The Big-time Needed Update Edition

Ok, I've been slackin about getting this one updated. I explained why in my personal blog, but basially I was tired and lazy. I'll refund your money, so quit bitchin.

Anyway, the Bulls started their season. I'll break into full thoughts later, but first I attempted another running diary. Again I failed as I had driven 600 miles and spent 4 nights drinking before the opener. Not a smart idea but here's where I ended up with.

Bulls Opener Running Diary 10/28/08

The start of the NBA season has prompted me to do another Bill Simmons-esque running diary. I have no idea what happened in the preseason, other than Derrick Rose dropping 30 points once. I’m excited to see how he plays (and if he starts) and how he gels with my boy, Tyrus Thomas. If I don’t get a big season out of Tyrus this year I’m not going to be happy. I’m also interested to see how this Vinny Del Negro guy is gonna work out as a coach since I don’t know anything about his coaching style. With that said let’s get this thing going.

7:37 During the starting lineups I learned that Austin Croshere is on the Bucks. This must make Sean very happy. Meanwhile the Bulls have a new introduction video montage for the season. You’d think they finished a lot better than just the 9^th best record in the league if this was all you’d seen of last year.

7:40 Christ, this really drawn out. And I’m very disappointed in some of the Luv-a-Bulls. Their talent level has dropped a little. (or the camera man sucks at life)

7:43 Thankfully, the Bulls kept the traditional video tribute and the Alan Parson Project’s “Sirius” for the starting lineup intro. Maybe that other video was a one-time deal. The Bulls are running out a starting lineup of Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, Drew Gooden, Thabo Sefolosha, and Derrick Rose. Gotta say I’m a huge fan of this lineup. It’s about time Thabo gets his due. And of course, I’m very happy to see Noah, Hinrich and Gordon all starting on the bench.

7:48 F-Bomb. I want to quit already. Rose turns it over. And Redd scores for the Bucks. That sucks.

7:51 I see Derrick Rose hasn’t worked on his free-throws since Memphis. He missed his first. But a turnover by the Bucks and a nice play to follow is a little redemption. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ll be focusing on the Bulls I like and am interested about more than a play by play. And Tyrus had a nice assist to Deng as I typed that last sentence.

7:53 I have to admit. Rose may have had some jitters early. But he’s handling the ball well. And he also picked up a steal on the defensive end.

7:57 Tyrus has a couple of boards, an assist and a made free throw. I’m also seeing Derrick Rose really push the pace when he gets a chance. I’m liking this. By the way, Bulls lead 13-9 about halfway through the first.

7:59 A pretty nice lob from Deng to Tyrus gets wiped away because the ball was in the cylinder. Bogus call. But still good things from this lineup (minus Thabo picking up 2 quick fouls and getting yanked in favor of Hinrich).

8:06 We’ve hit a little boring stretch, and my exhaustion from the weekend is starting to sink in. It feels like I’ve hit a wall and I’m starting to second guess my decision to do this. It’s currently 17-13 Bulls as Andrew Bogut is kicking their ass right now. Deng however seems to have life in his legs. Half of what he’s doing isn’t counting right now, but he looks better and sharper than this point last season. Maybe he’s earning that contract.

8:11 Tyrus missed a shot after a good move inside, but is showing a lot of hustle and forced a jump ball. I like that. He’s a freakish athlete if he’d go hard every game. (By the way, he won the jump… are you surprised I’m not. His legs are spring loaded)

8:15 First quarter is over. Tied at 26.

8:18. Noah is in the game. I’d rather not watch. I truly hate that man. I’m very disappointed Roy Hibbert decided to eff up his draft status and go back to school. If he ends up being good for the Pacers this year I’m going to go nuts as I really wanted the Bulls to draft him in ’07.

8:24 I’d say the Bulls bench looks like shit. But that might be insulting to shit. They’re boring, inefficient, feature Joakim Noah, and are now losing to Milwuakee. At least Tyrus is out there and he picked up another nice assist.

8:30 Tyrus hits an open jumper to tie the game at 34. Then he follows it up with a nice drive. During the replay I learned he was in the top 3 in the league in the preseason in blocks and rebounds. That’s good to know. He missed another free throw though (now 2-4) and only has 4 points.

8:34 I’m not observant. I just noticed that Johnny “Red” Kerr isn’t announcing. I don’t know if this is permanent or not. I sure hope it isn’t. I don’t mind Stacey and the other guy, but Kerr tied it together.

8:41 Eh, I’m bored. This game has been moving pretty slow since the beginning. It’s now tied at 41. I’m falling asleep and actually really need a shower and a shave. I think I’m calling this update complete. I know this one sucked a little, but now that NBA is in full action with the NHL and NFL already rolling along you can expect a few more updates.

Ok, sound good. The Bulls won the opener, then embarrassed themselves at Boston, and are in the process of embarrassing themselves at home against Memphis (in the first half as i type this) tonight. The starting lineup looks god awful over the last 2 games. Missing shots, turning it over, basically not caring.
Kirk Hinrich seems to be a sulky, whiny, little bitch when he doesn't get his way, (i.e. get to start)
Someone is going to have to get traded when Hughes comes back b/c the Hinrich/Gordon/Rose/Sefolosha/Hughes backcourt clusterfuck is not gonna cut it.
Tyrus Thomas has shot the ball like a blind-retarded midget and would probably be better served by attempting to shoot full court shots. He'd probably make the same percentage.
Ben Gordon has looked worse than Tyrus. He sucks. I really didn't want him to come back. He dribbles forever, shoots often and erratically, and worst of all is taking the ball out of the hands of the only bright spot.....

Derrick Rose. Thank God for him. I strongly believe he'll be the best player from this draft within a few years, but I really didn't think he'd be so good so early. He can get into the lane at will, and if he learns to knock down that mid-range jumper he'll be near unstoppable.


Shifting gears over to the ice now.
I've missed alot of the Blackhawks games on tv recently as I've either been out of town, forgetting to watch, or enthralled in episodes of the Office or something else.
However, I've been to 2 of my 10 games so far.
I'm not going to bother recapping the game against Phoenix as that was back on Oct. 15, and that seems like forever ago.

But Oct. 25, was the marquee game on my schedule. The Dee-troit (SUCKS) Red Wings. This game was off-the-charts fun.
-The Hawks set an attendance record.
-The bags of douche behind my $15 seat in the standing room only area paid $20 (score one for me)
-Did I mention DEE-TROIT-SUCKS? Because it was heard often. And loudly.
-There was alot of scoring. 5-5, so I saw my first ever overtime. Followed by my first ever shootout.
Granted the Hawks lost, but it was insanely fun, and shootout losses are still with a point. So who the hell cares, I had fun.

Well, that'll wrap up my sports update. Tomorrow I should be back with final thoughts on tonight's Bulls game (probably will skip a Hawks recap since I only caught part due to the Bulls- but the Hawks did win 4-3 in a shootout) and a recap of the Bears game.

0-fer the weekend

Well fuck me in the goat-ass. Not exactly what I was hoping for in the wide world of Chicago Sports this weekend.

Blackhawks start the season, I continue drinking.

Admittedly I don't a lot about hockey strategy and rules and things like that. But I'm pretty sure when you pull your goaltender, (something Huet (pronounced Who-A, I did learn that much)) who was your big free agent acquisation, in favor of a guy you waived but no one wanted, halfway through your team's first game, you're more or less fucked. 'Fucked' of course being the technical hockey term. Another bad omen is that I feel asleep on the couch watching this game. Though I blame that on being exhausted all week and finally Ovechkin displays bad-assedness while Kane summarizes the
just unwinding on Friday evening. I pray the Hawks weekend
Rangers are good (and apparantly they are) because otherwise the 4-2 beatdown would be really bad.

But lucky me, the Hawks played again on Saturday. This time I managed to stay conscious. The Hawks however didn't. Sure they started strong, scoring twice in the first period, but so did I on Friday. The rest of the game was not as good. Khabibulan (I may have spelled that right), proved why no team wanted him as a goaltender, and the Hawks lost again 4-2. This leaves me hoping the Capitals are a good team, because otherwise it'd be another embarrasing loss. I do know that Alex Ovechkin is a badass, and he proved such status by scoring as much as the entire Blackhawks team.

I guess not all was a wash though, as Duncan Keith looked good, and elevated his status to 'One of the 5 Hawks' names I know' status alongside the aforementioned Huet and Khabibulan, and the young guns, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews (pronounced Tays- i'm freakin on fire).

Bears steal a win, then snatch a loss
I can't really say I'm surprised. In fact I picked Atlanta to win in my pick 'em this week. But that doesn't mean I didn't want the Bears to win. Naturally the offense looked like trash most of the game, and the defense perfectly executed the 'bend but don't break' strategy. But Kyle 'Fuck Rex Grossman' Orton led the team down the field with a hurry up offense (who knew?) and the Bears took the lead with 11 seconds left. Orton now leads the league in the coveted 'Times his picture appeared in Err's Blog'. Then Jason "I thought he was dead" Elam got a second life after a short kickoff and one deep pass to the sideline set him up for the game winner with 1 second left
on the clock. I'd swear that as the ball went through I couldn't find a pic of Orton from today's game so here's the one
the uprights that Elam missed the ball and instead from last week.
directly kicked Bears fans straight in the nuts.
On to thoughts of the game (only one this week)

Thought 1.
FUCK



Fight, Cardinals Fight.
Since I don't have whatever channel would actually show the Ball State Fighting Football Cardinals, I really on ESPN.com. Here's what they said Ball State goes to 7-0
That's good enough for me. Pretty sure they're the best team in Indiana. So suck on that Notre Dame.

Under the lights...
A bonus update this week. Saturday night, after the embarrasment known as a Blackhawks game, the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets played an outdoor game. I didn't really follow the action of the game because it's preseason and who cares, but I still had a couple of thoughts from the game.

Thought 1.
The temperature got down to the mid-60s by the end of the game. Apparantly, these people (including the athletes) out west are pussies. Fans in attendance bundled up with hooded sweatshirts and Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller, and Marv Albert (more on this) kept talking about how cold it was while fighting over a scarf, despite wearing suits.
Seriously, how weak are these people. It was 60s... That's shorts and t-shirt weather. You don't see football fans acting like a bunch of wimps. Even when the weather turns to the negative degrees you'll always find at least a few people going shirtless.

Thought 2.
Reggie Miller and Charles Barkley are a fantastic color analyst dual. I was immensely entertained throughout the game. Especially when Barkley got on his rant about Obama becoming the first black president, which lead to this exchange.
Sir Chuck: "When we have a black president we're not getting $700 billion in debt." (we're 10+ trillion in debt for the record)
Reggie: "Like you're one to talk"
Charles: "I didn't lose that much"
Good stuff. These guys need to be at every big game on TNT for the entire season. TNT found gold during this game.

That's it for this week. I'll be at the Blackhawks game Wednesday, so we may have our first "Drunken recap" of the year.

1 more game, 100 years and #25

Home sweet home. After a great start to the week, the Sox faced some tough times down in Tampa. However, another great start by Danks (Tuesday's hero) gave the Sox offense a chance and Dewayne Wise came through. Seriously, this guy to the left. After 3 games, he's the offensive hero for the Sox. How much could you have made on that bet? I could probably quit my job and afford tickets to Monday's game 4. Still as long as someone gets it done, I don't care who it is. Plus, who says the Sox can't run? Wise, Brian Anderson and Juan Uribe all stole bases, and the sox scored all 5 runs without the use of the longball. Promising signs. On to thoughts of the game.

Thought #1.
The power of the blackout. I wish I could have been to either game, but the Sox are still playing, and with one more (blackout?) at home this might just go back to Tampa.

Thought #2.
Harold Reynolds is an awful in-game analyst. He completely contradicted himself countless times (I seriously lost count. I was drinking, it was tough when i got past 5). Sometimes in the same inning. I always thought Hawk and DJ were awful, but at least they stand their ground in their mindless ramblings. Reynolds is a moron.

Thought #3.
Dewayne fucking Wise. Seriously.
We have Dye, Thome, Konerko, Griffey, and even Mr. Grand Slam Alexei Ramirez, and it's been the Dewayne fucking Wise show. I don't even know what to say.


In other sports news, there's always next year.....
I have to take a stab at some Cubs fans (who let me know frequently this year that they'd be playing baseball longer than the Sox). How does year 100 feel? Does it take the sting off, knowing that the Sox are still playing ball?

Oh, it doesn't? Huh.
I also thoroughly enjoyed this article on Sox and Flubs fans: Sox fans are better



#25 in the AP
So the Ball State Fighting Football Cardinals, led by QB (so good they have to be paying him to be at bsu) Nate Davis are now ranked #25 in the AP poll. Pretty impressive. I never thought I'd see a relevant Ball State football team, but these guys keep winning, and keep winning big.

Here's part of ESPN.com's story:

"The Cardinals are off to their best start since going 9-0 to begin the 1965 season. They won their sixth straight game Saturday night, shutting out Toledo 31-0 to improve to 3-0 in the Mid-American Conference...

...Led by Nate Davis, the latest in a long line of talented MAC quarterbacks, and running back MiQuale Lewis, the Cardinals are 11th in the country in total offense at 472 yards per game.

Davis is 10th in passer rating (164.6) and has thrown for 1,662 yards and 11 touchdowns. Lewis is eighth in the nation in rushing at 134 yards per game."

Bear Down Chicago Bears
I obviously don't know shit about preseason predictions. I said I thought the White Sox were built perfectly to go 81-81 and finish 3rd. I also figured the Bears would win 5-6 games. Well through 5, they are half-way there at 3-2. (though I did expect this one against Detroit)

Thought 1.
Forte's rushing numbers are going down every game, which is disturbing. But somehow his play seems to be getting better. And he's getting into the endzone. I think I look smart for making him a late-round pickup in all my fantast leagues.

Thought 2.
While watching the game, I kept thinking back to the preseason during the QB battle. Urlacher said the battle to be the starter wasn't an issue b/c the team had 2 good QBs. I laughed and thought he was out of his mind. Well I'm not sure I want to call Orton "good" just yet, he's been surprising. Once again hitting a new high in passing yards and completing a ton of passes while spreading the ball around. I'm pleasantly surprised.

Thought 3.
I'd like to personally nominate Marty Booker's 1 handed catch (while being interfered with) as the play of the week and possibly the season. I had no idea Marty Booker still had that in him. After all, his last good season was when the Bears traded him 4 years ago. Maybe Miami is truly where WRs go to die.

They're still playin ball on the South Side!

Ok, so I'm 4 heavy Jack-n-Cokes into this (and a celebratory beer slam that I may or may not have spilled all over my face). Needless to say there was no running diary of the Sox game tonight as I couldn't sit down long enough to not spill a drink on my face, let alone type a running diary.

Anyway, I need to get this out first......


WOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
FUCK YOU TWINS!! GOOO SOX GOOO!!!


Ok, that feels better. My hatred for the Cubs is well-known, (unless you don't know me and in that case why are you reading my shit), and as much as I hate those fuckers about 7 miles north of the good team, I'm convinced I hate the Twins at least 3x as much. (Could be more, I'm no mathematician) So seeing them celebrate a division championship on US Cellular Field would have been enough for me to hang myself. Words cannot describe how big this win was for me.

Now let's get into the action.
It was a 1-0 game, so this shouldn't take long.

I don't want to say John Danks is a god, but he was god-like. 8 innings. 2 hits. Most importantly, ZERO runs. I knew this kid was going to be a good one. But I didn't think he'd be this good this soon. He's everything that Javy Vazquez isn't. That makes me even more happy.

And Mr. Incredible (have you seen a side by side pic of Thome and Incredible) hit a Moon-shot. If I had made it to the game (long story, I thought I was gonna get a ticket twice and blew it) that probably woulda hit me in the head. My dad and I love that Concession stand as we can get a Heinekin for 50 cents more than a MGD. (worth the upgrade when paying $6+ a beer) A couple of thoughts about the bomb though.

Thought #1, As much as I hate Hawk and DJ, and least when there's a moonshot like that I know its gone immediately. These TBS announcers fucked with my emotions by not letting me know it was gone til it cleared the fence by about 90 feet. That's just not nice. Don't they know I'm on the verge of a heart-ache (and half-drunk) and can't handle shit like that?

Thought #2, that's Thome's 2nd HR that hit the concourse this year that was a huge homer. The other was a walk-off against the Angels. There might not have even been another homer by anyone to hit the concourse b/c that's an incredible bomb. (I haven't researched this so I don't know for sure) To do this twice, with super-meaningful homeruns is absolutely unthinkable. If I had a vote he just got himself into the hall of fame on his first try.

Speaking of Hall of Fame. Future first ballot HOFer Ken Griffey Jr showed the defense again tonight for the first time in years. He kept the only Twins threat off the board with that gun to home to get some n0-name Twins fuck out. Griffey was always one of my child-hood favorites and to see him come up big in the field tonight was great. (I also saw his first Sox homer in person this year) He's provided some nice memories in that #17 jersey, even if its for less than half a season. I won't forget this.

And finally... Big Bad Bobby Jenks brought it in the 9th. I havent seen that 99 mph fastball since the '05 World Series. I know adrenaline is huge in closers, and maybe he doesn't get his juiced til the postseason. But I'm feeling good b/c if the Sox can get a 9th inning lead, they're gonna win.

Luckily, I've got a day off to recoup before stressing over Thursday's game (and probably swearing while listening on the radio at work). My liver needs this. Go Sox!

Running Diary of the White Sox Game 9/23/08

Sox Game Running Diary 9/23/08

With the season winding down, and DJ being replaced in the booth next year by Steve Stone (who actually knows what he’s talking about), and the battle for the Central Division coming down to these 3 games, I figure there’s no time like the present to run my Bill Simmons-esque running diary.

7:01 Just flipped over to a little pregame from Hawk and DJ. First mistake of the game, DJ says Scott Baker’s ERA is under 3, when in fact it is 3.69 coming into today. This isn’t reassuring to me.

7:04 First commercials and I’m trying to decide where to set the over/under for Tyler Perry’s House of Pain, and the Miller Lite Dr. Cox commercials. I’m thinking about a million, and I’m taking the over.

7:08 Not sure on tonight’s beverage yet. I think I’ll be starting with a beer, may have to move into the hard stuff once the game gets going. Meanwhile, Hawk and DJ just finished talking about something that provided no real information.

7:10 Griffey is in the lineup tonight. I’m going to make him my Pick the Click before Hawk and DJ show me theirs. I’m hoping for a little “Little Big League” magic.

7:11 AJ gets a nice ovation of boos, as DJ tells me how much they love him here. I think he was being sarcastic, but you can never be quite sure.

7:14 Hawk is goin with Dewayne Wise, DJ is goin with Orlando Cabrera and the crew is backing me up with some Ken Griffey Jr. love.

7:16 Scott Baker resembles Cy Young in the first, setting the Sox down in order while striking out Pierzynski and Dye. Not exactly what I was hoping for.

7:20 Vazquez strikes out Denard Span to start the game. That’s pretty amazing. Even more amazing though is that through 4 outs, Hawk and DJ have complimented the umpiring so far.

7:22 Apparently, Joe Mauer invented hitting. I wouldn’t have guessed that. “The Inventor” grounds out to Alexi Ramirez to end an impressive inning for Vazquez.

7:26 Thome is now 3-15 against Baker after a lead-off single. Now only 3 more singles, or a homer and we’ll have a run.

7:30 Konerko hit’s a perfect “duck fart” broken bat single and somehow Thome gets to third. Griffey is up with no one out. I think I might wet myself. (name that movie reference)

7:32 Hawk and DJ tell me how good Griffey was swinging in batting practice, and that they expect he’ll have a big series playing in a dome. Griffey hits into a run scoring double play to prove that they are morons. At least the Sox lead 1-0. Alexi follows it up with a strikeout and this half inning is over.

7:37 Four straight balls to Morneau to start the inning. And Sox-killer Kubel and his 503 career homers against us is up now.

7:40 It’s probably a good thing Minnesota plays in a dome, as Kubel launches a homer that could have taken down small aircraft.

7:41 Base hit by Delmon Young and I may not make it through this game. After all reruns of the office are on TBS on Tuesdays.

7:47 So after a 1-out first and third situation, we get lucky to get Young in a run-down to get an out, but we botch it and the runners move to 2nd and 3rd. Sox could really use an out or this game could be over in the second inning. Hawk confirms that this a big out after I finish typing that.

7:48 Sox get out of it, but trail 2-1. C’mon offense, we need you.

7:52 Lance Broadway is already warming up in the Sox bullpen. I guess Javy isn’t responding well to Guillen calling him out: [link here: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3602173] Meanwhile, Wise pops up to start the inning.

7:55 Uribe somehow manages a single, but Cabrera makes a quick second out. AJ steps up to another louder ovation of boos (some of the crowd arrived late).

8:00 After a long at-bat, AJ finally breaks his bat and grounds out to end the inning.

8:04 Dr. Jekyl is back as Javy makes quick work of Alexi Casilla (strikeout) and The Inventor (groundout).

8:06 Broken bat grounder by Justin “MVP” Morneau ends the 3rd. I don’t understand why Sox fans cant ever get into the MVP chants. I was trying to start it for Quentin back in early August and no one cared. It’s tragic.

8:13 Three broken bats, 3 outs, boring half-inning. Plus Hawk and DJ didn’t even set me up for a joke.

8:16 Mr. Hyde is back as Kubel leads off with a triple just passed a diving Jr. We may need a doctor as I’m sure he pulled a hamstring or broke something on that effort. Delmon Young flares a double just out of Dye’s reach, so I’m switching to a hard drink.

8:21 While making myself a drink some guy I’ve never heard of reached first on a suicide squeeze. Evidently I can’t pour a drink fast enough.

8:26 A stolen base, followed by another bloop single and its 5-1, Twins. I’m not sure why Javy is still on the mound if he almost didn’t come out for the 3rd. Still only 1 out.

8:30 Another stolen base has me wondering why I decided to put myself through this. On the bright side, the Office starts at 9.

8:33 Vazquez’s 78th pitch ends the 4th inning finally. I think I might strangle Ozzie if he comes out for the 5th.

8:37 Baker issues the “dreaded leadoff walk” to Griffey. I still contend it’s only dreaded when the Sox walk other teams, because its still going to take a triple or a homerun to score a run.

8:38 Fantastic play by someone at third on an Alexi Ramirez rocket, but he can’t make a throw anywhere, so maybe the Sox have something cookin after all. As for me, I’m hoping to be drunk before the inning is over.

8:40 Wise lines out to Young in left, giving us our first “Dag gommit” from Hawk.

8:45 A surprisingly good at bat by Jaun Uribe, (still an out, but a good at bat for him needs to be noted) followed by a Cabrera single has the bases loaded for fan favorite AJ. He’s looked pretty bad so far as the Twins have been jamming him inside. Let’s see if he can snap out of it.

8:47 A mound visit by Minnesota’s pitching coach must have said “throw a strike” as the first pitch is over the center of the plate, and Pierzynski looked hopeless on the second pitch. According to Hawk and DJ, the Twins are catching us at the right time b/c we’re scuffling. Less than a month ago the Twins were in first, not 2 ½ games back, so I’m gonna assume we’re catching them at the right time too. Meanwhile Pierzynski grounds out and we’re in big trouble.

8:52 Clayton Richard is in now, but the results are the same. Lead off single for the Inventor and here we go again. Morneau pummels the next pitch for a double and I’m heading for a refill.

8:57 7-1 now after a broken bat sac fly. I’m too worn out for comments.

9:00 Good news for the Sox. Well their fans at least. The Office is a good one. “The Health Care” Michael promises a surprise to distract the troops from Dwight’s dictorial choosing of a cut-rate health care plan.

9:01 I flipped back to the Sox to realize that Dye has already made an out. Back to the Office I go.
9:04 The inning is over and I probably wont be back (except commercial breaks)

9:16 A commercial break allows me to see it’s still 7-1 in the top of the 7th with 2 outs. Something interesting must have happened though, b/c Hawk and DJ were talking about the science of sounds.

9:17 Meanwhile back on the Office, Dwight has taken away the health care, b/c Pam is suffering from a killer robot epidemic. And someone has Count Choculitis. And Jim locked Dwight in his “workspace” This is much better than the Sox.

9:25 Status update shows its now 9-1. I’m officially done with this diary. If by some chance the Sox get their magic number down to one I might try it again, but I’m done for tonight and probably the rest of this series.