Spoofs

Been looking at some spoofs lately, thought this one was pretty funny:

Book About A-Rod

Well, I’ve been reading Selena Roberts’ book called A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez.  I am about halfway through it right now, and figured that I would write about it in case anyone is interested.

I have to say that this book is a very good and easy read, if you are interested in the “behind the scenes” of baseball.  Roberts really did not have to put this book out right as he was coming back from injury, although I know that she’s also interested in making herself money.  Did she really have to release a book that slanders a person for her own personal benefit?  Probably not.  But is it total slander?  No, it’s not.  I was against her putting this book out, but I was too curious not to read it.

It gives some reasons for some of the weird things that Alex has done, as well as some behind the scenes of his contract negotiations with the very irritating Scott Boras.  It tells us what most baseball fans already know… everything is about money with Scott Boras.  Numbers are the only important thing to him.  Granted, he makes more money as well, but really, he’s taking advantage of the every day fan indirectly.  But that’s besides the point.  The book goes farther as to tell Alex’s background story, from being a very young boy, all the way through high school.  It discusses more steroid usage as well as the how selfish he is as a baseball player.

But honestly, he’s only one of many that are divas, full of themselves, and have done things that we hold against them.  This book isn’t totally slandering him… he’s just the one that we found out about.  Give it a read, get it from the library if you don’t want to support it, but as I continue reading it, I think baseball fans should too.  I’m sure it will bash him later on as well (since I am only halfway through), but it’s very interesting at the very least.

If you want to read the chapter that I just finished, SI posted it on their website: Excerpt from the A-Rod Book: Mr. Two-Fifty-Two

Bob Uecker is the man!

Some hilarious videos about the sports broadcaster Bob Uecker from Artie Lange and Norm MacDonald on the Letterman Show… check them out.  I heard Norm talk about this on Howard Stern and I was laughing hysterically in my car.  Of course, this is on Letterman so it is censored and Howard Stern is not, but it’s pretty funny nonetheless.

Bob Uecker

Denise Richard’s Funbags

I thought this video from Funny or Die was pretty funny.  Click the link to check out the video.

Old Cartoons

Just a quick thought: some of these old cartoons that I used to watch as a kid are genius.  I’m watching a little bit of Ren and Stimpy… why do the cartoons for kids nowadays suck so much?

Basketball For The Ages!

I’ve been watching a ton of basketball lately (two different teams), and I have to say that it’s really cool to see both sides of the spectrum, being one large team in an amazing conference, and one small team in a forgotten conference.  These two teams are the Syracuse Orange and the Binghamton Bearcats.

As a Syracuse fan for much of my life, from when I was young, when I was a student there, and now that I am an alumni, I really was used to my team always having a shot at the NCAA championship.  They are always very talented, and they belong to a major conference in the Big East, which always gets plenty of bids for the tournament.  I would have loved them to get farther than the first round during the 4 years that I attended, but hey, we can’t all get what we want… the lacrosse championship last year was good enough.  But as a fan, I took it for granted that my team always had a shot.

I’ve been going to Binghamton games for the past couple years now, but this year was the first year that I went to every men’s home game, considering I wasn’t at Syracuse anymore and was home for them.  Most thought this team wasn’t going anywhere, and with the way they were playing, I thought the same.  They were very inconsistent at the beginning of the season, but after a while, kind of found their groove and created that team chemistry that they were missing.  Many people criticized the team because the new guys were kind of outcasts, but talented ones that couldn’t stay on other teams for whatever reason.  They had their egos, and it showed early, but the team prevailed and won the America East conference championship yesterday.  Binghamton is going to the NCAA tournament.  This is their first ever tournament berth and the area is very proud of them.  The fans were great (though not all year…. many Binghamton kids are complete fairweather fans, but the real fans were great), and I am happy to see some national coverage for a team that has lots of talent and could make for an upset in the first round.

Syracuse just amazed me at the end of the season during the Big East tournament.  Honestly, 6 OTs – when you are already pretty much guaranteed a spot in the big dance – and you keep playing as hard as you can for 6 OTs?  I was disappointed when they lost last night to Louisville, but I am proud of them for the wins against UConn and West Virginia.  That is tough, and I am glad to see people actually commending them for it.  Yes, the team has flaws – Devendorf  talks way too much for sure, but he is talented and people notice that.  Flynn dribbles way too much and has too many turnovers, but the guy has a lot of heart and I respect him for it.  No doubt about it, the team is extremely flawed… but what team isn’t?  Here’s a great NY Post article by Steve Serby that sums up most of what I feel about this team right now: Clock Caught Up With Boeheim’s Bunch

Obviously, Binghamton is very different from Syracuse though, as only one team from these small conferences makes it every year.  Without a perfect conference tournament, these teams will not have a postseason.  And rightfully so, as they really don’t play the best opponents.  They are both flawed teams, talent wise and personality wise, but they both prevailed.  Both made headlines with stupid players (Devendorf punching a girl in the face, Alvin stealing condoms from Wal-Mart).  And the NY Times will rip anyone, but who cares about that awful paper anyway?  But I really thought it was cool to watch from two different perspectives, with teams that are so similar in a few ways, but so different in others.

I’ll be interested in seeing what’s in store tonight, and to see the seeding.

Great article…

Another great one from Rick Reilly: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3930609

He’s right, athletes need to understand the effect that they have on kids, and need to act as role models instead of as thugs.  Maybe others can learn from Elway.

Motivation

A little bit of motivation for us all:

iPod Touch Post

I found out that I can now easily post while on my iPod Touch… so basically, I can post to this whenever I want. This was just a test, I’ll have a new post coming in a day or two.

Solar Powered Phone

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/02/13/samsung-releases-solar-powered-phone/

Kinda weird, I don’t know how the sun would charge the panels while they are in your pocket, but it’s a pretty cool idea…