Keep The Change, Ya Filthy Animal

A list of three things, brought to you by Buzz McCallister (the jerk older brother) from Home Alone:

A) A very special tip of the cap goes to Lane, who last weekend at The Outhouse accomplished his life-long goal of being the announcer for the strippers as they come onstage, proving to all of us that sometimes dreams really do come true. Kudos to you.

2) Unfortunately, I was unable to attend T. Nels and Kristen's wedding last weekend (congrats kids!) But I was informed that the first song of the wedding dance was none other than Celebration by Kool & the Gang. See Rule #2 from the Wedding Dance Manifesto. I'm speaking the truth here, people.

D) Some things crack me up. After I wrote about ogling the women's gymnastics team, the comment section was dominated by females, even though, as far as I know, the vast majority of the people who read this are guys. The noticeable absence of dudes in the comment section was due to many of them deciding to tell me what they thought via text, rather than put their intimate thoughts on the world wide web for all to see. Which is understandable, after reading what they had to say. Here are the topics of those texties, to varying degrees of inappropriateness:

-Things they would do to Shawn Johnson
-Things they would sacrifice for the opportunity to do things to Shawn Johnson
-What percentage of the U.S. gymnastics team they would like to bang
-If one was to fly to Beijing, and hook up with a minor on foreign soil, would it still be statutory?

You stay classy, San Diego.

That's What I Love About These High School Girls, Man. I Get Older And They Stay The Same Age...

Gotta love the Olympics. Nothing like watching men's swimming at the bar and listening to girls on our co-ed softball team talk about how tasty Michael Phelps looks in his Merman suit (no homo), or sitting on the couch watching women's gymnastics, trading texties that say things like "look at my girl Nastia. Grrrr" or "I'd give Shawn Johnson a floor exercise."

I guess I've always had a soft spot in my heart for gymnasts. I watched Stick It and developed a huge crush on the main character. I'm currently dating a retired gymnast....although the only gymnastics she does now is an occasional handstand while she's walking from the living room to the kitchen, and I sprint at her and either a) pretend like I'm gonna punch her in the stomach so she has to quit, or b) pick her up and powerbomb her onto the couch so she has to quit. Fun for everybody involved, to be honest. Or at least fun for me.

It was one thing when the Bergman brothers and I were 13 years old, watching the '96 Olympics and ogling the Magnificent Seven for the U.S. team (Dominique Moceanu was our goddess back then.) They were slightly older than us, and we were at the age where just the sight of a bra strap would send us into a frenzy. It was all good. But now I can't watch women's gymnastics without feeling creepy, and subsequently overcompensating by sending creepy texties to friends (see above.)

Remember those old Frosted mini-wheats commercials, where they would be like, "The adult in me loves the rich whole wheat taste......but the kid in me loves the frosting!" That's what I feel like when I watch the Olympics nowadays:

"The sports fan in me loves watching the U.S. vs. Greece in men's basketball qualifying....but the pedophile in me loves watching 16-year-old-girls run around in one-sies!"

Speaking of the movie Stick It, I was horrified at the end of the movie when our girl Dominique makes a two-second cameo. She wasn't exactly what you would call attractive anymore. I reported this to Bergman, who now refuses to watch the movie so he can preserve the images he has in his mind (not that he was necessarily reserving it at Blockbuster, either. I mean, it is a movie about gymnastics.) Annnnyway, that was the last time I had laid eyes on Dominique, so out of curiosity I ran her through the ol' google search, and found this picture. Avert your eyes, Bergman.

I'm assuming she's pregnant, because really the only other possibility is she ate Kerri Strug. When will the fad of posing for pictures naked and pregnant be over with? I know I've had my fill. Stupid Demi Moore.

It's The F*cking Catalina Wine Mixer!

If you don't know what that's from, go see Stepbrothers. It's like masturbating in a time machine.

I recently received the news that in addition to being Best Man at St. Aubyn's wedding next month, I also get to be the unofficial deejay. He asked me to email him a list of songs that he will give to the actual deejay, and I responded with as much excitement as a 13-year-old girl finding out that NSYNC will be playing her next birthday party. Wait, kids still listen to NSYNC, right? That's just a little taste of some of the songs I'm going to be picking. Holler back.

I've always wanted to deejay a wedding dance. Back in 2004, I made a half-assed comment (I mistakenly thought the bride-to-be knew I was joking) that I would deejay her wedding, and then she legitmately asked me a few weeks beforehand if I would, but by then I realized I would rather just get hammersmithed and dance like an idiot than stay sober and play songs, so I declined. Apparently they were counting on me to actually do it, so they had to scramble and find someone else, so I felt bad. To repay her, I just got superduper drunk and provided free entertainment in the form of some MC Hammer dance moves.

But this situation here is the best of both worlds. This way I get to pick the songs beforehand, and ALSO get bombed and shake my tailfeather. I spent probably 10 minutes in the 'deejay booth' at Ike's wedding, making adjustments to the MC's playlist.

His argument: "Yeah, um, I've been MCing weddings for 10 years. I think I know what songs people like to hear."

My argument: "Well, I've been getting drunk and acting stupid with most of these people for 10 years. Play Barbie Girl next, dude."

At the risk of tooting my own horn, after I tweaked his playlist a bit, the dance floor was packed for the rest of the night. As Jon Jon would say: Toot toot.

During all my years of attending wedding dances, I've been on opposite ends of the spectrum. I've been the 15-year-old scavenging half-empty champagne bottles off of abandoned tables in the corner, and simply watching the dance floor, trying to maintain my composure so that when I unexpectedly run into my Spanish profesora by the punch bowl, she won't know I've been drinking; and I've been the 24-year-old squinting through a drunken haze at the 15-year-old scavenging bottles in the corner, and asking my buddies if she looks like she's 20, does it really matter if she's only 15? Through these experiences, I've been making observations and forming opinions, and now I organize them into a manifesto of sorts, for your enjoyment.

Rule #1- And this is Wedding Dance 101 here, but it's amazing how many deejays fuck this up: Play the old people music (waltzes, tangos, other shit that no one under age 50 knows how to do) at the beginning. Old people don't stick around for the end of the dance, and if you play one of these songs at the end when it's just kids out there, it results in the biggest stampede since the dinosaurs got loose in Jurassic Park.

Rule #2- Do not, repeat, do not start off the dance with Celebration by Kool & the Gang. I bet like 75% of the weddings I've been to are guilty of this. It basically wastes a great wedding song, because nobody dances to the first song of the night. You could put Jessica Biel, naked, with a hundred dollar bill in each hand, in the middle of that dance floor, and you're still not gonna see any dudes out there, for the same reason that you don't ever see a 200-pound girl leaving a bar with a random guy anytime before last call: we're just not that drunk yet.

Rule #3- In a follow-up to #2, don't start throwing around all your best songs at the beginning. No matter how good the songs are right away, you just have to accept the fact that the dance floor will be pretty empty. If you're deejaying, you have to look at it like you're flirting with a stranger from across the bar a little bit. You can't just play a bunch of crap at the beginning, just like you wouldn't act like a total asshammer right away, or then the girl will ignore you completely. But you can't play all your awesome songs right away in a desparate ploy for attention, either. You wouldn't just stroll up to the girl at the bar and say, "Hi, my name is Brad. I bench 250, squat a clean 400, volunteer for disaster victims on weekends, love watching The Notebook and snuggling, have 1.3% body fat, and enjoy going down on a girl for hours on end." Of course not. You'd come off as creepy, potentially a serial killer. Play a few decent songs at first, you know, kind of putting the vibe out, letting them know that yeah, I'm pretty good now, but wait until you see me later. Then let her get a few drinks in her system and take advantage of her when she assures her friends that she's OK to drive home by herself. Wait...I may have just mixed up my metaphors there.

Rule #4- There seems to be a backlash lately against songs like the Chicken Dance, the Macarena, and the Electric Slide. Bullshit, I say. There's nothing wrong with any of these songs. I always thought that the biggest omission during Wedding Crashers was to not include learning the Electric Slide. Look at your typical dance floor during that song. It's usually like 15-20 girls for every guy. If you're a dude, you gotta love that ratio. Learn the Electric Slide, boys. In fact, learn to love it. Once you establish yourself as one of the only dudes in the joint who is both comfortable enough and coordinated enough to execute the Slide, it's like fishing with dynamite (speaking from experience.) Even G.I. Joe would tell you, "Knowing is half the battle." And I'll be damned if he ever led me astray.

Rule #5- Along those same lines, choose your spots wisely when you're inserting slow dances. If you're a deejay, an important underlying factor to keep in mind during the reception is: There are people trying to get laid here. You have a duty--nay, a responsibility--to help make that happen (especially if you're a guy.) With that in mind, you can't just throw slow songs in wherever you want. Slow songs are a very key part of the 'hooking up at a wedding dance' process, but as is so often the case in life, timing is everything. Don't play any Alison Krauss right after you just played Shout! Everyone just spent the last 6 minutes jumping around, sweating, and if you're anything like my friends, most likely spraying beer on each other. Chicks don't wanna slow dance with you if they can feel a mix of sweat and PBR dripping on top of their head (also speaking from experience.)

Rule #6- Contrary to popular belief, it is OK to play the same song more than once, as long as there is at least an hour and a half between repeats. I've always believed this, and my argument was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt at Ike's wedding. Early on we requested Apache by the Sugarhill Gang, and Bergman and I did our dance to it. (By 'our dance' I mean the Fresh Prince and Carlton's, but as far as most people know, I made it up. I've never claimed to be the originator, but when people compliment me on it, let's just say that I don't tell them otherwise.) A few people noticed us, liked it, caught on pretty quick, and then the deejay cut the song short. Unreal. So later I requested Jump On It by Sir Mix-a-Lot. The deejay didn't know it was the same song, only slightly remade. Sneaky, I know. This time more people were joining in. Then, almost at the end of the night, I made him play Apache again. He was dead set against it, but I finally convinced him. See the above logic I used for this argument. This time, there was a rush towards the dance floor by people who weren't already out there. And every single person on that dance floor was doing the Fresh Prince dance. And it was spectacular.

Rule #7- Don't play any of those bush league megamixes. I've heard this a few times with Michael Jackson songs, where it's like 30 seconds of Billie Jean, then 30 seconds of Thriller, 30 seconds of Beat It, etc. etc. That's just garbage, for so many reasons. C'mon, this isn't a Jock Jams CD.

Rule #8- Keep the newer, "the only way to dance to this song is to grind the shit out of each other" rap songs to a minimum. I would say 2 max; depending on your crowd, you could go 1, or even none. This isn't El Roco on a Thursday night; let's try and at least keep the illusion of appropriateness here. The main reason for this rule is the abundance of parents that are usually in attendance. Let's be honest here: if I'm a father, and if I wanted to watch some spikey-haired shithead with his shirt partially unbuttoned rub his dong all over my daughter, while flashing westside at his buddies with one hand, and sloshing a keg beer all over the $300 dress that I paid for with his other hand....well then, I would just videotape my nightmares.

Rule #9- Always, always, always finish with a slow song. You'd think this would go without saying, but I've been to more than one wedding that broke this sacred rule. A slow song puts some closure on the party. You can't just play some kick-ass song and then say, "All right, that's it, folks!" That'd be like if CBS immediately cut to an episode of Law & Order, 2.5 seconds after the National Championship game ended. You gotta be able to see One Shining Moment; you gotta have some time to wind down a little bit. Plus, finishing with a slow dance is beneficial to all the wedding-goers: The people who are about to hook up can whisper their room numbers in each others' ear. The wallflower couple who hasn't set foot on the dance floor yet can share a romantic moment on their journey to being the most boring couple ever. The single ladies can go drunk dial their ex-boyfriends. And the single dudes can go shotgun a couple of beers at the bar before they go back to their hotel room and jerk off to their $16.95 skinemax pay-per-view. Everybody's a winner here.


Of course, I wouldn't pretend to know everything about deejaying a wedding dance, so any suggestions are welcome.

Happy Madden Day!

Today is one of my favorite days of the year, the day that Madden comes out. My best day of the year list probably goes:

1. Opening day of March Madness
2. Thanksgiving
3. Selection Sunday
4. April 16th
5. National Championship Game/Baseball Opening Day
6. Madden Day
7. Christmas Eve


When I was a kid, my mom HATED Madden Day, because she knew I would be spending a minimum of 12 consecutive hours in front of the TV, regardless of how nice it was outside. My mom, probably still to this day, harbors an intense dislike of video games, brought on almost entirely by my love for them. She was convinced that spending hours zoned out in front of the TV was bad for me, and I would continually argue with her about it. For one, I don't think it's bad for you, as long as you have friends and stay active and whatnot. And two, if you ever have watched me play, I'm far from zoned out while I'm playing. To put it bluntly, I'm a fucking spaz. One time when I was 14 we were having our usual go-round about how she hates video games. I pointed at her and, completely serious, yelled "You don't talk about Nintendo 64 that way!" That, sadly, is a true story, I think Bergman might have been there for that one.

It's not like video games stunted me socially or anything; I have plenty of friends and am a reasonably well-functioning member of society. But I'll admit, it's a delicate line that I straddle. There have been countless occasions where I've been late to parties or get-togethers because I had to "finish my game." There was a party last summer where MyShawn and I were about 3 hours late because we couldn't walk away from our huge winning streak with Golden State in NBA Jam.

I am fairly convinced that my unborn children will outgrow video games before I do. I have no idea how to build things, or fix things, nor do I possess the working knowledge needed to alert me if something is broken and needs to be fixed. While Brother was in the garage with my dad learning how to change the oil in a car, I was inside trying to bat .500 for an entire season with Julio Franco. When they were camping and hunting, I was pulling all-nighters and simulating 17 seasons in Tecmo Super Bowl.

So maybe Mom had a point. Oh well. It's not going to stop me from playing Madden tonight from approximately 5:15 pm until I go to bed. Well, maybe more like 6 p.m.....I better take my car in to the shop to get the oil changed.

Dream Team (No Pun Intended)

In honor of the Olympics starting this weekend, but mostly because it's 4:30 in the morning and I can't fall asleep (I inexplicably fell into a 3 hour coma after my round of golf this evening, and since my usual naps are like 7 minutes long, I'm totally screwed now), here is my USA Basketball Dream Team, if I was making a team based on NBA Live '95 for Sega Genesis:


Starters:

C- Shaquille O'Neal- he was an absolute force in that game. He'd shoot approximately 100% from the floor.

F- Chris Webber- ditto Webber. His back to the basket game was phenomenal. How would anybody handle those two down low?

F- Scottie Pippen- doesn't need to score much, but probably could, since his mid-range jumper was unstoppable in this game. He'd also guard the best player on the other team at all times, and play a little point guard if needed, since we're only carrying two on the roster.

G Reggie Miller- wouldn't need to do anything besides sit in the corner and hit open 3's.

G Mark Price- arguably the most unguardable player in this game. If any team tried to double down on Shaq and C-Webb, Price and Miller would hit ten 3's each.

Bench:

C- David Robinson- could possibly sneak in and end up leading the team in scoring or something weird like that. He would always put up a rather quiet 40-20 in Live '95.

G- Gary Payton- doesn't have Price's shooting, but is a better passer and a much, much, much, much better defender.

F- Larry Johnson- I originally had Grant Hill here, but then I remembered he wasn't in Live '95, so I added LJ for a little more size and toughness.

G- Dan Marjele- another shooter. A little more streaky, but when he's on, he gets the green light once he crosses half court.

F- Shawn Kemp- he'll give Webber and Shaq a breather, and we need someone for Payton to throw alley-oops to when we're up by 45 in garbage time.

G/F- Stacey Augmon- role player. Really doesn't need to do much but shut down the other team's scorer and dunk during blowouts.

G- Isaiah Rider- the 12th man really doesn't play anyway, so we're taking a flier on a headcase. One time I dropped 42 points in one 5-minute quarter with him.

What's more sad, the fact that these are the things I think about when I'm trying to fall asleep; the fact that when I googled 'nba live 95' and saw the above picture, my first thought was "C'mon, Mookie, throw Koncak the alley-oop, nobody's guarding him!"; or the fact that it only took me like 1.5 seconds to determine that it was Mookie Blaylock and Jon Koncak in the picture? Quite frankly, it's a toss up.

Tales From The K

Stories from a couple games at Kaufmann while the Sox were in town....

The first night I felt like being kind of a douche, and everyone knows we love to try and bait Royals fans into talking shit, so I decided to wear my "Manny Being Manny" shirt. If the Royals fan was cool, like the 75-year-old guy who made fun of me in the parking lot, then I would be self-deprecating and laugh about how I'm living in denial. If the Royals fan was a dipshit (like the guy who comes into the stands and does promotions) then I would act like I hadn't heard about the Manny trade, and act shocked and surprised until the guy finally realized I was being sarcastic and left me alone.

So speaking of the Royals Promotion Guy, Alex, Ashley, and I were on the Jumbotron for an extended period of time. The guy directly in front of us was selected to do a trivia question, which was: Who is Billy Butler's (Royals 1st baseman) favorite American Idol?

A. David Cook
B. Ruben Studdard
C. Carrie Underwood

So do you think Butler, a twenty-something red-blooded American male, likes Carrie Underwood? Nope. Well, does he at least like Cook, who is from Kansas City? Nope. He likes Ruben Studdard. So the guy guesses Underwood (smartly), gets it wrong, and the crowd, including us, goes ballistic booing the fact that Butler actually likes Studdard, unquestionably the worst choice of the three. I'm up on the Jumbotron in the background expressing my displeasure, and the promotion guy yells at me "Sit down, Manny!"

Wait a second, what? He told us right before the thing started that we should be animated and rowdy on screen! Now, no? Now he just wants to look cool and make a Manny joke in front of a bunch of people? Those promotion guys are like that. Without fail. So I whirl around and turn my displeasure on him. "Fuck off dude, Ruben Studdard? Are you kidding me?!? That shit was rigged!" while dismissively pointing at him. Most the people in our section were Sox fans, and they thought this was awesome, and a guy sitting near me took a picture of the Jumbotron during this exchange, and he later showed me a picture of myself berating the promotion retard on the Jumbotron. One of my proudest moments. I should've had the guy email me the pic or something. Live and learn, I guess. End of the story is that the guy doing the trivia got like 20 free cookies for losing, and he gave some to us and they tasted awesome.

At some point during the game (I have no idea how this topic came up) it came out that Alex thought Eurasia was one of the 7 continents. I honestly thought she was joking for a few minutes since she was so serious about it. I told her that it was a continent around 250 million years ago; she didn't care. Ashley politely told her she was mistaken; she didn't care. The three guys from Boston sitting behind us told her, less politely, that she was mistaken; she didn't care. The 10 year old sitting next to me told her she was wrong, listed the 7 actual continents in about 3 seconds, and then started laughing at Alex (this kid immediately became my main man) and she STILL didn't care. By now there are a lot of people involved in this discussion, and it wasn't until the same guy who took my picture on the Jumbotron used his phone and googled Eurasia and read the definition to her that she finally accepted it (sorta.) I have never been so embarrassed to be dating someone....I suppose now I know how Alex feels when I, oh...I don't know, get into a verbal dispute with a Royals employee in front of 25,000 people on the biggest scoreboard in major league baseball. Anyway, here's my main man and me, check out the look on his face, what a stud:

"Dude, Eurasia? Is she serious? Even my girlfriend that still occasionally eats glue knows the 7 continents! What do you SEE in this chick?"

"I know, man....I know. She cooks me some pretty good mac 'n' cheese, though. You'll understand one day."


From a baseball standpoint the game was good, Beckett pitched well, the bats came alive, and the Sox cruised to a fairly easy win. Ashley decided she was going to match me beer for beer, which resulted in me being slightly buzzed....and her being "Michael Cera at the end of Superbad" drunk. Ahh...I remember when I had my first beer, too. So her and Alex (who wasn't exactly sober either) are making me take a picture every 3 minutes or so, until I finally snapped, and then they bothered the dudes behind us to take pictures of/with them.

My inner monologue: "Dammit, you two! We're in the middle of a rally right now! This is the last fucking picture I'm taking!" Oh, wait. That was my outer monologue. My inner monologue was probably worse, and had more profanity.

So that game was fun, and we went again last night, this time in much better seats, and the Sox won again, so they're now 4-2 when I see them in person. No real funny stories though, except maybe one. In the ninth inning, with the Sox up 8-2, Papelbon gives up a meaningless base hit. Some dude behind us yells, "Ahhhh yeeeeaaaahhhhh!!!! Papelbon, you fucking suck!" This is while his team is down six runs with one out in the bottom of the ninth. God bless Royals fans.

You're Going To Be Embarrassed When You Realize I'm Wilmer Valderrama!

One of the surest signs that I am getting older is my taste in music. If the 2008 Me would've told 1999 Me that right now his favorite song was "American Boy" by some British chick and Kanye West, 1999 Me would've punched the 2008 Me in the mouth (but it probably wouldn't have hurt too much, he was a pretty big pussy. Then again, I still am, so all bets are off.)

Back then, my views on rappers were pretty much black and white (whooooaaaa! no semi-racist pun intended.) Either you were gangsta, or you were a poser bitch. If you did multiple songs that prominently featured a chick singing in it, you were a bitch. I wasn't interested in hearing different artists' versatility; I wanted to hear about robbing and shooting and drinking 40s and talking shit about other rappers. If I wanted to hear a song about love, I'd go buy a John Mayer CD. "Your Body is a Wonderland" might be the worst fucking song I've ever heard in my life. But I digress.

In my close-minded opinion, you were either a rapper who rapped about badass stuff, or you were essentially an R&B singer who tried to act hard, but was really a pussy. Dr. Dre? Badass. P. Diddy? Bitch. Wu-Tang? Badass. Ja Rule? Huge bitch. Ice Cube? Badass. Jay-Z, once he started singing duets with Beyonce? Bitch (he would later redeem himself with the Black Album, but for a while there, I was pretty worried. I don't want to hear if you're "so crazy in love." I want to hear about "Big Pimpin, spending cheese.")

Even 50 Cent, who almost single-handedly revived my hope that rap wasn't dead with songs like "Wanksta" and "Back Down", immediately became involved with songs such as "20 Questions" and "Candy Stick"....and that was the end for me and my respect for Fitty.

Now? Meh. For one, rap music sucks, I hate everything about it, so I find it hard to get worked up about 'rappers' singing duets with girls. Whatever floats your boat. I'm still not listening to dudes like Usher sing about his 'boo'....but at the same time, I'm not having those pointless, "it's 4 a.m. and everyone at the party is hammered, so let's start arguing about something stupid" disagreements where I rant about how Ja Rule is ruining hip-hop.

Gotta love 400 word tangents from a white North Dakota kid regarding rap music, when really the only point I'm trying to make is that my favorite song right now is "American Boy" and I find this very strange.



OK, question of the day time. I know that Noles, Horp and I talked about this on The Boards quite a few months ago, but I was reminded of the topic again last week at the Royals/Rays game. Alex Gordon's at-bat music was the exact same snippet of the song that is played during Knocked Up when Seth Rogen is dancing with Katherine Heigl at the club. Consequently, for the rest of the game I was counting down the batters until Gordon came up again, and then dissolving into giggles as soon as he was announced, as I couldn't help but picture Rogen doing the dice move on the dance floor over and over again.

So, the Question of the Day is: if you were a major league baseball player, what would your at-bat music be? Keep in mind that you only get about a 10-second window to hear your song before it cuts out.

"Dude, I think he's doing the dice thing a little too much."

"That's really all he's got."

So Long, Manny

Well, it happened. After years of dodging bullets, Manny was finally traded. I was crushed yesterday; I wanted to go home sick from work. From a baseball standpoint, it's not a bad deal for the Sox. Jason Bay has very comparable stats, and a much better attitude. But the fact remains: he's not Manny.

Thanks to (most) everyone for the outpouring of support last night. It felt like a family member died or something. While I'd love to individually thank each of you, that honor goes to MyShawn, who sent me this little gem:

First of all I'm sorry for your loss, second of all I've always wanted to say this to you:

Every night in my dreams

I see you, I feel you,

That is how I know you go on

Far across the distance

And spaces between us

You have come to show you go on

Near, far, wherever you are

I believe that the heart does go on

Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart

And my heart will go on and on

Heart warming. Who doesn't love the Titanic song? Now that we've established a sufficient amount of homosexual overtones, I can do my tribute to Manny. Here are all the Manny-related things I will miss (besides, obviously, the .300 average, 30 HR, 120 RBI stats every year, the best 3-4 combo in baseball with Ortiz, and the fact that the Yankees are TERRIFIED of him):

The Point. Granted, he rarely does this anymore, as it was kind of a Pedro and Millar thing, and they're both long gone. When it was in full effect, though, it was awesome. My favorite was one game in 2004 when, after going from first to third on a single to right field (fairly routine) he popped out of his slide and flashed a giant two-handed point at the dugout, like he had just scored the tying run in the 9th inning or something. That one killed me.

His shenanigans in the Green Monster, usually during pitching changes. Like the time in 2005 he went in, and came back onto the field only seconds before Wade Miller was about to pitch. It was rumored he was using the restroom, except, um, there's no restroom in there.

Nobody, but nobody, pimped a home run like Manny could (much to the chagrine of opposing pitchers, fans, and probably even some old-school Sox fans.) He may not have invented it, but he perfected it. I know normally I hate it when players do this, but like many other things, Manny somehow gets a pass. It's just funny when he does it. Some of my favorites:

Against the Yankees on the last day of the year in 2005. The game was already in hand, a playoff spot was clinched, when Manny launches one. He stands in the box for a few seconds, walks halfway to first base, then suddenly decides to be honorable, and puts his down and nearly sprints the rest the way around the bases. Seriously, he was running faster than he does for a ground ball to shortstop.

His homer off Jared Weaver in last year's ALDS. I've written about this one here before, but to summarize: Weaver was pissed about Ortiz admiring a homer earlier in the year. Ortiz went yard off Weaver, and in order to diffuse any bad blood, he puts his down and simply runs around the bases. Manny comes up next, hits a BOMB, and (even by his standards) takes his sweet time getting out of the box and around the bases. Basically just a big F you to Weaver.

His walk-off in Game 2 of that same ALDS. He stood at home plate for probably 5 seconds before he even thought about going to first. Look how far away the catcher has already walked, and Manny still isn't going anywhere.











Just his overall wackiness:





He rubbed Julian Tavarez's head for like a minute straight, on camera. Youtube this if you haven't seen it, it's ridiculous.





After becoming an American citizen in 2004, he came out to left field with an American flag, to a standing ovation. Other things he has brought with him to left field: MP3 playing sunglasses, and a water bottle in his back pocket.




When he appeared on ebay, selling a grill. Here was his item description:

"Hi, I'm Manny Ramirez. I bought this AMAZING grill for about $4,000 and I used it once. ... but I never have the time to use it because I am always on the road. I would love to sell it and you will get an autographed ball signed by me. Enjoy it, Manny Ramirez."

The play from earlier this year when he caught a fly ball, high-fived a Sox fan, turned and completed the double play. A rare instance when Manny being Manny actually resulted in a solid baseball play. My favorite part of this play is when they are back in the dugout, and the team is gathered in front of a camera, re-watching it, and they're all dying laughing, and Manny is re-creating the high five, laughing just as hard as everyone else.

Back in 2001, in his first at-bat at Fenway, in the first pitch he sees, he unleashes a monster three-run homer. That's not really weird, just awesome.

Perhaps the most mind-boggling thing he ever did (which is saying something) was when he cut off a throw from Johnny Damon...in the outfield. He had to dive for the ball, then scramble to relay it to the shortstop (the real cut-off man) all while the Orioles player circled the ball for a inside the park home run. Maybe my favorite Manny moment...and apparently MLB has wiped out every clip from the internet.

When T. Nels and I went to Boston for the first time in 2005, during the first game we saw in Fenway, Manny hit a home run to left that cleared the Coke bottle over the Monster. Turned out to be the game-winning hit, and I don't think that ball has landed yet.

Back in 1994, when he was still with Cleveland, the team was gathered in the clubhouse, watching the O.J. chase on TV. Manny strolls in, asks what they're watching. A teammate answers, "They're chasing O.J." Manny's reply, "What did Chad do?" Referring to teammate Chad Ogea, who was reportedly standing 3 feet away from Manny at the time.

Fittingly, a sequence that is Manny's entire career in a nutshell comes from his first game as a rookie. He hits a ground rule double (his first career hit) but thinks it left the yard, so he continues to round the bases. The third base umpire stops him and directs him back to second base. Moments later, he is picked off.

Maybe after all the shenanigans over the years, it was inevitable that it ended like this. As Manny himself would probably put it, "It was just destination, joo know?"

You'll be missed.

Anyone Know Where The Panic Button Is?

...Because I would like to begin pressing it now. All season long I've stayed pretty calm regarding the Red Sox. There really hasn't been much reason to complain. Through injuries, career-worst slumps, more injuries, and the (ongoing) Julio Lugo Experience, the Sox have battled through and held one of the best records in baseball for most of the year. Throw in last year's championship, and yeah, by my standards, I'm chillin' like a villain (I honestly haven't heard that expression in like 8 years, did it look as stupid in print as it sounded in my head?)

Well that's all changing now. It's about that time of year when the Yankees make their charge, the Sox slump a little bit, I'm living and dying with every game, and when the Sox are televised, and it happens to be a close game in the late innings, I react like the dude at the end of the Blair Witch Project.

And now the Yankees picked up Demaso Marte, Xavier Nady, and Ivan Rodriguez for basically nothing (why the FUCK are the Yankees always the beneficiary of those kind of one-sided trades?!? Drives me absolutely ape shit bananas.) And the Angels got Mark Teixiera without breaking the bank. Meanwhile those two teams just took 5 of 6 from the Sox. The Rays show no signs of faltering. A playoff spot is in serious jeopardy. The water is officially boiling.

And then we come to the Manny situation. Lately, whenever I hear any sort of trade rumors, or the latest quote where Manny bashes the Red Sox front office, I have chosen to react like any rational 5-year-old would, by essentially putting my fingers in my ears and saying "la la la la la la if I can't hear it then it's not real." But there is no ignoring it anymore. He may get traded, he may not, but either way, there is officially a 0% chance of the Sox picking up their option on Manny in the off-season, meaning that even in the best case scenario, there are only 3 months left of Manny playing in Boston. I've lived in blissful, ignorant denial for almost a week now, but I'm gonna have to start wrapping my mind around it.

I have realized one thing these last few days, though. I unconditionally love Manny. In every sense of the word. Despite his incredibly childish behavior lately (even by his standards) I can't get mad at him. Unlike Johnny Damon, who I still boo every time he comes to the plate (I hold grudges well) Manny could sign with the Yankees and I would still love him. Damon is 10 times the professional that Manny is, but it just doesn't seem to matter. You'd be hard pressed to find an athlete in recent memory who has acted up so much in an effort to get out of his current situation...and it just doesn't affect how I feel about him. Can't explain it.

At this point, I don't know what Manny would have to do for me to not still love him. Start striking out on purpose? Let fly balls drop at his feet without moving? Spray paint "Go fuck yourself, Boston" on the Green Monster during a pitching change? Start shooting couples in parked cars like the Son of Sam? You got me. Manny is like the aging family dog that routinely pees on the carpet, and has recently started biting the neighborhood kids when they get too close, but I just can't bring myself to take him to the vet to put him down.

I guess the only thing I can ask at this point is for Manny to survive the trade deadline. The Sox come to Kansas City next week, and I would like to see him in a Boston uniform at least one more time in person. Please?

I Am Easily Swayed

I am on record as saying that although I love video games, it would be a long time before I upgraded from my Playstation 2, because quote "I don't need video games to be any more real than they already are." Hell, my Sega Genesis still gets semi-regular use (I just won the Stanley Cup with the San Jose Sharks in NHL '94, glad you asked.)

Then a little while ago Lane bought a Playstation 3, and I went over there to play MLB '08. I was smitten pretty quick. Sammy Sosa would play this game and exclaim, "It's so reeeeeal!" When you walk into Lane's living room and glance at the TV, you can't tell if it's a real game or a video game on the TV. Since it's hooked up to the internet, there is a live ticker rolling across the bottom of the screen, with real scores. I begin pondering asking for a PS3 for Christmas. Lane and I play as the Red Sox, vs. the Yankees at Fenway. Johnny Damon comes up to bat and the virtual crowd boos him mercilessly and I giggle. The virtual crowd chants 'Youuuuuuk' when Kevin Youkilis comes up to bat, and I giggle some more. I am thoroughly enjoying how ridiculous this game is. We end up playing and boozing until about 2 in the morning. After seeing how much I loved this game, Lane predicted that I would buy a PS3 by the end of August.

Long story short, the PS3 I bought on ebay arrived this weekend.

Bullets (Not Of The Washington Variety)

Speaking of the Washington Bullets, how uncool were they until they traded for Chris Webber? Holy, they were awful when I was a youngster. You know that if your NBA Jam representatives are Tom Gugliotta and Harvey Grant, then you are not a very successful franchise. While we're at it, my favorite NBA Jam combos:

1. Tim Hardaway & Chris Mullin- I know it's blasphemous for me to not have Ewing and Starks in the top spot...but I could play as Golden State, and I'll give you Wilt Chamberlain and Jesus Christ, and I'll still beat you.

2. Patrick Ewing & John Starks- Love 'em dearly, but they weren't very good in this game. Even in a video game where players could jump to the rafters, Ewing still hobbled around on the court.

3. Shawn Kemp & Detlef Schrempf- Schrempf was solid if unspectacular, but sometimes I think that NBA Jam was created just for Kemp. His dunks were siiiick.

4. Larry Johnson & Alonzo Mourning- Couldn't shoot 3's worth shit, but probably the best pair of dunkers/rim protectors in the game. No easy buckets against them.

5. Isiah Thomas & Bill Laimbeer- Isiah was pretty much unguardable, and you could just turn Laimbeer loose to go fuck people up.

Screw it, I've already wasted this much time, here's the 5 worst:

1. Brad Lohaus & Blue Edwards- so bad that I bet only DVJS could name what team they represented (no googling.)

2. The aforementioned Googs/Harvey combo.

3. Clarence Weatherspoon & Jeff Hornacek- you know when you would go up big on a team, and then the computer A.I. would kick into "automatic comeback so that every game ends on a buzzer beater" mode? Well, when Philadelphia would do that, we would call it Revenge of the Nerds. Man these two were geeks.

4. Christian Laettner & Chuck Person- The Chuckster was sweet, but Laettner really is that big of a homo. Forget the 1972 gold medal game against the USSR, Laettner making the original Dream Team in '92 was the greatest tragedy in United States Olympic Basketball history. They should run a SportsCentury on that.

5. Dikembe Mutombo & Laphonso Ellis- I dare you to make a shot outside of 3 feet with these two.

I know it's tough to go on that stupid of a side tangent when the original blog is supposed to be just random bullets anyway, but I feel that was sufficiently ridiculous. Oh and I just listed those off the top of my head, so don't comment to say "Whatever, bro. Jeff Malone was actually on Philadelphia's team, not Hornacek." I'm not your bro, bro.

OK now to other stuff, which may or may not be even more pointless. No promises.

• Happy travels to French and La as they make their trek from Boston to Los Angeles. We were able to meet them for some mexican food and Coronas on Tuesday (and some pancakes and Coronas the next morning. Just kidding....I don't have pancakes that early in the morning) as they passed through the humble midwest on their way to the bright lights of the City of Angels. I'm extremely jealous that they are fulfilling one of my lifelong dreams of driving across the entire country. Godspeed, kids.

• Currently ESPN is counting down the 'most prestigious' college basketball programs in the country, in their typical overhyped ESPN fashion. However, Eldest Brother Schneweis already broke this down, in great detail, a few months ago, and is not getting paid thousands of dollars nor getting fanfare on one of the most popular websites on the planet, so I thought I would give him propers here. A pretty nice consolation prize, if you ask me. It's pretty solid work, and interesting as hell (unless you are not a college basketball enthusiast, in which case you probably don't want to click the link.)

• I didn't comment on these sports stories when they were current, and it's too late to write in detail about them now, but quickly: WNBA brawl = awesome. Rick Mahorn being involved in said brawl = doubly awesome. CBS dumping Billy Packer for the Final Four, which was about 20 years overdue = unspeakably fantastic. CBS not replacing him with my boy Gus Johnson = disappointing, but predictable. And finally, Brett Favre = idiot. Fucking quit already. If I see one more headline that reads "Favre text messages Packers' GM...Content Unknown" or "Favre Does Not Have Packer-Issued Phone" then, to quote the debate moderator from Billy Madison, I am just gonna snap.

• Sometimes I have to remember that I can't always talk like I'm with my buddies when I'm at work. Yeah, the M.O.M. Squad loves when I say certain things, like when instead of saying "I'm going to lunch" I say "I'm going to get my eats on." And they find it amusing when I drop in an occasional "peace out" or "word up" (word up takes the place of about 17 other phrases for me, so they hear that one a lot.) However- - - - back story: back when we made Charlie Brown's our home-field advantage bar, there was this band of crazy 50-somethings who were still living like it was the Woodstock era. They played there nearly every weekend. Their drummer was this dude who was either still heavily involved in hardcore drugs, or else he had smoked himself retarded in 1968 and was dealing with the repercussions now. Anyways, he had some mental tic, where everytime he heard the phrase "True story" he would automatically reply with "Donkey donkey donkey." No matter if he was in mid-conversation, mid-song, or mid-whatever else he was doing. And since this band played there often, the bartenders and blackjack dealers were all very aware of this. So, for their own amusement, every once in a while when the band was rocking out, a bartender would casually call out "True Story!" while going about his business; he wouldn't even have to be looking at the drummer. Inevitably, even if he was interrupting the lead singer's lyrics, the reply would come: "DONKEY DONKEY DONKEY!!!" This put me into giggling hysterics every time (not surprisingly if you know me), and I quickly joined in the fun, yelling "True Story!" every time there was a lull in conversation. Over time, eventually I even started saying "donkey donkey donkey" when people said "true story" and soon barely realized I was doing it- - - - Which led to a couple days ago, when a co-worker uttered the magic words, and I casually threw out "donkey donkey donkey" without knowing it. After she stood there with a blank look on her face for about 10 incredibly awkward seconds, I realized what I said, and sheepishly told her the preceding story. In Dr. Evil whisper: Uncomfortable.....

• 3 things that are back as of today, after being out of my life since May 31:


• David Ortiz


• My "let's go to Vegas" itch


• My leg hair
  

Why Don't You Just Go Home? Are You Too Good For Your Home?

I frequently talk about little things in life that make me annoyed or angry. But there is nothing on this Earth that can make me angrier than playing a round of golf, hitting EVERY SINGLE green in regulation, and still only shooting even par because I cannot make a single motherfucking putt. Remember when Woody Austin hit himself in the head with his putter until it bent in half? I was close to doing that last night. Do you think Happy Gilmore will lend me his hockey stick putter?

Suck my white ass, ball.

Question of the Day:

If you were told that you had to die tomorrow, but you could choose how you died, how would you go out?

Ohhh, Alex

This is why it's so fun to lie to girls. Here's an excerpt from a conversation with Alex while we were waiting for Batman to start the other day:


Me: Sometimes when I'm talking to random girls and we're talking about where we're from, I'll make up fake statistics about whatever city we're talking about, just to get the conversation going.


Alex, dubious: What? Like what?


Me: Well, did you know that Grand Forks has the #1 rated public golf courses in the lower 48 states?


Alex, dead serious: Really? They do?!?


Me: -pinching bridge of my nose, shaking my head-


Sometimes it's just too easy.

And for the record, The Dark Knight is one of the best movies I've seen in a very, very long time. I'm sure things may get blown out of proportion with Ledger dying and everything, but regardless, he was ridiculously good in this movie. For real.

Bizarro World Lunch Break

Just got back from running errands on my lunch break, during which I went to the bank and then to Sonic (weird! I never eat there.) It was anything but boring.

So I'm sitting in second position in the drive-through line at the bank. The little money canister is coming through the chute, on its way back to the customer. The chute is see-through, so you can see it coming, and for some inexplicable reason, this lady decides she is going to rest her hand at the bottom of the chute, like she's going to catch this fucking thing or something. As I watch in amazement at the sheer stupidity of this lady, the canister comes flying down the homestretch, crushes her hand at the bottom of the chute, bounces wildly out, ricochets off her car, and detonates in an explosion of plastic, dollar bills, and change that goes everywhere. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, LADY?!?! How is it ever, ever a good idea to put your hand at the bottom of the chute? You have to show a little more respect for the air current flowing through the tunnel than that. Come on. This is the year 2008.

So after that catastophre resolves itself (I didn't help her pick up money; everyone else had it under control, and I was laughing way too hard to be of any help anyway) I head to Sonic for my standard 2,700 calorie lunch. I place my order and I'm sitting in my car waiting. Now, unlike the fantastically funny Sonic commercials, there's no witty, quirky sidekick for me to banter back and forth with, so I'm listening to music. After a couple minutes, the lady in the vehicle to my right starts to back out of her spot. During her reverse, she is mean-mugging the shit out of me. Probably the dirtiest look I've received from a girl since freshman year of college, when I told my girlfriend at the time that the reason why I didn't hang out with her the night before was because I got drunk with my buddies and drove around town, stealing Baby Jesus from multiple nativity scenes.

She actually stops and shakes her head at me while glaring me down, making such a grand performance out of the whole thing that finally I roll down my passenger window and ask, "What is the problem?!?!" She just shakes her head again and says, "Nice language coming out of your car. Reaaaaal nice, jerk." And then she drives away. I'm speechless. I am literally without speech. My head is reeling. This lady just punk'd the shit out of me (yeah I spelled it with an apostrophe and no e. Blame that no-talent ass clown Ashton Kutcher.) Here are my issues with her accusation:

1) Like I stated, my passenger window was rolled up, and she was on my right hand side.

2) I don't listen to music that terribly loud. Yeah, I rock it out when I'm by myself on the interstate, and I listen at a higher volume than most average Joes since I lost 40% of the hearing in my left ear in an unfortunate smelting accident, but c'mon, I was sitting in a Sonic drive-up. I had just turned the volume down to give my order, it was on like two friggin' bars.

3) This chick was pretty hot, couldn't have been older than me, didn't have any kids in her vehicle, and as far as I could see, was not accompanied by Jesus Himself. So I am confused as to how badly I seem to have offended her.

4) And this is the kicker here folks, I WAS LISTENING TO KRIS KROSS!!!! Let's ignore for a minute that I was listening to a song from 1992 performed by a couple of 12-year-olds that wore their clothes backwards.....and ask the question: what bad language is there in the song Jump??? Tell me that, Hot Yet Overly Uptight and Potentially Crazy Lady? Are you mad because R&B, rap and bullcrap is what they're dumpin'? Because inside out is wiggida-wiggida-wiggida-wack? Because the Daddy Mac will make you jump jump, wiggle and shake your rump? I am baffled here.

I retreated back to work with my tail between my legs, and now here I sit, enjoying my second chili cheese wrap and wondering just what the hell is going on today.

Is It 1993?

3 things I did yesterday that made me feel like I was 11 years old again:

1.) Listened to my old Tag Team cd.

2.) Ate a fruit roll-up.

3). Really, truly enjoyed the Home Run Derby. What a ridiculously great show Hamilton put on. I could stand on the warning track and not hit homers as far as he did last night. Did anyone else have goosebumps when Yankee Stadium was chanting his name? Magical.

You're Awesome.

I'm Not Your Buddy, Guy

Whenever I talk about my favorite shows of all time, I never really mention South Park. It always kind of gets swept under the rug, I'm not sure why. If you listed the 10 times I've laughed the hardest in my life (there is no grammatically pleasing way to type that. I retyped that sentence like 7 times and that's the best I could do) then South Park is probably responsible for at least 6 of them. I saw the episode where Canada goes on strike recently, and a couple scenes made me cry I was laughing so hard.

I always start my day off with some funny clip off of youtube or something, and I was getting tired of clicking through links to find this somewhat obscure clip, so I'm linking it here so it's easy to get to. This is as much for me as it is for you.

I'm not your friend, buddy!


Posting a link to something else is about all the creativity I can muster up today. I wish my life had an all-star break, I could use one.

This Burrito Is Delicious, But It's Filling!

So checking my email this week, a couple of things stood out for me. I am a member of the Royals' email list, so I can get good deals on tickets and things of that nature, but I am starting to question if it's worth it or not, due to the amount of garbage emails I have to delete from them. Especially this week. As soon as Jose Guillen was announced as one of the finalists for the final all-star roster spot, they began bombarding my account with emails telling me to go vote, which I finally did, to see if it would get them to stop. Ohhhh no. After I voted once, they re-doubled their efforts, telling me to vote again. All told, I received 21 emails in 4 days to vote for Jose Motherfucking Guillen (who I do actually believe should make the team, I only use the term motherfucking because I am annoyed with the constant emails), who still took last place in the AL vote, if I'm not mistaken. Whatever, I did my part. I'm not even a Royals fan.

The other interesting email of note was for a celebrity basketball game being played in Kansas City this weekend. I use the term 'celebrity' very loosely here. The three 'celebs' they featured with photos are Brody Jenner (if I wouldn't have chosen to murder Spencer, I would've chosen Brody) Jason from Laguna Beach, and Stephen from Laguna Beach. Basically, three of the biggest ass clowns in human history. Clearly they are marketing this exhibition game to 15-year-old girls, because I sure as hell wouldn't want to go watch this blow job festival. While reading through the email, however, my mind went through three phases:

1. What kind of game is this? Who in the hell, besides high school girls, would go see a 'celebrity' basketball game with these idiots in it?

2. Then I started reading through the rest of the rosters: Nick Swardson, JP from Grandma's Boy, the black guy from Scrubs, Nathan Scott from One Tree Hill. Now my ridicule of the game tapers a bit; some of my boys are playing in it.

3. Wait a second...only 10 bucks for the chance to openly heckle retards from MTV reality shows? Hmmm.....

If I wasn't busy moving apartments this weekend, you may have found this headline in the Lawrence Journal-World on Sunday:

Local Douchebag Arrested After Altercation with Even Bigger Douchebags

I would've turned that exhibition game into the Ron Artest Brawl, only replace "bad-ass, potentially insane black guys" with "skinny white kids who are afraid to throw the first punch."

I decided not to really write anything about Ike's wedding. 5 days of shenanigans is too much to sort through, plus I've been friends with pretty much everyone in that friend group since elementary school, so most of our jokes are inside jokes, and the stories wouldn't be funny to the layperson. I know everyone says "OMG, I have the funniest friends ever!! LOL" but I'm telling you, I have the funniest friends ever....LOL.

In the interest of fairness (if this was someone else, you better believe this picture would be going up) I will post this picture from the wedding. The MC caught Ike and I in a compromising embrace on the dance floor; maybe the gayest picture since the cover of the Brokeback Mountain DVD. If you click on it and enlarge it, it's even worse.

I'm pretty sure we would've started making out if that lady tapping my shoulder hadn't interrupted us.

What makes this funny to me is that the following is a picture of the MC right after he took it, showing it to me and asking me if he wanted me to delete it. I was a few beers deep by this time (a few = 20) and my response was something to the effect of "Fuck it, dude. Leave it in. I love that bastard, I don't care who knows it."

I appears from my expression that I even enjoy the picture with Ike a little bit. I thought I got all the experimenting out of my system during college. This is troubling.

Normally this is the point where I would wish everyone a Happy Friday, but I'm not doing anything fun this weekend, so as a result, I don't care if you have a Happy Friday or not. It's week number 2 of a 4-week No Getting Sauced Plan. The month of June was out of control. Between Vegas, the College World Series, Lane's b-day, and the wedding week in GF, I felt like I was 19 again. I'm not getting crunk, so neither should you.

The Top 5. Volume 8.

So all my teams have been winning championships lately, and after every one of them, I tell myself that now I can settle down and just be a normal sports fan, and not freak out all the time over losses.....and then Boston's bullpen gets shelled against the Rays and they blow a three-run lead and I stomp around my apartment for the rest of the night like a psycho, leading me to believe that I will never be a normal sports fan, no matter how many championships my teams win. That's probably just the way it is for me.

So after that loss (and another nationally televised loss to the Yanks on Sunday night when, surprise, the bullpen blew a late-inning lead) I got to thinking which losses of my life have wrecked me the most. Kind of an exercise in self-punishment, to ground me a little bit in the wake of all these championships my teams are spoiling me with right now. Without further ado....

#5. 1993 Wild Card Game, Houston Oilers vs. Buffalo Bills

For some reason, this game haunts me more than the Super Bowl when the Tennessee Titans (formerly the Houston Oilers, to the layperson/idiot) came up a yard short from sending the game into overtime. Can't explain why. Possibly because I watched this game with Dunph, a diehard Bills fan. Houston goes up 35-3 early in the third quarter, and I'm talking a steady stream of shit, guns blazing. That stream quickly turned into a trickle, and then dried up altogether as Buffalo went up 38-35 in what seemed like seconds. Even after Houston kicked a last-second field goal to send it to OT, I was spent. Cooked. Done-skis. Warren Moon's interception and Buffalo's game-winning field goal were as inevitable as Britney Spears eventually becoming a whorebag, getting knocked up, shaving her head and going crazy. I endured some (well-deserved) gloating from Dunph and walked home in the freezing cold North Dakota winter, my first real crushing loss as a diehard sports fan under my belt, kind of like a freshman girl doing the walk of shame back to her dorm the morning after getting her cherry popped by a toga-wearing frat guy during orientation weekend.

Whatever. I bet you guys don't win the Super Bowl.




#4. 1994 NBA Finals, Game 7, New York Knicks vs. Houston Rockets

The last three games of this series were particularly aggravating. Game 5 was the infamous O.J. Chase, when NBC went to split-screen for two hours and I yelled at Bob Costas to get back to the goddam game. My parents tried to get me to appreciate the history that was being made, but as an 11-year-old, all I saw was a white Bronco driving 30 mph on the freeway, and all I cared about were the Knicks holding on and going back to Houston up 3 games to 2, which they did. Then in Game 6, my boy John Starks' potential game-winning three was blocked by Olajuwon (foreshadowing to 2003, perhaps?) and THEN he put up a horrific 2-18 in Game 7, and the Knicks haven't had a real chance to win a title since (don't tell me they could've beat the Spurs in '99, Chris Dudley & the Miracles had already used up their magic by then.)



Dammit, O.J., wrap it up! I know how much this low-speed chase makes it look like you didn't do it, but Ewing's going to the line and it's a 2-point game!





#3. 2002 Final Four, Kansas Jayhawks vs. Maryland Terrapins


This was my favorite KU team of all time. Hinrich, Langford, Boschee, Collison, Gooden, Miles, etc. etc. I was absolutely in love with this team. They didn't necessarily choke or anything (though they certainly didn't play awesome) they just lost to the one team that could really match up with them that year, Maryland. This was the real national championship game, the other semifinal of Indiana vs. Oklahoma was a joke.



Here's a picture of Roy shortly after the 2002 Final Four loss. I'm sorry, what's that? You say that's from the 2008 Final Four? Wait a minute....doesn't he coach North Carolina now? Does he know he's wearing a KU sticker? Weird.....



#2. 2003 ALCS, Game 7, Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees

The leaving Pedro in for too long/Aaron Boone home run game. Just a nightmare on so many levels. I was completely jaded by this point, following the previous events of 2003 (see #1) and was basically counting down the minutes until the Sox blew it, and when Boone connected, I was out the door by the time the ball landed in the seats. I hit rock-bottom as a sports fan that night. I basically trashed the Culligan parking lot in a alcohol-fueled display of destruction, and woke up the next morning in my boxers, one sock and one shoe, and Red Sox hat, with a hammer still in hand. Needless to say I didn't make it to Marketing class that day. Fundy is a Cubs fan, and after they blew their NLCS against the Marlins, we both agreed to boycott, even SportsCenter, and to this day, neither one of us has seen a single highlight of the 2003 World Series (except for the shot of Josh Beckett recording the final out, which is inevitable since he came to Boston and I watch him pitch every time he's televised.) However, the events of this year made 2004 all the more sweet.



I'm already downstairs beating street signs with a hammer by this point. Eat me.




2003 National Championship Game, Kansas Jayhawks vs. Syracuse Orangemen

Never before in my life had I been so confident going into a big game. Never in my life will I be that confident again. This game scarred me for years...until April 7, 2008, to be exact. KU had just got done INNIHILATING Dwayne Wade and Marquette in the semifinal, and were about to play a Syracuse team that should've lost in the 2nd round, and was surely maxed out by now. Then Jerry McNamara had the game of his life, and KU couldn't make a free throw, and Carmelo started playing like he should've joined LeBron in skipping college and going straight to the NBA, and KU still couldn't make a free throw, and then they make their obligatory run to suck everyone back in, and then Hakim Warrick blocks Michael Lee's shot, Hinrich and Collison graduate, Roy bolts for North Carolina, and that's that.



Good lord. Lee could've been sitting on Manute Bol's shoulders and still not gotten that shot off.




Feel free to leave your toughest losses in the comments, except for Yankee fans. Tough losses don't affect you because you don't have a soul.

Yeah....Sports!

Hope everyone had a great 4th. Alex, Lane, Skye and I played in a 4-man scramble at Falcon Lakes. Despite Lane's strategy of "Hammen shoots a 65 and the rest of us contribute a putt here or there" I only brought my C game, but everyone else played well, and we scraped together a 70, good enough to tie for first place (we must have been in the shittiest flight.) We each won $40 worth of merch from the pro shop. So to recap, for $35 each, we got 18 holes of golf (with a cart) at a beatiful course, a big lunch beforehand, and $40 worth of stuff. Worth it. See you next 4th of July.

The real highlight of my day came later on, when Lane and I rekindled the NCAA Football rivalry on Playstation 2, for the first time since freshman year of college. It is well documented that Lane is my daddy when it comes to this game, but I finally broke through for my first career victory, overcoming a 14-0 deficit to win a 21-17 nailbiter. I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

DVJS left for the Peace Gardens, putting our pickup ball tandem on hiatus, but we went out in style, going 7-0 together on our last night for the forseeable future. Side note: there has been a marked improvement in my attitude on the court since I started playing pickup ball in a church on Thursday nights. DVJS and I are pretty much the Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson of dropping F-bombs after missed shots, but when you're playing in a house of worship, profanity-laced spaz-outs get eliminated pretty quickly. I think it's helped my game a bit, too.

This goddam Red Sox bullpen is giving me an ulcer.



Question of the day, courtesy of Schatz:

If you could murder one person and get away with it, who would it be?


My answer was initially going to be A-Rod, but it seems that Madonna is slowly killing him for me, so instead I'll say Spencer from The Hills.

Maybe I'll get a twofer and Heidi will kill herself, rather than live in a world where she isn't dating the biggest douchebag on the planet. Nice glasses, dude.

The Draft: A Jayhawkle Debacle?

Random thoughts on the draft, which I missed due to a wedding rehearsal dinner, but much thanks goes out to all who kept me updated via text message, it was greatly appreciated by all the dudes who were stuck at the dinner with no television to be found.

So now that I'm back in town and reading newspapers and talking to the locals, apparently people are totally pissed about the Jayhawks' misfortune in this draft. I can see being a little disappointed that Chalmers and Arthur fell, but look at some of these quotes from kusports.com:

"How many of you wanted to kick in your television screens when J.R. Giddens, once at KU then at New Mexico, was chosen by Boston. Lots of us saw it as an insult to Chalmers, who then had to wait until No. 34, where no contract is guaranteed."

"And then commissioner David Stern walks to the podium and announces: “With the 30th pick in the NBA Draft, the Boston Celtics select J.R. Giddens of the University of New Mexico.”

Are you kidding me? Not only do the Celtics dump on Chalmers, they stick the dagger deeper by tapping Giddens, the one-time KU bad boy who had been projected to go somewhere in the middle of the second round.

Worse is what Celtics’ coach Doc Rivers says afterward about Giddens. “He has a chance.” Rivers tells the Boston media, “to fight for minutes right away because of his defense.”

His defense??? Has Giddens improved that much since his freshman and sophomore years on Mount Oread when he couldn’t guard the Phog Allen statue?

Sometimes I wonder if the NBA Draft is really serious business or merely an inside joke league coaches and GMs play on a gullible glued-to-the-TV populace."

Wow. Settle down, kids. My not-so-humble opinion on each Jayhawk:

Rush went about where he should have went, and he'll contribute immediately for the Pacers.

The kidney thing with Arthur is unfortunate, if indeed it was something that was cleared up before the draft, yet not communicated to all the general managers. But the whole mess begs the question: Why did he initially refuse the blood tests?

I think early second round for Chalmers is about right, too. I've been watching with raised eyebrows these last few weeks as he has shot up the draft boards. I don't really understand how it's a great injustice that he didn't get picked early. He's a 6'2'' guard without true point guard ball-handling skills.

As for my boy Darnell Jackson, I'm just thrilled he got drafted. I think he will make a solid pro, possibly become a big sleeper, but again, I don't understand the people who are screaming that he went too low. Ditto Sasha Kaun. When you are at that skill level, you're lucky just to get drafted.

So I am of the opinion that Jayhawk fans should just be proud that 5 guys off the team got drafted, instead of freaking out about where they went. Dude, we're the champs. Be happy.

For non-KU related draft picks, here are the ones I liked:

Jeryd Bayless to the Blazers. I can't even wrap my head around how good they're going to be in a couple years. For real.

Mareese Speights to the 76ers. Exactly what that team needed.

Courtney Lee to the Magic. He is fucking good. The league will find out.

DeAndre Jordan to the Clippers. When he was projected in the top 5, I couldn't possibly talk more shit about him. At pick 35, though, that's a steal.

Derrick Rose to the Bulls. The jury is still out on this one. The consensus is that my boy Hinrich will get traded now. If he gets traded, then I like this pick. I've hated cheering for the Bulls the last couple years, it sucks. I hated the Bulls for too long to enjoy them now. But if this pick results in Hinrich not getting traded, and just sitting the bench, then I hate this pick. Let's get Hinrich to another team.

Ones I disliked:

D. J. Augustin to the Bobcats. They already have Raymond Felton, who I thought was doing OK. Unless they have another deal already lined up for one of those two, then I have no idea what M.J. is doing. Wow he sucks at being a GM.

Joe Alexander to the Bucks. Hey, Milwaukee, remember like 12 hours earlier when you traded for Richard Jefferson?

George Hill to the Spurs. I know I just got done saying Chalmers went where he should have, but at the same time, there is NO WAY you can tell me that George Hill is better than Chalmers. No way.

I feel OK about the Knicks taking Danilo Gallinari. I've read mostly good things about him. I feel mostly indifferent about 90% of the picks in this draft. I don't think we're going to see too many all-stars out of the 2008 NBA Draft. Except of course for Sasha, right Lane?