Monday, May 22, 2006

Just Some Randomness

1) I've been driving around Cape Girardeau for a few years now and I've concluded the most common vehicles are white Rangers and white Escorts. I don't know why, but those damn things are all over the place. Escorts are more common with college kids (gas mileage I guess), Rangers with the locals.

2) I wish Ozzie Smith would get over this thing with Tony LaRussa. I get that he feels he was lied to in Spring Training back in '96. I hated LaRussa's guts for that for a couple of years afterward, so I get being pissed at him, but Ozzie seriously, let it go. You're my favorite athlete of all time, and it makes me sad that Cardinals fans are starting to dislike you because you keep acting like a spoiled child. Couldn't you at least pretend to not hate Tony?

3) I think Barry does get #715 off one of these three Cardinals: Carpenter, Izzy, Flores. Carp because he'll challenge Barry. Izzy because his control can be spotty in the way that makes pitches hang in the middle of the strike zone. Flores because he's Tony's #1 left-handed reliever, so if anyone is going to face Barry in a crucial, late-game situation, it's him. Edit: Well, I was wrong. No 715 for Barry. Carpenter missing a start because of his back is troubling.

4) There's is no way that Jim Edmonds shouldn't have been charged with an error yesterday for dropping that flyball in the 7th. He's Jim Edmonds, he's won 5 (6?) consecutive Gold Gloves, he should catch that ball, so or no sun. Whoever the official scorer is, they need to be fired.

5) The Suns beat the Clippers tonight, 133-128. Elton Brand puts up 47 points and 18 rebounds in a losing effort. Nash scores 30, with 13 assists. Edit: Well, it wasn't quite as close as I predicted, and Brand only had 36 and 9, but I came pretty close on Nash. He had 29 and 11.

6) I want the Mavericks to beat the Spurs. They won't. They had this series at the 3-1, and they blew it. Spurs 83-81. Edit: The Mavs came pretty close to making me right. Big halftime lead, almost pissed it away. Lot more offense than I figured, which played to the Mavs, I'd wager.

7) Shaq is rested, the Heat will steamroll the Pistons four times, but the series will last six games because the Heat will sleepwalk through Game 3 (when they're up 2-0), and Game 5 (up 3-1).

8) This will make everyone say the Pistons would have won if they still had Larry Brown coaching. Meanwhile, Brown will take a $40 million buyout from the Knicks, and then get another 4 year, $35 million deal from Sacramento. He'll be killed by Ron Artest in the 6th game next year, when he takes Ron-Ron out of the starting lineup for no reason.

9) What the hell does it mean to say someone "raps like a linebacker"?

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Monday, May 08, 2006

Barry Bonds Is An Asshole


Yeah, like that's news. ESPN's Page 2 had an excerpt on Thursday from Jeff Pearlman's book on Barry Bonds.

We learn about Barry's days at Arizona State, and confirm that yes, Barry has always been this way. I love the story about his teammate getting homemade chili from mom, and then Barry breaks into his apartment and steals the chili. Can't imagine why people didn't like this guy.

Better is when Barry breaks curfew on the trip to Hawaii. The captains pull him and the other three guys who did it aside and say "You're going to be running when we get home". Of course Barry says he isn't running. The beautiful part of all this is the coach finally realizes everyone on the team hates Barry, and lets them vote whether Barry stays on the team or not. He figures Barry's so good, they'll let him stay.

Only two guys voted to let Barry stay. So the coach says that he wasn't really letting them decide, just gauging their feelings. Way to stand up for the whole team there, Coach. Barry rejoins the team, keeps being an unlikeable jackass, and well, you know the rest.

What bums me out is that one of the captains was Oddibe McDowell, who was apparently a wrestler in high school, and could have easily chucked this as Jim Rome might say "Pre-Beef Roids" Bonds into a trash can. But he wanted to set a good example, so he didn't.

My feeling is everyone would have been better off if he had. It probably would have been the first time someone told Barry "I don't care that your dad played professional ball. I don't care that your godfather is Willie Mays. We're a a team, we have rules, you have to follow them like the rest of us."

Who knows, might have given Mr. Bonds a nice attitude adjustment. Might have just made him a less pleasant person to be around. Might have convinced him he needed to start bulking up a lot sooner. Still, it probably would have been really funny.

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