Tisk Tisk Tisk

Monday, June 26, 2006

I suppose I'll preface this by saying that technically, the case is still alleged, however there are witnesses so a lot of this seems accurate enough to go with.

Brett Myers is a foolish meathead who struck his wife in public a couple times, got arrested for it, was released on bail (by his wife) and arrogant enough to pitch for the Phillies the next day. It is bad enough that this situation happened in the first place. All condolences to Mrs. Myers, and I only hope that something like this never happens again for the sake of the wife and the two young children. As for Brett, who cares about him anymore?

When asked if Myers wanted to say anything on the situation, he apologized for the fact that it became public. That's it. Let me go through a list of apologies he should have said before ANYTHING ELSE:

1. Apologize to his wife for the incident.
2. Apologize to his family for the embarrassment.
3. Apologize to his teammates and the organization for the distraction.
4. Apologize to the Boston community for his actions.
5. Apologize to the Phillies fans for the embarrassment.

After that he should have told the management (not the manager) that out of respect for the team, who was about to play on national TV, that he'd request not to start the game.

The blame doesn't end there. The Phillies organization, ownership and management, should be held accountable as well. The Phillies should have sent Myers home, had him stay at the team hotel, or send him anywhere that wasn't Fenway Park. Then there should have been some sort of organized statement on the issue along the lines of "We regret the incident in question happening and will support Bret in any way we can, in the meantime we will allow the court to handle its case as scheduled and take action as needed." What we got was "He hasn't been convicted and he's our best pitcher so we need him to play." When I heard those comments I thought I was watching University of Nebraska football!

Once again the Phillies have found a way to completely make a bad situation worse by saying, and not saying, the wrong things. I really would like to see how the Phillies rebound from this and see what kind of reaction Myers gets when he next plays in Philadelphia.

66 days until Penn State-Akron.

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Interleague Play

Saturday, June 24, 2006

My thoughts on interleague play remain the same. But is it me, or are there more interleague games this year? The Phillies are playing the entire AL West, including twice against the Red Sox. They play the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs twice. I still feel that over-exposure can be a bad thing. The last thing baseball needs is for one league to continue being documented as being far superior than the other (ie. American league far better than National).

And it has also been announced that the winning league of the All Star game will have home field advantage in the World Series. Bud Selig may have done more for baseball than he often receives credit for, but he also sticks to some silly decisions. This is one of them. Remember, this only happens because he let one game end in a tie.

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Questions 67 and 68

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Question #67: Why do high schools, junior leagues, college baseball and minor league baseball clubs use metal bats, but the major leagues use wooden bats? I have never heard an answer to this so if somebody has any insight I would love to hear it. Why train ball players with metal bats their whole loves and then switch to wooden bats when they make it big?

Question #68: Who actually understands the musical reference in this topic?

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Game Seven

Monday, June 19, 2006

There is nothing finer than playoff hockey, especially when it is a Game Seven in the Stanley Cup Finals!

Should be an interesting game tonight. Can the Hurricanes find a way to stop the Edmonton momentum, or will they become another in a short list of teams to blow a 3-1 lead in the playoffs and lose? Personally I am pulling for the Oilers tonight to win a tough road game and capture the Cup for the country of Canada.

How about over in the NBA Finals? Remember my opening paragraph in my last post? I got annoyed with the fact that people were writing off the Heat after one game. Guess I showed those people, huh? I'll get off my pedestal now...

What else can I say about the Phillies? The team does not have a winning mentality. Hearing players already start talking about being in the wild card chase, in June, says all you need to know about this team, as if dropping two of three to Tampa Bay after being swept by the Mets (all of those games at home) didn't spell it out enough for you. Now let's watch. The Phills will sweep the Yankees, take two of three in Boston and sweep the Orioles and everything will start looking good again. Call me crazy, but this team has done exactly this kind of thing each of the last few years.

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NBA Finals

Saturday, June 10, 2006

ESPN is famous for over-hyping, over-blowing, and over--reporting. Today the NBA commentators they have were discussing the NBA Finals and how desperate the Miami Heat are to win a game and get their act together. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they are only down 1-0 in the series, right?

Sure they didn't play a great game and they have things that need to improve, but does anybody think that they are doomed now to lose the series? Did Dallas really impress you (except for Jason Terry.....who?)?

Look, much was made about the sloppy and poor play by both teams. I don't think it should have surprised anyone. A large majority of the players involved were on a brand new stage; the NBA Finals. When you get to that point you are going to be nervous. And the "Hack-a-Shaq" technique seems to have made a return and I'm sure it will be dissected every which way, among other things, on ESPN.

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World Cup in full swing. How about England winning on an own goal? And congrats to Trinidad & Tobago on their tie with Sweden, even though they played a man short for basically a whole half! I was impressed that the host country, Germany, won an offensive explosion to open up the tournament, 4-2 over Costa Rica. And of course (I say it like I really know what I'm talking about), Ecuador's stunning win over Poland is sure to make things tough for Poland (the top two teams in each Group move on to the next round).

Let me not forget the NHL Finals, where the former Flyer Rod Brind-amour (still with a loyal following in Comcast Country) leads his team into Edmonton tonight with a 2-0 series lead. Lots of Flyers fans are pulling for Carolina because of Brind-amour. I'm not exactly one of those people. The guy last played in orange and black in 1999. I mean, that was last century! I'm not even rooting for Terrell Owens, who only played for the Eagles last season, and gave his all every time and....Oh, well, I guess that's a different situation. Go Brind-Amour (even though I'd like to see Edmonton win the series; I don't want the Carolina Hurricanes to win a Stanley Cup before I see the Flyers do it....Just like the Tampa Bay Lightning).

Does anybody find it interesting that the last two Stanley Cups (including this current one) featured a team from warm southeastern U.S. and a western Canadian team? Having a Canadian team in the Finals is great. Having a southwest team in it is not.

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ON SALE!

Thursday, June 08, 2006

On Sale now!

Proof that the Eagles are either desperate for every little penny or that they are trying to make room in their storage for some new merchandise.

How long until they just ship the jerseys to a low income country?

And if green isn't your flavor, they have the white and alternate black jerseys available too.

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Deal or No Deal

Monday, June 05, 2006

This show is just annoying to watch anymore, much like the past attempts to have a hit game show. The drama is so drawn out and the show has just out-done itself all in one season.

They tried to make it a feel good show by bringing in long lost relatives, family members that rarely see each other, special celebrity appearances, and the women opening the cases have become annoying. Each contestant has three family or friends on stage with them to talk them through the deal or no deal process. If that's not enough they have a cheering section in the audience cheering them on (and some of them sometimes get to give their advice).

It started out nice and simple, but the more and more I see this show the more and more I root against the people! I say No Deal!

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Same Sex Marriage

So President Bush wants to rally against same-sex marriage. Why is this such a big deal with people? If Person A loves Person B, why does Person C have to say they can't be married because they are the same sex? Heh, notice that "C" is also the first letter in the word Christianity, where most of the foolish and rabid Anti-Gay sentiment comes from.

Interesting how a religion based on love for the common man seems to oppose a man loving another man. It all seems kind of shamelessly outdated to me. The world is different that it used to be. Change is inevitable. Why waste time worrying about two people who love accouter despite their sex.

Here is a quote from President Bush, courtesy of Comcast News;

"Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them. And changing the definition of marriage would undermine the family structure," said Bush, who raised the issue's profile with an event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

And so I thought I'd look up the definition of "marriage" myself. Courtesy of Webster's Dictionary Plus Thesaurus;
mar-riage n. the legal union of two people in wedlock

Interesting. Look if you want to waste your time and money protesting love, fine. In the meantime, I'd like to find a way to protest ignorant "I'm better than you and this is the way you should live your life" jackasses.

You won't get many political thoughts out of me, so don't worry.

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World Cup Pre-Show

Now I admit that soccer, or "football", has traditionally been given the short hand by myself because I can not stand watching a scoreless tie and call it an exciting match. This, as I now realize, may have been hypocritical of me, as I called a few hockey games this past NHL season exhilarating (both of these games were 0-0 ties, determined by a shootout).


While I will not say that I enjoy the game, or will become a fan of the game, I will say that I respect the game, its fans, traditions, and place it has in the world culture. I do not ever see soccer replacing any of the top sports in the United States at any time, but seeing as the World Cup is kicking off on Friday with the host country Germany playing Costa Rica, I do believe now is a chance to take a deeper look at the game.

As I already stated, I do have a respect for the game. Any game that is worthy of shutting down an entire country for a day to watch a particular match is worthy of praise. Let's admit it; even if you hate soccer, you understand and should respect that soccer is the world's game. Not baseball (America's traditional pastime) or "American" football (America's seemingly current top sport). Soccer is an international phenomena and is capable of bringing together countries from all around the globe to participate in tournament that shows as much national prides it does blood, sweat, and tears. The World Cup will be watched in many countries, including the United States. The international ratings will crush the numbers that the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, NCAA Tournament, and Stanley Cup Finals receive...combined. This tournament will be watched by massive amounts of people who live in a country whose team didn't even qualify for the World Cup (Scotland and Ireland for example). There are many rooting interests.

Aside from rooting for your home country, many soccer fans, especially those whose country is not represented, will find a team to root for. Perhaps it will be for a deserving underachiever (like Spain, with zero World Cup trophies), or a surprise Cinderella country (like South Korea in 2002), or perhaps it will be for a country you hate. Germany is always popular in this category (think World War). Believe it or not the United States can tend to fall in this category as well. The last thing the world wants to see is the United States win the World Cup, even though they are gaining respect as an international team.

I admit that I know very little about international teams, and even less about the club teams. What I do know is that countries like Brazil, Italy, Argentina, France and England are good. Brazil seems to me like the LA Lakers; not always the champion, but traditionally among the best every decade. Brazil also owns a record five World Cup championships and have some of the finest talents playing for them and is the only country to have been eligible to participate in every World Cup tournament. Italy is not far behind Brazil so think of them as the Green Bay Packers; a team with rich tradition and culture, talented history, not the most championships but traditionally a force. Well, maybe the Packers of late don't help that statement. If you are not familiar with Argentina, think of soccer's version of the Philadelphia 76ers; a once proud power in the sport with a championship drought with struggles to return to championship contender. Coaching changes, shaky tournament/playoff appearances. As for France, I tend to think of them as the New Jersey Devils; a great team with the talent to win, even though I despise them. Really, does anyone like the French? And then there is England, the Atlanta Braves of soccer. Always talented, always a contender, and always a force to be reckoned with. Only problem with England is they have a total of one World Cup championship.

If you would ask me which country to pick, I wouldn't have the slightest clue. Sure, I could throw a dart at the board and pick a team at random, but I am the last person to tell you who I think will win. Much like the NCAA tournament or NHL playoffs, anyone can win really. I will say that I won't watch the tournament all day for a variety of reasons, but I will be rooting for the good ole' US of A. I would love to say that a country that doesn't really care about soccer is the world's best...at least for four years.

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