Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees - 4/29/05

Six games in one month.

I haven't seen that many games in that short a period in a while. Overall, it was one win and five losses.

I have had the added opportunity to see the Yankees lose to all four teams in the AL East in April.

This game was a great game from a non-Yankee perspective. The total run time was 2 hours and fifteen minutes, both pitchers pitched complete games, and for the most part dominated their opponent. Johnson's only mistake was the Hinske home run. Halladay made no mistakes.

There's not much that I can say about the Yankees that hasn't been said already, and there's been a lot said that I don't agree with, but that's always the case. The team is struggling in every facet of the game right now. I wonder if they are having motivation problems.



These seats are in the no-alcohol zone.



Roy Halladay was awesome.



Big Unit was nearly awesome.



Derek Jeter had one of three Yankee hits, but two of nine Yankee strikeouts.



Vernon Wells is one of the only hitters on the Jays that I fear when he bats. He didn't have a good game.



Joe Torre after arguing a call. His only appearance on the field during the game.



It's funny that a team that hypes its tradition as much as the Yankees, has their grounds crew do the Y-M-C-A after the fifth inning. This even happens in the World Series and is an absolute fan favorite.

Everybody Have Fun Tonight

The Yankees need to sign a catcher with the last name "Chung" so that they can play the song, "Everybody Wang Chung Tonight."

LA Angels of Anaheim Vs. New York Yankees 4/28/05

Another Yankees game, another loss. This wasn't as bad as some of the other losses, but it's still tough to see the Yankees get 8 hits, and score only one run.



My seats. They only cost $8.60.



Alex Rodriguez



Kevin Brown - I had expected much worse from him during the game.



Vladimir Guerrero - So good.



Hideki Matsui - I didn't get a chance to take a photo of my favorite graphic, "Hit-Deki."



Flash Gordon - Helped out my fantasy team, at least.



Fransico "K-Rod" Rodriguez - Filthy. Two K's looking in the save.

iBig Brother

I find this issue with the unauthorized biography of Steve Jobs an interesting one, because while I understand Apple is upset, I disagree with their move to ban all the other books by that publisher in their stores.

To begin, let's say that all I know about this story, the publishing industry and the book are from the articles I've read. Banning the book seems like just another part of Apple's desire to control everything about their computing. This is evident in the Mac, where the company controls every aspect of the computer (sales, software, hardware), and also with the iPod, where the company has full control over all the music, software, accessories and player. Their recent lawsuit trying to protect their technology also seems to indicate this. But at the same time, I associate Apple with the free-spirited artist and the independent-minded consumer (who wants to avoid the Microsoft hegemony). Isn't it interesting how marketing works?

The Apple lawsuit against the websites that were published leaks about new technology also shows the company's need for control. These examples of controlling everything makes it clear that even if the biography of Jobs were a beaming one (since it's "unauthorized" it probably is not), they would still ban it because of their lack of control.

Now, if a publisher wrote a book about your company you didn't like, would you ban ALL the books that publisher makes? Let's note that Wiley makes all the "... for Dummies" books, which are very popular. There's a few issues here. Is Apple trying to punish the publisher by banning the books? It turns out they're helping them, by adding publicity to the story. Did Apple think they could strongarm the publisher into not making the book? That's a possibility, but the publisher may gain more sales from a Jobs biography with a lot of press than from their help books at the Apple store. Finally, do consumers even know what company publishes what books? I had to do a fairly extensive search to determine the link to "... for Dummies" and frankly, it's never determined my purchasing patterns in the past.

Perhaps the publisher was trying to force Apple to carry the iCon book in addition to any of their other stuff? But the news items so far have not mentioned this, so I guess it's just another piece of evidence towards obsessive / compulsive Apple.

Kidnappings

CNN.com has driven me to yet another gripe.

The media (and the public) love kidnapping / abduction stories. Especially when they involve mildly attractive (white?) people or children. So it was no surprise when this woman's story made it to the front of their web site, but couldn't they have found a photo of her without such a creepy stare, and maybe before going crazy by reporting it, they could have let the police determine that she was actually missing.

She must REALLY have not wanted to be married.

Haiku for the Poor New Jersey Nets

The Nets don't have Shaq
The Miami Heat have Shaq
Nets can't beat the Heat

Music News!

Three of my favorite bands all have big news at the same time.




Audioslave
The new album, "Out of Exile" is due in stores in May. I think this band is great, but I'm not liking their tyle of marketing. I signed up for news updates, and all these updates are trying to get me to pass on links to my friends to generate hype! It's almost like a pyramid scheme. The first song has been available on iTunes and is also available for free on their website. Now, a second cut is available, but first, one million people need to attempt the download before any of them can hear it! This is pretty absurd.

Pearl Jam
With a new album coming out later this year, they are heading to Canada. For the first time ever, I've started wondering about Canadian geography.




Dave Matthews Band
They've got a new album coming out in May called "Stand Up," but the biggest news is that first cut is available on iTunes.

Addendum: 4/28/05, 12:21am
I have just discovered that the Foo Fighters, another band that I have been growing fond of, have a new album coming up at the end of May. Thus far, I have purchased all my Foo music digitally, so perhaps I will continue this trend with the new album.

LA Angels of Anaheim vs New York Yankees 4/26/05

Wow.

There's a lot to say about this game.

This was the first victory I've been to this season, and it was a dandy. Alex Rodriguez stole the show with 3HR (3 run, 2 run, GS) and 10 RBI. His 3 HR can only be described as "bombs" into left field (2) and the center field area just in front of the black seats. I have to say, I was quite skeptical about A-Rod in general, despite the fact that I know he puts up decent numbers.

The Yankees, for all their troubles this season have unloaded recently on teams with 19, 11, 11, and 12 runs in the span of eight games. It was much nicer to watch a game like this, as opposed to the games where they start off three or four runs behind by the second inning.

A new chant from the bleachers made me laugh...
"Box Seats Suck!" followed by the standard reply, "We've got beer!"
The bleachers followed with a good response of, "Al-co-ho-lics!"

There's some guy who walks around the stadium with a little pan and bangs it to get people excited. Another guy had a cowbell. I want to have a gong, and I want to have it way up high in the upper deck. Every time an opposing player strikes out, "gooooong!" and every time an opposing player is about to catch a ball, "goooooong!"

5th Inning - strange stat line - the Yankees had ten runs on five hits, three of which were A-Rod home runs.

I'm watching Yankees Encore on YES, and Ken Singleton says before A-Rod's first home run, "How often do you see a home run after a walk? Very often." I'm not sure if this is true, but it made me wonder, "Wouldn't it be great if for the 'encore' broadcasts if the commentators re-did their commentaries to seem like they were perfect? For example, if a runner tried to steal, the commentator could suggest trying to steal a base, and if it didn't work out, they could suggest that it would be a bad move to steal in that situation. Then again, I'm not sure if anyone else really watches Yankees Encore.

Enjoy the photos.


A-Rod. This photo answers the question, "What does a man who has just hit 3 HR's for 9 RBI look like?" He would get a single in this at bat for his 10th RBI.


As always, a shot of the view from my seats. The same seats for the Baltimore game.


Vladimir Guerrero. I once saw him in Montreal throw out a runner at the plate from deep in the corner on a fly ball. While I like Sheffield, it would have been nicer to have Guerrero patrolling right field.


Gary Sheffield.


Bernie Williams. See the Angels bullpen in the back? The name "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" barely fits on the awning. These are the kinds of things I find funny.


Hit-dek-i. Actually, he was hitless today.


Tony Womack and Derek Jeter. I predict only one of these two players will be in the starting lineup in September (and his name rhymes with "meter").


Carl Pavano. He didn't get hit in the head with a line drive today, so even if he had given up ten runs, it still would have been a happier game than last time.


Bartolo Colon. I was expecting a pitcher's duel, and instead got a career game from A-Rod.


Colter Bean's Major League debut. Colter Bean is a pretty cool name.

In fact, it's been decided. This game featured the worst name in MLB, "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" and the best, "Colter Bean."

Jets NFL Draft Analysis - Day 2

Round 4
Kerry Rhodes S/Louisville - Mel Kiper says he likes Gerald Sensabaugh from North Carolina better (he went one round later in the draft to Jacksonville). I get the feeling the Jets are trying to fill special teams here, as opposed to find a bonifide starter. On the other hand, Erik Coleman, who started most of the year at FS, was a 5th round pick. I don't understand why the Jets traded up for this pick with Jacksonville (unless this is from some old trade?).

Round 5
Andre Maddox S/NC State - I wonder why they wanted to pick another safety. They must not be too happy with McGraw and Tongue. Is he just here to fill in a bit for special teams?

Round 6
Cedric Houston RB/Tennessee - CNNSI makes it sound like this is a big guy who likes to run north/south but has never lived up to potential. Not a bad choice this late in the draft, and I wonder if this is the kind of guy who could do very well in those third and short / one yard line type scenarios.

Joel Dreesen TE/Colorado St - The CNNSI projection for him was "Late Third Round," so that seems promising. Now the Jets have three TE's, and considering Offensive Coordinator Mike Heimerdinger's reputation for liking double TE sets, and Doug Jolley's past injury woes, it's probably a very good value pick here. I'm not sure if there were other needs they could have filled here, but what was once a position of weakness now at least has a few options.

Round 7
Harry Williams WR/Tuskegee - I could not find very much information online about this player. This article ranks him as the #7 HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) player in the draft. It sounds like he returns kicks.

I'm a little surprised that the Jets haven't tried to settle their offensive tackle position here in the second day. I haven't been paying too close attention to the prospects who are available in the position on Day 2, but I can't help but wonder if they passed up some decent prospects for some of these players.

Jets NFL Draft Analysis - Day 1

The Jets did not have a first round pick this year. Instead, they traded it to Oakland for TE Doug Jolley and a pick 20 spots lower.

As it turns out, this may have been a good move, as not only did they net a pro TE, they also gained a first-round level talent at CB.

After waiting seven and one-half hours, the Jets picked...

Mike Nugent PK/Ohio State - After waiting this long, picking a kicker was certainly a bit of a letdown, but it's an area of need. I don't watch a lot of college football, but I think I remember this guy from the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and that he was considered a top talent then. They say he's the highest picked kicker since Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski went in the first round. His accuracy in bad Ohio weather is encouraging, let's hope he doesn't have the quirky kicker personality (Mike "big mouth" Vanderjagt, Janikowski).

Ten picks later, the Jets selected...

Justin Miller CB/Clemson - I've heard of this guy because a few months ago, I was reading up on potential first-round pick CB's (since that was an area of need for the Jets). It was surprising to see him in the second round, but I guess he has some issues when off-the-field. Let's hope these troubles won't be troubles next year. If he can play well, he'll validate the Jolley trade and fill both the return game void and CB need.

By the end of the day, the Jets also had...

Sione Pouha DT/Utah - The Jets have had a need at DT because of Jason Furgeson's departure to the Cowboys. This player, however, seems a bit questionable based only what I've read on the internet. He is rated lower than a number of other DT's who were still available in the draft, so I'm curious why the Jets liked him in particular. According to both the Daily News and NY Post, he saved a woman from a smoke-filled apartment and did a three year church mission. While interesting information, this also seems like filler material to use while discussing a player.

So to sum up, the Jets have gained:
Doug Jolley TE (from Raiders)
Mike Nugent PK/Ohio State
Justin Miller CB/Clemson
Sione Pouha DT/Utah

Not too shabby in terms of filling needs. They'll probably look for an offensive tackle with their six day 2 picks.

It seems to me that teams generally draft much better these days. ESPN would never show it, but I would love to see them show a reel of Mel Kiper's biggest mistakes, just as they show a number of his accurate analyses. The analysts and sportswriters tend to be very excited about draft picks on draft day, a day of optimism, since it's all about looking to the future.

Darth Vader's Blog

I guess since his life story will be completed soon, Vader felt it was necessary to start a blog.

Emails Make You Dumb?

If this is true, me stupid very must be.

Wonder Woman TV Show

I had never seen a full episode of the Wonder Woman TV show starring Lynda Carter, so I figured I'd give it a shot with my Netflix subscription. It seems like it's very campy and goofy. Was the series aware of its over-the-top humor, or is this unintentional comedy?

NFL Draft 2005

Draft day tomorrow
Ready for analysis?
There will be a lot!

Stick Around For A While!

According to my sources, 79% of people who visit this blog stay around for less than five seconds. Less than five seconds! Is there nothing on this blog worth seeing that within five seconds, one can decide to move on?

Accountability

I want to start an accountability section on this blog. This would allow me to keep track of statements I've made predicting the future.

Examples:
"That movie, Hitch, is going to end Will Smith's career"
"This could be the year it all comes apart for the Yankees"
"Marv Albert will work for the YES Network"
"I'm going to start an accountability section for my blog"

On a similar note, I've been wanting to do an experiment where I map the data from weather predictions. My hypothesis is that the forecast for more than one day in advance is more often wrong than right. In particular this relates to predicting instances of precipitation, and that the 2-3 day forecast probably only correctly predicts < 50% of instances of precipitation.

NY Sports Update - Nets, Yankees and Jets

Nets
The New York Times has to stop reading my blog. Their headline today was, "After 82 games, Nets' Real Season Will Begin," a statement very similar to one made a few days ago in this very space about how the NBA season really begins with the playoffs.

Yankees
It's nice to see them string together a few hits in order to score runs instead of the home runs. The team had been in a funk but they've put together pretty impressive offensive outbursts in two of the last three games. It's pretty feast or famine, however, which is concerning.

Jets
My friend called me about the Jolley trade to the Jets, saying it was a horrible move. I'm a bit surprised by this move, since it takes them out of the first round, but the last two years of draft and personnel moves for the Jets have been fairly sound, so I'll wait and see where this goes before judging it outright. The Mel Kipers of the world seem to think there are a ton of defensive backs available (the main need for the Jets) so maybe dropping about 12 places in draft position isn't such a bad thing to get a TE who has started in the past. The new offensive coordinator, Heimerdinger, does like having good pass catching TE's. Let's see how the whole thing plays out. A John Abraham trade would also affect how this draft turns out for Gang Green.

4/20/05 - Tampa Bay Devil Rays vs. New York Yankees

I saw the Yankees lose to the Devil Rays earlier tonight. If you had told me that Johnson, Gordon and Rivera all pitched in a game for the Yankees versus the Devil Rays, and that Johnson had 8 K's, I would have definitely expected that it was a win. It wasn't. Could this be the year that it's all fallen apart? Or are the Yankees just flat? I will have the opportunity to see the Yanks lose to all four AL East rivals on 4/29 when they play the Toronto Blue Jays.

Enjoy the photos.



These seats cost $8 (I spent more on food than for the ticket)



Yet another experiment with the photo mosaic



Randy Johnson - The Big Unit - Even from up high he looks huge. He throws very hard.



Jorge Cantu, Tampa 2B at the plate, he's on my fantasy team



Hideo Nomo - I kept trying to get his funky delivery but kept mis-timing it



Just a bit inside to A-Rod



Eduardo Perez - Can you believe he hit 2 HR off Johnson? Who is this guy?



Mariano Rivera pitched an excellent 1-2-3 inning. Where was this Rivera two weeks ago?



The Stadium looks nice at night

Sucks to be John Madden...

NBC gets Sunday Night Football and Monday Nights move to ESPN. It's probably a smart move by NBC, who now has one less day of the week to worry about prime-time programming. They can hope that NFL gives them synergy with Arena ball as well. ABC's prime time entertainment schedule has been pretty strong this year, so maybe they don't want the interruption of sports.

Since the NFL schedule is already out, I guess Monday nights have more marquee match-ups while Sundays. Strange, since NBC has a bigger market that ESPN. I wonder if the NFL will change the scheduling after next year to reflect this, but I suppose part of that also depends on whether or not ESPN pays more for the Monday Night package. It's not clear what will happen to the "Thursday Night Football" games that used to be part of the Sunday package.

The biggest loser here is John Madden, who left FOX so that he could do Monday Night Football on ABC, and now finds himself without a gig. Al Michaels is a slight loser here as well. I wonder if Marv Albert would return to NBC to do the Sunday night games or if Bob Costas gets a crack at it.

Why Men and Women Have Trouble Communicating

A REAL conversation between my friend and a waitress.

The waitress is fairly attractive and there were three of us (male) sitting at a cafe. My friend went inside to pay the bill.

Friend: Aren't you a little cold?

Waitress: My shift ends in a half hour.

About 30 minutes later, my friend, unclear if he missed a signal or not from the waitress, returned to the cafe to inquire about the waitress's availability. The waitress says she has a significant other. "My shift ends in a half hour" is only a normal answer to a limited number of questions, most of them asking when one will finish working.

Too Early To Tell?

I don't want to get too riled up about the Yankees getting swept by Baltimore this past weekend, nor do I want to worry too much about the 4-8 Yankee start to the season.

I would like to mention a comment that I heard made by Michael Kay, YES Network play-by-play man. He stated that the start by Kevin Brown was "better than his last start" against Baltimore, where he punched a wall and broke his non-pitching hand. In that game, Brown struck out 7 in six innings and gave up three runs. In yesterday's game, he struck out three in six innings, and gave up six earned runs, including a grand slam to Miguel Tejada. Was it better because Brown didn't break his wrist this time? Even for the most faithful Yankee fan, that's not an easy question to answer.

Steinbrenner blew his stack after the loss, and hopefully it gets the team playing better. At least, I hope they start getting things together in April. After all, I'm scheduled to go to four more games this month, and I'd like to see them win a few of them!

NBA Playoffs

This cynical sports fan reports that the NBA season is about to begin, and since his Knicks won't be participating, he has decided to root for the local Nets and Rockets (aka Knicks South).

There are a number of surprises in the Eastern Conference this year. While I would like to see LeBron in the Playoffs, I'm pretty impressed by Allen Iverson's recent play, and I can't root against "my" Nets!

In the West, a Houston / Dallas series would be great, although the outcome might not be so good for "my" Rockets. I think the recently cold Seattle team may be the easiest to pick off here, but a lot of these teams have a good chance.

The NBA is looking a little more level this year than in years past, the shift of Shaq to the East has certainly changed the landscape.

Google Maps

I am becoming obsessed with the google maps satellite feature. They have a blog that links to some interesting satellite views, but I'm just enjoying looking up various things on my own. I especially enjoy looking for places near where I grew up. This blog has some interesting "famous" sites, too.

Airscooter

Airscooter is apparently close to releasing their next product, the Airscooter 2 (here's an article about it). You don't even need a pilot's license to fly it, and it will be estimated to cost less than $50,000!

This product has found the perfect mix of totally cool and super-dangerous.

A-Rod Saves Boy

My Red Sox fan friend commented on the story saying, "He probably rehearsed that a few times."

Excellent!

Comedy Central is showing Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure right now.

This has led to three personal questions:

1) Whatever happened to the actor who played Bill? Ted became quite famous.

2) Why did they settle on George Carlin for Rufus, Bill and Ted's guide? Carlin is such a foul-mouthed comedian but this movie is geared for kids.

3) What sort of phone booth was their phone booth based on? Have you ever seen a phone booth that could comfortably hold three grown adults?

Party on, dudes!

Implant Hearings

In what is an obvious and transparent attempt to "one-up" the Kitchen Fresh Blog's suggestion that wrestlers testify regarding steroid use in front of Congress in the name of entertainment, the FDA has decided to hold hearings regarding breast implants.

While this hearing will likely involve medical professionals, it could go in the total opposite direction and turn into Washington DC's version of "The Howard Stern Show," or in the most extreme case, the opening to a bad pornographic film.

Baltimore Orioles vs. New York Yankees 4/10/05

I attended yet another Yankees game today. This one was a debacle from many perspectives.

From the baseball perspective, the Yankees played quite poorly, with SP Carl Pavano getting hit in the head by a line drive, 1B Jason Giambi losing an easy pop fly in the sun, and the Yankees being no-hit into the fifth inning.

From the personal perspective, I had hoped to get some nice shots of my favorite steroid controversy players, such as Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa from the perch in right field. Unfortunately, my camera's battery crapped out (I didn't realize how often it needs to be charged) so I only got this one shot.

One small victory, as I got a free 2005 Yankees calendar.



Gary Sheffield in RF, before my camera died.



The view from the seats I had, as shown on yankees.com.

Not to Belabor a Point...

...but wouldn't it be great if Congress called up the WWF (er... WWE?) wrestlers for steroids testimony? After all, they're "role-models" for young people too, and they are totally ripped. The "World's Strongest Man" crew doesn't get the kind of muscles we see in pro wrestling. It would make for great television on C-SPAN. These wrestlers, popping out of their suits, screaming at the Congressmen. Hopefully someone would throw a chair! They could introduce some sort of snively Congressman-like character into the wrestling plots. It would be terrific.

Ben Broussard and JD Drew Are Killing My Fantasy Team

It's only the first WEEK of baseball, but JD Drew's season-starting 0-17 slump, combined with Ben Broussard's 1-12 are absolutely DESTROYING my fantasy baseball team.

Tax Dollars At Work

Tax dollars at work
Saving a duck and her eggs
Duck is fun to eat!

Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees 4/5/05

The view from the seats I got on Craigslist. I tried to do one of those photo monatge things.



Jeter at the plate



Mike Mussina on the mound



Hideki Matsui at the plate

A good game to watch, but the result wasn't too great for the Yankees. Rivera had no control at all and blew another save today, exited to some boos (although it's hard to know if he was being booed by Yankees or Red Sox fans) and A-Rod made a critical error in the field that might have lessened the damage. Mussina pitched out of trouble all day, Wakefield was dominant and the weather was spectacular. While the fans got pretty excited about the game, it was still clear that this is only the third game of the season and that there's a long way to go.

This should be the first of five games that I will be attending in April. Future dates: 4/10 vs Baltimore, 4/19 vs Tampa, 4/26 vs LA Angels, and 4/28 vs LA Angels.

Craigslist is My New Friend

Many thanks to Craigslist for providing the opportunity for me to purchase tickets to tomorrow's Yankees / Red Sox game in the Tier Box section, right by 3rd base.

Daylight Savings Nightmare

Daylight Savings Time is wrecking havoc on everything in my life right now. Not only was I late on Sunday because my cell phone alarm did not adjust automatically to daylight savings (the time is automatically set), but today my cable box was programmed to tape 24 and somehow the timer programs were set to adjust to daylight savings and my MS Outlook has automatically adjusted a bunch of my 9am appointments to 8am. What the heck is going on?

Strong Bad

I was reminded earlier this evening of Strong Bad, an amusing little animated series that can be found here. The Dragon is one of my favorites.

Weekend Recap: Boston, Sin City, Final Four, Lost Phone Charger, Yankees

Here's a brief recap of my weekend.

I went to Boston and visited some pals up there. It was a good time filled with a bunch of media, including the Sin City movie.

Sin City is a good movie based on a good comic book. I will avoid spoiling anything about it here, except to say that it is based on three Sin City stories, The Big Fat Kill, The Hard Goodbye and That Yellow Bastard. They're all gritty, black and white comic books. If you like to read the books that movies are based on in general, then be forewarned that the Sin City movie is as well adapted from the source material as the first Harry Potter movie was, that is to say that the movie's lines and shots are exactly the same as dialogue and frames from the comics. Personally, I usually prefer to read books after seeing movies based on them, as the books are usually deeper. In this case, this is fairly true, but to some degree it felt like I was just reading the storyboard for the movie.

Updated 7:30AM: I forgot to mention that, in what is now a disturbing trend for me at the movies, I was forced to watch most of this movie from the corner seat in the front row. I have seen several recent movies like this, including Spider-Man 2. It is not fun to watch from this perspective. Also, to my surprise, the 1:30 showing was a matinee. I'm not even sure if I've seen a matinee in Manhattan anytime recently.

We watched the two Final Four games on Saturday night. Both games started out with close first halves, and they both finished out with lackluster finishes, with the favorites winning. The Monday night championship game should be rather interesting with Illinois and UNC, the regular season #1 and #2 seeds facing off.

On the drive home, I realized I left my phone charger at my friend's place. An annoyoing inconvenience considering my phone gets about one day charge time. This will make me incommunicado via phone for two or three days, at least.

The Yankees played earlier this evening. While it's exciting, and they won by a lot, I think the reports that it "felt like October" were a bit overrated. In October, every pitch and run could be the one that sends a team home. Not so in April, there's still another 161+ games to be played! It was, however, cold, just like October.

Feuds

Yankees / Red Sox meets NY Post / NY Times

Consider this FOX Sports article, "NY Times in middle of Sox-Yankees Feud."

The NY Times ran an editorial criticizing the Yankees, who want to build a new Yankee Stadium and have asked for public funding. The article goes on to say that as pointed out in the NY Post, a paper that loves to belittle the NY Times, the Times does not cite the fact that they are part owners of the Red Sox, who would be hurt by a new stadium due to increased revenue for the Yankees.

Of course, the article is posted on FOX Sports, who is also owned by the same company as the NY Post (News Corp), and no, the article does not cite any possible conflict of interest.

Ted Koppel Leaving ABC

Not usually the type of thing reported on this blog, however I think ABC should consider very strongly an opportunity to put on a fake news show along the lines of The Daily Show in this timeslot.

Performance Enhancement

Ha! The punter got steroids. As if NFL players needed another reason to hate the punters and kickers (see: Mike Vanderjagt stupid comments).

This is no major surprise, as even though other sports have more stringent steroid testing programs than MLB, people test positive, which means steroids are still in use.

Also, much has been made of Mark McGwire's unwillingness to "discuss the past" with regards to the House hearings on steroids. Should we really believe the other players? Consider some of their histories:

Jose Canseco - just a shady (greasy?) fellow

Curt Schilling - backed off his 2002 statement to SI that he couldn't pat teammates on the backside because that's where they injected themselves.

Rafael Palmiero - has history of using "performance enhancing drugs" (Viagra)

Sammy Sosa - has history of cheating (corked bat)

In most respects, I don't care. I'm going to three or four games in April and I plan on following the season like it's any other. But I do feel a little bad for the honest guy who might get squeezed off a team because the other players are cheating. I'm also annoyed by all the people who are surprised by the cheating, think baseball is the only sport that has this problem, or want to revoke records, etc. Once the games start, hopefully the steroids talk will stop.

Mr. T Chia Head - Day 85

Nearly three months after starting the Mr. T Chia Head feature, it was an utter failure. Not much grew because I think the Chia plant is too fickle. I stopped caring for it about a month in. Maybe later on, when it warms up, I will try to do this again.

Day 1

Day 6

Day 9

Fantasy Baseball Team

I recently completed my fantasy baseball draft. I've been in one league for five prior seasons and finished fairly well. Hopefully I can continue my little lucky streak. We play 5 x 5 (AVG, HR, RBI, R, SB and ERA, W, S, K, WHIP).

Here's the result of my draft:

C - Paul Lo Duca (Florida)
1B - Phil Nevin (San Diego)
2B - Jorge Cantu (Tampa Bay)
SS - Miguel Tejada (Baltimore)
3B - Troy Glaus (Arizona)
OF - JD Drew (Los Angeles)
OF - Johnny Damon (Boston)
OF - Carlos Lee (Milwaukee)
OF - Jose Guillen (Washington)
OF - Matt Lawton (Pittsburgh)
CI - Ben Broussard (Cleveland)
MI - Derek Jeter (NY Yankees)
DH - Erubiel Durazo (Oakland)

SP - Carlos Zambrano (Chicago Cubs)
SP - Mike Mussina (NY Yankees)
SP - Odalis Perez (LA Dodgers)
SP - Kris Benson (NY Mets)
SP - Tom Glavine (NY Mets)
SP - Horatio Ramirez (Atlanta)
RP - Tom Gordon (NY Yankees)
RP - Joe Nathan (Minnesota)
RP - Chad Cordero (Washington)

Bench - Rafael Palmiero (Baltimore)
Bench - Bobby Madritsch (Seattle)
Bench - Greg Aquino (Arizona)

My analysis:
It's a fairly balanced team, where everyone is capable of at least 15 HR's on offense and the starters should all gain 10+ wins.

On the down side, a lot of catchers were available after the draft, and while Lo Duca's decent, he's not a big power guy, and some catchers on the wire are of equal quality to him. My first transaction was to get rid of Aaron Miles, the Colorado 2B, and pick up Jorge Cantu, the hotshot 2B of Tampa. Miles was projected in something I read to steal 30+ bases, but last year he was inconsistant in Colorado and only stole 12. I don't know where they got that prediction from. Cantu is popular enough and a bit of a risk.

Injuries could be a huge problem for this squad. JD Drew, Troy Glaus, Erubiel Durazo and Horatio Ramirez are all guys who worry me in that sense. I don't know how effective it will be to have a middle reliever like Gordon, but he will get low ERA / WHIP numbers that could help the team a little bit.

I've been basing much of my information on fantasy "experts." What makes a person a fantasy sports expert? Near as I can tell, it's amassing a ton of information from various sources. Here's how I envision the resume of a fantasy sports guru.

----
Fantasy Sports Awards & Distinctions

Old Home Baseball League 2000-2003
10 teams, First Place '01, '03
Who's Your Daddy Basketball 2001-2003
8 teams, First Place '01, Second Place '02-'03
I Got Game Hockey 2003
8 teams, Most Improved Team (2nd Half)
Joe's Football League 2004
8 teams, Second Place, playoffs
ESPN Fantasy Games AL Only Baseball League 2004
6 teams, Third Place
----

You will be hearing a lot about my fantasy team as the season progresses.

Petty

The Kitchen Fresh Blog is #1 when I vanity searched "Kitchen Fresh Blog." This is only a recent development. Yahoo! has already fallen in line. Now it's just time for MSN Search to get its act together.

You Done With That?

One week ago...

I was at a fast-food Chinese restaurant with a friend, sitting by the entrance and nearing the end of our meal. While leaning back in my chair and having a discussion with my friend about the tech industry, a man wandered into the restaurant. He solicited me, my friend, and some of the other patrons at the restaurant for money. Then he went up to the counter and mentioned something I couldn't hear. On his way back out, he stopped by our table again.

To set the scene more clearly, there was still a miscellaneous bit of vegetables or sprouts remaining on my plate. The amount left could probably fit in your hand, it was no more than one or two bites. My fork, which I had used instead of chopsticks to scoop off some of the remaining rice, was in the center of the plate.

The man leaned over, picked up the plate and said, "What you got here?"

Then in a blur, he took the fork and shoveled the food into his mouth. He walked out.

I was so surprised, I can't remember if he looked like he enjoyed it or even wiped his mouth.

What a surprised. I was frozen in shock, and no other emotion came to mind. Not anger, that he hadn't asked me permission. Not fear, that the kind of person who would just take your leftover food and shovel it down could be prone to do anything else. Not pity, despite the fact that he probably has eaten out of the trash before. Instead, total shock, that something I did not even expect to be possible just happened.

And Now For Something Different...

Schiavo this, Schiavo that, here's a post with a different tone.

Check out Robot Chicken, part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim Programming. It's on Sunday nights, 11:30pm (EST).

Here are links to some clips:


http://www.adultswim.com/clips/robotchicken/ep01/

http://www.adultswim.com/clips/robotchicken/ep02/

http://www.adultswim.com/clips/robotchicken/ep05/

http://www.adultswim.com/clips/robotchicken/ep06/

http://www.adultswim.com/clips/robotchicken/ep08/

http://www.adultswim.com/clips/robotchicken/ep10/

It has not gone unnoticed by the creative staff of the blog that two of the last five posts have involved a chicken, and that the title of this blog is a pun relating to a failed marketing campaign by a chicken restaurant.

My Only Terri Schiavo-Related Post: My Cheap Attempt to Capitalize on a Tragic Story

I am breaking a promise I made to myself for the cheapest reason possible - to get more hits to this blog.

The promise: That I would refrain from commenting at all about the Terri Schiavo throughout the duration of the case. In general, I was hoping to reduce the amount of politics on the blog, in favor for lighter fare and amusing personal anecdotes.

The change of heart: A friend of mine suggested that discussing recent events would help to increase the profile of this blog, which while not perfect, I believe to be mildly amusing.

So now what? I see that Terri Schiavo isn't even on the NY Times front page any more. Am I too late? Is it not a current story any more? A check of CNN.com says it sure is! Here I am to reap the web hits benefits!!

Four things I found fairly amusing amidst all the hoopla and sadness surrounding this case:

1) That her husband is planning on having her cremated, against the wishes of her parents, who would prefer that she have a burial. He really hates them, doesn't he? These people really hate each other, don't they? I guess it's been a lot of years of pain and anger. There's probably a good lesson that could be learned from this.

2) Not only that the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigades exist, but that they had "representatives" at the hospice where Terri Schiavo is being kept.

3) That someone who was "right to life" offered a bounty on key figures in the case. In fact, it's generally odd that supporters of the Schindlers had been attempting to feed Terri, while doctors said she was unable to swallow (hence, why she required a feeding tube). Not a good idea to give solid food or liquids to a person who can't swallow.

4) Is it just me, or are they only "renegade judges" when they rule against Republicans? Maybe they're "renegade" when they rule against anyone, but I've been trying to web search for a liberal blog that comments that "renegade judges" got President Bush elected in 2000 and I've come up empty so far. Please post a link to such a site if you find one.

Back to the relatively apolitical regular programming...

Monkey See, Monkey Do?

I routinely root for the University of Kentucky in college basketball.

Why, would I, raised in New York, be rooting for Kentucky? Do I have a relative who went there? Do I like a particular player or coach from there? No, on both coutns. It's actually quite simple. While I've never been much of a college basketball fan, but this interesting history was pointed out to me recently:

Year	NCAA Basketball Champ	World Series Champ
1948	Kentucky	Cleveland
1949	Kentucky	Yankees
1951	Kentucky	Yankees
1958	Kentucky	Yankees
1978	Kentucky	Yankees
1996	Kentucky	Yankees
1998	Kentucky	Yankees

Now, just because Kentucky won't win the Championship this year, it doesn't mean the Yankees are doomed, but it's a nice little synergy I root for every year.

By the way, Mets fans, you can root for Louisville, since their only previous national championship was in 1986.

That would provide some weird, same-state synergy thing that my brain couldn't handle.

Scandals Named with "-gate"

Why are scandals named with "-gate" by the media?

I know the first such scandal was probably Watergate, but that makes sense since the location of the scandal was at the Watergate Hotel. But then what was the next "-gate" scandal?

Other people have complained about this according to my google search, but I would like to know what the first post-Watergate "-gate" scandal was.

Here's hoping Bill Gates will get into a scandal (Gates-gate), the US Open has a scandal (OpenGate) and that a guy named Joe Golden / woman named Jane Golden gets into a scandal (GoldenGate).

I'm so clever!

Subservient Chicken

This is so strange...

Here's a list of commands you can try. My two favorites are "die" and "Taco Bell."

Mountain Dew

What flavor is Mountain Dew anyway? Green sugar?

Short Sentences

Recently, I was told that I wrote very short sentences for something. I find this funny since I believe that I write lots of run-on sentences. This probably shows that I've compensated for my run-on tendencies by now writing shorter sentences. Either that, or I just like to cut down on the fluff.

Sam Waterston's Hair

You may recognize Sam Waterston from Law and Order, but recently I saw him on a TD Waterhouse commercial and something bugged me about the way he looked. As pictured, his hair is parted to the opposite side in the commercial, and it looks like a mirror image. I find it a bit disorienting, and it makes me not like the commercial.

Forecast Fox

Weather forecasts stink
But this firefox plug-in
Is cool to try out

Still Laughing Alone

A day after a funny face from the President made me laugh, please see another facial expression that made me laugh. The culprit was Bud Selig, on the front page of www.nytimes.com


Doug Mills/The New York Times
Caption reads: Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig was in the hearing room as members of congress chastised him and his sport.

I'm the Only One Laughing

Something about the President's face in this AP Photo, seen on CNN.com (headline: Bush Reports Progress in Social Security Debate) is funny to me. I suspect it is not funny to anyone else.

Google X

Google Labs did a homage to the Macintosh OS X with their Google X design that features a bar similar to Mac OS X's dock bar.

Of course, I have a feeling most people wished they had spent their time working on "Google XXX" - the adult services search.

23-24-25

I just noticed that the return of Tino Martinez to the Yankees means they enter this year with their last three regular first basemen on the team. The three players being Jason Giambi, Tino Martinez and hitting coach Don Mattingly. Their uniform numbers also happen to fall in sequence.

Twin Study

Jose Canseco recently admitted to using steroids, but not much has been said about his twin brother, Ozzie. Since they are twins, and Ozzie has presumably not used steroids, they might be a nice little example of a twin study for steroid use. After all, if they have the same genetic make up and Ozzie is bad at baseball and Jose was pretty good, we can attribute the differences in performance to environmental and other factors. This will allow us to best understand whether or not steroids can help you hit the ball.

I'm hoping to make this my last steroids-related post for a while. I'm amused by all the google context based ads that think this is a steroids blog.

Marv Albert

I predicted it, Marv Albert is going to the YES network to do Nets games. Let's get those Marv "You're watching YES!" promos going!

Gross. Gross. Gross.

I just completed half my sandwich before realizing that I hadn't washed my hands after holding the bar while riding the subway.

Another Post about Steroids

In regards to his subpeona to testify in front of Congress about steroids, Curt Schilling says , "I'm still real confused as to why I was put in this group and why there are others players that aren't in this group."

Does he have short term memory? Curt Schilling likes to talk a lot, and he in fact told Sports Illustrated (as a part of the Ken Caminiti story), "I'll pat guys on the a--, and they'll look at me and go, 'Don't hit me there, man. It hurts.' That's because that's where they shoot the steroid needles."

The Gates - Third in a Series

The Gates is old news
I still have many photos
This was the best one

Part 1


Part 2

Why Not Bonds?

Ray Ratto on ESPN.com asks why Congress didn't subpoena Barry Bonds in their steroid investigation. He suggests that the reason Bonds was not included in the group (comprised of Canseco, McGwire, Sosa, Schilling, Giambi) is that Bonds wouldn't offer much. That doesn't seem to be a good reason not to ask! Also, why wasn't Sheffield asked to the hearing as well?

Locker Room Dynamics

The NY Times had an interesting graphic where they show the locations of players' lockers in the Yankees locker room. I like to see things like this, as it offers a chance to see the everyday happenings in a normally restricted-access place.

See Buster Olney's book, The Last Night of the Yankee Dyansty if you are like me and enjoy little anecdotes like this.

The Gates - Second in a Series

This was taken from the north side of the Great Lawn. To give you a better sense of my day, I was listening to The Ultimate Who, and I had a "dirty water dog" about halfway through the afternoon.

No Matter How Hard You Try, You Can't Stop Us Now

This morning I was very tired, but when I put Rage Against the Machine on my iPod during my workout it sure woke me up! A friend told me that I listen to a lot of angry music. To that friend, here are my top songs played on iTunes, all-time:

1 - Fortune Faded - Red Hot Chili Peppers
2 - The Reason - Hoobastank
3 - Someday - Nickelback
4 (tie) - Clocks - Coldplay
4 (tie) - Hey Ya! - Outkast
6 (tie) - Sad - Pearl Jam
6 (tie) - Africa - Toto
8 - In the End - Linkin Park
9 (tie) - Black - Pearl Jam
9 (tie) - Jeremy - Pearl Jam
9 (tie) - Yeah! - Usher

Back In The Browser Business

Look who's back in the browser game!

It's the new Netscape 8.0 browser. It's based on Firefox and functions pretty similarly. This post is being composed with Netscape.

It hasn't supplanted Firefox as my primary browser. Here are some good and bad features of the new browser.

Good:
The multibar. Shown here, it contains weather updates, rss headline feeds, and is essentially 5 toolbars in one space. There actually may not be enough useful features to fill in five different toolbars.

It uses Firefox to render, but can also show pages in IE. Just right click and say, "view as if IE."

Sidebar is back with a little more force. The Firefox sidebar is much more vanilla.

Automatically includes "Tab preferences" which is an extension in Firefox.

"Clear My Tracks" button, allows you to clear any of the various privacy-type sections (cookies, history, location bar, cache, all of them) from the main window, and also allows clearing of these folders upon browser exit.

Neutral:
The new look. It looks sleek but it's actually sort of hard to use because I'm so used to finding things in different places. After a little while I can get used to it, but still disorienting right now.

Bad:
Still a little buggy. For example, I tried to set up the RSS feed for the KFB and it does not work.

It does not accept a number of Firefox extensions, including one of my personal favorites, Adblock.

It is based on Firefox 1.0 which recently was revealed to have a security flaw!

Windows PC Only.

Summary:
This is not a bad browser, and certainly better than the original "Mozilla" browser, the basis of Netscape 7. Minimalists will still prefer Firefox, but Netscape has a few bells and whistles and a little bling Firefox does not. Security freaks ought to stick with Firefox, since the updates are a bit more regular. I wonder if Netscape has the sort of brand recognition anymore that could make this product a true competitor again.

Phantom Cell Phone Vibe

Do you get the phantom cell phone vibe? Every so often, when my phone is in vibe mode, I think it is ringing, but upon inspection, it is not. Yet I swear I felt the vibrations. Maybe I'm just hoping someone will call...

MSNBC - MS = ?

Microsoft might pull out of its MSNBC partnership with NBC. This doesn't seem like a surprising move. I'm not sure about you, fair reader, but I had completely forgotten that Microsoft even had a stake in MSNBC. I wonder if the network will change names.

The Gates - First in a Series

The Gates was this big public art project in Central Park. It was estimated to cost $21 million, and was completely privately funded by its creators, Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

Side note, an extention of my theory of never trusting anyone with two first names is to never trust anyone with just one name.

Anyways, I'll let you be the judge of whether it was successful or not. The New York Times ran an article about it almost every day, it seemed. Many people went to Central Park to see it, locals and tourists alike. There hasn't been a public art exhibition of its size in Central Park before (and one might wonder if ever again in the near future). But seriously, it's just a bunch of doorways.

If anything, it was worth it for me to visit the Park and snap a few shots which will be shared here. I went on 2/27/05, a nice winter day, and the last day of The Gates. Either something like this won't be done for a while in NYC because people are afraid of seeming like they're imitating this piece, or there will be some annual event like this to milk this sort of publicity. Who knows what will happen. Please enjoy my photos.

Joe, Please Stop It

Joe Torre suggests that since "The Curse" is over, there isn't anything to the Red Sox - Yankees rivalry. Mr. Torre, with all due respect, may I please point out that they beat you last year, preventing you from advancing to the World Series, and the year before, you did the same to them. In most sports, that's enough to start a rivalry. This rivalry may have been different since it was "started" when one of the best players was sold from one team to the other, but I suspect recent events bring out even more emotion.

I know Torre is trying to take pressure off his team by trying to make the Sox - Yankees games seem less important, but give us a break! With the steroids suspicions preventing any celebration of Bonds' assault on Aaron's record, Red Sox vs Yankees is all Major League Baseball has got going for it. The emphasis on these games will be bigger than ever.

Game Show Network

For some strange reason, whenever I can't find something to watch on TV (particularly during the daytimes or late nights), I find myself tuning into the the Game Show Network, with reruns of such hits as Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Celebrity Jeopardy, Press Your Luck, Extreme Dodgeball, The Newlywed Game and Love Connection.

I can't explain why watching people get hit by red rubber balls, or report on bad dates in the 80's is my preferred form of entertainment, but it's strangely addicting.

I hope it's just a phase.