Almost 17 Months Later

God a lot has changed. So much has stayed the same.

Why I hate this Rick Warren Thing

President Elect Obama, I hate this. I hate that you are allowing people who think like this to be a part of a day that is going to be counted among the most important in my life.

I hate the "It's a choice" people

I hate the "redefining 'marriage'" people

What this boils down to is an argument about semantics and it makes me crazy that a portion of the population in this country would deny another portion of this country's population their basic CIVIL RIGHTS based on a word.

And what I hate is that a man whose parents would not be allowed to marry 60 years ago in this country chooses to allow one of these people to share in the most important day in American politics that I can remember in my lifetime.

Seriously Mr. President Elect? Seriously?

Your Losing Me, Barack

Rick Warren is a dick and has no place in the capital on January 20th. I have no time for anyone who equates gay and lesbians marrying, and marrying a child, or an animal. Period.

I expected to lose some of the excitement of the campaign once things got going with running the country. What I didn't expect was to have my eye spit in by the guy who I busted my ass and my wallet to help get elected.

This is, to say the least, a hot button issue for me.

If The Mets Are Looking For Arms?

Good location, excellent arm action, solid velocity, and a bit of late movement.

Easily as good as Aaron Heilman.

Jon Stewart Rules

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

The Cost of War

http://www.mensjournal.com/cnns-prisoner-of-war

It is little talked about. It just goes on, in the back of our minds like music that we can barely hear unless we turn our heads just right.

I Hate Robots

But I love John Connor kicking their asses.

K-Rod

The Mets signed 26-year old closer Francisco Rodriguez to a 3 year/36 million dollar contract with an option for a fourth year at 14 mill if he reaches certain achievement milestones which are easily attainable if healthy. This is a far cry from the 5/75 million he was originally looking for.

I suppose this is one benefit of the crappy economy.

This deal is not coming with the hype that last years Santana trade did, but make no mistake, this deal is just as important, if not more so that Santana was.

Santana pitched (wonderfully) every 5 days, K-Rod could potentially pitch every other day, or every third day. His value to this team I don't think can be over stated after the way the last two seasons ended. I am actually really excited about baseball right now.

Because K was so affordable, it frees up Omar the dunce, to add some other key pieces (1 or 2 starting pitchers, I have no complaints about Jon Garland and a trade for a guy like Ian Snell, who despite his name, is nasty) and find a way to trade away Luis Castillo and Aaron Heilman.

A move that sends Heilman to the Rockies for Huston (Terry threw a ball at my head in Toronto in a wild effort to get a signature) Street would be amazing.

A lineup of

Reyes
Orlando Hudson-via free agency one Castillo is gone, anywhere for anything
Beltran
Wright
Delgado
Church
Murphy/Tatis/whom ever
Schnieder

would be fine by me. Mind you I would be thrilled with a Delgado trade to the Angeles if they miss out on the Mark Teixeira sweepstakes, and Murphy at First and one of the many free agent left fielders (Adam Dunn, Garett Anderson, Fat Burell, Cliff Floyd, etc.) to hold down left until Fernando "the teen aged hitting machine" is ready to step in.

A rotation of:

Santana
Pelfrey
Maine
Garland/Snell/Ben Sheets/Derek Lowe/Jason Marquis
John Niese

would be fine with me, hell I would even consider bringing Oliver Perez back.

with a Bullpen that looks like:

Duaner Sanchez
Joe Smith
Scott Blowenweis
Brian Stokes
Free agent anyone
Huston Street
K-Rod

would also be fine by me. I still maintain that the mets were a few relievers away from being the best team in the NL. Fuck, the Phillies won the W.S. and you cannot tell me that team was head and shoulders better than the Mets, I don't believe it.


In related news, my favorite sports event ever is returning this year, the World Baseball Classic. I happened to be one of 7 people in the world who got really into it the first time around, and seeing as there was really only one major injury (Luis Ayala who ended up on the Mets last year and pitched well) I think the thing was a major success.

I cannot wait to watch again.

Must Read

(For Drew)

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/12/win_ben_steins_mind.html

Read it

Good Morning

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

This made me smile this morning.

Prop 8

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Thanks Guys/Girls

So no one could have taken the time to mention that The Dark Knight comes out next Tuesday, not yesterday. Which I found out after I made a special trip to the store to pick it up. Idiot.

The Dark Knight

Comes out today!

B.S.

Not my article:

Much will be made about the results of today’s BCS poll in the days and weeks to come, but this should be the straw that breaks the BCS camel’s back.

Oklahoma received enough computer points and coaches’ votes to leapfrog Texas in the BCS rankings...and into the Big 12 title game. A win there will give the Sooners a spot in the National Championship.

Nevermind that the teams had identical records and Oklahoma’s loss came at the hands of Texas on a neutral field. Nevermind that Texas had a tougher schedule. Nevermind that Texas’ one loss was on the last play of the game, and by six points, while Oklahoma’s loss was by 10 points.

The BCS proponents (and playoff opponents) say that a playoff would undermine college football’s regular season. Now tell me, how does putting Oklahoma in the title game over the team it lost to not undermine college football’s regular season? The only thing it does do is prove the case for a playoff.

There are so many problems here that it would take books to describe them all. The BCS vs. playoff battles have been waged way too many times, so I’ll just make a couple of points on how the BCS system affects this situation.

First of all, what the BCS does reward is running up the score. The coaches won’t say it, nor will the BCS folks, but it’s true. They call it “looking more impressive.”

They point out Oklahoma’s eye-popping offensive onslaught of four straight games scoring 60-plus points.

Sure, they scored 61 against Oklahoma State on Saturday, but they also couldn’t stop OSU for three and a half quarters, giving up 41 points. Texas gave up only 24 to OSU.

Author Poll
Is it time for a playoff?

Absolutely. This year's would be perfect! Yes, this year pushed me over the top I'm still not convinced The BCS is the best system there is vote to see results Sure, Oklahoma piled 66 points on Texas A&M. They also gave up 28. Texas scored 49, while giving up just nine.

Sure, Oklahoma scored 45 on Kansas. They also gave up 31. Texas beat Kansas 35-7.

So, what does this all mean? The reward goes to the team that can score more points, not to the best overall team.

Secondly, the USA Today Coaches Poll should never be relied upon to determine the fate of the teams. The coaches themselves don’t like it. Most of them don’t actually do the voting themselves—and why should they? They don’t even watch the games, except for their own and the tape of their next opponent(s).

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops would never vote Texas ahead of his own team this season, even though Texas beat his team. Going further, why would he even vote Texas anywhere close to his team? There’s no penalty for leaving Texas completely off his ballot, so why give them a chance to be rated higher than his team?

There’s no way to regulate how a coach votes—or whether he even does the voting himself. Why let that factor into the BCS standings?

Thirdly, if head-to-head doesn’t matter, then the regular season doesn’t matter, either. Why even play the games if beating somebody early on doesn’t matter at the end of the season?

To say that one team deserves a title shot over the team it lost to because it has beaten its tough teams at the end of the season is ridiculous. In that case, the whole regular season becomes illegitimate.

This season proves that college football needs a playoff. Do you think any of the top eight teams would complain about a playoff this season?

Whoever the best team is, they would (or should) relish the opportunity to prove so in a do-or-die tournament format, just like every other major sport.

If Oklahoma is truly more deserving than Texas, it should prove so in a playoff, not in a conference championship game against a team that wasn’t even one of the top three teams in the conference.

The BCS is a joke and it’s turning college football into a joke. Just because it creates controversy in November and December doesn’t mean that’s good for the game.

If I’m Texas, I boycott a BCS bowl this year to send a message that something needs to change.*

There have been arguments in seasons past, but this one goes way beyond any of those and has pushed the BCS beyond the brink of acceptance.

The time for a playoff is upon us.

In the coming days, I’ll lay out my plans for a playoff and why it would work.



*I don't believe Texas will do so, although there is a contingent of boosters and season ticket holders hoping to convince UT athletics director, DeLoss Dodds, to do so.




I agree completely. I have had numerous debates about the value of the BCS, and I see none.

I understand the arguments against a Playoff. I disagree with all of them.

Period.

The problem is that I love watching the actual games too much to simply stop, and as long as people like me continue to watch the games, no one is going to be forced to make a change.

Looks like it is going to be up to Obama to fix this.