The best seat in the house is the view from the couch

I love this time of year. Baseball is still in its yearly infancy, the NBA season is mercifully almost over (Although the playoffs will take another two months), the NFL draft is only a week away, and the NHL is in playoff mode. Not to mention the significant fact that the weather always seems to be a bit better. Yes, I know that the greater Boston area got 8 inches of rain this week.

Anyways, the weather not withstanding, I’ve had a few random thoughts and stories crossing my mind this week, so I thought I’d share them with you.

- Don’t you hate it when you tell a stranger something about where you’re from, and they immediately ask if you know another random person? I normally just listen, feign interest, then say something along the lines of “gee, sorry. The name sounds familiar, but I don’t think I know them.” Only twice have I gotten angry and said something else. The first time was freshman year at BU, a school of about 10,000 undergraduate students, when I met a person while visiting friends and she asked if I knew “Joe at BU”. I was drunk, so I proceeded to tell her that there were 10,000 undergrads at BU and I’d bet there were about 500 “Joe’s”. Then she told me his last name, and it happened to be the guy who sat next to me in Core Literature. Unreal.

This past weekend, it happened again. I was at Mohegan Sun with my friend Jay and a girl sat at the table. Misery loves Company, so we all started talking. I mentioned I was from Taunton (a city of about 50,000), and she immediately said “Do you know…” I started to tune her out and roll my eyes, when I heard her finish her sentence “… the Fielding’s? Twin brothers, Chris…” I cut her off. “Yeah, I know Chris and Jay, hell, I’ve known them since I was about 5. We played baseball together, then were friends in High School.” Turns out she was a friend of theirs at UMASS. Small world.

- OK, another random quote from a friend of mine. If you’ve seen my away message recently, you might have already read this, but tough. Last August, I made the first of what I assume will be many trips to Vegas. Anyway, on night 2, we walked the strip from MGM to the Hilton (about 4 miles) in 104-degree heat. Not exactly my idea of fun. Since none of us wanted to walk back for awhile, we stayed at the Hilton for about six hours. In that time, my friend Kimball got absolutely WRECKED sitting at the bar hitting on a very disinterested stripper and talking to a random guy who had a 2 for 1 drinks coupon. After awhile, he found me at a table and pulled up a chair, drink in hand.

“Dude, you gotta try this drink I got here. It’s called a Russian Ale,” he said

“Oh yeah, what’s in it?” I asked, trying to keep him steady on the chair.

“Scotch and drambuy” (don’t care if I spelled it right)

“Wait, isn’t that a Rusty Nail?”

“That’s what I said, a Russian Ale…”

It was at that point that I decided it was time to leave.

- Along the Vegas line, I just finished reading “Bringing Down The House”, the book about the MIT blackjack team that perfected team card counting and blew through Vegas taking out casinos along the way. For anyone that enjoys playing blackjack, this is a must read. I don’t recommend trying the strategies, because you WILL get caught. But it’s really a fun book. I especially liked the part where they described, in detail, how they dominated my two local casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. Wish I’d been old enough to play back then; I think I could have blown through Foxwoods and Mohegan.

- Oh, here’s a fun Foxwoods story, not about me or my family this time. When they first opened, the dealers were very green about the rules of blackjack. I had a friend back in elementary school whose mother owned a few kiosks in a local mall and used to drive to New York once a month for supplies. She decided to stop at Foxwoods on one trip, and realized that the dealers were playing wrong: hitting on 17’s, paying off 3-1 on blackjacks, etc. She had about $10k on her for supplies, but she decided to use it to play cards. She found a nice table and pulled up a seat… and didn’t move for 48 hours. The dealers kept making mistakes, and she kept raising her bets. She called home to tell her husband that she wasn’t going to New York, and she’d explain why when she got back. She finally left and went home, after making about $40k in two days. Foxwoods retrained their dealers not too long after that.

- I was very pleased with my TV earlier this week. Normally, I have a routine when I get home from work of just going into my apartment, dropping off my stuff, checking e-mail and phone messages, then going into my mom’s house for dinner. But earlier this week, something told me to wait a minute and turn on the TV for PTI. As I turned it on, Kornheiser and Wilbon were engaged in their usually passionate arguments, this time arguing about the extreme coverage of Barry Bonds and his chase for 660, when suddenly the Giants’ game broke in with coverage of… Barry Bonds’ chase for 660 (the irony was delicious). And you know what? He hit it, and the world got the chance to see it live. Kudos to ESPN for giving us that opportunity. History is history, and no matter when they had shown it, it still would have counted. But I’m awful glad I got to see it live.

- Can we stop talking about Johnny Damon’s hair yet? IT’S HAIR PEOPLE! Randy Johnson’s mullet didn’t get this much press, hell, Don King’s do hasn’t gotten this much ink. Just let it go. Much like a spoiled child trying to get attention, maybe if we all ignore it, it’ll go away.

- Most embarrassing moment to happen to me at work so far: Having my boss walk in just as Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” was playing on the radio behind me. Oops.

- Personally, I’m ecstatic about the Sox/Yanks series this weekend. So much so, that I’m missing games one and two of the series to a) go to a minor-league playoff hockey game, and b) play my first round of golf of the year. It’s not that I’m not interested; I’ll have a portable radio on the course with me Saturday. It’s just that these are the first two games of 19 in the season, and it’s still April. I live for baseball, and this is the best rivalry in the game. But get back to me in July when the standing are a bit clearer and the games are a LOT more important.

- To answer your questions before you ask them… Yes, I have heard Bud Light’s salute to “Mr. Over-The-Top Carbo Counter”. And while I will agree that it is pretty damned funny, I do not think it is an accurate depiction of my current stint with Atkins. While I do often enjoy meals of “meat & meat”, it will be a cold day in hell before an artichoke makes it anywhere near my plate.

- Congratulations to Phil Mickelson for finally getting his head on straight and finishing out a major in style. My prediction is that if he even CONTENDS in the next three majors, and Tiger keeps playing like this, that Mickelson will get the Player of the Year award on sentiment alone.

- Contrary to popular opinion, I do not hate the sport of Hockey, I just hate the league and their marketing department. Hockey really is a fun sport, and it is one of the best sports to watch live. I thoroughly enjoy going to games; I’m going to an AHL playoff game tonight. As for the NHL playoffs, well the league has done a bang-up job, once again, of finding a way to extend the season into June. This first round hasn’t been bad; teams play every other night. But somehow in the next two rounds there are going to be roughly 15 travel days per series, and the Finals will no doubt drag into the summer, which I might remind you isn’t the best time to be playing hockey. Sorry, I don’t associate June with a sport played ON ICE.

- Was there anything worse than watching Mike Ribeiro rolling around on the ice like he had a collapsed lung, then skating over to his bench with a mile-wide grin on his face? Hockey has always been a sport filled with warriors; guys who would play with a collapsed lung or a broken leg. Ribeiro’s actions, followed the next night by Alexei Kovalev’s phantom wrist injury and Game 5’s spasming on the ice by Richard Zednik (I think) after another phantom hit were all appalling.. At least when Joe Thornton dropped Vladimir Markov with a solid right cross to the cheek, Markov got right back up.

- And another thing. I might not be the best person to speak without bias about Boston fans. But the display in Game 5 during the Canadian National Anthem was great. Some idiots chose to boo as retaliation for Montreal fans booing the “Star Spangled Banner” before Game 3, but the majority of the fans in Game 5 cheered wildly as “O Canada” boomed out across the arena. Sure, it may have just been a Bronx cheer (Or, in this case, a Southie cheer), but it was still a cheer, and it sure as hell beat the alternative.

- C’mon, at this point who isn’t rooting for Boston Rob, aside from the other Survivor All-Star’s families and friends? He’s kinda got a Don Corleone thing going on right now. I figured that he’d win every physical challenge, but the fact he was able to pull out the mental challenge last night impressed me, having met him at a few parties in the past and never figuring him as an intellectual guy…

- Quick reality-TV update. Yes, I am now officially hooked on Survivor. I refused to watch the first few seasons on principle alone, but then Rob Mariano (who was the coach for the BU Inline-Hockey team that my friend Knob played for), got on the show and just took it over. Let me say that I hated myself for getting so involved with a reality show. Now I live for Thursday nights. I’m going to be lost now that “The Apprentice” is over. Damnit! And I will not watch American Idol; I don’t care what kind of sleazy, half-dressed, bare-it-all woman they put up in front of me (well, maybe). That show just sucks.

- Now, if FOX brought back “Boot Camp”…

- FM sports talk radio is a godsend. I can’t even tell you how much it sucked having to gingerly move along the AM dial to get even a minor signal. Today, WEEI Boston bought out a Providence FM station (103.7) and I am in heaven. I liked 103.7 before the switch, but it’s much better now.

- The Chargers cannot afford to trade away the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft again. Last time (2001) they passed up Mike Vick to get LaDanian Tomlinson (a GREAT running-back, mind you) and Drew Brees. Back in 1998, they were seriously debating whether Peyton Manning could ever be a better QB than Ryan Leaf. And in 1983, they passed on the chance to draft a young kid named John Elway because they knew they couldn’t afford him. They haven’t exactly had a stellar track record with Quarterbacks, so they need to take the sure thing. I know some people might say that they should trade down, accumulate picks, and then get a Ben Rothlisberger or Philip Rivers, and it looks like that’s what they’re going to do. But if whichever QB they get ends up a flop, who else thinks that GM A.J. Smith will be gone before ’05?

- It’s amazing; the Bruins and Celtics (barely) are in the playoffs, the Patriots won the Super Bowl and have 7 picks in the first four rounds of next weeks’ draft (look for them to trade up to the top 10), and yet the topic dominating local sports radio and TV shows is “What’s wrong with Pedro?” You wanna know what’s wrong? He wants more money, so if he overcomes a slow start to become the dominant pitcher we all know he can be, he earns that much more next year.

- Speaking of the Celtics, has there ever been a worse looking playoff team? This is a team that openly tried to throw the season to get a chance at the Okeafor lottery, yet somehow the players didn’t get the memo and backed into the playoffs, riding high atop a six-game losing streak that was snapped with a “dramatic” win over the HORRIBLE Atlanta Hawks. They won 16 of their last 43. FORTY-THREE! This team should not have won 30 games. They somehow managed 36, and the 8^th seed in the East.

- And finally, the number one reason why the NBA playoffs are miserable to try and follow: The first round match up between the Celtics and Pacers starts April 17^th. If this series goes the full seven games, it will end on May 4^th. Seven games over 17 days. It’s not like it’s a 14 – hour flight between Boston and Indianapolis.

So that’s what’s been on my mind. I’ll try and write something real next week, but I wanted to get this out of my head for now.

posted by Big D @ 12:00 AM