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

Random thoughts for my first week of work…

• If the Cubs keep losing their cool in big games the way they have against Houston in the last couple of weeks, the Giants, Padres, or (gasp!) Marlins stand a very good chance of taking the NL Wild Card. If the Cubbies can keep their collective tempers in check, then none of the other three can compete with their combination of pitching and hitting.
• After one month, I think I was dead-on with my Trade Assessments, except that I was probably too kind to the Dodgers. And DEFINITELY too kind to the Mets.
• NFL.com still runs the most entertaining fantasy football leagues that I have ever been a part of, and I’ve now played on NFL.com, Yahoo.com, ESPN.com, and Smallworld.com (which was later bought by The Sporting News, and subsequently bought by Yahoo).
• I’m beginning to rethink my decision to purchase a car while doing my research solely over the Internet and only test driving it once for about 10 minutes. It’s in the shop, for now the third problem (and sixth overall trip to the mechanic) in three weeks of ownership. Where’s my copy of the Lemon Law…?
• The more I watch preseason football, the more I’m happy that there are other sports to watch until the actual season starts. Of course, this could have much more to do with the fact that the Pats got manhandled by THE BENGALS than with the actual lack of interesting preseason games.
• The US Men’s Basketball bronze medal game was actually, to me, one of the more inspiring Olympic moments of these games past. Of course, it’s the only event that I actually watched in its entirety. But to see a team that had already "let its country down" go out and play a game against a pretty damned good International basketball team, well, that says something about the character of the guys on this team. They may not have been the best players, and they certainly didn’t comprise the best "team", but they sure as hell played one game as hard as they could, instead of simply mailing it in and coming home empty-handed. I’m going to write more about this in an upcoming column, I promise. If I keep forgetting, just pummel me over the head with something heavy.
• Red Sox Nation never ceases to amaze me. Over the past couple of weeks, the Sox have closed the gap in the AL East race from 10.5 games to only 4.5 games, the smallest it’s been since June 23^rd. But Red Sox fans (myself included) only talk about the AL East in subdued voices, like they’re plotting a government coup or something, because they "don’t want to jinx it." Lemme do every Red Sox fan a favor – IT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN. Boston plays 3 with Anaheim, 3 vs. Texas, 3 at Oakland, 4 at Seattle, 6 with Tampa, 8 with Baltimore (who KILLS us every September), and 6 against the Yankees. The Yankees finish with 4 vs. Cleveland, 6 with Baltimore, 5 with Tampa, 3 at KC, 6 with Toronto, 3 with Minnesota and 6 with Boston. Not this year. Wild Card, yes. AL East, no. (But if it does happen, then I was just making sure not to jinx it…)
• The more I think about it, the more I realize that now that I’m out of school (for awhile, at least), summer is my least favorite season. I hate heat, I’m not a big beach guy (unless I’m spending the time with some good looking chicks, which RARELY happens), and aside from being able to go out and golf or play baseball and football, each of which I can do in the Spring and Fall, Summer offers nothing to me. Spring has the start of baseball, Fall has the start of football and the pennant races, plus the MLB playoffs, Winter has snow and more football, Summer has the ungodly long NBA & NHL playoffs. I see a clear 4^th place finisher there; am I alone?
• Caught the newest Jimmy Eat World single from their upcoming album on the radio today on the way to work. Personally, I’m looking forward to their next album, even if I do have to wait until mid-October to download, er, uh, buy it. I’ve never understood record companies releasing singles 6-8 weeks before the album. By the time it hits shelves, people are sick of the first single, and the second one is starting to get popular. Wouldn’t it make more sense to release the first single 2 weeks before the album drops, so that a bunch of people will buy it while the single is popular, then even more will buy it when the second single hits the airwaves? Of course, when as the last time the recording industry made any sense…
• Watching golf live is actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. That’s not to say that I wasn’t looking forward to going to the final round of the Buick Championship (which I was alerted was actually the new name of the old Greater Hartford Open – Thanx Rob) in CT yesterday, but I wasn’t sure how interesting it was going to be. I love going out and spending a day smacking a golf ball all around a solid 18-hole course, but the thought of walking the course to follow a player without actually playing struck me as odd. Well, I had a hell of a time, and next week I’ll be going to the final round of the Deutsche Bank Open in Mansfield, about 15 minutes from my house. Although I’ll actually have to drive 20 minutes past the course to park. That makes sense, no?
• Also, at the Buick, I got to see something that I never thought could happen in a PGA event. A group of us were following Brad Faxon, because he was the local, and probably the biggest name in the field. After he and Frank Lickliter teed off on the 14^th, we walked alongside him to the top of the hill overlooking the green, only to find the group in front of them, J.L. Lewis and Bill Haas, walking back up the same fairway. They had gotten all the way onto the green before they realized that each had hit the other’s ball for their own second shot, and therefore were forced to return to he spot of the mistake, take a drop (and a 2-shot penalty) and then finish the hole. Turns out that Haas had been outdriving Lewis all day, but on the 14^th, J.L. knocked his drive about 15 yards longer than Bill. They just naturally assumed Lewis was away, and without actually looking that the ball, they each hit their second shot (Haas actually needed a third to reach the green, before discovering the mistake). Point of the story: Brad Faxon is about the nicest guy I’ve ever seen on the PGA Tour, since while he waited for his turn to shoot, he came over to the gallery to shoot the breeze, and explained exactly what had happened. When was the last time a pro athlete went over to a fan to explain the rules of the game to those less informed? Plus, he saw a cute little kid in the crowd and gave him a golf ball – I don’t think the kid stopped smiling for the next three or four holes.
• I think that all of the hype over this new "5-yd. Contact" rule in the NFL is way overblown. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it go the way of the high strike in baseball or the illegal defense violation in basketball – that is to say that, while still on the books, over time it will be enforced less and less often. Although I did catch a third down penalty call in the Patriots’/Carolina game (GREAT game, by the way) where they called the contact on Asante Samuel against Steve Smith – and SMITH was the one pushing off. Because of the contact though, Samuel got jobbed and Carolina got a first down (and an eventual figgie – difference in the game was only 3 points)
• I've relaunched an old website, this time using it as an archive site for all of my past articles. Check it out: http://www.collegepcs.com/Xanga/index.html

And finally, congratulations to the US Women’s softball team for DOMINATING the competition in the Olympics. Although many people didn’t get to see it, because NBC obviously thinks swimming and gymnastics will draw better ratings than softball, the US Women won gold via a combined score of 51-1 in Olympic play, and the one run they allowed was a meaningless one in the gold medal game. But let’s one of see them hit the second floor of the school beyond right field at the Ghettoasis...

posted by Big D @ 12:00 AM