Friday, September 28, 2007

File "The O'Reilly Factor" Under "Comedy"



Even without the Daily Show poking fun at him, the stuff he says is hilarious!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Boos and Illegal Cameras

Two more quick notes about the game yesterday:

-Many people have noted that the Giants Stadium crowd booed Chad Pennington when he limped off the field, including the ol' Wacky Chinaman. It's pretty embarrassing. While this is expected in a city like Philadelphia, it's not expected in New York. Perhaps it should be. New York fans, while considered to be educated, passionate, use whatever adjectives you want, have recently shown that they have a very short memory. The phenomenon has gotten worse and worse over time. At first I thought it started with the Mets fans, who had two recent cycles of big spending and underperforming. Most notably, Mike Piazza was getting booed towards the end of his Met career (despite being basically the best Met ever aside from Tom Seaver) and Carlos Beltran getting booed on opening day at home in his second year as a Met. But Yankee fans showed they are not immune to this sort of stupidity, booing Derek Jeter a few years back after his slow start. A-Rod heard the jeers from the crowd regularly last year despite winning the MVP the year before. Like I said, I don't know if this is something new or if it's just something I am noticing more often, but booing Chad Pennington isn't a huge surprise. However, just because it's not a surprise doesn't make it right. I have a theory that sports radio may be to blame, because it is the source of all kinds of outrageous opinions, but for now it's just a theory.

-Apparently the Patriots had some sort of camera on the sidelines that might have been used to steal the defensive signals of the Jets. Apparently this isn't the first time they've run into this sort of problem. As much as I would love to believe that this is why the Patriots beat the Jets so easily, I have a lot of trouble with this accusation. If it were true it would make the Patriots seem unbelievably insecure. Too unbelievably. They've beaten the Jets repeatedly in recent years and are on paper a better team. Why would they feel the need to cheat? There's also no way they could have maintained the sort of success that they have had even if they had stolen signs or whatever. Why were they doing something similar in Green Bay last year? Who knows, but I also don't think that the Green Bay people should have said anything until the investigation was complete. Was there something fishy going on? Perhaps, but I doubt it is as serious as it sounds in the news stories.

-Apparently the penalty for a team that does something like use an illegal camera to take photos during a game is loss of a draft pick or a fine. That doesn't seem like much to me. If it's such a big deal, the offending team should be forced to forfeit the game. However, I don't really know how a team could benefit significantly from this sort of gamesmanship. Who cares about fines and draft picks? Even the loss of one first round pick isn't the end of the world.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

KFB Flashback - 7/21/07 - Baltimore Orioles at Oakland Athletics

During the month of July, I was in the SF Bay Area and caught both of the local teams. Here are some shots from the bleachers in Oakland, including a short 6 second video.


This hot dog was gigantic, I couldn't believe it.





Patriots Win, Jets Lose, Let the Agony Begin...

The Jets lost to the Patriots today, 38-14 and really looked pretty beaten up throughout the game.

The game was totally over once the Pats returned a kickoff for 108 yards. You have to just tip your cap to Hobbs' return - I did not think he would have tried to run that back. Just goes to show how the day was going for the Jets. Kicker Mike Nugent spent the offseason bulking up, kicks a deep ball that he probably would have never kicked last year, and it gets run back for a record setting touchdown!

Well, my worst fears were confirmed as the lack of a left guard hurt the Jets this game. As you may recall, Pete Kendall had a contract dispute and got traded to the Redskins during the preseason. The lack of good protection affected Pennington and the running game. Here's a few things I noticed:

-First, the Pennington injury - shades of Vinny Testaverde going down in 1999 on opening day. One can blame this on Pennington's "lack of durability" all one wants, but let's face it - lack of a left guard was to blame here. The missed coverage came from the blind side. He was under pressure all day as well, it's impressive he passed as well as he did.

-The running game was in total disarray. The Jets didn't run much play action passing, which surprised me, but I suspect that the heavy pressure made it difficult to pull this off. Also a lack of running game - probably due to no holes being open. It was telling when Thomas Jones ran for about 10 yards in the second quarter and screamed and jumped in the air as if he had just scored a touchdown!

-Chad Pennington played very well in the passing game, but I was surprised about the fact that he only threw to Coles and Cotchery most of the game. Again, I blame the lack of a left guard here, as it didn't look like they ran much in a way of spread formations in order to keep Pennington protected.

Then there's the Patriots. They looked very good, although I wonder if the Jets offense had been more balanced if the game would have been closer. Pennington ended up passing pretty well, despite their pressure, and I think if the Jets had created some running lanes that they could have kept the Patriots off balance a little more. Randy Moss obviously is over his hamstring problem and Tom Brady looks like he's in great form despite his supposed shoulder problem. The Pats should be able to do very well in the passing game and put up points but I actually thought the Jets did reasonably well against the run. I was also surprised that it seemed like the Jets stuck with a three man rush against the Pats, and it didn't seem like they blitzed too much.

Overall, I'm surprised that the Jets got rid of Kendall so easily. The blind side of the QB was trusted to some novices and it looks like it's going to hurt in a number of ways. Now we have this injury to deal with as well. There are no favors in the Jets schedule either - they have Baltimore, Miami, Buffalo and the Giants coming up. Baltimore and Miami are going to be tough if the protection isn't there on the line, and then division game Buffalo will be intense, as will the inter-city battle vs the Giants. I think the Jets are more talented than the last three teams, but these games still seem pretty tough.

KFB Flashback - 6/16/07 - New York Mets at New York Yankees

As I mentioned before, I got to see three Yankees games in one week. Three victories as well. The Mets / Yankees game was the game with the best seats as well so please enjoy this bunch of photos.

It was a long time ago, so I don't really remember the details. There was a rain delay in the game that made it really long.

At some point in the week, but not at this game, Miguel Cairo was at bat with the bases loaded. Inside the Stadium, John Sterling could be heard saying, "Miguel Cairo is having a bad year, but he is a clutch player, and the kind of hitter you want with the bases loaded." Meanwhile, on YES, there was a stat listed, "Career with bases loaded: .224 AVG." Just another day listening to the Yankees.















Friday, September 07, 2007

KFB Flashback - 6/13/07 - Arizona Diamondbacks at New York Yankees

What a strange week it was - I had planned on going to the bat day game, and then suddenly I got tickets to this Thursday evening game against Arizona and also the Saturday game against the Mets! As it turns out, the Yankees won every game I went to this summer.

First time I've been in the bleachers in a while. Johnny Damon was really close to us!

KFB Flashback - 6/10/07 Pittsburgh Pirates at New York Yankees

This is a game I went to a while back. I took a photo of Luis Vizcaino at the time because he was so horrible and I was going to complain about him. He improved significantly over the course of the season. Now I can complain about how Joe Torre has overused him this year, and had to have an MRI on his right shoulder the other day.

#19 is Tyler Clippard. Remember him? He was one of the 13 rookies that the Yankees have trotted out this year as a starter. Times were really bleak back in June - I can't believe the Yankees are now in the wild card lead!



KFB Flashback - 5/16/07 - Yankee Stadium Tour

Back on May 16, I went on a tour of Yankee Stadium. Here are some of the highlights.


Construction of the new Yankee Stadium has begun.


That's Brian Cashman, playing basketball with local kids during lunchtime. One of the tour guides told me that this is pretty common.


View from the press box.


View of the press box.


I think this is where "Cotton Eye Joe" of the 8th inning fame works.


This is the Yankee dugout.


View from center field.


Monument park.


More monument park.


Yankee bullpen.


The bat. Before the game - meet me at the bat.


This is the hallway from the Yankee clubhouse to the dugout.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Tiki

Has any professional athlete become less likeable following his retirement than Tiki Barber? Maybe Jose Canseco?

I was already down on Tiki before retirement - he seemed like such a self-promoter, willing to say anything to please the media - but he's constantly criticized current Giants personnel including QB Eli Manning and coach Tom Coughlin since his retirement. Why not talk to these guys while you were on the same team? Maybe then the team wouldn't have done poorly in the playoffs. By the way - Tiki's best years? Under Coach Coughlin.