Game Thoughts

Big win tonight. I can feel the near-beer breath of the Rockies on our necks and the... well, that joke is too obvious... breath of Giants right there as well. It was good to see the team relaxed a little bit though because it looked like they've been pressing a lot lately. A lot of swings early in the count. A lot of tense faces.

The slam by Martin has to make you smile as he's had an absolutely shitty year. I don't know if the extra letter on his uniform is weighing him down or the model girlfriend is making him do too much yoga or what but he's had a horrible year so any signs of life from him makes me happy right now.

Glad Broxton gets a night off. I'm worried about him.

Keep your fingers crossed that Padilla works out because we need a boost in the rotation. Weaver's been busting ass though - I'll give him that.

It's nervous time because not only are the Rockies and Giants right behind us but every other potential playoff team has seemingly gotten rock solid lately. The Phillies look lights out. The Cards looked great as well and are adding Smoltz to the mix now.

Keep your eyes on the prize, boys.

Cursed Schedule Makers

I'll keep this short. Real short.

Who the hell made this schedule so that we're playing the Cards and Cubs while the Giants play Cincinnati and the Rockies play the Nationals?

I call shenanigans!

Quick Thoughts

Just a series of quick thoughts on the shared items from my Google Reader.

* UFC megastar official for Dancing with the Stars
Chuck Liddell was announced as one of the contestants on ABC's Dancing With The Stars. Before they announced it, I wondered if there was anyone they could announce that would make me watch it. After they announced it, I thought, "Huh. Well, that's probably another one that Chuck will lose."

* David Anders Joins Jack Bauer in Season Eight of 24
Too awesome. I'm hopeful he's a villain because there are few actors on television that play a better villain than David Anders. And I'm not even counting his stint on Heroes for that analysis. That's purely based off his work on Alias.

* Warner Bros To Remake Brewster’s Millions
Most analysis of this news has focused on how many times the original has been remade. Mine is more concerned with how much I love the Richard Pryor version of this and I've yet been able to wrap my mind over any potential actors that could live up to Pryor and John Candy. Prove me wrong, WB. Prove me wrong.

* Radiohead: We're Not Making Any More Albums
And several million people who like to cry during their music weep tonight. Apparently the album making process is too draining on these delicate geniuses so they're opting to just release singles and EPs for the rest of their lives. My reaction? "Hey, didn't these guys do that Creep song?"

* UFC stunner: "The New York Bad Ass" Phil Baroni announces...
UFC fires a shot in the now fully-on war against Strike Force by signing Phil Baroni who apparently can't fight worth a damn anymore but can still talk a good game and promote the hell out of a fight. Prevailing wisdom says this was just to take away someone with name value from Strike Force. There's more Vince McMahon in Dana White than he'd like to admit.

* McQuarrie to Write Wolverine Sequel!
The writer for the Usual Suspects is going to write the Wolvie sequel. It's hard for me to get excited about this as I still haven't seen the first Wolvie movie and really have no strong desire to do so. By this point, I would expect it to enjoy Fantastic Four status and surpass my sub-basement level expectations for it but I'm not sure that merits a sequel.

* Harry Potter Movies To Get Extended Edition Re-Releases?
Now THIS is exciting news. Except that no one really believes they've shot a ton of extra footage that they didn't use. Maybe somewhere around 7 minutes for Sorcerer's Stone? That does not merit an EE title. If they're really sitting on somewhere north of 15-20 minutes per movie of quality deleted scenes, then count me in.

* Three Studios in the Running for Kick-Ass
This is old news by this point as Liongate locked down the right to distribute this today. The funny thing about Kick-Ass is that it has quickly become the darling of the Internet movie critic community as well as the "hope story" for aspiring filmmakers. Make the movie you want to make, ignore that no one wants to buy it, finish the movie, show it off to your target audience which loses its collective minds, and then be the subject of a bidding war. It may replace Clerks forever as the goal for those looking for their big break.

* Louis Leterrier Dreams Of Epic Avengers Quadrilogy,...
You witty, witty man. In this interview, he talks about an Avengers Quadrilogy where he makes one movie, Favreau makes one, Branagh makes one... and someone else whose name escapes me. He also wants the movies to be released one per month for an entire summer. This kind of out of the box thinking is what could "save" Hollywood but it'll never happen.

* The First Avenger: Captain America Described As “Raiders...
The rest of the quote says the Cap movie is Raiders meets the Rocketeer and Saving Private Ryan. Sounds... good? The worst part of that story though is the news that Leterrier doesn't think he'll be doing a Hulk sequel and the writer speculating that it's unlikely that Marvel is doing a Hulk sequel which I think is a damn shame. I've caught most of the Hulk recently on HBO and was stricken with how awesome it really was. It got swallowed in the Iron Man/Dark Knight hype but it definitely deserves better than it got.

TNA's Moral Responsibility

Morality and ethics in the world of pro wrestling are a bit... shady... at best. It's a world filled with sleazy stories of questionable believability. If you actually buy into what you read, you would learn that Vince McMahon has helped cover up at least one murder, that Randy Savage is banned from the WWE for having sex with an underage Stephanie McMahon, that Pat Patterson has kept many a man employed in hopes of becoming a little more friendly with them, and countless others.

But this one is front and center in the headlines.

On Friday night, Kurt Angle had some type of altercation with his girlfriend who plays Rhaka Khan on TNA television. One look at Rhaka Khan will give you a world of other jokes to make about this one but apparently she called the police on Angle who was removed from the residence. She also had a protection order put in place against him, saying that she believed he was deleting her text messages and pictures detailing a history of abuse at his hands. And there's where the problem erupts.

On Saturday, she called police again, this time as Angle apparently circled a Starbucks where she was at in his car. When detained by police, they discovered he was driving with a suspended license, in violation of the protection order, and just to throw more gasoline on the fire, had a syringe and HGH in his car. Angle and his attorney claim he has a prescription for the HGH but who knows.

And after a day of speculation about whether or not Angle would appear (or be allowed to appear) on TNA's PPV last night, he did. When the show ended, Kurt Angle remained the TNA World Champion.

Now, I'm all for the innocent until proven guilty thing but... well, I would think for the sake of Public Relations alone, TNA would at least take the title off him and suspend him until the allegations were further investigated. I'm not suggesting that's the legal and appropriate thing to do here but for PR alone, it would have to be. Obviously, there have been other superstar athletes who did not take a suspension while facing criming charges - Kobe Bryant coming immediately to mind but... and I hate saying this... in a post-Benoit world in this industry, they really can't afford to turn a blind eye to allegations of abuse and potentially worse.

Kurt Angle scares me. He really does. He has seemed unstable and dangerously so ever since his WWE release. And I suppose it's quite the indictment on the industry that they need a superstar so badly, they're willing to overlook all that.

It's a tough business to be a fan of at times... a lot of times sadly.