Posted 10/28/07
Back in the day, my Mom and I had a regular thing where we'd make picks on the Sunday NFL games, a little challenge to make watching the games a bit more interesting. For some reason, I decided to revive the game last week, and made picks for each of the games played. (Straight winners picks; I never mess around with point spreads.)
Disaster. I won on only five picks, being betrayed by last second losses on multiple games. I took a licking. I was baffled and enraged, so much so that, when I went out for a walk after the late game ended, for the first time in eons I locked myself out of my apartment. "You're old and slow, Stephen! Time to crawl into a corner and curl up in a fetal position! Toasted!"
Not so fast! Today I went 5-2 on the early games. I quickly followed that up with 4 wins in the late games, giving me a 9-3 record going into tomorrow night's game. That's a .750 record for the day, with promises of brighter Sundays to come.
So, who's kung fu is best?
UPDATE: Denver lost the Monday Night game, so I finished the week 9-4. Still nothing to sneeze at.
Posted 10/13/07
This snuck up on me, because it took a year and a half to happen, but new episodes of The Boondocks are now airing on Cartoon Network (11:30 PM, Monday nights, with repeats of earlier episodes following). Not much to say, beyond the fact that the show is still awesome and fearless, despite the lost time. Maybe since creator Aaron McGruder ended the daily newspaper strip he's had problems coming up with stories. Or maybe it was just resting on the laurels. Don't know, but I'm guessing the season will be short and quick, like most of these modern TV shows, so be sure to tune in and catch all the goodnes before it goes away.
Posted 10/7/07
Currently Listening To: Magic - Bruce Springsteen. As the buzz said, this really is a return to the old E Street Band sound, very much akin to The River and other early works. The tracks are scattered with allusions to earlier sounds from top to bottom. Some critics might view this as Springsteen being derivative of himself, of not being original and fresh, but I think it's a conscious choice on Bruce's part--a decision to make a "Bruce Springsteen record" for the first time in a long time. He has laced these songs with aural markers meant to unify this collection with previous works, while still giving the new tracks distinct lives of their own. The lead song "Radio Nowhere" has gotten a lot of attention, but in my view the sure-fire, grade A, no doubt about it new classic has to be "Livin' In The Future": bright, catchy, a joy to hear, even as its sardonic lyrics make their case. That's the standout, but several other songs (the aforementioned lead, "Your Own Worst Enemy," "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," to name a few) are sure to become favorites. A profoundly welcome work.
I'm dealing with the baseball playoffs, more so than watching them. Nothing much interesting in the matchups (including the Phillies being swept out in three games)--a fact that compounds the problem of baseball's new playoff television partner, TBS.
I wish someone in the front office would get the memo: every time you change partners, bring in someone new to cover the games, there's a falloff in the quality of the broadcast. A lot of the TBS games have left much to be desired: uninspired coverage, missed plays and missing replays, and--the big problem--lack of quality announcers. As anyone who gets an NFL regional game--one ranked below the top two games on the roster--on his Sunday schedule can tell you, there just aren't enough good sports announcers to go around. Each network has a top guy (or top team, if you think in terms of announcer and color commentator) who does a fine job, a second tier voice with a big falloff, and then...you're skimming the dregs: boneheads with big voices, a passing familiarity with the game they're calling, and a conviction that any play can be made exciting as long as you JUST KEEP SCREAMING! On those games, you're lucky if you get the guy who's blandly competent.
And, with the baseball playoffs, every time you bring in a new network--from NBC to CBS to FOX to ESPN to TBS to who knows where next year--you get another set of unfamiliar voices, many of whom are inexperienced at calling big games for a national audience and who don't bring to the event the presence that a Vin Scully, a Jack Buck, a Dick Enberg, or an Al Michaels used to (or still do) bring to the game. And then the networks all wonder where the audience went, why they are receiving record low ratings. Give people a reason to watch--and listen--and they will. But keep insulting their eyes and ears, and you won't even get the hardcore addicts to tune in. Figure it out guys--before it's too late.
Posted 10/1/07
"Sparky," in this case, being Charles M. Schulz, the legendary creator of the Peanuts comic strip, television specials, and cultural phenomenon. This past Sunday I drove over to Santa Rosa to visit the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center. What a joy it was to spend some time among the exhibits chronicling Schulz's life and work. From the moment I walked into exhibit space I had a wide grin on my face, a smile that didn't fade at all throughout my stroll among the featured artwork. Seeing so many of those classic Peanuts strips--with all their familiar characters, gentle, understated and wry wit, and extraordinary longevity and continued relevance--rekindled my appreciation for the brilliance of Schulz's work. It was also gratifying to view the numerous tributes drawn by other cartoonists; the collection features an amazing number of panels and strips drawn by an array of editorial and daily cartoonists, all using Peanuts characters as touchstones to express their own ideas, or simply to say thank you to Schulz for his work and influence. The visit was topped off by a humorous talk given by Bizarro cartoonist Dan Piraro on topics as diverse as his life and work, politics, veganism and why he showed up late. (Traffic, of course.) All in all, a terrific day trip, one that I highly recommend to everyone.
With the Colorado Rockies victory in tonight's wild card tiebreaker game, we've now finalized the field for this year's major league baseball playoffs. I am gratified that the "Team Of My Youth," the Philadelphia Phillies, made it to the postseason with a thrilling comeback to take the NL East title. I'm somewhat less enchanted to see that, yet again, half the AL roster is composed of Boston and New York. Folks, I'd like to make a point about that fact. We who are baseball fans are told ad nauseum that Yankees-Red Sox is the greatest rivalry in the sport, the greatest rivalry in sports, the greatest thing since someone invented shitting and pissing, etc. Well, they may always get there, but think about how they get there. Consider the ten seasons prior to this past season (1997-2006, inclusive). Consider that in the:
NL West -- every team except the Rockies--San Francisco, Los Angeles, Arizona, and San Diego--has won the division during that stretch, with SF and SD reaching the World Series and Arizona winning it all in 2001
NL Central -- dominated by St. Louis and Houston, both of whom won multiple division titles and reached the Series, with the Cardinals winning it all in 2004--but Chicago also reached the playoffs in 1998, and even Cincinnati got to a one-game playoff with the Mets in 1999
NL East -- even with Atlanta winning every division title until 2006, New York made it in the playoffs as a wild card in 1999 and 2000, reaching the Series in the latter year--and the Florida Marlins won the Series twice as a wild card, in 1997 and 2003
AL West -- all four teams--Los Angeles/Anaheim, Oakland, Texas and Seattle--won division titles during the period; Texas won three straight times in the late '90s, the Mariners set a record for wins in 2001 with 116, the A's made five playoff appearances, and the Angels made three trips to the postseason, winning it all in 2002
AL Central -- Cleveland, Chicago and Minnesota gained multiple division championships, with the White Sox winning it all in 2005; in addition, Detroit made it all the way to the Series as a wild card last year
In every other division during the period in question, at least three of the teams have made it to the postseason, often with major success.
And the AL East? Since Baltimore's division title in 1997, none of the teams except Boston and New York have even come close to postseason play. For ten years, Baltimore, Toronto and Tampa Bay have simply folded up and conceded the division to the top two teams. The fact is, the dominance shown by New York and Boston in the AL East is major league baseball's ongoing embarrassment. It's not that they're so great--it's that no one on the same playing field is challenging them. At all. It's yet another of those dirty little secrets about baseball (and, you could say, major sports in general) that everyone knows and everyone ignores.
Let's see someone on the other teams step up and challenge ESPN's favorite duo. Show some guts and come to play, instead of fielding half-teams and also-rans. Then, if there's a really a challenge and the Yankees or Red Sox overcome that, then they'll finally have something worth bragging about.
This page last updated on 11/28/07