Spring is here, and we know what that means - $5/gallon gas is right around the corner, just in time for the summer driving season!
Oh, and there's also a bunch of movies coming out too. Makes me glad I'm a short walk away from a theater. There's ten movies I'm looking forward to seeing in May, June, and July. But not August. Have you seen the crap coming out in August? No, August is catch up with the Netflix queue month.
Before I hit my ten must-see (and I know you're sooooo anxious to know what's what), have to give a shout out to my pal Jason Lee Miller, currently blogging and crying at his journal Off Topic. The crying doesn't surprise me even a little bit. Go read him and cheer him up. Please. He has a wife and daughter in his grill 24/7. He needs the boost.
Now on to the cinema!
Read more!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Movie Sign!
Spring is here, and we know what that means - $5/gallon gas is right around the corner, just in time for the summer driving season!
Oh, and there's also a bunch of movies coming out too. Makes me glad I'm a short walk away from a theater. There's ten movies I'm looking forward to seeing in May, June, and July. But not August. Have you seen the crap coming out in August? No, August is catch up with the Netflix queue month.
Before I hit my ten must-see (and I know you're sooooo anxious to know what's what), have to give a shout out to my pal Jason Lee Miller, currently blogging and crying at his journal Off Topic. The crying doesn't surprise me even a little bit. Go read him and cheer him up. Please. He has a wife and daughter in his grill 24/7. He needs the boost.
Now on to the cinema!
Read more!
Oh, and there's also a bunch of movies coming out too. Makes me glad I'm a short walk away from a theater. There's ten movies I'm looking forward to seeing in May, June, and July. But not August. Have you seen the crap coming out in August? No, August is catch up with the Netflix queue month.
Before I hit my ten must-see (and I know you're sooooo anxious to know what's what), have to give a shout out to my pal Jason Lee Miller, currently blogging and crying at his journal Off Topic. The crying doesn't surprise me even a little bit. Go read him and cheer him up. Please. He has a wife and daughter in his grill 24/7. He needs the boost.
Now on to the cinema!
Read more!
Monday, February 7, 2011
Saving Baseball
Yeah so I think there was a football game on Sunday night that a few people may have watched. I tuned in and out a few times, which was enough to realize the Steelers were playing a crap game. Bad time to do so, if you ask me.
So that's football over and done with for the season. If the NFL and the Players Association can't figure out what to do with about $9 billion dollars, Green Bay and the rest of the league may be playing golf for a while.
Or maybe they'll watch some baseball. Remember baseball? National pasttime? Long time baseball fan here, and guess what? Baseball is past its time. Football took over a long time ago.
The whole April to October (and beyond) season, with long games and less scoring thanks (likely) to some semblance of a performance drug testing policy, isn't what it was. We don't have the time or the desire to watch like people did in the pre-Super Bowl years.
I think baseball could be made more watchable if the sport had more urgency. A July game between cellar dwellers like Pittsburgh and Arizona isn't helping the game at all. You have teams playing out the string once the All-Star break ends. That kind of sucks.
To borrow an idea from ESPN radio talking head Colin Cowherd, baseball needs to own August. Long month, absolutely nothing going on. With a few other changes, I think we could get more baseball out of less of a season.
I'm making myself honorary commissioner for the rest of this post. Here's what I think needs to change.
First, the commissioner should have his "best interests of baseball" powers back. Having a commish who's tight with ownership and in no way empowered to lay down the law when needed doesn't help a sport that enjoys a massive antitrust exemption privilege.
Second, the National League adopts the designated hitter. It's 2011. It's been time for 30 years for them to do this.
Third, the first two weeks of the season will be played in as many indoor sites and warm weather cities as possible. Snow and football go together. Snow and baseball is just stupid.
Fourth, there will be a salary floor. Owners will have to foot a minimum payroll. Ones who can't do it, sorry, thanks for your time, your team is up for sale to someone who will spend the money. Why yes Mr. Cuban, your money is most welcome here.
Now here's the radical change, the shortening of the season, the elimination of baseball after Labor Day. We end the season on the last Thursday in July. We take Friday because hey, it's a Friday in July.
On Saturday, we start the playoffs. Not the weak version baseball has now. A Dave-approved rollicking free-for-all knockout tournament where every game every night means something. Each pitch, each at-bat, has urgency.
There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball. Using this year's calendar as an example, on July 28th, we rank each league top to bottom. The ten best teams in each league get to continue playing. The remaining teams go on summer break. Buh-bye.
On July 29th we rest, teams travel, Vegas sets some lines, and every sports media outlet can spend the day talking about the upcoming playoffs, on what would normally be a dead weekend unless Brett Favre starts hinting at playing football again.
So we've ranked our teams from one to ten. The first four days are for the play-in games. That's right, you survived past the 28th, now you have to win two out of three games in four days to continue. The 7-10 seeds and the 8-9 seeds play while the top six seeds in each League rest.
That covers July 30-August 2. On the 3rd, everyone is off. On July Fourth, fireworks, hot dogs, and more playoff baseball. The 7-10 winner plays best of three against the top seed, while the 8-9 winner gets the two seed. 3 plays 6 while 4 plays 5. That takes care of July 4-8. On the 9th, winners rest, loser head to the beach.
We've moved from ten teams to eight to four left in each league. Next up, best of five series, played over seven days, August 9-15. We've got the top team against the fourth-best, and the second and third best meeting on the field. We'll keep the 16th as an off day, and on the 17th, the semifinals begin.
We'll do best of five here as well. Either the most talented teams, or the hottest teams, will still be alive in the dog day afternoons of August. See that urgency yet? This isn't Indians-Royals grinding through meaningless games. We're in the meat of the playoffs.
Not much room for error with three out of five at stake from August 17-23. We'll keep the 24th for an off day after the League Championships are completed.
Now it's August 25th. End of summer. Lots of people back into a work/school routine. What's there to watch in the evening? How about the World Frickin' Series?
This is it, the Fall Classic retired and reimagined. Best of seven, August 25-September 2. Champions crowned no later than Friday. Baseball ends on a sultry summer night, not on a November evening at 12:54 a.m. in freezing drizzle.
College football begins, then a few days later the NFL follows. Baseball isn't trying to fight the NFL machine any more. We just had a month of hopefully pressure-packed exciting and interesting baseball.
There's lots of unanswered questions. We're trimming several weeks of games. I see that as a good thing. We can have doubleheaders each week of the season, say on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We would have less bad baseball because we're shelving the teams that just can't cut it and focusing on the better/luckier ones at the end of July. Read more!
So that's football over and done with for the season. If the NFL and the Players Association can't figure out what to do with about $9 billion dollars, Green Bay and the rest of the league may be playing golf for a while.
Or maybe they'll watch some baseball. Remember baseball? National pasttime? Long time baseball fan here, and guess what? Baseball is past its time. Football took over a long time ago.
The whole April to October (and beyond) season, with long games and less scoring thanks (likely) to some semblance of a performance drug testing policy, isn't what it was. We don't have the time or the desire to watch like people did in the pre-Super Bowl years.
I think baseball could be made more watchable if the sport had more urgency. A July game between cellar dwellers like Pittsburgh and Arizona isn't helping the game at all. You have teams playing out the string once the All-Star break ends. That kind of sucks.
To borrow an idea from ESPN radio talking head Colin Cowherd, baseball needs to own August. Long month, absolutely nothing going on. With a few other changes, I think we could get more baseball out of less of a season.
I'm making myself honorary commissioner for the rest of this post. Here's what I think needs to change.
First, the commissioner should have his "best interests of baseball" powers back. Having a commish who's tight with ownership and in no way empowered to lay down the law when needed doesn't help a sport that enjoys a massive antitrust exemption privilege.
Second, the National League adopts the designated hitter. It's 2011. It's been time for 30 years for them to do this.
Third, the first two weeks of the season will be played in as many indoor sites and warm weather cities as possible. Snow and football go together. Snow and baseball is just stupid.
Fourth, there will be a salary floor. Owners will have to foot a minimum payroll. Ones who can't do it, sorry, thanks for your time, your team is up for sale to someone who will spend the money. Why yes Mr. Cuban, your money is most welcome here.
Now here's the radical change, the shortening of the season, the elimination of baseball after Labor Day. We end the season on the last Thursday in July. We take Friday because hey, it's a Friday in July.
On Saturday, we start the playoffs. Not the weak version baseball has now. A Dave-approved rollicking free-for-all knockout tournament where every game every night means something. Each pitch, each at-bat, has urgency.
There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball. Using this year's calendar as an example, on July 28th, we rank each league top to bottom. The ten best teams in each league get to continue playing. The remaining teams go on summer break. Buh-bye.
On July 29th we rest, teams travel, Vegas sets some lines, and every sports media outlet can spend the day talking about the upcoming playoffs, on what would normally be a dead weekend unless Brett Favre starts hinting at playing football again.
So we've ranked our teams from one to ten. The first four days are for the play-in games. That's right, you survived past the 28th, now you have to win two out of three games in four days to continue. The 7-10 seeds and the 8-9 seeds play while the top six seeds in each League rest.
That covers July 30-August 2. On the 3rd, everyone is off. On July Fourth, fireworks, hot dogs, and more playoff baseball. The 7-10 winner plays best of three against the top seed, while the 8-9 winner gets the two seed. 3 plays 6 while 4 plays 5. That takes care of July 4-8. On the 9th, winners rest, loser head to the beach.
We've moved from ten teams to eight to four left in each league. Next up, best of five series, played over seven days, August 9-15. We've got the top team against the fourth-best, and the second and third best meeting on the field. We'll keep the 16th as an off day, and on the 17th, the semifinals begin.
We'll do best of five here as well. Either the most talented teams, or the hottest teams, will still be alive in the dog day afternoons of August. See that urgency yet? This isn't Indians-Royals grinding through meaningless games. We're in the meat of the playoffs.
Not much room for error with three out of five at stake from August 17-23. We'll keep the 24th for an off day after the League Championships are completed.
Now it's August 25th. End of summer. Lots of people back into a work/school routine. What's there to watch in the evening? How about the World Frickin' Series?
This is it, the Fall Classic retired and reimagined. Best of seven, August 25-September 2. Champions crowned no later than Friday. Baseball ends on a sultry summer night, not on a November evening at 12:54 a.m. in freezing drizzle.
College football begins, then a few days later the NFL follows. Baseball isn't trying to fight the NFL machine any more. We just had a month of hopefully pressure-packed exciting and interesting baseball.
There's lots of unanswered questions. We're trimming several weeks of games. I see that as a good thing. We can have doubleheaders each week of the season, say on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We would have less bad baseball because we're shelving the teams that just can't cut it and focusing on the better/luckier ones at the end of July. Read more!
Friday, February 4, 2011
My not so Super pick
First time trying to blog from my phone. Super Bowl pick? Have to go with neither since both teams put my New York teams out. No? Ok. Steelers win 38-16.
Read more!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
St. John's Returns?
I'm a long time fan of New York teams, and the recent down years of St John's in hoops play has been disappointing.
But they've followed up beating those hated Duke Blue Devils with a nice little nailbiter against Rutgers last night.
I'm doing Snoopy's Happy Dance. Picture that in your mind. You're welcome. Read more!
But they've followed up beating those hated Duke Blue Devils with a nice little nailbiter against Rutgers last night.
I'm doing Snoopy's Happy Dance. Picture that in your mind. You're welcome. Read more!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Reboot
Sometimes the computer doesn't cooperate
You have to push the power button in
Hold it for seven seconds
Until it starts back up (hopefully.)
That's kind of how my life's been
Over the past year
Holding in the power button
Just for a lot longer than seven seconds.
Amazingly enough
I think the reboot finally worked
Things seem to be restored
Read more!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
