Holy Shit, Pt. 2... Manny being... a Dodger?

In news almost as earth-shattering as PooZ getting ready to buy a house, Manny Ramirez has been traded to the Dodgers...

No more "Manny being Manny" for PooZ's beloved Sox.

How does this affect me? Well, I'm sure happy I didn't buy a Manny Red Sox jersey. I may pick up one of these though, just to piss off PooZ:

(and yes, he'd hit me... it'd almost be worth it)

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

In Sunday’s post on my trip to the Mets game, I left out some details, mostly because they were boring. However, one thing does need to be mentioned. On my way back from New York, I picked up this week’s issue of Time Magazine at Grand Central, because LeBron James is on the cover.

If you’re a non-sports magazine, and you put LeBron on the cover, then I’m buying that issue. I did it with Fortune, I did it with Vogue, and now with Time.

The actual purpose for LeBron being on the cover (besides selling issues to non-Time readers) is to promote their big story inside -- the 100 Athletes to Watch in the Beijing Olympics.

LeBron is one of them, which is fitting, since he’s also on my list of 7 athletes I’ll be paying close attention to in Beijing (why 7? Who knows. 5 seemed like too few, and there aren’t really 10 I care about). And yes, they’re all from the U.S. Ya know what, so am I. These are the athletes I know and care about.

1. LeBron James
You probably already know that I really like LeBron James. LeBron has guaranteed a Gold for team USA. He can deliver it. He’s pretty good. Plus, he’s one of the few NBA players whose game might be more suited to international play.

2. Michael Phelps
If you haven’t heard about Phelps’ run at Mark Spitz’s record for Gold Medals, you’ve been living under a rock for, oh, four years or so. I saw Phelps swim back when he was a young teenager in Towson, MD. He was great then. Now, he’s unstoppable.

3. Tyson Gay
The title of “fastest man in the world” (aka the champion in the 100m dash) used to unfailingly belong to an American. From the start of electronic timing, until 1996, it was only Americans. Now, it’s been held by Jamaicans for the past 3 years. Tyson Gay is our best hope to get the title back (especially after running a wind-aided 9.68 at the trials).

4. Shawn Johnson
I’m gonna let you in on a little secret -- I’m a sucker for Gymnastics and Figure Skating. There’s something about the grace and beauty of it that appeals to me (plus, hot women in spandex is never a bad thing). Shawn Johnson is only 16, so I can’t exactly leer at her, but I can cheer for her. She’s probably the most talented gymnast on a US team that has its best chance to bring home All-Around Gold since the 1996 team, known as the Magnificent 7, did it in Atlanta.

5. Dara Torres
This one is a little sadder to write, but I’m watching her to make sure she doesn’t fail. Not failure in the pool, but failure in a drug test. Let’s put it this way. Every older athlete who’s done amazing things in recent years (I’m looking at you Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens) has ended up being on PEDs. To believe without any skepticism that Dara Torres, at 41 years old, is in the best shape of her life naturally, is hard to do. So call me a skeptic (and Dara, don’t use the “I’ve never failed a test” defense. Marion Jones never failed a test either. The only test Barry Bonds ever failed was for amphetamines. Testing is a joke).

6. Chris Paul
Right now, he’s probably my 2nd-favorite NBA player behind LeBron James. It’s amazing what Chris Paul can do with a basketball, and he showed some of that in the exhibition game against Canada. While Jason Kidd is the veteran leader at point guard for Team USA, I expect Chris Paul to be out on the floor in a lot of the key minutes.

7. Katie Hoff
This one is kind of random, but, like Michael Phelps, Hoff is a product of the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, and a native of Towson, MD. Ever since I roomed with a swimmer my freshman year at Towson, I’ve cared about the success of NBAC swimmers. Hoff and Phelps could easily combine for double-digit medals at Beijing.

This Week in Buffy History: July 28-August 3

July 31
1967 - Rudolf Martin born (played Dracula in Episode 5.01 “Buffy vs Dracula”)

August 3
1972 - Brigid Brannagh born (played Virginia Bryce in Season 2 of Angel)

Meet the Mets! Meet the Mets!

For the first time in years, my buddy Phil and I attended a Mets game at Shea Stadium together, and strangely enough, it was against the Cardinals. Not only did PooZ and I see the Cardinals against the Red Sox just a month ago, but 4 out of the last 5 Mets games Phil and I have gone to together have been against the Cardinals (including a doubleheader in 1998).

Phil, of course, was hoping for the first no-hitter in Mets history, so much so that he was counting down after every out Johan Santana recorded. I was just happy to be back at Shea, where I saw my very first Major League game back in 1987 (yes, that’s a link to the boxscore of that game... I’m an enormous dork...).

For those that don’t know, this is Shea’s last season. Sure, it’s a dump, but it’s our dump, so I had to see one last game there (and now that I’ve been back again, I kind of want to go back this summer).

The game itself was awesome. Santana didn’t give up a hit until the 5th inning, the Mets hit 3 home runs (and Santana himself almost had a 4th), and Carlos Beltran made the most incredible catch I’ve ever seen in person.

At the time, Johan was pitching a shutout, and that catch preserved it. That ball was hit a good 415 feet (Beltran catches it beyond the wall at the 410’ mark, so it had to be hit further than that) and was nothing but the most spectacular out I’ve seen in person -- and very close to Endy Chavez’s catch in the 2006 NLCS.

Sure, Albert Pujols had to go and ruin the shutout two pitches later, but it was still incredible.

So, to sum up: the Mets won, I had a great time with Phil and his fiancée (fun fact I learned in college -- the male is the one with 1 e, the female is 2), and I got my Johan Santana jersey.

Actually, let’s hit on that just a bit more. At the Red Sox game I went to earlier this year, I got a Kevin Youkilis jersey and he hit two homers, including a walk-off. At the Mets game, I got a Johan Santana jersey, and he pitched a complete game and drove in as many runs (1) as he allowed.

Basically, me buying a jersey of a specific player at a game is better luck than a bobblehead day (I also bought a Kobe Bryant jersey before Game 5 of the NBA Finals and a Kevin Garnett jersey before Game 6 of the NBA Finals, so my at-game jersey purchases are 4-0 since the start of June).

Random Thoughts

Just wrapping up some stuff from the past few days...

- PooZ and I have both seen The Dark Knight a lot, and we still agree it's the best movie ever... I even bought the script book a few days ago... not a novelization... the actual shooting script... it's fantastic...

- I know we haven't had many random embarrassing pictures on here lately, but we're probably saving them for this year's Halloween party, which will be outstanding...

- PooZ actually e-mailed me a copy of an old party invitation from when we lived together... damn I was fat

- Yesterday, PooZ went to the Red Sox game (they lost). Today, I'm going to the Mets game, hoping for better luck. I haven't been to a Mets home game in a couple years, so this should be fun (and a nice goodbye to Shea).

- Last random thing... the other day, I was on my exercise walk, walking down Summit St. I happened to look down and see a playing card. I thought "wow, that's kind of weird." Then, as I continued walking, I kept seeing them. All in all, an entire deck was strewn across an entire mile or so of sidewalk. Normally, I wouldn't have cared about that, but having just seen "The Dark Knight", I was kinda freaked. Yes, I thought the Joker was after me. No, I know that's not sane. Whatever.

Time to re-map the NBA?

What you see in that image is an outdated map of the NBA. Not just outdated because it still has the Sonics in Seattle (rather than the Thunder/Wind/Energy/otherlamename in Oklahoma City), but outdated because it fails to recognize the new world order.

In this new NBA world, established lottery picks like Josh Childress can sign with a team in Greece, rather than re-sign with the Hawks. A Spaniard like Juan Carlos Navarro, coming off a successful rookie season, can choose to return home, rather than stay in Memphis. And playoff spark-plug Sasha Vujacic can use an entire continent as leverage to squeeze another few million out of the Lakers.

So is this a problem for the NBA? Outwardly, they might admit some things need fixing, but secretly, this is exactly what David Stern wants. Why? So he can unveil “The New NBA”.

Radical realignment and rescheduling, including an entire 4-team division based in, you guessed it, Europe.

What this plan would entail is moving two teams -- the Grizzlies and Raptors -- to Europe, probably Spain and Italy respectively. Then the league would add two expansion teams, choosing between London, Paris, Berlin, Prague, or any other major European city.

The new league alignment would look like this:

EASTERN CONFERENCE   WESTERN CONFERENCE
Northeast Division   Midwest Division
Boston Celtics       Milwaukee Bucks
Philadelphia 76ers   Chicago Bulls
New Jersey Nets      Indiana Pacers
New York Knicks      Minnesota Timberwolves


Central Division     California Division
Detroit Pistons      LA Lakers
Cleveland Cavaliers  Golden State Warriors
Washington Wizards   Sacramento Kings
Charlotte Bobcats    LA Clippers


Southeast Division   Southwest Division
Orlando Magic        Oklahoma City Thunder
New Orleans Hornets  San Antonio Spurs
Atlanta Hawks        Houston Rockets
Miami Heat           Dallas Mavericks


Europe Division      Mountain Division
Barcelona Grizzlies  Utah Jazz
Rome Raptors         Denver Nuggets
London Bridges       Portland Trail Blazers
Paris Towers         Phoenix Suns

Ignore the crappy nicknames I’ve chosen for the two European expansion teams for now. Focus on this. You get two 16-team conferences, with four 4-team divisions. The 4 division winners would make the playoffs, as would the next 4 best teams from each conference, regardless of division.

With this new alignment, and the increased travel demands caused by a Europe division, you’d need to tweak the schedule format as well. So here’s that setup: each team would still play 82 games. 6 games against each division opponent (18 total), 4 games against intraconference opponents (48 total) and 1 game against opponents from the opposite conference (16 total).

The interconference games would be split 8 and 8 (home and road) alternate between home and road on an annual basis. One year, the Midwest and Southwest divisions would travel to the Northeast and Europe, the next year the Southwest and Mountain divisions would make that trip.

For the playoffs, every round would switch to a 2-3-2 format, to limit travel in the event a team from Europe made it that far (and in this format, at least 1 European team would be guaranteed a playoff spot).

Does this work in the real world? I have no idea. The way I see it, is this has to be done in conjunction with the next CBA. In addition, the NBA would probably have to work out some kind of deal with FIBA, regarding player movement. Those are issues for David Stern and his cadre of lawyers to figure out. I’m just an ideas guy, and I think this is an idea that might have some legs.

Batman Arrested?!

Don't know if any of you saw this story yet (and if you haven't, why are you getting your news from our website?), but Christian Bale, aka Batman, has been arrested on charges of assault.

Bale is denying the charges at this point, but it remains to be seen how this news will affect the box office draw of "The Dark Knight". My guess is that it has little to no impact. The movie is too good to be slowed down by this.

Go Pedro!

With two hours left in the voting, Pedro is beating Curt Schilling in the "which pitcher would you rather have poll".

What's sad, though, is that he's winning by a single vote. Yes, only 1 more person would rather have an actual functional pitcher, instead of a mouthpiece who may never throw in the majors again.

I detest my team. Then again, they are back in a first-place tie, with a 3-game set against the Phillies on tap. Let's Go Mets!

(Oh, and I'll leave PooZ's Sox alone... even though they're a game and a half back of the Rays and just got swept in Anaheim).

Back on Vacation

Yep, it’s that time of year again.

Seems like every summer around this time, I take an extended vacation from work. Two years ago, I went to Slayathon and Wizard World Chicago. Last year, well, I didn’t really do shit.

This year, I’m kind of leaning toward the 2nd option, though a more productive version.

That picture right there is my “To Do” board (the same one I’ve been using for almost 10 years now -- which is why the last item is “buy new whiteboard”). I’ve gotta get my car check-up done and my car stereo fixed. I’m watering my parents plants while they’re in Florida, and I’m planning on taking my own trip to the basketball hall of fame. I’m gonna update the Buffy collection and jersey collection parts of this web site too.

Oh, I skipped one you say?

Yep, that’s right, LASIK.

I don’t know if I’m gonna do it yet, but it’s at least time for me to look into it.

Oh, and as for “The Dark Knight”, I didn’t put that on my to-do list, because it’s assumed. I’ve already seen it twice, I’ll probably go again tonight, and then maybe a couple more times while I’m on vacation. It’s that good. PooZ and I will have details on our forthcoming Podcast.

This Week in Buffy History: July 21-27

July 21
Jack Stehlin born (played Dr. Angelman in Season 4 of “Buffy”)

July 23
1970 - Charisma Carpenter born (played Cordelia Chase)

July 24
1981 - Summer Glau born (played Prima Ballerina in Angel Episode 3.13 “Waiting in the Wings”

July 25
1973 - David Denman born (played Skip on “Angel”)

Best... Movie... Ever

I will not debate this.
PooZ and I will discuss further on this weekend's Podcast, but "The Dark Knight" is quite possibly the finest achievement in filmmaking history.
Just some thoughts from my co-workers, who are not in any way comic fans:
"Brilliant. Just brilliant."
"I can't even say anything else. Could not have been better."
See, I'm not crazy.
Obviously it's early, but the movie's current IMDB rating is 9.6, and it ranks 3rd. I get the feeling that might actually go up, once the weighting system starts ignoring the "newness" of these votes.

This Week in Buffy History: July 14-20

July 14
1956 - Vladimir Kulich born (played The Beast on “Angel”)

July 16
1974 - Robinne Lee born (played Charlotte, Sired Vampire in Episode 7.08, “Sleeper”)

July 17
1978 - Katharine Towne born (played Sunday in Episode 4.01, “The Freshman”)

YOUK!!!!

OK, among the two of us, PooZ is the actual Red Sox fan. But clearly, based on the statistics, my power to influence the Red Sox success is greater. 

Check this out: On June 22nd, PooZ and I went to our first Red Sox game together. Kevin Youkilis was on a mini-slump entering that game (.275 BA, 12 K in his last 11 games, but I didn't care, so I bought a Youkilis jersey anyway.

Since then, Youk is batting .362 with 4 HR and 19 RBI. In that time he's got a walk-off homer (ON JUNE 22!) and a grand slam on Saturday, leading to a 6-RBI day. Plus, he was  voted in as an AL All-Star starter.

So yes, I fixed Kevin Youkilis. Red Sox nation, you can begin thanking me any minute.

I can un-has Hellboy plz?

Well, that was disappointing as fuck... actually fuck would have been better.

Look, I know PooZ and I haven't agreed on some movies this summer ("Hancock" and "Wanted" in particular) but that was some bullshit. We went to see a Hellboy movie and fucking "Titanic" broke out. 

Hey, but the night wasn't a total waste. This happened:

I can has Hellboy?

So, I got my schedule switched around today in the hopes that I could go see a sneak preview of "Hellboy 2" tonight.

It was looking dicey for awhile, but PooZ managed to score an extra pass, and even drove into Hartford to pick it up for me... he says I owe him popcorn... I offered sexy time instead... I think he's taking the popcorn...

As for the movie, we'll let you know our thoughts on it when we do our podcast later this week.

Adding to the Collection

It’d been awhile since I purchased anything Buffy-related (other than comics), but I was at the mall yesterday, and there was a new collectibles and cards store (called, strangely enough, “Collectibles and Cards”). They had the “Villains Willow” bust in stock -- I’ve had it on order from Time & Space Toys for months now, but they’ve still got it backordered.

Today I went back to actually buy it, which was a good move, since just about everywhere lists it as sold out, and T&ST will probably never be able to get it to me.

I also stopped by Newbury Comics, the store next door, and they had the Serenity Malcolm Reynolds prop pistol available. This thing was originally $249 from the manufacturer, and it’s sold out. On eBay, the thing goes for anywhere from $200-$300, so when they told me they were selling it for $149, I snatched it right up.

Sure, it’s only a prop replica (and therefore the trigger doesn’t move) but it feels real in my hand, which is pretty damn cool.

I also finally got around to adding pictures of the Inara Strikes statue and Tooned-Up Buffy (from Electric Tiki -- pictured to the left, because it’s so damn awesome) to my collection web site, so check that out. Eventually I’ll get around to updating the comics pages there (they’re about 6 months behind right now).

This Week in Buffy History: July 7-13

July 7
1970 - Robia LaMorte born (played Jenny Calendar on “Buffy”)

July 8
1979 - Iyari Limon born (played Kennedy on “Buffy”)

July 13
1999 - Episode 3.22, “Graduation Day”, airs on The WB

My Thoughts on Hancock

Let me say this. I’m not a film critic. I’ve never been to film school and I’ve never studied films. Hell, I don’t call them “films”, I call them “movies”. And while the “film” critics are bashing “Hancock”, if you enjoy “movies”, then you’ll enjoy “Hancock”.

Actually, let me be fair. “Hancock” is not a perfect movie. It does have some holes, and does derail at times, but it, on a whole, is very enjoyable.

Now, you have to understand what “Hancock” is. It’s not a cheesy action movie. It’s significantly deeper and more dramatic than even the recent trailers would suggest. So if you expect something along the lines of “Live Free or Die Hard” (aka an action movie where turning off your brain is a requisite for enjoyment) then you’ll be disappointed.

If you’ve read reviews of Hancock, then you probably already know the big twist of the movie, but I’m not going to spoil it for you. I’m just gonna say that I didn’t see it coming (which is rare for me) and I thought it spiced up the movie.

Then again, it did change the movie completely, which, if you’re not good at changing gears, can completely throw you off. In fact, you might feel like the 2nd half of the movie is a different movie from what you were promised, which might piss you off. Me? I enjoyed having to think at a movie, which isn’t common for a summer blockbuster.

Now, given the bad reviews, and the lack of re-watchability of “Hancock” (the movie’s emotional pull is designed to catch you off guard, which it just won’t on re-watching), I don’t expect this to make in the $200-$300M range, but it’s still a good movie. Go see it.