Random Thoughts On A Sunday Morning Updated To 11-24

[Yankee4Life]

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

When I was younger I would feel sorry for myself because I didn't live in a major league city. I was envious of those people that got to see American or National league games on a regular basis. But now with those high ticket prices I am happy I live in a Triple A city where the ticket prices are very reasonable and I get to see the players before they become big names.

[DonSPa]

i was thinking about checking out the erie seawolves sometime but just never have lol

[jay16509]

Don, I used to live in Erie, and went to many of the Seawolves games. They usually do a Buck night on Monday night home games, where tickets are $1, and many of the food items are a $1. Also, I am not sure if they are still doing this, but if you go to Wendy's there and buy a meal and get a milk to drink, you get 2 free tickets to a Seawolves game. So, I would get the $3.99 Double Stack meal, and get a milk to drink. Then I would have a couple of tickets for free, and then just would pay for parking and whatever food I wanted to eat.

Jerry Uht park is a beautiful park, and I think you would really enjoy it.

[DonSPa]

thnx jay ill have to check into that.Usually in july my family does something special.Bad part is have a vehicle thats about to die on me and didnt get good news about a loan today,but will keep this in mind if i can somehow work things out

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 2-12

...I didn't win my Super Bowl pool last week but when Tom Brady's final desperation pass fell incomplete I really didn't care. As far as I was concerned, Boston lost and that made me a winner.

...Remember SeanO that used to come around here? Sean made many great Mvp stadiums for those of you who aren't familiar. Well Sean's a huge Boston fan - in fact he lives there- but he hates Brady with a passion. I think that made him the only guy in New England with a smile on his face last Sunday night.

...And it didn't take long for Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen to become a card carrying New Englander, didn't it? You know, blaming other people when you lose and pointing fingers at others. Becoming a sore loser in that area of the country must be as easy as breathing.

...I don't miss football one bit. Although that would probably be different had the Raiders done something these past ten years.

...Watching Yankee games this year is going to be so much better now that Kim Jones has decided to leave the YES Network. In all her years there she has never asked any player an interesting question. In fact, she hasn't been close.

So Derek, how did it feel to get the game winning RBI?

It felt great Kim. Just taking it day by day.

That's great! Back to you Michael.

...Dennis Oil Can Boyd came out in an interview last week to let everyone know that most of the time he was on the mound during his playing career he was on cocaine. Boyd last played in the majors in 1991 and why anyone would give a damn right now what he did would be the first thing you'd wonder but the real reason why he's putting himself back in the news is that he's coming out with a book later on this year. The only people that would want to read about a career 78-77 pitcher are his family and friends and the people he gives free copies to.

...Kevin Youkilis is going to be marrying Tom Brady's sister? I never knew his sister was blind.

...Just watch. Someone on the Yankees is now going to get married just so the Yankees can get equal press time.

...When I come across games that I own like The Pandora Directive and Wacky Wheels -two games I am pretty sure a lot of you have never heard of by the way- it made me realize I held on to this stuff longer than I should have.

...A Tennessee couple was murdered last week all because they de-friended someone on Facebook. For some reason the father of the girl that was de-friended (obviously a capital offense among rednecks with an internet connection) engaged the help of someone and shot the couple to death. This makes people who have never had a Facebook account want to run right out and sign up immediately.

...Hey,don't forget Valentine's day which is only two days away now. To me this is the worst day on the calendar for the entire year. This is when Hallmark and the jewelry stores pressure you into buying a gift for your special someone. Show her you care. That's the catchphrase you'll hear on TV. And all this time I showed her I did care when I got her Christmas gifts seven weeks ago and birthday gifts five weeks ago. Silly me.

...Reading about the death of Whitney Houston immediately brought me back to the late 1980's when I first heard of her. She had a fantastic voice. It was a voice that made you stop what you were doing and listen. Her beauty also matched the quality of her voice. Her drug struggles over the years were well documented and discussed by the media. Right now no one knows how she died but to me that's beside the point. R.I.P. Whitney.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 2-19

...Sure is nice seeing baseball back, isn't it? I can't wait to see who emerges as the next new phenom when the games get going next month.

...How the hell did Oakland sign Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes? The impression that team seems to give out is that they don't have two nickels to rub together.

...Hey, at least the Yankees got rid of A.J. Burnett. As the great Branch Rickey used to say, that's addition by subtraction. Things got so bad last year that I refused to watch Yankee games when Burnett was the starting pitcher. First Posada gone and now this human pinball machine. Beautiful!

...Look, I know I am a card carrying member of the Diehard Yankee club, but there is still no way I am going to be dishing out money for Official his and hers Yankee fragrances. A 1.7 ounce bottle of this stuff is going to set you back $49. My wife happens to have some perfume that's in that size and the bottle is so small that you can hide it behind a Dixie cup. The next size up is a 3.4 ounce bottle which will only soak 63 dollars out of you. I'm sure this product line will sell well in Boston.

...Got my taxes done yesterday. Another headache out of the way.

...I got to get the latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue mainly because Natalie Gulbis will be in it posing in body paint. Oh yeah, and for the articles too.

...Whoever the person was who did the painting on her must have had a real steady hand because If it were me, my hands would have been shaking.

...I thought it was a nice thing that the New Jersey governor did for Whitney Houston on Saturday. He ordered the flags to be lowered to half staff for her despite the protests of people who, pointing at her struggles with substance abuse, argued that she didn't deserve this honor.

...I wonder what NFL team will be deluded enough to pick up Randy Moss just because he's decided to play again?

...After hearing about the death of Gary Carter it made me realize once again how secondary the world of sports really is. In my case I was not a fan of the teams that Carter played for, especially when he played for the Mets. Therefore I didn't root for him. That being said, the sense of loss I felt when I heard that he died last Thursday made me stop what I was doing to say a prayer for him and his family. It would have made me very happy to find out that he had beat this brain cancer that eventually ended up claiming him. The way he played the game and his attitude towards it should be an example to all players who are currently playing and ones in the future.

[Veesmack]

RIP Gary Carter. Even as a young baseball fan, I will never forget him even past his prime with the Dodgers.

Y4L, Joanne Gair is the amazing body paint expert. The two other women donning body paint as a matter of trivia are UC-Berkeley alumnus.

want to get this off my chest: I'm a little annoyed at this Jeremy Lin story. It's a great story and I'm happy for his opportunity. But it just means that racism has permeates American sports over Asian Americans. With media attention, it appears that there has been almost no athletes good enough to have been given any opportunities whatsoever in professional sports. Tiger Woods was a pioneer. But really, since becoming Pro over 15 years ago, has much changed? Lin has only started a handful of games. It seems like either Jeremy Linn is the Jim Thorpe of Asian athletes or perhaps Asian Americans are profiled as not being great athletes in America. And the way he blown up so fast, I feel like he's destined to fail. But then I look at entertainment. As for Asian Americans, I can't even think of 15 celebrities off the top of my head. Most are typecasted or not even American like Jackie Chan. If you pay attention to commericals on TV, you got an Asian American being punked trying to rent a car in Chase commericial, being punked in a Halls cough drop commerical, being an idiot trying to eat from somebody elses' cheerios that are exactly the same, or being a party pooper for guys trying to drive to Vegas. There's Lucy Lu, *John* Cho and Jeremy Lin today. Well, that's all I got to say. I could go on about this but it's pointless. Racism doesn't change over night and I'm not gonna cry me a river about it. But I won't ignore it still exists today after the Chinese Exclusion Act, Mysogyny laws, Gentleman's Agreement, Japanese landowner laws, National Origins Acts and Executive Order 9066. The law of the past has made the perception what it is today. I love American and would die for my country because it's still a great country despite the histories of racism not limited to Asian-Americans. I feel that Latino American and African American athletes face racism but still get more opportunies over Asian Americans where it's not even close to same number of opportunities. I find it hard to believe that it's purely only biological. It took so long for civil rights to be acknowledged in the middle towards the end of the twentieth century. But equality it still truly is a work in progress even in a time where cars drive themselves.

[dennisjames71]

Excellent, excellent post on the subject Veesmack. Your commentary and historical knowledge are dead on regarding these subtle (and not so subtle) racism issues in media/sports/entertainment. I definitely agree with your point that Jeremy Lin is also ‘destined’ to fail because of the unnatural expectations that are now piled on him. I am also not losing sleep over, if Lin ‘fails’ and doesn’t take the Knicks single-handedly into the NBA Finals; but I do root for him and I would like to see him do well. Being half-Asian/bi-racial myself, I find myself pulling some of these guys and gals to do well…but I root for any person who’s a dedicated guy and it’s nice to see any race succeed in endeavors of the American landscape regardless. It’s like certain people throughout history (and sports specifically) do have these wild expectations levied on them to be the sole determining factor of whether ‘their race’ can truly succeed in whatever they are doing. Jim Thorpe was a good example, as well as Jackie Robinson <obviously>, Roberto Clemente, and when speaking of Asians…Hideo Nomo was instrumental in opening the door to Asian/Japanese baseball players that followed. Unfortunately, the downside of these expectations, is that if these people ‘fail’ in the public’s eyes; then it sometimes becomes an unfair regression of sorts. In other words, if Jeremy Lin doesn’t turn into the second coming of Michael Jordan overnight…then what is the likelihood that Asian basketball players will be looked at in the same light all across the board. It has a lot to do with today’s society as well; where the “all-or-nothing”, polarizing attitudes are prevalent. Anyway, this was a great, thought-provoking post Veesmack.

[dennisjames71]

Y4L,

Great post about the SI Swimsuit painting....Although there are absolutely no wrong choices with this subject, I would like to volunteer to "paint" this one:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012_swimsuit/models/chrissy-teigen/12_chrissy-teigen_1.html

[Yankee4Life]

want to get this off my chest: I'm a little annoyed at this Jeremy Lin story. It's a great story and I'm happy for his opportunity. But it just means that racism has permeates American sports over Asian Americans. With media attention, it appears that there has been almost no athletes good enough to have been given any opportunities whatsoever in professional sports. Tiger Woods was a pioneer. But really, since becoming Pro over 15 years ago, has much changed? Lin has only started a handful of games. It seems like either Jeremy Linn is the Jim Thorpe of Asian athletes or perhaps Asian Americans are profiled as not being great athletes in America. And the way he blown up so fast, I feel like he's destined to fail.

You said a lot Veesmack and I can tell just by your words here that you feel strongly about this. I think the best thing that the media and everyone else can do for Jeremy Lin is to look at him as simply a basketball player and not a basketball player who happens to be Asian. Lin's just starting out. He shouldn't be pressured to represent his entire race when he takes the court.

Are Asian American athletes good enough to play major sports? I got a one word answer for that. Yes. I don't believe that they are excluded from participating in sports when they are young. If an American of Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, etc decent has an interest in being a point guard, a running back or a right fielder he has much of an opportunity as anyone else. Why aren't there more? I have no idea. Why do all the Asian major league players come from their home country and not here? Beats me. But I don't believe it has anything to do with being purposely excluded.

But then I look at entertainment. As for Asian Americans, I can't even think of 15 celebrities off the top of my head. Most are typecasted or not even American like Jackie Chan. If you pay attention to commericals on TV, you got an Asian American being punked trying to rent a car in Chase commericial, being punked in a Halls cough drop commerical, being an idiot trying to eat from somebody elses' cheerios that are exactly the same, or being a party pooper for guys trying to drive to Vegas. There's Lucy Lu, *John* Cho and Jeremy Lin today.

I can't think of five Asian American celebrities. And I'm not trying to be funny here. I'm just saying that I don't pay attention to what race or religion someone is. I got better things to do. I'll give you an example. You know the actor James Caan? He was in the Godfather along with many other movies? Just a few weeks ago I found out he was Jewish. All these years I never thought about what he was, if he was Polish or German or Catholic or Baptist. He was just James Caan to me.

And the examples you just gave here are stereotypes. Stereotypes are baggage that is attached to every race whether they are deserved or not. I'm Sicilian. Every time I see a Sicilian on TV or in a movie they got a gun in their hand and they're the bad guys. Whatever.

One final thing about stereotypes. You won't change them. They were around before you were born and they'll be here after you are gone.

[Yankee4Life]

Y4L,

Great post about the SI Swimsuit painting....Although there are absolutely no wrong choices with this subject, I would like to volunteer to "paint" this one:

http://sportsillustr...y-teigen_1.html

My monitor just melted because that photo was so hot.

I have to buy this issue.

[dennisjames71]

I think the best thing that the media and everyone else can do for Jeremy Lin is to look at him as simply a basketball player and not a basketball player who happens to be Asian. Lin's just starting out. He shouldn't be pressured to represent his entire race when he takes the court.

Great point Y4L.

Hey did you notice on those SI Swimsuit slideshows that they have a "Where To Buy" button at the bottom? Like anybody cares where to buy and who designed these swimsuits. Ummmm...what swimsuits? I didn't really notice those were in the picture.

[Yankee4Life]

Dennis, there's 129 pages of posts in this thread and that picture you just posted was the best one of them all. And you're right, I could care less where you buy the swimsuits unless the girl is included. Is that shallow of me? Guilty as charged. :lol:

[DJEagles]

I am in love with Kate Upton.

...Lust,for sure.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 2-26

...Any team that lets a guy like Hideki Matsui go and signs Manny Ramirez is asking for trouble.

...During Oakland's first fifty games is when you'll see Ramirez help out the Athletics the most and that's because he'll still be suspended.

...Checked out some spring training photos this week from the camps in Florida and Arizona. Here's my favorite one so far. It's a picture of A.J. Burnett. What makes it so good is that he's wearing a Pirate uniform instead of a Yankee one.

Here's Burnett as he is about to throw his first wild pitch of the spring.

...One thing I hoped would happen in the off season for the Yankees was for them to get younger. Signing Raul Ibanez (age 39) and re-signing Andruw Jones (who will be 35 in April) and Eric Chavez (34, and who also missed 2 1/2 months last year) is not exactly what I thought they'd do. I just hope it doesn't end up hurting them.

...Elizabeth Smart got married last week in Hawaii. Yeah, yeah I know. You don't give a *&#$ either.

...Besides being a great ballplayer and a multimillionaire, now Evan Longoria is dating Playboy model Jaime Edmondson. Some guys get all the luck.

...If anyone ever accuses any of you that you spend too much time on the internet you can tell them this story. I was watching the local news the other day and they had a piece on a guy who was fired from his job because he was playing World of Warcraft for over 100 hours a week. Can you imagine that? That's over 14 hours a day. After watching some videos of this game on Youtube I didn't understand why this game is so popular. I couldn't play this game for 14 minutes let alone 14 hours.

...I dug up an old game of mine for my Windows XP laptop called The Typing of the Dead. And while I'm not playing it for 14 hours a day, it's a hell of a lot of fun to play. When I'm done my fingers hurt because I'm typing so fast. I'd love to see a 2012 version of this.

...It didn't take long for the Angels to find out what a handful Albert Pujols is going to be. Had the Angels never put up billboards to welcome him to Southern California he'd have pouted about that.

...I don't care if Ryan Braun is not going to be serving his fifty game suspension for his postive test for PED's. I'm still skeptical about it. I honestly believe MLB let him get away with this only because he was the NL MVP last year and if the reigning MVP were to be suspended it would have made Bum Selig and his boys look bad. And despite if Braun is suspended or not he's still guilty in the eyes of millions of fans.

...I think the guy who is stuck with the job with putting rubber bands over the claws of lobsters must have a pretty tough job.

...Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine has banned alcohol from the Boston clubhouse effective immediately. Since he didn't consult with any of his high priced prima donnas, you can expect some complaints about it to be leaked to the press. The Red Sox players should be grateful that he didn't ban take out food also.

...Have you heard about that college football player from Virginia who is currently on an eight day hunger strike? Somehow I can't see Prince Fielder doing something like this.

[jay16509]

Ok, liked your post, Y4L, except for the part about Burnett in the Pirate uniform. I still hate that move. I hope I am wrong, but I think the guy is a mental case and will not help the Bucco's out. I would rather have seen them resign Maholm then to trade for this whipped cream thrower who is a waste of roster space.

[Yankee4Life]

Ok, liked your post, Y4L, except for the part about Burnett in the Pirate uniform. I still hate that move. I hope I am wrong, but I think the guy is a mental case and will not help the Bucco's out. I would rather have seen them resign Maholm then to trade for this whipped cream thrower who is a waste of roster space.

Who can blame you for hating this move? If I were you I wouldn't be happy about it either. I couldn't stand Burnett so much last year that I wouldn't watch any of the Yankee games that he started because I couldn't take watching him any longer.

[jay16509]

I know. I thought the Pirates had done a few decent moves this offseason, and then they do this boneheaded thing. I would rather see some kid from the minors get a shot than Burnett.

[DonSPa]

_{wow 13 pitches and Joel Zumaya is out for the season,Pirates and Aj dunno but i think id feel more comfy if they brought luis tiant out of retirement lol.But I think Ray Searage can be a major factor and Hurdle can bring out the best of players.Spring training will tell which AJ has shown up and for the pirates and pirates fans sake i hope its the good AJ}

[Yankee4Life]

_{wow 13 pitches and Joel Zumaya is out for the season,Pirates and Aj dunno but i think id feel more comfy if they brought luis tiant out of retirement lol.But I think Ray Searage can be a major factor and Hurdle can bring out the best of players.Spring training will tell which AJ has shown up and for the pirates and pirates fans sake i hope its the good AJ}

Don, if they brought Luis Tiant out of retirement I bet he would still have better control than Burnett. And also just for your information the only time you are going to see a "good" A.J. Burnett is when he is warming up in the bullpen. :lol:

[laroquece]

the only time you are going to see a "good" A.J. Burnett is when he is warming up in the bullpen.

A.J Burnett has an 9.78 ERA warming up in the bullpen :rofl:

[scottybilly]

Burnett cant win, using himself as the starting pitcher in a video game.

[jay16509]

A.J. Burnett- stinks worse than poop that has been wrapped in poop.

[DonSPa]

well pirates luck either turned for the better or worse,not sure which as burnett will be out about 3 months

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 3-4

...The events last week in that small Ohio town that left three young kids dead made me once again thank God that I am not part of the school system any longer. Who the hell knows what set off this latest maniac and made him bring a gun to school last Monday? Just put this killer on trial as an adult, convict him, send him to his cell and throw away the key.

...What got me was when it was all over and he was caught by the police he then said "I'm sorry!" Oh really? Well you should have thought of that before you ruined the lives of three families that won't see their kid anymore and countless others who are going to be scared to go back to school for a very long time.

...Thinking back, all the troublemakers did when I was in high school was smoke in the bathrooms or skip school. Those kids would be chewed up and spit out if they were in school today.

...I read this week that the net worth of Apple is more than the country of Poland. There's a joke in there somewhere but I won't go there.

...I wonder how popular the Playstation Vita (priced between $249 and $299) is going to be? I mean if I am going to pay that much I'd rather get the Playstation 3.

...It didn't take long for the Yankee - Red Sox bull**** to start up, didn't it? Thanks to Bobby Valentine, who even on his best days is still a stupid son of a *****, he had to make a point of taking jabs at A-Rod and Jeter during an interview when he talked about Jason Varitek's retirement. For reasons known only to him he praised Varitek for "beating up" Rodriguez back in 2004 and then went into detail about the famous flip play that Jeter did back in 2001 in the playoffs against Oakland, saying he was "out of position" and that he did not believe the Yankees practiced that play. Jeter's response? He didn't know why this was being brought up after all this time. My thoughts exactly.

...Personally I was sad to see Varitek retire. He was practically an automatic out when he came up to the plate the past few years.

...That sigh of relief you heard around the Steel City this week were Pirate fans when they learned A.J. Burnett would not be pitching for them for the next two or three months.

...There is nothing that I like about adding two more teams to the post season this year. Forget Bud Selig's reason that it would be good for baseball. The real reason why he did this was to make FOX and TBS happy.

...Pretty soon all you'll need to do is stay as close to the top as you can and you'll be assured of that extra playoff spot. Come October, let's see who the first team is to be screwed by Selig's new system.

...For those of us who can remember baseball without Bud Selig and only four teams in the post season, those are the good old days.

...Congratulations to former New York Giant Tiki Barber on his upcoming marriage but I think someone should have reminded him to get a divorce from his first wife before getting ready to marry the second one. That's usually how it goes.

...Great job Red Sox by piling up on a bunch of college kids as they embarrassed Northwestern yesterday by a score of 25 - 0. What are they doing, making up for the runs they didn't score last September?