Rants, Raves, Ridicule, and Riots

Rant:  Hello Summer!!  Although it's been hotter than hell for the past several days, today is officially the first day of summer.  Summer Solstice.  Longest day of the year.  Hottest day in recent memory.  Take your pick, but I for one am a fan that technically, summer is finally here.  The forecast looks decent for the foreseeable future - mid-80's every day for at least the next 10.  The hottest day ever in NY State was way back in July of 1926, when it reached 108 on the mercury up in Troy.  It isn't quite that hot here, but it's getting there.  Part of me questions if that is really the hottest it's ever been in NY.  108 degrees?  Maybe, it does seem pretty hot.

Anyway, welcome summer, glad you're finally on board.

Rave:  This rave has nothing to do with sports.  In fact, it has everything to do with Facebook.  People are constantly writing status updates and comments (for which I am guilty) but there seems to be one glaring issue I cannot tolerate - abbreviations.

You just wrote three sentences as a status update, but you refuse to spell out "to" and instead use "2".  2day, 2morrow, happy birthday 2 you.  It's two freaking letters.  Spell it out.  I can deal with the OMG and WTF abbreviations, but how lazy are those who shorten words.  Just spell it out, you can do it.  And the people who leave out vowels on words - come on.  I know there is shorthand, but there is also laziness.  On a CD like the Deftones new Diamond Eyes, there's a song "CMND/CTRL" - I'm good with that, because they rule.  Facebook users, you do not rule.  Spell out the words.

Ridicule:  Alejandro Falla (sounds like "fire") BLEW IT!!  You had a chance to knock the #1 seed out of Wimbledon, and you choked.  Up two sets to none, Roger Federer rallied for a 5-set victory.  I guess for a guy who's never really had much success in tennis tournaments, this is to be expected.  You need to know how to win in order to win a big match.

If a team is constantly losing (like the Pirates), when a tight situation comes about late in a game, chances are they'll find a way to blow it.  Not because they are a bad team, but because they aren't used to closing out that type of game or performing in that type of situation.  Falla has only advanced past the second round once this season (Australian Open).  Maybe it'll be good for the 65th ranked player in the world.  Something to draw upon in the future, when he's up two sets to none again.

Riot:  Good for the French.  I find it hilarious that they blame the coach for their pathetic play.  Coming in to the World Cup, they are the 9th ranked team in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings.  They are in 3rd place in Group A, 3 points behind Uruguay (16th) and Mexico (17th).  They are tied with host South Africa (83rd) with 1 point.  The two teams will play tomorrow.  The French are looking for their first goal of the 2010 World Cup as well.  Pretty pathetic.  That's like saying the Yankees blaming manager Joe Girardi for their failures - all he does is put the best possible lineup on the field to give his team the best chance of winning.

These French need to take a good, hard look in the mirror and realize they are playing for the price of their country.  Stop bitching and blaming the coach and take accountability for your own actions.  Toughen up sissies.

Time for a toss.  Peace and grease.

Hello, Newman.

Sorry for the lack of material this weekend - it's been pretty hectic - Saturday I was recruiting all day, Sunday was spent traveling.  Now it's Monday and I'm raring to go.  Got a lot of material to cover so let's hope you're ready to listen.

Saturday started with an 8:13am alarm clock, NIN's "Discipline" was the song of choice, as it is most days.  Some days, it's The Gaslight Anthem's "Boomboxes and Dictionaries", both solid choices to ease me into my day.

Let's start with the backbone of this blog - sports.

1.  Strasburg was dominant again, although he did walk as many guys (5) as he had in his previous 5 starts (1 MLB, 4 AAA).  He improved to 2-0 (Pirates and Indians) but let up his 2nd HR in as many starts, both to lefties, and both on a change up.  Either way, he's got 22 K in 12.1 IP.  The Nationals may make some noise after all.

2.  The Yankees completed a sweep of the Astros and in the process, moved into a tie atop the AL Beast with the Rays.  There's a World Series rematch series, beginning tonight in the Bronx, as CC Sabathia takes on Roy Halladay.  The Phillies are looking to regain their mo-jo (4-6 in their last 10 games) and crawl back into the NL Least race (3.5 behind 1st place Atlanta) while the Yanks look to distance themselves from the rest of baseball.  I hope I get a good pitching match up Thursday when I go with Lindsay and our fathers - I think it's looking like Moyer vs. Pettitte.

3.  Ted Lilly had a no-hit bid into the 9th against the White Sox, but settled for a 1-hitter and a 1-0 Cubs win.  We were in a bar here in Dallas, and there were a few Chicago fans - one guy, who everyone else refused to give pounds to regardless of how many times he tried - was the epitome of what a White Sox fan is (as told to me by another patron from Chicago).  Obnoxious.  A total jackass.  He was whining when they pinch-hit Juan Pierre to lead off the ninth, then after he broke up the no-no, he said he knew he was going to get a hit - douche.  This guy was shouting all night, almost fell off his stool several times, and was almost forcing his girlfriend (so it seemed) into making out with him - sloppy.

On Saturday, I was up at Blind Brook HS for a game after a showcase at Pace.  BBHS has quite possibly the nicest facilities for a high school I've ever seen.  Field turf abounds - football field, baseball field, soccer field, softball field - they might even have field turf in the hallways.  Almost like VCP.  Anyway, the thing that stuck out was a parent who was chirping the whole game.  Similar to a major league game, every pop up was a HR (or so he reacted), every ground ball was "just missed", and every strikeout looking was outside.  Anyway, same game, same guy - the 7 hitter snuck a dribbler between the first- and second-baseman, to which Super-Dad blurted out, "He squecked that one through there!"  Now, I'm no English major, but "squeaked" is a word.  Squecked, not a word.  #1 Dad.

Sunday was filled with air travel and ground transportation.  LaGuardia to Charlotte, Charlotte to Dallas-Ft. Worth.  The tail end of the trip was turbulent, to put it lightly.  I started getting sick from bouncing around in my seat.  Once we got below the clouds (all 3 minutes of it) and landed, it was great.  The landing was the smoothest part of the flights.  Got off the plane, went to find some "Shared Transportation" and got in.  There were 5 others in there, all going to right near where we were going.  The van was full, but the driver was convinced he may be able to pick up another passenger, so he drove around the airport (to every terminal) trying to find someone else to cram in.  Once he realized he had wasted over 25 minutes worth of gas, he decided to take to the roads, and eventually dropped us off at the hotel.  It was like riding on a wooden roller coaster with no seat belt - pretty scary.  Not quite sure if he was legal.

We strolled around Downtown Dallas a little, I of course snapped some photos, and then we went into CVS - the biggest CVS I have ever seen (I guess everything really is bigger in Texas).  While meandering through the aisles, Lindsay saw a guy and said "He looks like the guy from Jurassic Park" so I looked.  Wasn't sure who she meant, I mean it has been over ten years since I've seen the movie.  We were looking through the "Trial Size" stuff, and I saw the man again - NEWMAN!!  I wanted to be sure, so creepily stared at him for a few seconds.  Then I went up and asked if he was Wayne Knight, and that I was a huge fan (which is an exaggeration) but he is freakin' NEWMAN.  If you've never seen Seinfeld and are reading this, welcome to Earth.  Turns out he's in town shooting a show for FOX, The Good Guys.  I got him to take a picture with me - CVS was empty, so I didn't care.  Had it been full of patrons, I probably would have just taken a sneaky photo of him.  I will publish the photo when I get back to the BX.  How cool is that?

FACT:  Dallas's Downtown shuts down on Sunday.  We found a neat little Mexican restaurant for lunch - Sol Irlandes - we didn't stay for the karaoke at night though.

Passed out several times after getting back from lunch, but managed to stay awake long enough to grab a bite at Press Box Grill.  That's where we were blessed with the Chicago fans.  Ate, had a drink, left as soon as Lilly let up the lone hit in the game, and came back to the hotel to pass out.

Today I will venture out and try to find a place to eat some breakfast.  Lindsay is at the conference so I will explore, maybe I'll bump into another celeb.  Probably not, but I can care less.  NEWMAN!

Hello Big D!

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.

Strasburg has landed (and DirecTV blows)

Today's the day. 

Stephen Strasburg makes his ML debut tonight - and the fans in Washington D.C. have taken notice.  It's a sellout with only SRO tickets available at the box office tonight.  I hope the Nats' are able to perform in front of all those fans.  Average attendance this year at a Nationals home game is just under 21,600 a game.  Tonight, Nationals Park will be packed to the gills, with over 41,546 expected to have a seat and who knows how many more standing.

Every time he starts at home, it should be close to a sellout.  I hope it goes well.  I plan on watching this young man dominate the Pirates tonight.  I hope it's on TV here in the NYC area - MLB Network should have it on, but who knows.  First and last time a Nats/Bucs game will be nationally televised. 

My DirecTV was all sorts of screwed up this morning - it was 70 and sunny out but for some reason my satellite had no service.  I paid my bill early.  There is no growth around the dish.  The wiring is sound.  I called this morning and was put on hold and after 30 minutes listening to the worst elevator music imaginable, I hung up, after a profanity-laced tirade at the music - made me feel better.  DirecTV, your technical support service blows!  Maybe it wasn't just my satellite, maybe it took so damn long because everyone was fired up about theirs not working.  Let's hope it's ready to go at lunch, otherwise I'm unleashing fury on whoever answers the call.  They'll probably tell me they can't access the dish because my landlord refuses to do any work on the yard and it looks like a freaking jungle.  I think I actually saw a leopard scampering through the side lot.  Hey, dick, clean up this dump of a yard!

One week to go

Before the much anticipated ML-debut of Stephen Strasburg.  He will take the hill June 8th for the Nationals, as they play host to the Pirates.  So basically, he will still be pitching against a AAA team, even in his debut.  Sorry, that was too easy to pass up.

He's putting up some sick numbers in the minors though:  between AA and AAA, he's 6-2 with a 1.43 ERA and 60 K in 50.1 IP.  He's only let up 28 hits and walked only 12.  His numbers are nothing short of staggering, and I expect him to dominate in his debut, and possibly his next start (it's looking like the Indians).  We'll see, I can care less about this guy, but I am anxious to see what all this hype is about.  I doubt he'll put up Ubaldo Jiménez numbers right away, but we'll see.

Good luck Stephen.