthday Barry, and thanks for taking on your mother's last name.

Back at work, gotta do some work.  Going to purchase some chain and lock it down at Gaelic.

Lock it up!

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.

Rants, raves, ridicule, and riots

Rant:  Well looky looky who decided to come out of his early season funk, but the cheese-man Javy Vazquez.  For the second straight start, he actually dominated the game the way he can and should.  This is the guy who's 2nd behind Randy Johnson in K's since the start of the 2000 season, and today he had 9 (vs. TOR).  Last Tuesday, he had 7 against the O's.  Today, he passed HOFer Juan Marichal (2,303) to move into 44th all-time in strikeouts with 2,305.  Next on the list is Rube Waddell (2,316).  Keep climbing Javy.

Past two starts:  14 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 5 BB, 16 K - sounds like numbers from a guy who $11.5 million dollars.  Get on a roll for God's sake - you are pretty good, contrary to what you might believe.  Just because you're the Yankees #5 starter doesn't mean you can't pitch like a #2 or #3 starter, I'm sure they wouldn't mind.  Keep doing it, queso!

Rave:  Although a rave is often times thought of as a drug-induced party with fast-paced electronic music, the actual definition is this (according to dictionary.com): 

–verb (used without object):  1.to talk wildly, as in delirium.  2.to talk or write with extravagant enthusiasm. 

3.(of wind, water, storms, etc.) to make a wild or furious sound; rage.

–verb (used with object):  4.to utter as if in madness.

–noun:  5.an act of raving.  6.an extravagantly enthusiastic appraisal or review of something.  7.Chiefly British Slang. a boisterous party, esp. a dance.

–adjective:  8.extravagantly flattering or enthusiastic: rave reviews of a new play.

For this part of the post, I will refer to definition 2.  There is a song out right now, "Magic" by B.o.B. ft. Rivers Cuomo.  For those of you not familiar with music, have no access to a radio, and have no access to a television, this is probably a song you've never heard.  Rivers Cuomo is the lead singer of Weezer, one of the greatest bands from the past 15+ years.  21-year-old rapper/songwriter/producer B.o.B. is coming on strong.  "Magic" may be one of the lesser known songs, but it is hands down my favorite.  "Airplanes" featuring Hayley Williams (Paramore) is #3 on the Billboard Top100.  You might have heard that one, but here is the link: "Magic" - B.o.B. ft. Rivers Cuomo.

Ridicule:  Parents, parents, parents.  I was driving to CT today and was listening to WFAN radio, 660AM and there was a discussion on trophies in youth sports and callers were calling in for around 25 minutes.  I wanted to dial the number and get on the radio, but 1. my terrible memory prevented me from memorizing the number, and 2. I don't have one of those blue tooth ear pieces (because I'm not a tool).  I think trophies up until the age of 10 or 11 is fine, but eventually, enough is enough.  Kids who get trophies for being on a team where they are a non-factors should not get trophies - trophies for everyone should stop in middle school.  I mean the kid who wins 7 games gets the same trophy/varsity letter as the schmuck who kept the book all year?  Kids (and parents) need to realize that there are kids better than them (or their kids) and accept the fact that there is no participation trophy for life.  Kids feel a sense of entitlement because they've been desensitized to failure.  There is more pats on the ass than there should be.  "You made 3 errors, so what, you guys won"  B.S.  "You played well, went 4-4 with 2 doubles.  The rest of the guys sucked, that's why you lost 10-1"  B.S.  If you show  up to work every day and get nothing accomplished, what do you get?  FIRED!  If you show up to college and try to walk-on to a college baseball team and go 0-14 in tryouts, what do you get?  CUT!  There are no awards for participation, and I believe these awards/trophies should cease after the age of 12. 

Parents who coach and play their kid over the rest of the kids because he's his own, take a good hard look in the mirror, and ask yourself this:  is my kid better than the guy starting in front of him?  If he is, then start him, because he's better, not because he's your kid. 

The cream rises to the top, and those guys should be rewarded.  That's why awards in the college and professional ranks are so elite, because only a handful of guys get them, and for good reason.  They showed up and dominated.  They didn't suck.  Those guys tend to get released or traded.  Take it or leave it.  Let's hope kids get tougher.  If my dad ever called a college coach asking why I wasn't pitching, I woulda asked him to stop coming to my games.  And I'd be embarrassed as shit.  Let the kids play, and earn whatever awards or accolades they may receive.  Work hard, practice hard, play hard.  Don't bitch if you don't get a trophy. 

You shouldn't play a sport for a trophy, you should play it because you love it.

Riots:  Just a joke i came across today - Lindsay, I wouldn't golf if this was me:  A man and a friend are playing golf one day at their local golf course. One of the guys is about to chip onto the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course. He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows down in prayer.

His friend says: “Wow, that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You truly are a kind man.”
The man then replies: “Yeah, well we were married 35 years.”

BOSS!!

Picked these things up a few days ago at Rite Aid because I just couldn't resist a trip down memory lane.  Had the urge, figured what the hell - pop them in the freezer and a few hours later, ready to go.  These don't have any of those crystals towards the bottom though, like Marino's Italian Ices, but they're still awesome.  Fla-Vor-Ice - sorry about the sideways picture, I thought I rotatated it but it doesn't seem to have worked.  Either way, I am going to grab another one and then probably another one after that - I mean they're hardly bad for you, it's flavored water, screw it.  I may leave a few, we are having guests over.  Bud Lime and Fla-Vor-Ice, sounds like dinner to me. 

Got the new Bose iPod blaring through the apartment, Killers "Joy Ride" - one of my favorite songs on their latest CD. 

Yankees completed the sweep of the O's, outscoring them 18-5 in the three-game set.  That's what a good team does, dominates when they're supposed to.  Cano had another hit, 17 game hitting streak now, I made an error in a previous post.  I'm only human here people. 

Nathan is chilling on the window sill, Lindsay is with Alli picking up Rosie from the airport - NY traffic blows.  They have taken the most roundabout way back, but any way you slice it there's gonna be an ass-ton of traffic.  I hate traffic, and often times scream out my window, or blast metal from the car as I roll through a rough neighborhood, as if that'll make the situation better.  Oh well, time's up.

Going to get another ice.  You should go pick some up, you'll thank me.