Manny - summer and silly Washington area fans

Well, Manny Ramirez has reached and surpassed the 500 homer threshold. I didn't like him much when he was in Cleveland since he killed the Sox in the playoffs, however, he's become something altogether different from those days. Joe Morgan on ESPN loves Manny - it's fun to listen to Morgan do color/commentary instead of Tim McCarver (cannot stand the man, plus the fact that he's a HUGE anti-Red Sox commentator - he had to eat so much crow when the Sox came back in 2004 over the Yankees). Manny did it in the Red Sox's second home, Camden Yards, with their favorite punching bag providing the fun. I watched all of the games and it is still amusing to me to see the huge amount of Sox fans in the seats in Oriole Park (official name of the baseball field). I went to Memorial Stadium when I first moved to the DC area and I found myself and maybe three others in the whole place who had Sox paraphernalia on. Nowadays the reverse is true, where there are so few O's fans you have to really look hard to find black and orange (horrible colors) apparel on someone not hawking it to someone else.

I get a kick out of listening to Jim Palmer talk about the Red Sox, he's really a big fan of how they do baseball and not a fan of the current Orioles (or for the past six years it seems) crew they've got going. That's my impression from listening to him this past weekend, even when the O's won on Monday night (let's see, lose three straight and then win one, yeah, that'll keep you in last place). Palmer is so nostalgic for the "Oriole Way", too bad that the team hasn't had a winning season since, um, was Clinton president then?
Washington area fans spend so much time on the Redskins here that they miss out on baseball and other diversions. I've never seen such homers in my life. Oh, wait, that's right, I have, but that's for another time. DC United has won four championships in the past 12 years, the Redskins have made the playoffs three times in the same time frame. Do Washington fans even know that? I highly doubt it. When it comes to baseball Washington fans are ambivalent at best (I'd venture slightly retarded at times) which is unfortunate because the Nationals are a decent mediocre team. Kinda like Houston really, nice ballpark but the product between the lines will lose more than win but are gamers mostly. With a huge potential fan base the Nationals are poised to become a 2nd tier team (up from bleacher bench seats) - they'll not get much higher until they start trading for pitching and start building some good support minor league teams. The Washington Post does some fair coverage of the Nats but I get the impression they're waiting for the prom queen to take off her brassiere and prance around center field. The cynicism in regards to the nationals is really annoying. The Post or the Times will do everything possible to have kids over the Redskins and the Nats are acknowledged as a strange relative even though their stadium is better, is better situated, and has better food.

Summer is here again and my oldest just finished his second soccer season. I have high hopes for him and I am trying not to be the pyscho dad (which is doubly hard since I'm now an assistant coach). He's going to soccer camp this summer (I hope he has a blast). My youngest is already out of school and so I've got figure out what he can do, maybe I'll sign him up for tots practice this fall. The hot weather arrived yesterday and the obligatory thunderstorm struck as well (some poor woman got killed by a tree yesterday). DC gets so hot during the summer - the only other place I've been to where it's hotter is the Gulf Coast where the sweat streams out of your body like water fountain. I'm hoping that it will cool off a little bit this summer - another hot summer will kill my $$$ (which I have almost zero anyways). I look forward to a fun summer and maybe I can keep losing weight, but that's for another time.

A weekend of highs and lows

Well, Memorial Day came and went but I got to see some superb lacrosse. The outcome from yesterday's game was, well, extremely disappointing. Syracuse is a great school and has great sports programs. That aside, I can't stand them. Syracuse alums and fans alike are among the most pain the arse people I've ever met outside of Yankees fans. Anyways, Johns Hopkins played so very badly yesterday, I mean, that last goal was because of two stupid plays, of course Syracuse would win, Hopkins couldn't wait to lose! With a goalie who was standing on his head for most of the game and a decent scoring effort what happened to the defense? I mean, hello, GROUNDBALLS?!?!?! Paul Rabil had an excellent game and showed just how awesome he is as an outside shooter. I'll miss lefty Huntley with that cannon he's got. Hopefully, the MLL won't muck it up when drafting the folks who played yesterday.

I liked the coverage and the fact that so many folks showed up to Foxyboro for a lacrosse game, and not just one, but five over three days. Sunday's games showed just how dominant one or two schools are in DII and DIII. Salisbury has only lost once in the past four years, and that was to the team they beat on Sunday. The Gulls are great, I just wish that ESPN would do a better job in covering the lower divisions (which they don't AT ALL). Exposure creates more exposure (look what it's done for lacrosse since they've been covering it on ESPN) and if ESPNU could expand its reach so that the other "college" sports cable network can focus on what it really wants to do, replay the NCAA men's basketball tournament from the past 20 years 24/7. Also, most of the CBS College Sports anchor folks are all from Syracuse (bleech!) and can't wait to act like Yankees fans which makes this Boston/Hopkins fan want to, well use your imagination.

On Saturday, that double overtime was awesome. The UVA goalie played his heart out but that kid Brooks has got a canon, man, he's pretty dern good. I was impressed on Saturday and on Monday with Syracuse's effort in regards to team defense. Their goalie isn't very good, he really isn't, but the defense in front of him plays great. Danny Glading had two of the most amazing goals of the tournament (Huntley's behind the back on Saturday was pretty cool too), I hope he gets some love for next year.

The flashback part of the halftime show was AWESOME! Gary Gait's description of Pietramala was sooo righteous. He said he was the hardest and toughest player he'd ever played against, ever. Petro is a god of lacrosse, as a player, he was awesome, as a coach, he is a dedicated task master, and kids love to play for him even though he's a hard-ass. Look at the players he's gotten, Rabil, Huntley, all the Peyser brothers, Harrison, Schwartzman, the list goes on and on. I still watch that 1989 championship game from time to time and I'm still amazed at how great Syracuse was that year and just how gritty Hopkins was. Petro single-handedly gave his team a chance to win in every instance. Kessnich, who does color for ESPN, was his teammate and goalie for that 1989 team, and mentioned last year about how they interacted during the game. He said that Petro was the most intense player he's ever played with or saw play, ever. As in 1989, 2008 ended the same, Syracuse having the weapons and Hopkins losing.

Syracuse is a different team from just two years ago when they made it to the final four. They place a lot more emphasis on fundamentals (though they got a lot of stupid penalities that almost cost them the game on Saturday). I can't stand them but they are a very good team with quite an upside if their goalie gets any better (he's not very good) and they can find a face-off man like Brennan. I just hope that doesn't happen.

Lastly, the use of the term "extra-man offense" or "EMO" is utter nonsense. The term is misleading for it overtly implies that the team with the ball has an extra man. Guess what? THEY DON'T! They have the same number as they did before the other team sent a player to the penalty box. I don't know why they keep insisting on using that phrase in describing a man-up/man-down situation. It's MAN-UP or MAN-DOWN. That's it, stop with the EMO, it's not even close to being correct.

Lacrosse, Primaries, anything else?

Well, it's the Monday after the Face-off classic that was up in B-more. The two teams that I wanted to win did so (I always love it when Syracuse loses, can't stand that team). UVA beat the Orange in overtime, 14-13 (Go Wahooos!) and Hopkins crushed Princeton 14-9 (Princeton's coach, Bill Tierney is a number one prick, met him a few years ago at Maryland for the final four and he was such an a-hole to me because I asked him a question about weak-side D, shyte). I got to see Cornell pull off a huge overtime win against Navy. They were down by 3 with less than 2 to play and they cranked out four straight face-offs and beat the Academy, Streibel accounting for half of the effort there in the last few mins. Sorry, for those of you who aren't into lacrosse or have just a smattering of knowledge about it I apologize. I love the sport and tend to forget that others just don't know the sport. Anyways, things are looking good for a great season (Hopkins just might win it all again, Petro has that team firing on all cylinders) and I hope that teams like Albany, Loyola, or Bucknell can break through and have a great season and make the tournament. Each year there's a surprise team in the Final Four it seems, maybe one can make that leap to winning it all, just maybe.

Has anyone else been a little tired of the Presidential coverage overload? I mean, wow, every burp or fart is covered and the press are blanketing Obama or Clinton like a wet t-shirt. Can't say I'll vote for Obama, but who knows? No way in HELL do I vote for CANKLES, no way.

College Basketball's tournament begins this month and to be perfectly honest, I'm really uninterested. That's a first, I'm just tired of watching b-ball. I am, however, very excited about catching some college hockey, that's fer sure. I miss college hockey down here in DC, there's nothing even remotely close to go and see a game. Maybe Penn State which is around 5 hours from where I live (whooopeee!!!).

Well, the ides of March are in 12 days, make sure you're extra careful and have a good one until next time.

It's finally here!

Lacrosse season has begun. Unfortunately, here in DC the weather has not cooperated and my alma mater cannot make the trek from New England down to "Charm City". I can't wait to start watching the greatest sport this spring. In early March we have the Face-Off classic at Ravens stadium and it's Syracuse vs. UVA and Hopkins vs. Princeton. Last year the right teams won (Hopkins in a thriller in OT, and UVA which crushed Syracuse, yeee haw!) and I'm hoping that the same will occur this year, though Princeton has a great goalie this year and Hopkins is shaky in goal.

I truly enjoy lacrosse above all other sports, having played the sport for four years in college and a little in high school it is near and dear to my heart. Baseball was my first love and I'll always follow the sport, but it pales in comparison to my almost rabid devotion to a sport that is more entertaining than any other around. Football is an institution here in the US of A (I wrote some thoughts about that earlier), but it isn't a very, well, accessible sport as is lacrosse.

I can't wait to get my lacrosse fix satiated, come on inside and be one of us, you won't regret it and your wife will respect you in the morning.

I've been avoiding this

Well, they lost. The only team to lose the one game that mattered. Damnit. God, that sucked, can't believe I wasted my Sunday evening screaming at the TV. Once Samuel let that ball go through his fingers I KNEW IT WAS OVER!

It was a good game, but the end result SUCKED ASS! (sorry Boondock Saints moment)

There's not much else for me to put down here.

Now onto more recent matters. Well, Roger was here in town (saw him from a distance much closer than usual on the playing field, psst, I work about 3 blocks from Capitol Hill so I run into a whole host of folks) and it was worse than sitting in the principal's office with a "he said, no I did, he did, I said" situaiton. I guess, do I believe Roger? NOPE, how can a person go from a middling career to averaging 17 wins for the next five seasons being over 35? Sure, hard work comes into it, but he had to have supplements that aren't usual. Nature is a cruel mistress. I'm 38 and I've kept myself in decent shape (meaning I'm no more than 20 lbs overweight at one time) and I've worked out, two times a day for the past year (finally paying off, now can someone stop the beer fawcett?) and my recovery after a Monday hardcore workout is three days. With steroids and HGH that would get cut by 75% so by Tuesday afternoon I'd be right as rain. It's no surprise that after the drug policy went into place Clemens' numbers went down down down and he was injured pretty quickly as was Bonds and other steroid users.

A follow-up question is this, why oh why does this matter? I mean, how is this different than a spitballer? I mean Hoyt Wilhem, Gaylord Perry, Satchel Paige, even Bob Feller (who's a bit high and mighty for himself) cheated, and Wilhem and Perry prolonged their careers with the spitter. So what that Clemens used supplements to increase his time in playing. Did it hurt the game overall? I mean, do fans really think that baseball is that easy and that if one uses supplements that it's cheating because so many do use them? Integrity smegrity, get over it. When I played Babe Ruth summer ball we had a kid on our team who used to rub the balls with chaw juice between innings to make them softer so the ball wouldn't carry and hit the jogging track in left-center. It worked. The other team's coach knew about and complained but in the end it didn't change much. I have a hard time seeing this as anything different.

well it's been a while

Here we are, it's the lull before the superbowl and as a Patriots fan I'm a tad impatient. It's not that I want the game to get started, I'm tired of the over hype. I understand that the Patsies are undefeated, but jeeez, calm down already. It used to be that folks were more concerned with the State of the Union address than something like this, but then we are a shallow people aren't we?

It seems that more folks are hopping on the Giants "underdog" bandwagon (ESPN devoted way too much time to "breaking down" the way the Giants can win. Of all people, Emitt Smith (I wish I could like the man, I just don't) is stating that a Patriots will win (oh no, a kiss of death).

As for the other teams that reside north of the Connecticut border, there's been a interesting spark of success. The Celtics own the best record in basketball (something I haven't seen in over 20 years) and my Bruins are actually several games over .500 (but please, for God sakes, CAN YOU BEAT THE EFFING CANADIENS?????!!).

Being from Boston and seeing how the success of Boston teams this year (Red Sox wining the World Series, the Patriots poised to win a fourth Super Bowl, the Celtics being the only team with fewer than 10 losses, the Bruins in the playoff hunt, BC football having its first 10 win season) so many folks are pissing on Boston. It's strange, I mean, coming from Boston one is usually bitter and pissy about almost every other place, now the tables have turned, how did this happen? I'm not unhappy about it, just a bit bewildered. I mean, I watched my Red Sox win not one, but TWO world series in my lifetime. My Grandmother who passed away in 1986 is the only other person who saw the Red Sox win more than one championship. I grew up watching Bobby Orr score against St. Louis, and then Havelchek, and then Cowens, and the big three (Bird, McHale, Parrish) win as well. The Patriots barely registered (nor did the Eagles for that matter until a little guy from Natick won the Heisman and showed that Massholes can play something other than bitching-n-moaning). Now the riches of being a Boston sports fan is, well, overwhelming. I don't need to buy a Patriots hat or jersey, every friggin' cheeseball's done that for me.

Back to Super Sunday - I'm more than a little disappointed that I have to listen to Joe Buck for another championship (I muted the World Series for the most part so I didn't have to listen to that idiot McCarver). I don't mind Troy Aikman, though his Okie plainsian accent grates my east coast snobbish ears, but Joe Buck tires me out. He seems to be sleepwalking at times. I like Nance and Simms, his drawl is more sing-song and easier on my otic aesthetics. No Madden this year (phew!), and for goodness sakes, no Gumbels either (amen and amen). I miss Dick Enberg with his "Oh My!", he's great, one of the best play by play I've ever heard.

So predictions? From me? Nope, I'm just hoping that history is made by the team that used to play in a Jr. High stadium named Schaefer (shyte beer btw). I've never been to Gillette stadium, is the parking better than it was with the old stadium?

Steroids and other stuff

Well, the report is out. Gawhge Mitchell gave his press conference yesterday. I was laughing at parts because his Maine accent was coming out with "pahrhaps". Killed me. Steroids - it's hardly surprising that folks used steroids to get ahead. Athletes are always looking for an edge (coaches are doing that as well, but using video tape). What's kinda confusing is that names were put out there and put athletes in the position of answering the no-win question like "so, when did you stop beating your wife?"

It is disappointing that Roger Clemens name was part of this sordid tale. It is, however, a very plausible explanation of how he became better AFTER leaving the Red Sox and got HUGE in Toronto. The baseball writers and players on ESPN and FSN were pooh poohing this trainer's word, pointing out that he gave this information out because he was going down. The double standard is bogus. Love or hate Barry Bonds (I can't stand the man, he's a prick to fans), he get's the worst of the bile and it turns out the pitching counterpart to the best hitter in the past 25 years used 'roids, supposedly.

On to college football. People, mainly couch potato fans who never played football beyond flag football in gym class, are complaining about the season and how there needs to be a playoff. BULLSHYTE! College football doesn't NEED a playoff, only the pundits who claim that stuff. There is not one good reason to have a playoff for D1 football - the only reason? BETTING. There is too much money right now in the bowl system as it is and to introduce a playoff system under the current bowl scenario would extend the season beyond the superbowl, possibly. There is not any reason for a playoff. The other football divisions have a playoff, but the tradition of bowls for DI goes back before there was ever a playoff system in college. Sorry, for those football fans who are dim (which means most of them), keep the bowl system as it is.