Are You Listed?

I wish I knew more people who lived or worked in Washington DC. There's a search tool for the recently released phone records of escort Deborah Jeane Palfrey at www.dcphonelist.com.

Rickey

Ricky Henderson was just announced as the new hitting coach of the NY Mets. Briefly, isn't it funny how quickly coaches get the blame and credit for a baseball team's hitting and pitching? As I recall, Rick Down, the previous hitting coach got a lot of credit last year for Mets hitting. Looks like he gets the blame this year, even though the team is virtually the same. Of course, Down is probably used to this as he was also previously the Yankees hitting coach.

Henderson was really known as a great runner. I didn't know he had a reputation as a great technical hitter, although he is often considered one of the best leadoff hitters ever. Maybe they brought him in to be a mentor for SS Jose Reyes?

Also, this photo of him from the Red Sox days was posted with the ESPN story announcing his hiring. I couldn't even think of him as a member of the Red Sox, and yet when I looked it up on baseball-reference.com, there it was - 72 games in '02!

This is the 700th post to this blog. Hooray.

Superbad

This movie looks hilarious. I was on their website and it said, "Click here to put this widget on your social networking site." About three years ago, that sentence wouldn't have made sense to anyone! Here's the widget on my social networking site. Enjoy.

Two items

The blog is due for a massive update - almost no updates in June so far. I do have a ton of Yankee updates. Before this, I can't let these two brief stories pass by.

First item
As seen on the Daily Show, Barack Obama ringtones. Ringtones?? Yes, they are soundbytes of Obama speeches mixed to techno music!

Second item
Larry King had the Beatles on the other night and called Ringo "George."

I saw the original article on Rollingstone.com, but here is the transcript as well.

KING: Where were you when — when John passed?
MCCARTNEY: When John passed I was in Sussex, at my home in Sussex. That’s where I was.
KING: Did somebody call you?
MCCARTNEY: Yes, my manager at the time called me. And it was just the shock of all shocks, you know?
KING: George, where were you?
MCCARTNEY: George!
KING: Ringo.
MCCARTNEY: No, this is Ringo here.
KING: Ringo, where were you?
STARR: I was in the Bahamas.
KING: I was getting to (INAUDIBLE) George.
STARR: I was…
MCCARTNEY: No, you weren’t, Larry. You said his name wrong.
STARR: Shut up, it’s my turn.
MCCARTNEY: I know, but he got your name wrong, Ringo, on national television.
STARR: I know. Give him a break.
MCCARTNEY: We can’t cut it. It’s live.
STARR: Anyway, I was in the Bahamas and the kids called and they said we’ve heard something, like John has been hurt.

Bill Richardson on Meet the Press

I thought this exchange was pretty funny on Meet the Press last weekend.
-----
MR. RUSSERT: You spent a lot of time in, in Massachusetts. Are you a Red Sox fan?

GOV. RICHARDSON: I’m a Red Sox fan, but I got into trouble in New Hampshire. You know why? Because I said...

MR. RUSSERT: Luis Tiant, the fund-raiser. But, now, governor, this is very serious. In your book on page 18 it says...

GOV. RICHARDSON: No, about Mickey Mantle?

MR. RUSSERT: You said you’re a Yankee fan!

GOV. RICHARDSON: No, no, no. I said—no, no, no.

MR. RUSSERT: I mean, you can, you can...

GOV. RICHARDSON: No, no, no, no.

MR. RUSSERT: ...you can have different views on immigration, assault weapons...

GOV. RICHARDSON: I, no no no no. No, what I said...

MR. RUSSERT: But when it comes to Red Sox, Yankees.

GOV. RICHARDSON: What I said, the Associated Press asked me, “If you weren’t running for president, if you weren’t running for president, what would you rather be?” I’ve always been a Red Sox fan, but I said if I weren’t running for president I would like to be number seven, Mickey Mantle, playing center field for the New York Yankees.

MR. RUSSERT: “Because of Mickey Mantle, I became a Yankee fan.”

GOV. RICHARDSON: I, my favorite team has always been the Red Sox.

MR. RUSSERT: You’re a Red Sox fan.

GOV. RICHARDSON: I’m a Red Sox fan.

MR. RUSSERT: End of subject.

GOV. RICHARDSON: End of subject.

MR. RUSSERT: You better get rid of this book.

GOV. RICHARDSON: Oh, no! I’m also a Yankee fan. I also like...

MR. RUSSERT: Oh, now, wait a minute!

GOV. RICHARDSON: You can—Tim...

MR. RUSSERT: I guarantee...

GOV. RICHARDSON: No, I know, I got in trouble...

MR. RUSSERT: ...if you go—if you go to Yankee Stadium or Fenway, you cannot be both.

GOV. RICHARDSON: But I like—Mickey Mantle was my hero. If I weren’t running for president, and the Associated Press asked me, I’d play center field for the New York—I wanted to be number seven. And—but I still love the Red Sox as a team. I mean, this is the thing about me, Tim. I can bring people together. I can unify people.

MR. RUSSERT: Yankee fans and Red Sox fans?

GOV. RICHARDSON: Yes.

MR. RUSSERT: Not a chance.

GOV. RICHARDSON: Well, I bet you I can.

Politicians on MySpace

I was never interested in the social networking websites, and I find it even funnier when major celebrities or corporations even have pages on websites like Myspace.com. Yesterday I saw something even more ridiculous - each candidate for President has a MySpace page. Even more absurd is that when I clicked on the profile for Rudy Giuliani, I was told that "This profile is private. This user must add you as a friend to see his/her profile." Rudy Giuliani's profile is private? Really? Isn't this going against using the MySpace page as a political ad / fund raising tool?

The humor of each of these candidates having a MySpace page is also pretty good, I suspect none of them have ever used MySpace before or even have direct participation in maintaining the pages. I'm surprised they don't link to each other in the "friends" section.

MLB Draft

Hey! The MLB Draft is going to be televised on ESPN2!

Isn't that... the most boring thing you could ever think of?

Let's see -- nobody follows amateur baseball the way they follow amateur football or basketball. The teams are not able to trade draft picks. The draft order is set randomly. Players who are drafted get to report to the A ball affiliates.

Who will be the MLB version of Mel Kiper, Jr?

While this is a good idea to bring attention to the MLB draft, I have the feeling that this will be very very boring. The NFL draft has so much chatter and balderdash to begin with, can you imagine what the 50 round, 30 team MLB draft will be like?

5/6/07 - Seattle Mariners vs New York Yankees

I forgot to bring my camera to the game today, but it was quite a game!

First off, the fielding of the Mariners was horrible. LF Raul Ibanez lost at least two fly balls in the sun, with them dropping in for hits / scoring plays. They had at least one or two additional fielding muffs such as the catcher dropping a foul pop up and the third baseman throwing away a ground ball.

SP Darrell Rasner was pretty good today, much better than when I saw him last month. I was a little bummed out when I realized Phillip Hughes would have pitched today were it not for the pulled hamstring. It was also too bad I missed Chien-Ming Wang's near perfect game yesterday.

Josh Phelps ran into the catcher unnecessarily at one point in the game and got hit by a pitch his next time up. Both teams were warned. Later in the game, reliever Scott Proctor threw an inside pitch to a Seattle player who went crazy, pointing and yelling. There was some back and forth but no fight. It was pretty ridiculous, the pitch didn't even hit the Seattle player! Even more ridiculous was the sight of both bullpens emptying. The players came out and there was nothing going on. It was kind of funny I suppose, but the last thing the Yankees need is another pulled hamstring because of jogging out from the bullpen.

Finally in the seventh inning stretch, the biggest news of the day. After they played "God Bless America," they began to play "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as usual. Suddenly after the first line of the song, public address announcer Bob Sheppard says, "Please direct your attention to the owner's box and the jumbotron screen for an important announcement." At this point, I thought something awful had happened outside. Instead, it's Roger Clemens from the owners box, and he said something like, "...got me out of Texas" and "see you guys real soon." It doesn't really matter, we all knew it meant he was coming back. Totally ridiculous, theatrical and awesome! I have tickets to a game in June and am secretly hoping he will be back that day.

Extended Edition DVD's

I've been noticing that a number of the comic book movies that have come out lately have had "new" releases on DVD that act as "extended" versions. I think the trend started with "X-Men 1.5" which incorporated deleted scenes into the original cut. Most recently there was also a "Spider-Man 2.1" cut released as well. I can understand that these films are popular and that the movie studios are trying to maximize their money from the DVD's, but films like Daredevil, Ghost Rider and even Fantastic Four are also having extended cuts produced. This is pretty frustrating, as these movies were not even that good, and it seems like the movie studios are specifically targeting the comic fans for "double dipping" with DVD's. I wish that the movie studios could just produce a high quality, DVD that contained a ton of features definitively, but I think considering how many times the Star Wars saga has been re-released, I will just have to dream.

Spider-Man 3 Premiere - Spoiler Free Review

I was lucky enough to get the chance to see Spider-Man 3 tonight as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. Here is a spoiler free review.

First off, the setting: The film debuted at the UA Kaufman Theater in Astoria Queens. It was closer to get to from Manhattan than I had expected (just off the R train). They had 14 screens with each showing Spider-Man. It was a mob scene around the theater. We entered through a back entrance, so we didn't get to see the red carpet entrances of the stars. I was in theater 1, but did not see any stars or celebrities in the theater.

On to the movie: To start, I thought this movie was a pretty good film. Anyone who goes to see it should have fun for the most part. If you were a fan of either of the first two films, you should enjoy this one. The performances by all the leads were very good, including Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Topher Grace and Thomas Hayden Church. At times the story suffers from "too-many-characters-itis" that makes the storytelling choppy, but as in the first two movies, they use Peter's personal dilemmas to be the outline for the rest of the Spider-Man action sequences. There are some funny lines, and I think some of the humor is a little more over the top than in the first two movies. The story has heart, however, and the action, while too heavy in computer graphics at times, is pretty good for the most part.

For a third outing in a franchise, Spider-Man 3 is a strong movie. It's certainly better than X-Men 3 was, and will probably be well received at the box office and by critics. There is no doubt that a Spider-Man 4 will follow, the only question will be who will be behind them.

Moss to Patriots

What????

A fourth-round pick to the Raiders gives the New England Patriots WR Randy Moss. Sure, Moss has had all sorts of problems in the past, but I can't imagine there will be any trouble integrating him into the New England system. Now the Pats have an amazing receiver, huge deep threat, and it cost them hardly anything. This just seems unfair. With Indianapolis dismantled after the Super Bowl, it seems to me that the Pats are the team to beat once again by a long shot.

Meanwhile, the Jets have been rumored to be shopping WR Justin McCairens for a fourth round pick. I wonder if the Moss trade will have any impact on this. I think McCairens was a solid player, but for whatever reason has not done well under coach Eric Mangini. Will other teams demand less from the Jets for McCairens seeing that Moss went for a fourth rounder?

Aquapod

I recently saw these Aquapod containers of Poland Spring at CVS and couldn't help but laugh. Especially at the balloon that says, "Orbtastic shape!"

Orbtastic, huh? What does that even mean?

Why is water bottle shaped this way? Was there something wrong with the shape of normal water bottles? This orb shape doesn't seem to be any more useful, convenient or fun than the usual shape.

Is This Related?

4/24 - Hunter's champagne gift violated baseball rule
Twins OF Torii Hunter gave the KC Royals four bottles of champagne after they swept the Detroit Tigers last year, helping the Twins pass the Tigers in the standings and win the AL Central. According to MLB rules, personnel cannot give gifts to other teams for beating another team. The champagne was returned.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2847416


4/26 - Hunter taken to hospital after being hit in mouth
Twins OF Torii Hunter was hit in the mouth by KC Royals pitcher Zack Greinke.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2850281

Probably not related, but funnier if they were related.

Fashion Police (or Red is the New Black)

I noticed that the Diamondbacks changed their uniforms this season from purple and green to this red and black scheme. It's no surprise that they wanted to change their uniforms from the purple and green, but why choose red and black as the new colors? Their new uniforms are nearly indistinguishable from the Reds, Angels, Nationals and Phillies. In addition the Braves and Red Sox also feature red alternate jerseys from time to time. Is red that fashionable these days? There must have been another color scheme they could have chosen.

4/8/07 - Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees

The last few years I have tried to make it out for an early weekend game at Yankee Stadium. Typically for these games tickets are a little easier to come by and the weather isn't terribly hot.

When I bought the tickets for the Easter Sunday game at the Stadium, I had hoped Andy Pettitte would be starting. A rainout changed these plans until Darrell Rasner had a bad outing, and Andy Pettitte came in for a relief inning. It snowed during the gmae. Also of note, it was calendar day. Enjoy the photos from Tier 15.

For a loss, the game was pretty entertaining, as the Yankees had a few chances late to win the game or tie, but they didn't win in the end.



A-Rod, who one week later, is still on fire.
Meeting at the mound.
Andy Pettitte in a surprise relief appearance.
Yes. It snowed on April 8 at the ballgame.


I think this was the first game I've seen with Bobby Abreu.
Darrell Rasner
Jason Giambi
Derek Jeter
Johnny Damon didn't start but made a pinch hit appearance when it got closer.


Same for Jorge Posada.

Manny Being Manny?

There's a recent article in the New Yorker by Ben McGrath with some funny notes on Red Sox LF Manny Ramirez. Here are some of the highlights. This stuff is good.

1) He has five driver's licenses and two social security numbers
2) He has two sons named "Manny, Jr."
3) He once requested a trade to Pawtucket, the Red Sox AAA affiliate

A-Rod Walk-off Grand Slam

Alex Rodriguez hit a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning today with two outs, winning the game for the New York Yankees against the Baltimore Orioles. So will it be minutes, hours or days before his critics decide that this home run "wasn't clutch enough" or that since he did it in the regular season against Baltimore "it still didn't happen when it matters."

I'm guessing minutes to hours.

President Clinton

I saw President Clinton by the Time Warner Center one week ago. He was shaking people's hands, but I was trying to "play it cool" and not go up to him. Instead, I tried to quickly snap some photos. I should have just gawked because these photos are crappy. In case you couldn't tell, he's the gray haired blur.

Tempted

I was in the store the other day and saw a big tub of cheese balls. It took all my willpower not to buy it. I can't resist their bright orange glow!

More Knicks

The Knicks are on the verge of making it into the NBA playoffs, with a 30-36 record. Their "improvement" this year has already gotten Isiah Thomas a contract extension. I have to wonder, however, can a fan be excited for the team making the playoffs if their record isn't so hot? They're not exactly a great team. They are incredibly inconsistent, thus their under .500 record. I am impressed by the fact that they lost Jamal Crawford and David Lee and continue to play well, but I can't help but think the only reason they're even thinking about playoffs is that their division and the conference are just not very good this year.