Random Thoughts On A Sunday Morning Updated To 11-24

[scottybilly]

Happy new year to you. At least you get to see a giant electrical ball being dropped every year. Over here we watch the fire dept. toss a midget covered in christmas lights off of the roof of a 5-story building and into a giant net.

Oakland will trade Suzuki, Balfour, and Fuentes before Spring training I think.

It wasnt appropriate by any means for Torrealba to attack an umpire, but I still thought it was funny.

Since when are the Yankees not spending money? They cant even sign that Japanese player they won the negotiating bid for.

With all this Tim Tebow hooplah, I am further convinced that he is the Antichrist that bible thumpers and doomsday prophets are warning us about. When his pitiful NFL career ends in a couple years, we shall see.

Sinead O'Connor is yet another celebrity that cannot decide her sexual orientation because she is more attracted to her own image in the mirror.

What Verizon was trying to do is similar to Bank of America: charge a fee for using their debit card. Gee thanks, no other banks are doing that.

I'm anxious for Spring Training to begin as well. Of course, the anxiousness usually starts the day after the World Series ends! My early sleeper pick is Kansas City.

[Padres67]

Why no mention of the Raiders game today?

[Yankee4Life]

Why no mention of the Raiders game today?

It wasn't an oversight. I'm superstitious. I didn't want to mention them because for the first time in years they have a chance to make the playoffs. I'll be tuned in at 4 pm today to root them on though.

[Padres67]

OK-Makes sense.

[Yankee4Life]

OK-Makes sense.

What a waste of time that was. They played like, well, themselves. :sad:

[Veesmack]

Veesmack random thoughts:

Let's get rid of the the Central Divisions.

Get rid of teams from the same division not playing each other in the first round (if Central Divisions are not eliminated). Who cares if they are from the same division? It should be record based.

BASEBALL is all bout STATS not technicalities.

Get rid of the All-Star game deciding homefield advantage. Wild Cards should never get home field advantage, EVER.

Veesmack rant about Selig:

Bud Selig = horrible commisioner because:

-looked away from steroid use to improve declining attendance after strike as "chicks dig the long ball".

-he only got tough on steroid use because the image of baseball got so bad because of him "looking the other way" in the first place.

-I thought he had done a great job with steroid policy but I realize it's because he had initally done a bad job.

-Personal Interest: He moved the Brewers from the American League to National League. It used to be his team. Then when Astros were vulnerable in the post Biggio/Bagwell years, he jumps on the opportunity to force the new Astros owner to move the team to the National League as a condition of obtaining ownership.

-The natural rivals argument is baseless. Are the Rangers and Astros gonna play each other 80 times a year?

-What next? Is Selig gonna move the Marlins to the American League or Rays to the National?

[Padres67]

Instead of kill the umpire it should be kill the commissioner.

[Veesmack]

Well, the damage is done with Selig. He'll never be able to shake off the whole steroid issue that occurred in baseball. And that's something he will have to live with. If I recall, players caught using steroids before 2005 initially weren't even reported publically with the first steroid policy, now there's the whole testing of HGH thing. It's HGH Testing* with an asterisk because it only happens in spring training at this point.

Well, the bright side is that steroid and PED testing is better now. It's a travesty after the fact of the post 1994 steroid era. It's like that ADT commericial: "the first time you should act is not after something bad happens; it's before."

If Selig was a great commisioner, he would have enacted something way before Jose Canseco and Ken Caminiti admitted to using steroids.

as for umpires, I really don't like Joe West. I hope a foul ball hits him outside of his patented Joe West umpire gear. But Joe does play guitar, so I give him a pass for being a biased umpire who has a job.

[Yankee4Life]

I got to agree with you Veesmack 100% with your opinion on Selig. I can't wait until this guy's term in office is up.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-8

...Some restaurant owner in Japan forked over $736 thousand dollars for a blue fin tuna that weighed in at a whopping 592 pounds. The first thing I thought of was how much mayonnaise they were going to need for it.

Here's a picture of the fish. That thing would scare the hell out of me if I happened to see it swimming around.

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...Microsoft is coming out with an Xbox 720 console? Damn, I haven't even worked my way up to the 360 yet.

...I can't decide if the people I see jogging outside in five degree weather are dedicated or just out of their mind.

...I got to root for the Steelers today only because I don't want to hear about Tim Tebow anymore.

...The Chicago Cubs finally found someone dumb enough to take Carlos Zambrano off their hands. Maybe now they can go into the new season concentrating on baseball instead of when that guy was going to blow his stack.

...It's going to be funny to see what happens down in Miami this year because if Zambrano pulls the same stunts with Ozzie Guillen around and threatens to retire again, Guillen is just as crazy and hot tempered as he is. He'll help him pack up his stuff and he'll kick him out the door.

...Philadelphia fans welcomed in the New Year the only they know how as they beat the hell out of some Rangers fans after the Winter Classic between the hometown Flyers and visiting New York Rangers. With a couple of well timed kicks, a few left hooks and right jabs, they taught a few fans a lesson they won't forget just because they happened to be wearing a jersey different from theirs.

...If you bothered to read that short article and then came away saying to yourself that this is very familiar, well you are right. Every single time I read about something these animals from Philadelphia do I can always count on the article quoting some fan who says what happened was terrible and it doesn't make the fans or the town look good, ad nauseum. After all these years, who are they kidding? If you are not a borderline psychopath with a perverse pleasure on inflicting pain on another human being, you can't be a true Philadelphia fan.

...Hey, don't shoot the messenger. Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Not everyone in that city goes around pounding on guy sitting next to them at a ball game but their is more than enough of them to go around. The thing is they went too far this time because one of the guys they beat up was an Iraqi war veteran.

...And yes, before anyone asks, even the sainted Yankee Stadium has more than their share of nuts that belong behind bars instead of being at a ball game.

... Later on this month a fast food company is going to be releasing a Darth Vader burger and to give the Jedis equal time, the Jedi Burger. You can't even credit American ingenuity for this one. Belgium gets the distinction here. These burgers are only going to be sold in France. How much do you want to bet that some of the Star Wars fans, (you know, the ones that have said goodbye to reality several decades ago) go to France just for this?

...I just remembered. Prince Fielder still hasn't signed yet. Makes me wonder where he's going to end up. Now watch the Yankees do something stupid.

...For reasons too many for me to get into here, I am thrilled to learn that Jorge Posada has decided to retire. Now I'm waiting for the day when Captain twenty million a year says goodbye.

...Ok, I get it. Tiger Woods cheated on her. He embarrassed her. Her life was plastered in the tabloids for awhile. I can understand Tiger's ex-wife Elin being mad. But to bulldoze a $12 million dollar home? After learning about this, I don't want to hear anyone ever say that women are not irrational ever again. Sure, get mad at Tiger. Stay angry at him for as long as you want. But what the hell did the house do to you?

...Rumor has it that the Raiders want to hire Reggie McKenzie out of Green Bay as their next general manager. That's fine I suppose but what I really think they need is someone to catch the ball consistently and for that entire team to finally stop getting flagged for stupid penalties.

[laroquece]

Updated to 1-8

...I got to root for the Steelers today only because I don't want to hear about Tim Tebow anymore.

I guess you´re going to hear about Tebow one more week...maybe until the super bowl

[Jim825]

I guess you´re going to hear about Tebow one more week...maybe until the super bowl

Even worse -- Y4L has to choose between rooting for Tebow or (GASP!!) a team from the Boston area this weekend!!

Decisions..... decisions.....

[scottybilly]

I would just stay in bed all day and unplug the tv and radio. :bad:

[Yankee4Life]

Even worse -- Y4L has to choose between rooting for Tebow or (GASP!!) a team from the Boston area this weekend!!

Decisions..... decisions.....

Everyone hold on to something because I, Yankee4Life, being of sound mind (no comments please) and body (ok, not exactly) am going to be rooting for a New England team in the NFL playoffs this coming week. Even I can't believe it. I have a few reasons. One of them is that I don't like Denver or any other AFC West team except Oakland. I'll pull for the Patriots to beat the Broncos this week and then I'll root for anyone else to beat them in the Championship game.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-15

...What a week to forget. Commissioner Do-Nothing officially got his contract extended for two more years and you can bet before he leaves office in 2014 -unless he decides to stay again- is to expand the playoffs. Leaving well enough alone is something this guy can not do.

...The firing of Oakland coach Hue Jackson was something I never expected. Honestly, I liked what he did this year. It wasn't his fault that the Raiders couldn't help getting flagged for their stupidity week after week. There's only so much you can teach an idiot and then you can't go any farther. That was Oakland's main problem this year. That and having their wide receivers drop an average of seven passes a game. Finishing 8-8 was a miracle in itself.

...Can someone explain to me why the Yankees are talking to Scott Boras about Edwin Jackson? Don't they have enough trouble with A.J. Burnett?

...Manny Ramirez said this week that he would be a "role model" for any team that wants to sign him this year. Thank heavens for that. I really needed a laugh this week.

...I sometimes wonder if the Athletics franchise ever regretted leaving Philadelphia all those years ago.

...An Apple store in Beijing, China was pelted with eggs last week by angry customers after they learned the the new iPhone was not being released. There's no telling what those same people are going to do to that store once they finally get their hands on that phone and find out that the new phone has more bugs in it than the old one.

...Philadelphia police caught the instigator of the fight that sent an off-duty New York police officer to the hospital after the Winter Classic hockey game. It is unsure what will end up happening to this guy but apparently the mayor of Philadelphia has given him the key to the city and the Phillies are going to have him throw out the first pitch on opening day.

...And the Tim Tebow craze goes on. A pizza maker in Alabama, who apparently is a huge fan with a lot of free time on his hands, created a pizza with Tebow's face on it. I had to provide a link to this and supply a photo because I didn't think any of you would have believed this. Even I still don't. You can have this pizza for yourself for a mere 100 dollars by the way. Drinks not included.

I wonder how many more of these are going to be sold now that Denver has been eliminated?

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...Sure Tim Tebow is down in the dumps now that the Patriots demolished the Broncos last night. But look at the bright side Tim. Now you have even more time to pray.

...And with this game ends my association of rooting for a New England team. I feel so dirty right now.

...Everywhere I read on the net I see people praising the Yankees for trading Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi for Michael Pineda and some slug. I don't get it. I really wanted them to keep Montero and Noesi I had high hopes for. Pineda's been in the majors for one year now and had a terrible second half. Why give up so much for someone that unproven?

...We all know how the Yankees do business. They have a ton of money to operate with and very little patience to go along with it. Have Pineda struggle for awhile in New York and they'll have him doing the Scranton shuffle before you know it.

...And while we are at it someone please explain to me the signing of Hideki Kuroda? This is the same damned guy they were trying to trade for during the trading deadline last year. Sure it's only a one year signing and what's ten million dollars between friends? But when are these people going to learn that a pitcher that is effective in the National League doesn't mean he's going to do the same in the American League?

...I hate these two moves.

...It took Jorge Posada of all people to make me feel better this week with his announcement that he has decided to retire as an active player. Now I wonder if he is going to write a book to complain about everyone he played with on the Yankees except for Captain Twenty Million of course.

...There will be a random thoughts next week but it will be late in the day on Sunday because I'll be out of town (weather permitting) at the in-laws next week. Feel free for anyone to jump in though.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-22

...I succeeded once again leaving my wife's hometown with my sanity. I have never been in a city where nothing happens as much as that place. That town makes Pleasantville look like Times Square.

...Somehow I knew the Rangers were going to get the job done and sign Yu Darvish. After dropping 52 million dollars just to talk to him, they had to sign him. And it only cost them another sixty million.

...Right now I'm trying to picture that guy walking around Dallas in a ten gallon hat.

...Now that Darvish is signed, does anyone know who the next great Japanese pitcher is that everyone should sign right away? Whoever it is I don't think the Red Sox want to know. Daisuke Matsuzaka burned them enough as it is.

...Who else thought that the blackout of Wikipedia last Wednesday was a pain in the a$$?

...Terrell Owens is finally getting back into football as he signed a contract with the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League. Owens is also a co-owner of the team so that means the ball will be thrown to him every other play.

...A sixty five year old woman was caught with a loaded gun in a Dallas airport last week. She probably was going to protect herself from being roughed up by the TSA staff.

...Cleveland's Fausto Carmona really isn't Fausto Carmona. He's the second Dominican player to be caught so far using a false name. And to make matters worse for the Indians he is three years older than he claimed to be. I got to admit though, Carmona had everyone fooled. I mean who the hell would choose a name to use like Fausto if you weren't born with it?

...What happens to all the fans who bought Carmona jerseys? Can they get half their money back?

...How many other Dominican players have done this? And wouldn't it be funny if Albert Pujols is sweating it out right now hoping that the feds don't knock on his door?

...Tiger Woods is putting down a new book about him calling it "unprofessional." Come on Tiger, not all of the book is going to deal with hookers and one night stands. There will be some golf talk in it.

...If you have an extra $139,000 lying around you can rent Hitler's Wolf's Lair in Eastern Poland. That's the going price for a one year rental of the place. Take a look at this dump. You probably can't even get DirectTV there. No thanks.

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...Conference Championship game picks time! AFC: I don't care. NFC: I don't care. Two guaranteed winners right there.

[DonSPa]

Ive been sitting here watching ravens and pats.My Gf is from balto ,she hates the steelers and i hate the ravens but i hate the pats just as bad and im not fond of the giants but would root against the ravens and pats, so unless the 49ers get in the superbowl,i wont be interested other than to see either pats or ravens lose.Guess it could be worse if the cowboys would be in the running as well.

On another football note sad to see Joe Paterno passed away,well loved here in Pa.Sad to see a great football career end this way and lose him while this is still haunting us.

One good thing baseball will be back in business a few weeks,hopefully this will finally be the year the Pirates finally win that ellusive 82nd game to get out of the losing season slump.

Whats everyones feelings about houston moving to the AL and the schedules having more interleague games???I Have mixed feelings, nice to be able to see matchups that normally wouldnt happen but yet I grew up where the NL was the Nl and the AL was the AL and it meant more when it was world series time.Im just wondering if it takes away from the world series

[scottybilly]

Too many changes in sports period. Why the hell is the NFL Pro Bowl played the week before the Super Bowl now? Thats ridiculous! Is the NFL trying to say that the Pro Bowl is more significant to them than the Super Bowl? Yeah sure, Tom Brady will play. lol My ***. What happens if golden boy plays then blows out his knee or something? Oh no, he can't play in the Super Bowl now! lol :rofl:

[DonSPa]

if they do like last year any of the players who are in the probowl make it to the superbowl ,wont be playing the pro bowl

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-29

...With the signing of Prince Fielder the Detroit Tigers have probably sewn up the American League Central this year, barring injury of course. Is there any other team that can compete with the Tigers through the entire year? I can't think of one right now.

...23 million dollars a year for Fielder? And again no one complained about it only because Fielder is going to be wearing a Tiger cap and not a Yankee one.

...You see, signing free agents is ok just as long as they go to your team and not the New York Yankees.

...One article that caught my eye this week while surfing the web was about a 13 year old 105 pound Colorado girl who is able to weight lift 176 pounds. For a girl that age and weight, that's impressive. Of course I can do the same thing but only if I combine the weights of three separate lifts.

...The Idiot of the week award goes to a 17 year old British girl who was recently hospitalized because for 15 years she ate nothing but Chicken McNuggets. This dumb *&#^ refused to eat anything but those damned things all this time and now she is vitamin deficient and has anemia. Amazingly she does not have a weight problem. You can argue that the parent has a blame in this and you would be right, but I think she is old enough by now to realize that she needs vegetables, fish and protein too.

...Last week actress Fran Drescher came out and said that she was "abducted by aliens." She didn't say how long the aliens had her but I'm sure that they immediately let her go as soon as she opened up her mouth and started talking.

...Poor Cher. There was a rumor on Twitter that reported her untimely demise and it quickly was squelched as a lie. Makes me wonder what her daughter -I mean son- thought when first reading the news.

...So the Oakland Raiders got themselves another new head coach? Hue Jackson really wasn't the problem. When you lead the entire NFL in penalties and can't catch the ball consistently and you lose four of your last five games to end the season, that's the problem. It's the players fault.

...Somehow I am waiting for someone to still blame this latest mess on Al Davis.

...For those of you who need to catch up on some sleep on this Sunday afternoon, I give you the NFL Pro-Bowl.

...Dennis James has to be applauded again for his release of the 1915 season mod. Even though I have not had a chance to play it yet because I've been laid up with a bad cold I have no doubt that this is going to be another great mod for Mvp 05. Thank you very much Dennis and what you do is very much appreciated.

...Has anyone actually read Google's recent privacy policy changes?

...Hey the Yankees signed Hiroki Kuroda! Is this supposed to be good news?

[Veesmack]

In regards to Chicken McNuggets, It was less than ten years ago when they started using "white meat" with Chicken McNuggets. When I was a kid there were two apparent kinds of McNuggets. The variety simulated dark and white meat but it was fake because they didn't actually use white meat. McDonald's is an American embarrassment. Being American and knowing that McDonald's is the biggest fast food chain in the world and completely international embarrasses me. But American fastfood is an embarrassment altogether anyways. It hasn't even been more than two years that Taco Bell revealed that their beef is diluted with other products and is something 20% beef. That pissed me off. I used to like that place as a kid.

[scottybilly]

Most of the so-called chicken used in fast food chains contain rib meat from either pork or beef. You can also find it in your local grocery store. I know because I buy it, cook it, and feed it to my old mutt. And its relatively cheap compared to the real chicken meat. And of course most brands of chicken and turkey are also loaded with the steriods and vitamins that make them grow absurdely larger than normal. :facepalm:

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 2-5

...Finally Super Bowl Sunday is here. I love this day for a variety of reasons and they have nothing to do with watching the game, which I won't see in its entirety anyway. I love Super Bowl Sunday because it's the end of another football season, baseball is very close to sending their players to Florida and Arizona for spring training and that means spring games and news and photos and interviews before this month is through.

...By default, I have to root for the New York Giants. The be-loyal-to-your-conference argument is a moot point today because I don't wish for any Boston team to win a championship.

...I wonder if Beckett and Lackey were at the Super Bowl this week passing out fried chicken and organizing PS3 tournaments for the Patriots?

...The foot in the mouth prize goes to Tom Brady, who insulted the city of Buffalo by telling a reporter that the hotels in Buffalo are not that good. He immediately took back his comment but Buffalo is a paranoid city to begin with. They take every single comment to heart and when he goes to Rich Stadium next season you can be assured that no one in that stadium is going to forget what he said during the week of this big game.

...By the way, if Brady had said that the weather in Buffalo sucks and no one in their right mind would want to live there or drive by there or have any reason to drop by for a little visit, I'd agree with him. The last time I was in Buffalo was in 1988. That's still not long enough time for me to think about going back.

...The I hate you because you are different dept: A group called the One Million Moms organization has set up a campaign to pressure the J.C. Penney company to fire Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson. The members of that organization are probably afraid that their kids will automatically become gay if they wear any of the clothes that DeGeneres is selling on TV.

...My version of hell would be to be trapped inside a Chuck-E-Cheese's on a Saturday afternoon jam packed with kids.

...What the hell is this crap with the Yankees signing ex-Red Sox pitcher Manny Delcarmen? Didn't they pound him enough? And now they want him to pitch for them? Sometimes this team really makes you scratch your head.

...Big thanks to the Washington Nationals for taking Edwin Jackson off the market. The (you guessed it) Yankees were interested in him at one point this off season but for some reason didn't sign him. Now that he's unavailable the Yankees don't have the option of retracing their steps to go back and give this putz a 17 million dollar a year contract so he can turn around and win seven games for them.

...Those Egyptian soccer fans make the Philadelphia fans look like choir boys.

[scottybilly]

I live in Tom Brady's hometown. Trust me when I say that outside of the local media and a few fanboys(women actually), he's been a laughing stock and a nuisance ever since he started playing at Serra High School. His twin sisters played softball, volleyball, etc a couple years ahead of him in high school, and from watching them play, I realized that overall they were better athletes than he ever was.

Its no surprise to hear about what happened at that soccer game in Egypt or anywhere in the world. When you live in a 3rd world country, are impoverished, pissed off, drunk and watching soccer in an old broken down stadium, what do you expect to happen?

Cant wait for baseball to start up again. I hope Jorge Posada stays retired, I hope every team rejects Manny Ramirez, especially Oakland.

My version of Hell is any kind of social gathering in a public place where I am among people who insist on being normal, and conforming rather than being individuals, or among people who just want an outlet to ***** and moan about how much their life sucks to anybody who will listen.

[DonSPa]

myself i cant see anyone getting paid that much,will be another reason why teams have to raise ticket prices.I miss going to games but just cost too much for me to try and take my family.My 3 boys are starting to have families of their own and i think ive only been to 2 games with them because it just cost too much.Now with pujols and fielders signings it means it just took a turn for the worse