Weird Day

You know, there are days in writing a blog that you update every day where you just can not figure out what the fuck to write. There are days where there just seems to be absolutely nothing going on to write about. Those are days where you get YouTube videos or random comments about a few bullshit stories.

But good lord has the past couple of days been nutty.

The Shaq deal? The Vince Carter deal? The NBA Draft? Manny in the Minors [great reality series idea!]? And that's just on the sports page.

If you're on the front page, you might read about Iran or North Korea - the latter of which apparently promised to rain nuclear hellfire upon the United States on a moment's notice if they get... what? Offended? Bored? And once again, we see what a friggin' waste of time pissing around in Iraq was while these crazy fucks still get to... oh, I don't know... RUN A FUCKING COUNTRY!

The Entertainment section is a bit of a bummer. Ed McMahon? Dead. Farrah Fawcett? Dead. But while I think it's sad that they're dead for their friends and families as well as all of their fans, those don't really hit me too hard.

But Michael Jackson? Fuuuuuck.

And yes, I spent the bulk of the day fielding really tasteless jokes via text, e-mail, and in person about his death. Yes, some of them were amusing but... man... that shit's harsh. The guy died and there's a slew of child molesting jokes making the rounds before the body's cold.

Whatever. I prefer to think of Michael Jackson as the amazing artist that provided so much brilliant music and inspired so many current and future artists to even get involved in the music business. Sure, he was "eccentric" if you want to be nice and flat out fucking nuts if you're "keepin' it real." But that doesn't take away from the fantastic music he made.

One of my co-workers compared it to the day that Lennon died. Not sure I can disagree a ton with that. It's a huge day in music history and to see it reduced to a bunch of "Ha ha, he fucked kids!" jokes is kind of a bummer.

Not that I'm condoning fucking kids! But... well, maybe Benoit set the bar pretty high for how much of a fuckstain on the sheets of life you have to be before I don't at least think it's a shame you died.

Plus, there's the whole innocent until proven guilty thing that Americans only like to use when it benefits them. The court of public opinion has never believed in such a premise and likely never will.

Eh. Whatever. I'm babbling.

But "Billie Jean" is and always will be one of my favorite songs ever and it makes me sad to think I've forever lost the chance that I might someday get to see it performed live.

Oh, like you wouldn't have gone to see him in concert! Keep telling yourself that.

R.I.P. for the one and only King of Pop.

Blue's Reviews: Party Down

With the X-Box 360 back in play and a free Live membership for a month in hand, I decided it was an opportune time to try and get the 360 on the wireless network again without paying for the ridiculously overpriced Microsoft Wireless Adapter.  With a loaner Airport Extreme and a little more effort than I would've liked, the network had a new addition to the family.  The first thing I wanted to try was not online gaming but rather the Watch Instantly feature on Netflix.


As the kids would say...


OMG!


It's simply awesome to be able to stream movies and TV shows across the 360 and watch them on the television.  One of the first things I had looked for was the Starz series Party Down.  Party Down was of special interest to me since it was co-created by Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas [no, not THAT Rob Thomas] and featured a lot of the VM stars.  It's kind of a "class reunion" of sorts.


But that's just the hook.  The best part of it is that this comedy series about a bunch of aspiring or failed actors working in a party catering company is actually god damn hilarious.  It has fun characters that you instantly can relate to and develop a feeling one way or another for.  It's got pretty decent storytelling with both the main characters as well as the guest stars involved.  


And in true comedic fashion... it's got the quotables, my favorite of which was a three way tie.


1)  "SNAP, MOTHERFUCKERS!" - So, so simple.  So, so glorious.
2)  "I think they prefer to be called Jigroes" - Hehehehehehehehe.
3)  "Jim Abbott" - 'nuff said.


Now, you're sitting there thinking I'm a tremendous jackass for putting in those quotables and not explaining the context of them, right?


WRONG!


That's my way of getting you to go out and watch Party Down.  If you're a fan of Veronica Mars especially or just a fan of comedy in the vein of The Office but a little bit darker and more cynical, you'll dig it muchly.

Some NBA Stuff

You'd think with the season just ending, we'd have no NBA stuff going on right now but...

Spurs Trade Bowen!
I don't even give a fuck about the rest of the trade but Bowen's gone!  No more fear that Kobe's going to be seriously injured in every Spurs/Lakers game.  No more of this...




Ray Allen On Trade Block
Looks like the Celtics are ready to break down their team already. Ray Allen's on the trading block along with Rajon Rondo as they apparently recently attempted to play Let's Make A Deal with the Pistons, trying to pick up Rip Hamilton among others. Interesting. I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.


Phil Wants To Only Coach At Home
...what?

Random Thoughts

Just a few notes on some of my shared Google News from the past few days...

"Moneyball" Apparently Dead

Bah! I knew it was too good to be true. For months, we've been hearing about the plans to turn the book about Billy Beane and his success in rebuilding the Oakland A's time and time again using statistical analysis over more traditional baseball scouting into a "major motion picture." Brad Pitt was attached to star with Steven Soderbergh [did I spell that right?] directing. But as of today, the movie was killed in what appears to be a studio decision regarding a creative conflict. According to the folks at /film, Sony wanted a "more traditional" sports movie out of it. Sometimes I wonder why I aspire to be involved in that business.

Bryan Fuller A Hero No More

Genius scribe Bryan Fuller of Pushing Daisies and Wonderfalls fame returned to Heroes to much ballyhoo late last season, apparently giving the show a much needed creative boost towards its former greatness. In fact, the end of the season got such good buzz, I was thinking of watching the eps I missed this summer. Today, Fuller revealed that he'd be leaving Heroes yet again... and millions of fanboys wept bitter tears.

Pitching, Pitching, Pitching

One look over the weekend at Joe Torre's absolutely brutal handling of the bullpen has Dodger fans getting nervous about stretch time. Apparently Ned Coletti feels the same way and is apparently on the hunt for another starter to boost the rotation. Pedro Martinez seems to not be on the radar at the moment and hasn't been since Spring Training according to Torre. The rumored name of the day? Former Angel Jarrod Washburn. Since I rarely watch AL games, anyone know how Washburn is doing? Personally, I think the bullpen could use an extra bullet stopper or two because with the amount of innings they're getting, an injury seems inevitable to me.

Neve Campbell Too Busy Being Nobody To Film Scream 4

One of the hottest stories as of late has been the potential relaunch of the Scream franchise with three new movies. Wes Craven's been courted to direct with former WCW World Champion David Arquette and Courtney "Hey, Weren't You In Friends?" Cox apparently ready to earn a paycheck as well. It's a new story so it seems a little odd to need the ol' gang again. When news hit that Campbell had turned down the role that made her [sorta] famous, writer Kevin Williamson seemed quite distraught about it, wondering if he could figure out a way to do the story without her. Anyone else thinking she was supposed to be the killer? Yeah, me too.

Jobs Returns As iPhone 3GS Sells Huge

I don't really have anything to add to this but...

Have I Mentioned I Hate Joe Morgan?

Arrogant piece of shit has the gall to say after the Dodgers beat the Angels tonight that "I think people are finally starting to take the Dodgers seriously."

Are you fucking joking?

The team's had the best record in baseball for the majority of the first half of the season.  We're almost to the All-Star Break and they're leading their division by eight games or so.  They thrived when everyone thought they'd fold when Manny went down to suspension.

And yes, "it's still early."  And yes, this could all turn in a hurry but...

Was no one taking the Dodgers seriously all those weeks they were on top of the Power Rankings for Yahoo, ESPN, SI, and all the rest of the top sports news sites?

Fucking Joe Morgan.  I wish the Dodgers would NEVER be shown on ESPN.

I Love Knocking Out Rich Franklin

So, the Red Ring Repaired X-Box 360 returned home a couple of days ago and tonight, I finally had the energy to open it up and re-connect it.  I was greatly surprised to discover that a] it's either a new unit or b] they updated the software for me which is greatly appreciated since I do not have an Internet connection within range of it.  They also tossed in a one month free subscription to X-Box Live for my "troubles" which is kinda nice, I guess, but I can't use it at the moment so it's also useless.

I popped in the UFC game finally that had caused this whole scenario to unfold and was immediately taken aback by how nice the opening sequence was.  The menus were straight forward and I was able to figure out what was going on pretty easily.  I skipped the Tutorial because I'm a guy and we hate learning how to do something before we just try to do it.  Duh.

So, in mere moments, I was in an Exhibition fight at the Light Heavyweight level between Kenny "Ken-Flo" Florian and my opponent - I think it was Thiago Alves?  Can't remember.  This one was a slugfest which I knew it probably shouldn't be but it was all my button mashing would manage.  After a hard-fought first round, I looked up how to do a takedown attempt but I kept getting stuffed with it.  I went back to the punches and kicks and scored with an awesome high kick to floor Mr. Serra and end his night in the third round.

I was overjoyed by how beautiful this game is.  Nicely done characters.  Good textures on the skin tones and the little things like ink, blood, and sweat.  Even the cornermen were holding up sponsor sheets.  I didn't get annoyed by the commentary immediately which gives it a plus from most of the WWE games.

I moved on, determined to do at least one match at every weight level before calling it a night [another 7 AM start at work tomorrow.]  The Welterweight division saw me use BJ Penn to KO Matt Serra in the second round.  The Penn character was pretty dead on while the Serra was not so much.

At Middleweight, I absolutely had no choice but to kill Rich Franklin with Anderson Silva... again.  By this point, I was playing with some of the more advanced offense and was trying to hit the Thai clinched knees.  I could get the clinch with ease but couldn't really take advantage of it.  I threw some knees to the body but couldn't score with the big knees I wanted.  On the break, I snapped off a flying knee that made me freak out but I hit nothing but air.  In the end, a big kick knocked Franklin's mouthpiece out as he hit the mat for the KO.

At Light Heavy, I decided Wanderlei Silva needed to get some shots in.  The computer randomly selected Rampage for the opponent so I was a little worried.  I shouldn't have been.  The Axe Murderer ran right through him, finishing him with strikes on the ground.

At Heavy, I was planning to use Lesnar until my old friend Mirko Cro Cop's name showed up.  Being arguably my favorite fighter, I had to give him a workout.  The computer selected Heath Herring for the slaughter... which came in mere seconds with a brutal left high kick.  God, I loved every moment of it.  Even if it's a video game, it's awesome to see Cro Cop dominate again.

I went back for seconds at heavy, beating Gabriel Gonzaga with Lesnar using strikes on the ground.

All in all, I had a blast in the one hour I played it and I'm looking forward to starting the Career mode on it over the next few days.

Oh, and I think there was a real UFC fight tonight too but I was too busy beating up digital copies of those guys.

Egads

Today was one of the most exhausting days ever. Excuse me if my brain
is melty

Sent from my iPhone

Not Exactly Cain vs Abel... or Kane vs The Undertaker

Just a quick one as I have to be at work in just a handful of hours...

Today, the Dodgers informed Jeff Weaver that he would be starting Saturday's game vs the Angels. This is significant because his little brother Jered will be starting for the Angels making it the first brother vs brother starting pitching duel in several years. When asked for comment, Jeff informed the media that his parents cancelled attending a relative's wedding on Saturday to go to the game instead - which seems a little odd to me unless they're really distant relatives and the Weavers were just looking for an excuse not to go.

The more significant part of the quote was when Jeff basically said that the ideal scenario would be that they'd go out of the game tied and let the bullpens decide the game.

No, jackass. The ideal scenario is that you throw a complete game no-hitter which does not require the bullpen while your brother gets lit up like the sky over Disneyland during fireworks.

Keep your shit together, yo. This is business... it's not personal.

I'm In Love

"Hey Iceman, Tell Me How My Ass Tastes!"

Head hurts. Sleep

Sent from my iPhone

Donald Trump?

I know, I know. I'm supposed to write about the Lakers.

But... well...

Donald Trump?

Lemme explain for those non-wrestling fans on the blog. Tonight on Raw, Vince McMahon announced that he had "sold" Monday Night Raw to Donald Trump for a healthy cash payment. Partially, this was used to explain why next week's Raw is going to be commercial free but... what about the other part?

I'm just not sure where this is going. Does anyone want to see another Vince/Trump feud? I'm all in favor of "selling" Raw to attempt to make more of a split between Smackdown and Raw [especially since Smackdown has been much better lately - does anyone else find it odd that Raw is pretty much the worst show these days?] but I would've liked to see someone who made more sense.

Granted, it's tough to find someone you could sell as having enough money to tempt Vince but all of wrestling involves leaps of logic. Who else would have fit this role well?

Eric Bischoff? Could've been a good time to "relaunch" WCW since the Rise And Fall of WCW DVD is coming out soon. JBL? Hogan? Austin?

How about Floyd Mayweather? He suddenly has some free time on his hands.

Mike Tyson? Okay, maybe not.

There must have been someone else to slot into this role that would've been fun to watch. I just can't see Trump being entertaining for more than a week or two. I guess it depends if they just use him as a figurehead and let the GM he appoints do most of the work. Trump as an occasional "it's a big deal when he shows up" owner could be okay.

I just wish it was more exciting. At least they didn't hype it for more than twenty minutes or so.

A Sigh Of Relief

I'll probably write a little recap tomorrow but for tonight...

Congrats, Lakers.

A Shocker

I had every intention of writing a little bit about The Brothers Bloom since we went and saw it tonight (excellent flick, by the by) but while we were at dinner, something came across my Google Reader that made my jaw drop. Apparently I gasped when I read it and startled the Missus.

Mitsuharu Misawa died last night.

The majority of people reading this probably have no idea who that is but suffice to say that if you're a wrestling fan, you know that it's a sad day for the business as one of the all-time greats has fallen.

But deaths in this business aren't usually so shocking. Misawa died in the ring in mid-match. He took a back suplex from an opponent and went into cardiac arrest. They performed CPR in the ring but there was nothing to be done. Misawa who had survived so many lethal looking moves through his career had died inside the squared circle.

Words can't do justice what an amazing in-ring performer this guy was. Soooooo...

Head Trauma

Somehow, someway, I smacked my head into the side of the door frame trying to get to this computer to post for you people.

The sacrifices I make for you!

So, with a slightly pounding head, I come to write...

...and find nothing to say.

How 'bout this one?

Earlier today, I read that former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley - who left the WWE in hopes of being a black Brock Lesnar in MMA instead of a black Brock Lesnar in pro wrestling - had made some comments on Kimbo Slice's addition to next season's The Ultimate Fighter cast. I'm too lazy to go look up the exact quote right now but he said something like, "I would've loved to do it but it would do nothing for my career and my management team wouldn't let me." Wow.

You may recall that I give Kimbo many props and much love for having the balls to stand up to his management team and put his cajones... err... where his mouth was. Sorry for the imagery on that one.

So, Kimbo Slice, a street fighter who probably could've ridden out freak show fights for the rest of his life and made a decent chunk of change doing it, put EVERYTHING on the line for a shot at getting into the biggest MMA promotion on the planet. You've gotta respect the man for that whether you think he's a joke as a fighter or not.

Bobby Lashley who is a former collegiate wrestler and is a genetic freak... well, he thinks it's a bad career move to try to earn a spot in the UFC. He'd rather slap around also-rans, has-beens, and never-weres until Dana notices him. His next fight is sure to make some headlines against Bob Sapp but Sapp hasn't been truly competitive in MMA in years. He was the product of overhype and believing in that hype did his career in as a fighter. So, a win over Sapp isn't exactly going to set the world on fire for Bobby Lashley.

Mr. Lashley, it's time to put your cajones where your mouth is! You want to be taken seriously as a fighter - and I can't believe I'm about to say this - but you need to follow in Kimbo's footsteps.

One To Go...

Like I really was going to talk about anything else tonight.

That was a fun game to watch. Back and forth, runs and droughts, cursing, screaming, and praising. You've got to love playoff basketball.

So, the Lakers find themselves one win away from another Championship which is absolutely awesome... duh.

The game was sloppy at times and got a little chippy at points [about time!] but that didn't make it any less entertaining. A second OT game? Amazing. Derek Fisher with the 3 Pointer Of Absolute Redemption? Incredible. Pau looking like he wanted to throw down with a foo'? Priceless.

Oh, and don't forget that Kobe guy. The best player walkin'.

One more win. One more. The question now becomes do they get too lazy and blow it in Game Five or does the young Magic team fold house like the Nuggets did?

Is Your Favorite Here?

One of my favorite websites had this linked today - a clip of the Top 100 memorable lines in movie history. Anything missing?

Split Decision

Lakers lose but is anyone super shocked by that? At work today, I had
predicted that if the Lakers were going to lose just one, it's be
tonight. They looked pretty good - sloppy at times with a lack of
defensive intensity. They made mental errors - Kobe's missed free
throws, the steal towards the end, etc.

I'm not worried - well, unless they lose Gm 4 too.

Dodgers win again, continuing this nutty season with the best record
in MLB despite being without Manny - who showed up to say hello and
apparently make sure we all know he didn't rape or kill anyone. I
still think they'll need another starter at some point though. 117
pitches for Chad tonight in 5.2 innings? Yikes!

Sent from my iPhone

God Bless America

I laughed my ass off watching this and I'm sure you will too. It actually reminds me of the night Chris Jericho beat The Rock and Austin in the same night to win the Undisputed Title and one of my loyal readers - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE - threw the mother of all hissy fits and pouted the entire way home from San Diego, even going as far as giving me both tickets to Raw the following night and saying that he wasn't going.

Pure awesome.

The Minor League System

I have no idea how these things happen but I woke up this morning pondering the existence of the minor league system in Major League Baseball. It might be a brief piece I saw the other night on James Loney and the MLB Draft or it might be all the talk of the upcoming Draft.

But in the middle of all this pondering, something stuck in my craw.

Why is it that MLB is the only one of the major four sports that have such a drawn-out and [possibly] bloated minor league system to work through to hit the big time?

NBA? You get drafted, you're on the big team's roster more often than not and sometimes have an immediate and huge impact. The NFL is the same way. Not sure on the NHL but occasionally you do hear about some wunderkind.

But MLB? Someone who gets drafted in MLB may wait YEARS before making the big leagues if they ever make it all. Is MLB that much harder of a sport? Is there that much difference between the sports in the quality gap between high school/college ball and the pros?

I decided to do a little research to see just how this plays out.

Thanks to this super-helpful report on sport participation up on the NCAA website, I can provide the following information...

In 2006-7, the following participation numbers were recorded.

Baseball - 29,846 (in Div I/II/III)
Basketball - 16,640
Football - 62,459
Hockey - 3,957

Okay... so from there, we look at the drafts for each sport...

MLB - 1,502 players were drafted in the 2006 MLB Draft
NBA - 60 players are drafted
NFL - 256 players were drafted in the 2009 NFL Draft
NHL - 211 players were drafted in the 2009 NFL Draft

Now, let's look at slots available for those players (and yes, I realize the math is flawed based on international, non-roster players, etc.) And of course, all of this is quite theoretical.

For the NBA, every team can carry a max of 15. At 30 teams, that means there are 450 jobs available in the NBA. Of the total number of NCAA basketball players, about 3% will get one of those jobs and rarely - and I do mean RARELY - do one of the sixty drafted not play immediately in the NBA.

For the NFL, every team can carry a max of 53. At 32 teams, there are 1696 jobs available in the NFL. Theoretically, up to 3% will also get a job in the NFL. And again, RARELY do those players not immediately play for their NFL team.

For the NHL, every team can carry a max of 20 players. With 30 teams, that makes 600 jobs in the NHL. In theory, about 2% of those college players will get a job. The numbers are probably really off on this one because of the amount of international players in the NHL who don't come through the NCAA system.

And finally, there's MLB...

At 30 teams... and I'll be generous and go with the 40 Man Roster... there's 1200 jobs available at the Major League level. Again, in theory, up to 4% of the NCAA players will end up in the Major Leagues. That's close to the other sports so that makes sense. However, when we look at draft numbers...MLB is the only sport where more players are drafted than are already in the Majors.

The Dodger organization alone carries seven minor league teams... three rookie ball teams, two A affiliates, one AA, and one AAA. That gives the Dodgers a grand total of 131ish listed players in the minor leagues with two teams not listing rosters. If we assume another 25 per team there, the Dodgers creep close to 200 players in their system. Let's say 150 to be conservative. If we assume the rest of the MLB teams do the same, that's another 4500 jobs open in the MLB system for a total of 5700. With 5700 jobs in the system, you can now theorize that about about 20% of NCAA players will get a job in the MLB system.

So, the numbers are fascinating to me but the real question is... why?

Any thoughts?