The 4th and Beyond

Hope everyone had a good 4th weekend.

Friday I actually didn't do anything (well, I was lucky enough to work all day!). But my allergies were bothering me and I'm not so excited about fireworks, so I just spent some quality time on the couch and watched the Mets blow a 2-0 9th inning lead and lost to the Philthies.

Saturday I finished up Season 2 of Weeds. Holy crap what an AWESOME season finale!!! Then headed over to Courtney & Mike's place for a BBQ and festivities. It was fun. They're big into the game cornhole. Which, I thought they made up, but apparently its popular enough to have its own wikipedia page! They make their own boards and equipment, involving the college team colors of choice. For Mike and his friend Adam, they've got Auburn colors, Courtney gets one LSU board. I may need to get me an FSU set...I think my patio is big enough to handle it! So anyways, we setup a Cornhole tournament (complete with dry-eraser-board brackets!). I teamed up with Will, but we lost in round two to Mike and Adam. We definitely got a raw deal in that setup! Courtney and Mike are also the proud new owners of a Wii. And more importantly, the game Rock Band. Which, I'd never experienced before. I've played Guitar Hero before, but Rock Band includes a drum set and a microphone! If I was ever gonna play any instrument, I'd always wanted to be a drummer. Back to the days when I was a kid, going into a music store and grabbing some drum sticks in a side room only to have some a-hole working there yell at me that I was holding the sticks wrong. I ran off crying and it crushed my hopes and dreams forever. I'm pretty sure my parents told him to do that so that they wouldn't have to deal with me playing the drums in their house :) Anyways, we went through a couple of songs, turns out I'm a good singer???? well, it helps when the "singing" is actually a Beastie Boys song! I spent most of the night trying out the drums. And it was A LOT tougher that you'd think. Especially because they incorporate a foot pedal. That makes it tough, and eventually by about 2:30am, after Courtney was long asleep and Mike was passed out on the couch, it was just me and Nooga, we decided we were ready to call it a night.

On Sunday, without really anything to do, I talked Lauren into a double-feature, which we'd been talking about doing for a while now. We both wanted to see The Love Guru, but we couldn't fit it in. We wound up seeing Get Smart (with Steve Carell) first. It was pretty good...but you've really gotta appreciate Steve Carell to really like it. I think he'd be perfect to play a real life Inspector Gadget movie. Next up was Hancock (with Will Smith). I hadn't really heard a whole lot about it, but I definitely wanted to give it a shot. We originally got seats pretty close to the screen, but after staring at the Rock Band screen all night the night before and with it being the 2nd half of a double feature, I asked Lauren if she would be cool with moving towards the back of the theatre. WORST. DECISION. EVER. Turns out we sat right in front of a family with a 2yr old wondering and chatting with himself throughout the aisle behind us. It's bad enough that I already generally don't have a lot of patience for annoying kids, but this was a movie theatre. You just don't let that happen. It's not like this was a kids movie. Without giving much away, Will Smith plays the role of a guy with super powers, but, well, he's kind of an asshole. There's a lot of cursing and drinking in the movie. Not that I claim to know anything about parenting, but this is not something I'd think a 2yr old should be subject to. This kid was sooooooooooooooo annoying, eventually, about halfway through the movie, we moved back down to the bottom closer to the screen again. I was sure to make sure they heard me use the word "obnoxious" as we left our seats, I also made sure to say "fucking" first but not TOO loud. Once we got to our new seats they did take the kid outside, so I feel like I made a positive difference in the lives of everyone in that theatre :) Unfortunately, it was temporary, the kid was back, and even way down at the bottom of the theatre, everyone can still hear this kid. With all that said, Hancock was an AWESOME movie. I absolutely loved it, and whenever it comes on DVD, Mitsa will be providing a movie night viewing party.

Last night was the return of Sports Trivia to a new bar since Frankies is no more. It was at a little hole in the wall kind of place called Charlie Mopps. It's hard to find, I will admit to one U-Turn. I met up with a coworker, Cintron and he needed at least 3 U-Turns I believe. The place was pretty cool, it had tons of beers to choose from. Anyways, for trivia, where half the fun is coming up with funny team names, we went with the recently demoted Braves outfielder, Jeff Francoeur as our target. "Jeff Francoeur, AA [minor league] All Star Game MVP". At first when I got there, our waitress, who was wearing a Sweetwater T-Shirt (a good sign, I was actually wearing mine too) took my order and I ordered a sweetwater and asked if they could turn the Mets game on one of the TV's. Well, they turned it on about 6 TV's! wow!!!! what service :) and the Mets were winning 5-0 before they even got it on! For my 2nd beer I asked the waitress to recommend something to me. She did one better. Actually three better. She brought me 3 samples of beers to try. Hell, after the samples I was kind of thinking I didn't need anymore beer, but since she went through all that I wasn't about to say no thanks, I'm good! So I got a 2nd beer and that was gonna be it. Well, as luck would have it, throughout trivia, they randomly pick team names and award a free pitcher of beer to two teams. Yep, we "won". Cintron isn't really a big drinker and I had to drive, so as sad and tragic as it was, the pitcher pretty much went to waste. I was tempted to offer it to the table next to us, but I'm not so sure they were even 21. There were too many straws in their drinks anyways. Well, me and Cintron wound up finishing in 2nd place and went off with $30 of gift certificates to spend there next time we go back. Which we most definitely will. Hopefully we get the same waitress too!

And in typical Mets fashion, after being ahead 8-0 and 10-1...they had to make things interesting, and wound up winning 10-9. Ughhhhh.

Why do I Root for Teams that Most Resemble The Bad News Bears?

College baseball doesn't get a whole lotta love, but anything FSU related gets my attention. The FSU baseball team made the College World Series for the 20th time in school history. The College World Series is an 8 team double-elimination tournament. In 20 attempts, we've managed 0 (ZERO, ZILCH, NADA, NONE, NO) championships. Even by blind luck you'd think we'd find an acorn at least once, right? Wrong! And this year was no different. But that doesn't mean they don't keep teasing me. On Saturday, with FSU (featuring the nation's best offense, averaging almost 10 runs a game) losing 5-2 in the bottom of the 8th to Stanford, they tie the game at 5 on a huge 3-run HR by 2nd baseman Jason Stidham. Finally, signs of life! So go to the top of the 9th. And I have never in all my life seen the things that happened, happen in a game. With a couple of runners on base, a guy from Stanford hits a hard line drive down the first base line. It goes past first base in fair territory, lands - apparently - right on the line and then hooks foul. Should be a fair ball, but the umpire points convincingly that it was a foul ball. That would've scored a couple of runs. Clearly a blown call, but what can you do? Instead of seizing the opportunity, FSU went the other direction. I'm pretty sure they felt bad for Stanford, so they let them score 11...ELEVEN...ONCE (thats spanish) runs. Included in this fiasco were two terrible errors by the somewhat injured and always terrible defensive shortstop, Tony Delmonico. Dude made 30 errors this season, which was about 60 games. Even I could do better than that! He had more errors than the rest of the team combined (ok, I didn't look that up, but someone told me so it has to be true). They do rank 171 in the NCAA in fielding percentage. 171! How is that even possible for a team ranked #4 in the entire country???

So after losing 16-5 on Saturday, FSU next faced #1 Miami (who also lost because of a bad 9th inning on Saturday) of all teams in an elimination game. FSU and Miami had a bench clearing brawl back in April in Tallahassee. Now remember, this is baseball, so by "brawl" I mean each player from both teams came out of the dugout, stayed plenty far away from each other and had a staring contest. Last night (for me it was last night, the game was at 2pm, but with the miracle that is DVR, the game started at about 6pm) FSU had 14 hits in the first 8 innings and only managed 2 runs. Thats nauseating! (wow I spelled that right!). In the bottom of the 8th, Miami hit a leadoff homer to make the score 7-2. That was about all I could take, I fast-forwarded through the rest of the inning, which somehow went pretty quietly. So now time for the 9th inning. And wouldn't ya know it, FSU's offense finally wakes up, they cut the lead to 7-5, with first and third for the NCAA Player of the Year, FSU Catcher, Buster Posey. He already had 4 hits on the day, he was one HR away from leading the nation in EVERY offensive stat. But no, he walks. Loading the bases with two outs and FSU cleanup hitter Jack Rye coming up. But alas, as is the case with any team I root for, they end their season with a loss as Rye grounded out to 2nd. FSU left an College World Series record 17 - SEVENTEEN! DIEZ Y SIETE (all those years of spanish pay off finally!) runners on base. Unbelievable.

But thats not all. The Mets. My Mets. This season was supposed to be big. They added the best pitcher in the world, Johan Santana, but they just never got it going. So even after a 9-6 win last night over one of the best teams in the American League (the I refuse to call them Los Angeles, Anaheim Angels) the Mets fired their manager (and their pitching coach and their first base coach for good measure) Willie Randolph at about 3am ET.

Ughhhhhh. No more baseball for me for a while!!!!!! (any guesses on how long that actually lasts?)

Swept Away

I don't really have much to say. Three days, four games, four losses. That SUCKED. I did it though, I wore a paper bag on my head. The Mets were actually winning until the 7th inning or so. So I went bag-less until then. After the Braves went ahead I had the bag on the rest of the game. I won't mention that I wrote something on the back of the bag that wound up being upside down. DAMNIT!!!!!!

Oh well, off to Jacksonville for a long weekend!!!!!! I need it!!!!

Three Up, Three Down

I have just learned a whole new meaning to that phrase. Have you ever done something that you know is a bad idea but you just can't help yourself? Just keep going back for more? Ok, no, I'm not talking about drugs, although...just kidding. The last 2 days, I've gone to 3 Mets-Braves games, and all 3 have been equally terrible. On Tuesday, I was lucky enough to see the Mets barely show up to lose twice to the Braves. First, was a makeup game from a rainout in April, so I got to sit in the hot sun for a couple of hours - yes mom, I used sunscreen! (although I missed a spot on my neck). Yet the Mets lost, 6-1. Former Met and currently hated human (by me and many Mets fans) Tom Glavine tried to give the Mets a couple of runs in the first inning but they wanted none of it. The Mets were actually winning, 1-0. That didn't last. They didn't even get another hit until the 9th inning! Not a fun time.

In between games we went back to my friend Patrick's car and tailgated to kill some time. Met a couple of college kids parked next to us. We chatted with them for a while, they were trying to get their grill going and had a tough time of it, it was pretty windy in their defense. Eventually they got it going and after sacrificing a couple of hot dogs (picking up hot dogs off a grill with a spatula is harder than you might think!) they shared their food and beer with us! So, not all Braves fans are bad. After hanging out drinking for a couple of hours, I met up with some other friends for the second game - Matt, Divya, Jason, Tara and Eggbert*, . I also met up with Brian, who was in town for business. He was lucky enough to get some pretty good seats in the lower section. Our seats were in the front row of the upper deck, not bad at all! But...then came the rains. Lots of it. What better way to start a second game of a doubleheader than a 98 minute rain delay???? The second game was pretty bad too. I'm not sure if the Mets knew the game had started, they were on the field, but sometimes I wonder if they were even trying. It wasn't until the 8th inning that they showed up I think, already down 4-0, they managed to make it 4-2. Only to give the Braves 2 runs back in the bottom of the 8th to make it 6-2. Which also turned out to be the final score. As if thats not bad enough, on the last play of the game, arguably the Mets MVP of 2008 so far, Ryan Church got hurt:

Damion Easley grounded into a double play to end the nightcap, but New York right fielder Ryan Church and Braves shortstop Yunel Escobar were hurt on the play. Church, who was on first after a single, tried to break up the double play with a slide. Escobar, racing toward first after he fielded the ball, had his knee collide with Church, who was left with a bloody forehead after it scraped off the dirt. Both Church and Escobar had to be helped off the field. Church was diagnosed with a minor concussion and was taken to Piedmont Hospital. Escobar was limping in the locker room after bruising his right knee.

I will say this, I have HATED Chipper Jones for a long time. But when Church was laying at second base motionless, Chipper was the one calling for the Mets medical staff to come out and stayed right by Church until he got up. So, for one day anyway, I didn't hate Chipper as much as I usually do. But that was a pretty shitty ending to a pretty miserable 11 hours at Turner Field.

But thats not all. Wednesday I went back for more punishment. But this time I brought my secret weapon. My friend Jeanie. Whenever she goes with me, the Mets win. It happened twice last year and once the year before I believe. Those are probably the only wins the Mets have in Atlanta the last few years. We got off to a good start, 1-0. Then it got ugly. In the bottom of the 3rd inning, with one out, Mets left fielder Moises Alou walked off the field. One of the strangest things I've seen. He just left. Of course, in the stands, we've got no clue whats going on. Turns out he had cramps. CRAMPS!!!!! Are you f-ing kidding me??? CRAMPS???? Ughhhhhh. It got worse from there, the Braves went up 11-2, and won 11-4.

So it's been a pretty awful couple of days at Turner Field. And for some reason, I'm going back for more tonight. But, this time I very well may wear a paper bag on my head. It's getting embarrassing!

*-Eggbert is the official name of Jason & Tara's unborn child.

Quadruple Header Complete!

The weekend got off to a crappy start. From about 4:00 on it had been raining. So on my way home from work i call the Braves ticket office to see whats the best way to find out about the status of the first of three Mets - Braves game. I was told to either call back or listen to the pregame radio show. At about 6:30, as we're about to leave, I call again and am told "You crazy, they're gonna play. Starting time is still 7:35." Ok, I guess we have no chance but to buy it. We head down to the stadium and we get about a mile away from parking when they announce that tonight's game has been postponed. As if that's not bad enough, they decided to make it up as part of a day-night doubleheader on TUESDAY May 20th. Which means they're making the game up at 1pm on a TUESDAY. Bastards! Both teams are off on Monday May 19th. I don't get it.

Saturday was the big day though. Baseball would kick off the quadruple-header. Game-time 3:55pm. I met up with my friends Carl & Alycia, and sat with them in the Lexus Level. (Which is code for fancy seats). The only important part is that the seats were covered. Because there was a non-stop drizzle all day. (Drought my ass!!!!) After the 4th inning I went over to my actual seats with Lauren and her friend Stephanie.

I did get to see one of the most controversial moments I've witnessed. The Mets had the bases loaded, 1 out. Jose Reyes hits a line drive to center field. The ball CLEARLY hits the ground and THEN into the glove of Braves center fielder Mark Kotsay. The 3rd base umpire calls it a catch and the Braves get a double play out if it. Mets manager, Willie Randolph comes charging out of the dugout for a rare argument. The Braves trotted off the field, into the dugout during the argument. Randolph convinced the umpires to discuss the play and they ruled it was NOT a catch. They forced the Braves back onto the field to continue the inning. I don't think I've EVER seen that before. It took at least 5 minutes. I really don't understand why the don't use instant replay in baseball. It would be much easier and faster than that. Each team should be allowed 1 or 2 challenges per game and that's it. You can challenge anything other than balls and strikes. That's my proposal.

I have a policy against leaving sporting events early, but I had to make an exception for this one. After all, I was headed to another sporting event! If there was any way what-so-ever I'd be able to see the full game, I'd need a quick one. Ha! The Mets wound up losing 11-5. And in a game with 16 runs and sloppy weather...that's not the recipe for a quick game. And the Mets never beat the Braves, so I wasn't gonna miss anything (turns out I missed a Braves grand slam...yippee). Thanks to Lauren's near play by play text messages, I definitely didn't miss anything.

So, 2nd stage of the quadruple-header: Philips Arena, AKA - Blueland. The last Thrashers home game of the year. My 38th game of the year (out of 41). I got there just in time for the National Anthems, which began at 7pm. Now for the challenging portion of my day. I had to completely ignore the many TV's and scoreboards within Philips Arena. Luckily we (Me, Erica, Peter, J.B. - Matt is busy protesting the Olympics in London) were sitting in a section where half of the stadium's scoreboards were blocked. I managed to only glance and see a score one time...Kansas was winning 9-6. So I felt pretty good about making it through a 2 1/2 hour hockey game without accidentally learning any Final Four scores. The game itself was pretty meaningless. The Thrashers were going to finish with the 3rd worst record in the NHL no matter what. But they'd be better off if they lost. They were playing division rival Tampa Bay, owners of the worst record in the NHL. If Tampa Bay would have won, they would've finished with the 2nd worst record instead of THE worst. Yes...it makes a difference. More on that later. The highlight (lowlight?) of the game was during the 1st intermission. Comcast's "Dating on Demand" was on hand. They played a version of a dating game, where one girl got to ask a question of 3 guys, whom she couldn't see. The questions were bad, the answers were worse. The first guy was asked, if you could be any animal...what would you be? Answer - A polar bear. Wow. He kept talking but we were too busy booing. The next guy was asked...if you could be any alcoholic drink...what would you be. We were practically begging him to say beer (he was quite the large redneck type). No, he came up with...A Bloody Mary. We couldn't boo loud enough. He said (in his redneck twang) that he's hot and spicy. The booing wouldn't end. The third guy was asked, if he could be any entree at a fancy restaurant...what would he be? I don't even know what he said. The booing was too loud. They then had the crowd text in who they thought she should date. The Bloody Mary guy apparently won the fans over. They screwed up the contest so bad that she didn't even have a say in who she would go on a date with. Contestant #2 it is. Worst intermission idea ever. Actually, there was one good twist. He had his choice...the date with the girl...or whatever was behind curtain #1. So, there wasn't really a curtain, but the redneck chose the girl. What did he pass up on? A 36" plasma TV...and a 2yr lease on a Mustang. Now, no one knows for sure if that's legit or not, but serves him right.

Oh, the game, the Thrashers won 4-1. Rookie Bryan Little wound up scoring the first and last goals of the season. Whatever that means. But the most important part of the Thrashers season is tonight. They have a 14% chance to win the NHL Draft Lottery. If they do win, they will be awarded with the first pick in the June NHL Amateur Draft. Which means prized center sensation Steven Stamkos. He's a franchise changer. So, that's tonight at 8pm...I'm sure no one will miss it. Now back to my story...

After the Thrashers game, I hurried home to watch the DVR'd final four. Got home at about 10:30. First up...Memphis vs. UCLA. Memphis was VERY impressive. I think I yelled out "wow" at least 10 times. Memphis won 78-63. Next up, Kansas vs. North Carolina. This was probably built up as one of the most exciting match ups in semifinal history. Roy Williams, was the coach at Kansas for a long time before jumping ship to UNC a few years ago. As Brian described that situation...he's like an ex-girlfriend. Well, Kansas probably had a warrant out for their arrest because they were beating the SHIT out of Roy Williams' Tarheels. It was 40-12 at one point! 40-12!!!!! There's no coming back from that...right? Well, my newly adopted second favorite college team wound up scaring the shit out of me. North Carolina stormed back to make it 54-50 halfway through the second half. But that was as close as they'd come. Kansas held on and pulled away and won 84-66.

Watching basketball without commercials may be the best thing ever. I watched 2 full games, minus commercials, minus halftime in about 2 1/2 hours. It was great. And I pulled off my quadruple header.

There was still Sunday though, another busy day. Mets @ Braves...again. 1:30. This time I was meeting up with: Lauren, Shea, Shelley, Dave, Davis...and Jill and Josh were in attendance as well, although I never did see them. Well, I did. During one of the in between innings things on the giant scoreboard, there was Josh. I wasn't thinking fast enough or I would've gotten a picture. I was really looking forward to this game because it was the debut of Johan Santana (new Mets pitching STUD) in Atlanta. So, I got a picture of his first pitch: which you can clearly see was a strike... This game went about as well as any Mets-Braves I can remember seeing. I wasn't lying when I said they ALWAYS lose. They were down 1-0 in the bottom of the 8th when Mark Teixeira hit a 2run HR to make it 3-0 Braves. Great. But the Mets gave me a bit of hope in the 9th. They got it to 3-1, had 2 men on base with 2 outs. Then, Mets newcomer Ryan Church (and a member of my fantasy team The League Dumbass) hit a line drive down the first base line...Teixeira made a diving stop and ended the game. Ughhhh. Swept again. I really don't know why I keep putting myself through these games! The Braves fans were extra classy (sarcasm) on Sunday. Check out the sign: (Warning, choking hazard...with a Mets logo)

It took a lot for me not to remind them of who has finished ahead of who the last two seasons (for those of you not keeping score at home, the Mets have finished ahead of the Braves the last 2 years).

If you really look at the buildings in the 3rd picture you can see a TON of windows boarded up from the tornado. It really is unbelievable how much damage it did and only 2 people died.

The Braves game was not the end of my sports-filled weekend, however. There was still kickball. I went from the Braves game over to Piedmont park for the game. Along the way (while stopped at a red light) I had the bright idea to check my email via my phone. And wouldn't ya know it. An email saying kickball was cancelled. That's not my favorite part. Why did they cancel it? "Muddy conditions"!!!! I was in my car, all alone SCREAMING MY ASS OFF. MUDDY CONDITIONS????? Where the F&^*( was that decision LAST WEEK when I could barely walk for the next couple of days because of the damn mud. Bastards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This Weekend's Attempt at a QuadrupleHeader!

Now I'm just making up words. Here's what I've got in store for Saturday:

3:55pm New York Mets @ Atlanta Braves (where I will be booing the HELL out of Tom Glavine)
7:00pm Tampa Bay Lightning @ Atlanta Thrashers (the Thrashers final home game - finally I can have a life again!!!!)

And after the Thrashers game, I will rush home, ignore my cell phone, and watch the Final Four on "tape delay" (can we please find a new term since no one uses tapes anymore?)
6:07pm - Memphis vs. UCLA
8:37pm - UNC vs. Kansas

Then combine that with another Mets-Braves game tonight and Sunday. And my 2nd attempt at kickball on Sunday...

Mets trade for Johan Santana!!!!!

Ok, before I get too excited and get a #57 Santana Mets Jersey off ebay, I guess I should take a deep breath.

But this is HUGE news. First, it means that I don't have to look for updates to this every 10 minutes. But of course, it means good things for my Mets. They gave up 4 prospects (Carlos Gomez and Philip Humber both have MLB experience. And minor league pitchers Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey) to get Santana, but they did NOT give up their best prospect (Fernando Martinez). This is the first time in I don't know how long that the Mets will have a true #1 top notch starting pitcher. HUGE!

Oh, and I should also mention that I'm working on a blog about the 2008 NHL All Star Game - which was amazing!!!! I'm waiting on some slacker friends whose names rhyme with Fat and Derricka to send me their pictures!!!!! In the meantime, you can get a sneak peak at mine here.

Hooray for a good sports weekend! Finally!

It's been a long time. Every team I root for either sucks or, well, ok, they usually just suck. The Mets...choked. The Jets...sucked. FSU...ughhhh. (And now FSU's basketball team is down to about 2 scholarship players or something because of injuries or what-not). The Thrashers, well, we'll still see about them. I know its kind of odd to root for both the Jets & Giants, but, well, get over it. They hardly play each other, it's not a rivalry, so I can deal with it.

Finally this weekend was a good one. The Thrashers won a great game Saturday night, beating the Pittsburgh Penguins (who had won something like 9 in a row). They were losing 2-1 after 2 periods and tied it right away in the 3rd and won it in a shootout. The game winner coming from Mark Recchi (the same Mark Recchi who the Penguins tossed to the Wolves, well, the Thrashers, the Wolves would be insulting - and I would be shocked if anyone who reads this other than me got that joke - The Wolves are the Thrashers minor league team).

Then last night, the Giants beat the hated Dallas Cowboys. Tony Homo can go back and cry in Jessica Simpson's boobs. Terrell Owens can sit back and eat as much popcorn as he wants while watching the Giants-Packers NFC Championship game next Sunday! Did anyone see him after the game? CRYING about how it's not fair how the media picks on Tony Homo???? Poor baby. I've gotta admit though, the whole game, I was sure the Giants were gonna lose. It was until there was a 4th and 11 for the Cowboys at the end of the game that I let myself get excited. And Homo threw a Cowboys season-ending pick in the end zone. WOW! The Giants have won 9 straight road games. If they make it 10, they go to the Super Bowl! But, first a stop in Green Bay, where Brett Farvuruh awaits. Should be a good game. Hopefully Eli Manning has finally realized he's never gonna be Peyton, he just can't LOSE the game for the Giants with his stupid mistakes. Let the rest of the team do it's job and we'll be good. Go G'Men!!!!

And go CHARGERS! I was rooting for the Colts, just because I think they have a better shot at the Pacheatriots, but it was pretty impressive that they won without pretty much their 3 best offensive players being healthy (LT, Rivers, Gates). Hopefully those guys are ok and can give New England some payback for last season.

Oh, and to top off my joy this weekend, the Braves made a pretty bad trade. They got Mark Kotsay (and his Andruw Jones-like season - he hit .214 with one homer and 20 RBIs) for their first round draft pick from a few years ago - Joey "I think Grand Slams are" Devine.

Now, I've got a dilemma for next Sunday:

Edmonton Oilers @ Atlanta Thrashers 2pm

Chargers-Pacheatriots 3pm

Giants-Packers 6:30pm

I've only missed 3 Thrashers games so far this year. I'd HATE to miss one where I'd also miss the Canadian Anthem. If I were to go to the game, I should make it home by 5 to see most of the 2nd half. I could tivo it and watch with alot of fast forwarding to finish before the Giants game. Or I could skip the Thrashers game.

(Kinda sorta) Meeting Tom Glavine

Tonight I went to one of the best games I think I ever saw the Thrashers play. They played the (arguably) NHL-best Ottawa Senators. This season the Thrashers have gotten out shot (by alot) in all but 2 games. Tonight they come out and manage to get 21 shots in the first period...a franchise record. Of course, they were losing 1-0. They wound up winning 3-2 while getting another franchise record 45 shots.

You're probably wondering, isn't Tom Glavine a baseball player? Yep. But, did you know...he was drafted into the NHL as a goalie* by the L.A. Kings? In the 4th round! Brett Hull, a future hall of famer was drafted 2 rounds later. Luc Robitaille, another future hall of famer was drafted by the Kings 5 rounds later! True story! Anyways, Tom Glavine recently signed with the Atlanta Braves, which is where he belongs and where I hope he has a miserable season!!! He was also sitting 3 rows in front of me at the game tonight with his wife and two kids (as you can see by the terrible picture from my phone). My last memory of Tom Glavine was on the last day of the regular season when he single handedly blew it for my Mets by allowing 8 runs in 2/3rds of the first inning. If the Mets would've won that game, they would've had a shot at making the playoffs. But they didn't and they completed one of the biggest choke jobs of all time. And I remember being with my family in New Jersey driving and listening to that crap on the radio. I was soooooo PISSED.

I had to at least say something to him though. When I first realized he was there, I was gonna actually try and talk to him, but he had a HUGE thing of nachos he was shoving in his face. So, I didn't want to bother him. I didn't get a chance til the game was over, I just asked him if he was up for suiting up to play goalie if the Thrashers needed him. He laughed and said no way. And that was it. I didn't have the balls to tell him I was a Mets fan and incredibly mad at him!!! :)

EDIT: I was wrong, I learned today (01/08/08) that Tom Glavine was NOT a goalie, he was a center. Or, as they say up north, a centre. My bad!

Why I NEVER leave sporting events early

First off, I wasn't actually at this game, but its a game I would've stayed til the end no matter what, and its why I do that. It all goes back to the 1980's when I went to a Mets game with my family. The Mets won the game in extra innings on a Howard Johnson walk off home run. Where was I? In the parking lot! I missed it! Don't worry, I never let my dad hear the end of that :) Alright, let me set the scene from tonight:

Washington Nationals 10, N.Y. Mets 3, Bottom 9th

- Paul Lo Duca singled to right
- David Newhan pinch hit for Aaron Sele
- David Newhan struck out swinging (1 out)
- Carlos Gomez walked, Paul Lo Duca to second
- Jose Reyes homered to deep right, Paul Lo Duca and Carlos Gomez scored (Nationals 10, Mets 6)
- Luis Castillo singled to left
- Chad Cordero relieved Jesus Colome
- David Wright singled to right, Luis Castillo to second
- Carlos Beltran walked, Luis Castillo to third, David Wright to second
- Moises Alou doubled to deep right, Luis Castillo, Carlos Beltran and David Wright scored (Nationals 10, Mets 9)
- Jon Rauch relieved Chad Cordero
- Endy Chavez ran for Moises Alou
- Carlos Delgado struck out swinging, Endy Chavez stole third (2 outs)
- Paul Lo Duca flied out to right (3 outs)

So, no happy ending this time, but that was as close to the biggest 9th inning comeback as any I'd ever witnessed! And it just goes to show...you never know whats gonna happen and its why I will never leave a game early!!!

What To Watch This Weekend (8/31-9/03)

Last year I used to do this every Friday, so I figure I may as well put it up here too, more for my benefit! I bolded games that I'm particularly interested in, in case I was wondering. As always, the Mets will be in blue, the Noles in garnet. You will never see an NBA game listed on here, as technically, its just not watchable. Some of the college football games aren't on regular TV, but I listed all Top 25 games.

Keep in mind, this is for Atlanta. So if someone is reading this in the middle of nowhere in Butte, Montana...you probably won't have "WATL" :)

It’s baaaaaaaaack!!!!!

TV FRIDAY

BASEBALL
Astros at Cubs 2 p.m. WGN
Mets at Braves 7:30 p.m. SPSO

NFL FOOTBALL
Ravens at Falcons 7:30 p.m. WXIA

NCAA FOOTBALL
Washington at Syracuse 8 p.m. ESPN

TV SATURDAY

BASEBALL
Mets at Braves 3:55 p.m. Fox
White Sox at Indians 7 p.m. WGN

NCAA FOOTBALL
Youngstown State at 11 Ohio State Noon
East Carolina at 9 Virginia Tech Noon ESPN
Florida Interntational at 17 Penn State Noon
Appalachian State at 5 Michigan Noon
UAB at Michigan State Noon ESPN2
Colorado vs. Colorado State Noon FSN
Western Kentucky at 6 Florida 12:30 p.m. WATL
Virginia at Wyoming 2 p.m. Versus
Western Michigan at 3 West Virginia 3:30 p.m.
Nevada at 20 Nebraska 3:30 p.m.
Georgia Tech at Notre Dame 3:30 p.m. NBC
Wake Forest at Boston College 3:30 p.m. ABC
Mississippi at Memphis 3:30 p.m. CSS
Washington State at 7 Wisconsin 3:30 p.m. ESPN
Missouri at Illinois 3:30 p.m. ESPN2
14 UCLA at Stanford 3:30 p.m. FSN
Arizona at BYU 5:30 p.m. Versus
Baylor at 22 TCU 6 p.m.
Oklahoma State at 13 Georgia 6:45 p.m. ESPN2
Presbyterian at Furman 7 p.m. CSS
Troy at 21 Arkansas 7 p.m.
Arkansas State at 4 Texas 7 p.m.
Montana State at 25 Texas A&M 7 p.m.
North Texas at 8 Oklahoma 7 p.m. FSN
Kansas State at 18 Auburn 7:45 p.m. ESPN
15 Tennessee at 12 California 8 p.m. ABC
Idaho at 1 Southern California 10 p.m. FSN
Northern Colorado at 23 Hawaii 12 a.m.

TV SUNDAY

BASEBALL
Mets at Braves 1 p.m. TBS
Astros at Cubs 2 p.m. WGN
Rangers at Angels 8 p.m. ESPN2

TV MONDAY

NCAA FOOTBALL
19 Florida State at Clemson 8 p.m. ESPN

Mets and Braves at it again

Haven't written anything in a while, so its time. I went to tonight's Braves-Mets game with Lauren. Just before I was about to buy the cheapest possible tickets at Turner Field, a guy pulls me aside and said "I have tickets for you". I could only think to say, no thanks, I'm just gonna buy the really cheap seats. He wouldn't take no for an answer and told me to walk out of line with him. He gave me these two tickets and they were awesome seats! I asked him what he wanted for them and he said nothing. He was sitting next to there, so he wanted to give these tickets away to a Mets fan! Lucky for me I was wearing my brand new Blue Mets David Wright t-shirt/jersey and Mets hat!!!

So that was pretty cool, these seats were just behind home plate (about two sections over towards the 3rd base side) and 19 rows up. Nice!

Oh, I forgot to mention this guys' wife! 9 months pregnant and absolutely gorgeous! Lauren agreed :) She's due next Friday and out at a baseball game! With a Mets shirt and everything! My kinda girl ;)

But as for the game, yeah, well, the Mets always lose when I go, so that was nothing new. But they lost bad, 8-1. The Braves pitcher even hit a 3run HR over the center field wall. Bad, very bad. Hopefully the next two games are a little better, and yes, I'll be there!

Just Another Friday night at the Waffle House

So there we were, Friday night, around 2am, where can you get some good late night grub in the ATL? Waffle House! Of course, when you go to Waffle House you get more than mouth watering delicious food, you get entertainment. It never fails. But nothing, and I mean NOTHING can possibly live up to this past Friday night at the waffle house.

So lets set this up. I went to the Braves-Mets game Friday, and for the first time I think EVER, my Mets won (last year the Braves won all 6 times I saw them play the Mets) so it was a big deal. After the game (and after a very entertaining ride back - how's that hangover, PK?) I did what anyone would be jealous of doing on a Friday night...I had my friend Jeremy come by to try and get rid of a virus from my computer!

Anyways, about 1:30am we needed a break - and some food. Waffle House was the obvious pick, but we had no idea just how much entertainment would follow us...

So we get to Waffle House and pick our seat, the first thing I notice was this really old guy in a bright purple shirt and cowboy hat. Right behind him was the perfect table of drunkeness. There was a dude (later I would learn he's from Tallahassee...ughhhh!) with 2 girls. One of the girls obviously forgot a few articles of clothing on her way out that night. Her goods were jumping all over the place...and, as typical guys, we stared, they were definitely worthy of it! Even through the reflection in the window, it was too easy - Waffle House does a good job of keeping their windows clean!. But, I digress. At some point the guy she was sitting with was on his phone and seemed pissed and hung up on someone. Maybe 10 minutes later a car pulls up outside and stops in the middle of the parking lot. A guy gets out and walks in and slams his hands down on the table where the boobs and the pissed off guy were sitting. Pissed off guy takes a swing at the guy (later we would also learn that these two were "best friends"). It was now that the waffle house crew tells them to take it outside...and they DID!!!!!! These two guys went at it for a while outside. Nothing too exciting, alot of rolling around on the ground outside wrestling. While this is going on, another sketchy looking guy comes in and immediately comes over to me and says he loves the Mets - I had my Mets jersey on - although he was wearing a Washington Nationals hat...odd. Anyways, not a minute later, this washington dude is outside trying to break up the fight. Whats the best way to break up a pretty uneventful fight? Where would pulling a gun out rank? Yep...this dude pulled a gun from his pants and fired 3 shots in the air and put the gun right back tucked into his pants like it was no big thing. Meanwhile all of us inside waffle house are sitting there watching as if its an episode of 24 or something. I'm pretty sure its this point where the cops were called. The fight kinda took a few minutes off then and everyone outside left...including our gunman. A few minutes later they started wrestling around again, nothing good really. But, eventually they took their wrestling match elsewhere. Lucky for them, they escaped a good 30 minutes or so before any cop showed up. Gotta love the new found Sandy Springs PD!

As if that wasn't enough for one night, a new set of three come in and sit at the same exact table as our original entertainment. This time we had a VERY drunk girl, a fat friend (all the hot ones have em) and a guy with them. This guy couldn't have possibly wanted to be there any less. Drunk girl kept wanted to come over and sit at our table. But her friend wouldn't let her move, so instead, the two of them started making out...more than once...right in the middle of waffle house still. Awesome.

It took alot to actually leave that place. Its like you're actually at a taping of a Jerry Springer show. Its really hard to look away! But, alas...we left...and about 20 hours later my computer is virus free!!!!!

I know that someone, somewhere out there has a waffle house story that can top that, and I'd love to hear about it!!!!