Until the dust settles

I’ve been waiting to write about the aftermath of the NBA draft, but the dust hasn’t settled yet. With trades happening left and right, it doesn’t make sense to analyze anything.

So we head to Flushing, New York, and Bronx, New York, where the Mets and Yankees finish the Subway Series. Yesterday the Mets and Yankees split the doubleheader, and Carlos Delgado of the Mets had 9 RBI in the first game. It still doesn’t make up for the fact that he’s hitting .233, but hey, it’s something to talk about. And in the night game, Pedro got shelled (as he usually does against the Yankees) and the Mets were shut out at home.

Is it me or does it feel like the Mets always win at Yankee Stadium and the Yankees always win at Shea? The last few years it’s been pretty even, but I’ve noticed that the Mets tend to win more at Yankee Stadium in the Subway Series than at Shea.

By the way, don’t look now, but the Yankees have been playing solid ball for the last two weeks. And Joba looks like a beast. The Yankees are now six games over .500, yet are still 6 games out of first place (courtesy of the Red Sox) while the Mets are only 3 back, but with a worse record. I still think that both teams will end up in the playoffs, but they just need to win the games they’re supposed to win. For example, when you play the worse team in the MLB, (Mariners) you should take at least 2 out of 3, if not the sweep. Yet the Mets found a way to lose 2 of 3. Impressive.

By the way, I saw a clip of a show called Farmer Wants a Wife on YouTube, and it’s just completely bonkers. The Bachelor meets Old McDonald. All he needs is a dog named Bingo and we’ve got the perfect trifecta.

And finally…

Why Matt Damon, why?

Peace and love

-SB

Germans had a little Lahm

So I decided not to do a live game (match?) log. It was definitely a good idea not to. There would have been far too many expletives dropped, and a ridiculous amount of unrelated talk for about 3/4 of the match. Before I get to the cause of my irateness during the game, let’s commend Germany on a well played game.

It’s funny because the Turks finally played extremely well, and well, they lost. As opposed to being totally outplayed, and eking (is that a word) out a victory. When Lahm crossed over, and made the Turk fall outside the box, I knew that either a Penalty Kick or a goal was coming up, either one favorable for the Germans, and lo and behold, (enter heavenly tune here) Phillip Lahm scores the winning goal.

See this match (game? this lingo is killing me) represented the greatness and what I totally hate about soccer. After the 26th minute, NOTHING, literally, nothing happened until the 79th minute. It was just dreadful watching it, but I decided that at some point, someone was going to score. And they did. Just in time for…

ESPN to drop coverage. Way to drop the ball in the clutch. Nothing happens for over 50 minutes in the match, and then in the 76th minute, just as the crazy finale comes up, ESPN loses coverage. I was ready to pull my hair out. Now what made it worse, was right after Klose scored to make it 2-1 Germany, the Turks scored again, making it 2-2. Guess what we were watching? Replays of the first half, while the “technical difficulties” were being worked out. At this point, I used some words, that my mother would definitely not like to hear from me. And now, for the icing on the cake…

We didn’t even see the game winner live. The feed was broken up, and a minute or two after, they showed the replay. Understandable, technical difficulties, but why wasn’t there a backup plan? I mean, it’s freaking Euro Cup, fools like me who don’t even watch soccer are watching. Way to miss a chance at increasing the popularity of soccer in the U.S.

Here’s an idea. Why don’t you have a backup camera pointed at the “Fan Zone” outside the stadium. There’s nothing worse than watching a 1-1 game for 76 minutes, and then seeing crazy Germans jumping up and down, and you’re just like, what the hell just happened?

But enough about ESPN, and their terrible coverage.

The best part of the match for me was actually after the match, when I called up my friend. Now her coverage dropped too, but she was watching online, so she had no clue what was going on. She’s a hardcore Germany fan, even though she’s not German (don’t try and figure it out).

The conversation went a little like this:
Me: “Hey”
M (my friend): “OMG did you just see what happened”
Me: “Yea, isn’t it crazy”
M: “I was watching online, and it just stopped working, but I heard, I’m so pissed they tied the game”
Me: “You do know that Germany just scored”
M:”… What the !@$%? Oh my *@#$^&% God. Are you *@#$^&% serious? Holy $^&*!”

And so on…

By the way, did anyone notice how small Lahm is compared to the other Germans? When they were hugging him it was like hugging the little Lucky Charms guy.

Peace and love

-SB

NBA Draft Preview

I was all excited to write a post on the NBA Draft, and how the Knicks probably would make another terrible decision, but then I read this, written by Bill Simmons and Chad Ford of ESPN. There’s not much I can say after reading that article. Sure, it’s a little lengthy, but it’s definitely worth it. I may give my take a little later on, but right now, Bill and Chad took care of it pretty well.

On a total side note, I’m pondering whether to do a live match log for the Turkey vs. Germany match. I may actually watch it, and writing stuff down may take my mind off the endless passing so I can watch the occasional goal.

Peace and love

-SB

Shaq Rips Kobe

Wow. I’m trying to move away from basketball, but it’s really hard to ignore something like this.

Now Shaq has already said that it was a joke, and him and Kobe are “cool” but I don’t know. It seems like underneath it all, there’s still some hard feelings.

“You know how I be, Last week Kobe couldn’t do without me”

Oh, and also, I just found out that Shaq’s volunteer Police Officer Badge is being taken away as a result of this. Fair or not fair?

What do you think?

Peace and love

-SB

Euro Cup 2008

So I’m not going to pretend that I’m a huge soccer (football) fan. I’m not. I enjoy watching it, I like to see U.S.A. do well, and I have a few players that I like (C. Ronaldo, Ronaldhino, Zidane, etc.). So I like it, but I don’t catch every match. Now the Euro Cup is around, and I have to say, some exciting matches going on.

It’s down to the quarterfinals, and semi-finals, and the competition is great. Turkey, Germany, and Russia have gotten their place in the semi-finals, and the final semi-finalist will be the winner of Spain and Italy (sure to be a great match).

What I love about soccer is that it is a true team game. You simply cannot win unless your team plays better than the entire team. Unless you’re Diego Maradona, you’re not going through the whole team and scoring. And say you do, your defense still needs to hold up and your goalie needs to make saves. And the great thing is, even with superstars today, they realize that they need a strong team to work with, otherwise it is extremely difficult for one man to take over. In other sports one individual can have a profound effect, but in soccer, the individual’s effort only goes as far as the team takes the effort and makes use of it.

Last thing, then I’ll leave you in peace. Props to Chris Martin from Coldplay for this joke. The joke goes like this. What does an Englishman do when England has won the World Cup and the Euro Cup in the same year? He turns off his PlayStation.

Peace and love

-SB

Pay me back. Now.

The NBA wants its money back from Tim Donaghy. The full story is here.

Basically, the NBA wants Tim Donaghy to pay back money for sneakers, flights, complimentary tickets, and any other perks referees received. Look, I’m not a fan of Donaghy, and I am completely disgusted that he would ever bet on games, but seriously? The NBA wants $1.4 Million back. I think this is rediculous. I mean it’s really “laugh out loud” material here.

Another great move by the No Brains Association

Peace and love

-SB

New Basketball Celebration?

Paul Pierce may have started a new phenomenon.

The “Gatorade Dunk” became legendary when New York Giants players Jim Burt and Harry Carson dumped Gatorade on head coach Bill Parcells once the Giants won Super Bowl XXI in 1987.

(Props to Brittany G from Illinois for this piece of historical information)

Is this going to be the new thing in basketball? It has never been customary in basketball to douse the coach with Gatorade, but will it be now?

I feel like Paul Pierce was so happy, he just wanted a way to start celebrating as soon as possible, and he might have started a new tradition. Coaches watch out!

Peace and love

-SB

Free Willie

With the NBA Finals over and out of the way, we can now talk about the floundering New York baseball teams. The spectacle known as the New York Mets basically jerked around Willie Randolph for the last week with the whole, “Will he stay or will he go?” The way management handled the situation was rediculous, absurd, and downright disrespectful, especially to a class act. Informing a Manager at around 3 AM, on a road trip, after he has won a game, is no way to let him know.

As Randolph said, “I was shocked.” I would be too. See the thing that gets me is that besides totally mishandling the situation, the New York Mets need more than just a managerial change. They need players to simply step up and play the way they are supposed to be playing. Surprisingly, the starting pitching (which was a main concern after the #1 and #2 guy) has been quite efficient and comparatively good, but it seems like the bullpen hasn’t been able to hold a lead. I can count at least 7 games (there were probably more) the Mets have had leads in the 7th inning, and have blown them. Say they win only 4 of those games. If that’s the case, the Mets are tied for 2nd, only back 3 games of the Phillies, in contention. Instead, sloppy play, poor late-inning relief and a lack of offense leaves the Mets 7 games back, and slowly fading.

Now Jerry Manuel is the Manager, and he has already lost his first game. I don’t think changing the Manager will do anything until the stars of the team start playing like stars. Randolph was a class act and will be missed. Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports wrote an interesting article that I think everyone should check out.

Peace and love

-SB

Running Log: Game 6 NBA Finals

I keep pushing off this Willie Randolph article. Anyway, since I usually chat anyway, I decided to just put my thoughts online. I’ll be updating every commercial break, so enjoy…

9:12 Just got in. Was playing basketball for a bit, arrghhh, missed tip off, not a good decision. Currently sweaty and nasty. Welcome to my first attempt at something like this. All times are Eastern Standard U.S. Time.

9:14 Kendrick perkins is playing? Interesting. We’ll see how this one plays out

9:17 Why does Rondo keep shooting? Jeez this is such an ugly game so far. It’s like everyone is trying to draw a foul.

9:18 Wow, impressive shot by Kobe Bryant. Hmmmm, does it sound familiar? Lakers trying to jump out to a quick start…

9:23 Nice move by Ray Allen. Nice poke by Lamar Odom. Oh boy, here we go, another Boston player going to the locker room only to return 4 minutes later.

9:24 Solid passing by Pau Gasol. P.J. Brown, why would you ever foul Luke Walton. He’s Luke friggin’ Walton for God’s sake!

9:27 Wow, KG is on tonight. This could be a long night for the Lakers. Garnett has that crazy look on his face (crazier than normal, believe it or not)

9:30 Peanut Butter and Jelly. Interesting way to pump up your team. Jeff Van Gundy is either hit or miss with his humor. That joke about the “Big Loaf” was terrible. And KG just put in an Alley-oop, and the crowd is going wild.

9:34 Celtics 24 Lakers 20

Tigaaaah!

Wow. Tiger Woods just put himself on a whole new level. If there was any doubt about whether he is in the Jordan category, it was all relinquished this past U.S. Open. Playing against doctor’s orders (which in my opinion is pretty stupid, yet gutsy at the same time), on a bad knee, and losing the lead late, he stormed back to force an 18 hole playoff by sinking a clutch putt on the last hole. Not only that, again, play had to be extended because after the extra 18 holes they were still tied. Tiger won it in sudden death play. Very reminiscent of Jordan’s flu-like symptoms game where he dropped 38 on the Jazz in the NBA Finals.

I read a great article by David Schoenfield of ESPN which lists gutsy performances by athletes. Definitely check it out.

Peace and love

-SB