Random Thoughts On A Sunday Morning Updated To 11-24

[DJEagles]

Come on Y4L....you know I just had to bring it up! You know me well enough, to know I'm just playing!

[Yankee4Life]

Come on Y4L....you know I just had to bring it up! You know me well enough, to know I'm just playing!

Oh, I know. I just think it's a shame that these two guys had to get themselves caught like this because it just gets the steroid talking started again. This stuff is never going to die down.

[Padres67]

And why should it? The game will forever be sullied by these million dollar spoiled babies. I hate the game of baseball as it is played today. I continued to play the game into my 50's in an over 40 league. we had several former major league players that i got the chance to play against. And i paid 400.00 for that, just because I still enjoyed the game for the fun of it.

[JoeRudi26]

And why should it? The game will forever be sullied by these million dollar spoiled babies. I hate the game of baseball as it is played today.

The truly sad thing about it is this: The 12 year olds in the LLWS are wearing a patch on the shoulders of their uniforms that says "I Won't Cheat!" Sad to think about that grown up major leaguers (whether they want to be role models or not) have brought this down to the kids that grow up playing baseball.

I'm grateful that I didn't have to wear this patch when I was growing up, I'd probably viewed the game in a much different way. These cheaters should be ashamed of themselves, and be thrown from the game indefinitely.

[sabugo]

Clemens is like a bad cold, he keeps coming back. I'm guessing Jamie Moyer inspired him.

Way to go LL Cool J, now that's walking the walk.

I've been 3 days away and when I came back this trade had happened. I agree with most of your analysis.

Poor James Loney. He was probably getting ready for the playoffs with the Dodgers and now he's going to play for a team that's crashing and burning.

Every team needs a Nick Punto. There are days in which I'd rather have a Nick Punto than Alex Rodriguez. (I know, I keep complaining about him. For some reason the guy just annoys me) Maybe Magic Johnson can do that for me someday.

Magic Johnson is really going all out for the Dodgers huh? I wonder when he'll realize that the Yankees own the monopoly of outspending everyone in baseball.

I'm a bit disappointed because Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colon are two guys who I thought were better than this. I have lost all the respect I had for Melky. Instead of stopping with the stupidity and accepting that he had been caught he just piled it on. And I was actually rooting Bartolo after what he did last year for the Yankees.

Besides having played for the Yankees, I'm sure there are a lot more things that Clemens and these two share in common. I'm guessing they all like burgers, hot women and fast cars, but that wasn't really why they doped. I believe it would be far more interesting to investigate with who they associate outside their baseball organizations, because most of the times dopers get their supplies from people outside their teams.

My sport doesn't even have any kind of testing at any level, even professionally, so believe me, I know what it is like to fight (literally) unfairly. In my case, most of the times I really try not to care, because in this very specific sport technique tends to overwhelm strenght.

But in general, cheaters should be banned if not for life at least until the end of their careers, whenever that might be.

[Yankee4Life]

I don't believe a patch like this belongs on the uniforms of these little leaguers. Sure, it is a nice message that the Little League officials are trying to get across but to me it is an unnecessary one too. The steroid problem is a MLB one and the Little League should distance itself from it as much as possible instead of calling attention to it.

The truly sad thing about it is this: The 12 year olds in the LLWS are wearing a patch on the shoulders of their uniforms that says "I Won't Cheat!" Sad to think about that grown up major leaguers (whether they want to be role models or not) have brought this down to the kids that grow up playing baseball.

I'm grateful that I didn't have to wear this patch when I was growing up, I'd probably viewed the game in a much different way. These cheaters should be ashamed of themselves, and be thrown from the game indefinitely.

[Yankee4Life]

Every team needs a Nick Punto. There are days in which I'd rather have a Nick Punto than Alex Rodriguez. (I know, I keep complaining about him. For some reason the guy just annoys me) Maybe Magic Johnson can do that for me someday.

Well, Rodriguez has had a terrible year before he got hurt and I don't see him getting hot with the bat when he comes back but to complain about him like he is the source of all the problems with the Yankees is just plain wrong. He's just one player and not the entire team.

Magic Johnson is really going all out for the Dodgers huh? I wonder when he'll realize that the Yankees own the monopoly of outspending everyone in baseball.

They do? That's another misconception that most fans have. Were the Yankees the ones that signed Pujols to that huge contract last year along with C.J. Wilson? No, I think that was the Angels. Or did they give Prince Fielder that 100 million dollar contract? When other teams go out and do something like this it doesn't get talked about as much as if the Yankees did it. The Yankees have a big payroll sure, but they do not go around outspending everyone.

[sabugo]

Thinking about it, you might be right. The Yankees have been surprisingly out of the big spending in the past couple of years. And they did announce last year that in the future they will be paying more attention to how they spend their money. A bunch of other teams have been spending a whole lot more than the Yankees. Still, they will forever be known as the team that outspends everyone.

I don't think A-Rod is the source of the Yankees' problems. Like I've said before, maybe I just expect way too much of him every time he comes to the plate because I know that he has/had the capacity to do great things. I'm not a hater by any means.

[Yankee4Life]

Thinking about it, you might be right. The Yankees have been surprisingly out of the big spending in the past couple of years. And they did announce last year that in the future they will be paying more attention to how they spend their money. A bunch of other teams have been spending a whole lot more than the Yankees. Still, they will forever be known as the team that outspends everyone.

I agree. It's a misconception about this team that they go around buying everyone. I'm not going to try and look the other way when they do go out and get free agents because the fact is that they do go out and spend a lot on them at times. But the last time they did it was after the 2008 season when they went out and got A.J. Burnett, C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixeira. Well, that was a few seasons back and they haven't got close to doing anything like that since then.

During that same time period Boston signed John Lackey and Carl Crawford to inflated contracts and no one said anything about that. I'm not talking about people in here saying anything - I'm talking about fans in general and the press. Same goes for last year when the Angels made that huge mistake and gave Albert Pujols that contract. I said this when that first happened that if the Yankees had signed Pujols to that contract you'd still be reading complaints to this day.

I don't think A-Rod is the source of the Yankees' problems. Like I've said before, maybe I just expect way too much of him every time he comes to the plate because I know that he has/had the capacity to do great things. I'm not a hater by any means.

I understand what you mean. The guy frustrates me too. Before he got injured he was nothing but a singles hitter who was basically an easy out at the plate. When it was his turn at bat it was the perfect time for me to go and make a sandwich or get a drink because I knew I wasn't going to miss anything.

[Jim825]

DJ - I just read this: http://www.cbssports...r-positive-test

I'm still looking through his stats to find out when he played for the Yankees..... ;)

[Yankee4Life]

DJ - I just read this: http://www.cbssports...r-positive-test

I'm still looking through his stats to find out when he played for the Yankees.....

Jim, maybe I can help you out here. This Blue Jays prospect has heard of the Yankees before and knows of them so obviously the Yankees are to blame here.

[DJEagles]

LOL.....he was probably going to be plucked from the Jays farm system at some point!

[DJEagles]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120829&content_id=37536198&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Enjoyabe read!

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 9-2

...Last Tuesday via satellite NASA broadcasted a new song by rapper will.i.am to mark the successful landing of their Curiosity rover on Mars earlier this month. It was also their way to encourage young people to study science and to make science more interesting to them. That's a good idea and I hope it works for them, but a rap song? If there was any life on that planet this song just killed it.

...As soon as the song was over Amazon and iTunes sent a broadcast to Mars informing them if they liked the song they could download it for .99 cents on their respective websites.

...Two members of the female punk band Pu ssy Riot have fled Russia to avoid prosecution for a protest against Vladimir Putin that have sent three other members of their band to prison for two years. The United States is cooperating with Russia just in case the girls turn up in the states and will send them immediately back to Moscow provided that the Russians also take Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and a Kardashian to be named later.

...The school year began last Monday for one Baltimore, Maryland high school with a bang -no pun intended. A fifteen year old kid brought in a gun and started shooting and was able to get off two shots before being subdued by a guidance counselor and some teachers. Unfortunately one shot hit home as one student was hit and remains in critical condition. The shooter's excuse? He was being bullied. It was the first day of school and it wasn't even 11:00 in the morning and yet he said he was being bullied. He must have been looking to do something like this so he packed a pistol in between his bologna sandwiches and marched off to school and was ready just in case someone looked at him cross-eyed. Just once I would like to see one of these poor misunderstood darlings jumped on by about twenty bystanders and beaten so bad that they put his nose where his right ear is.

...Enough is enough with trying to understand the reasons why these shooters do what they do. Stick them in a room with the family of the victims so he can explain to them between punches why he did what he did.

...A clothing merchant in India specializing in Western men's wear welcomed his customers to his new place of business that he named "Hitler" and claimed that he did not know who Adolph Hitler was. He named the store Hitler because that was the nickname given to the grandfather of his store partner because the man "was very strict". To make matters more unbelievable, a Nazi swastika is used as the dot on the "i" in the word Hitler on the front of the store and on their business cards. And this guy claims he still never heard of der Fuhrer. If this store is not successful this guy has a fine career as a politician ahead of him. Something tells me he won't be opening up an outlet in Tel Aviv any time soon.

...If this business does not work out for him maybe he can open up an Italian restaurant called Mussolini's.

...I can not stand it when I watch a movie all the way through and I don't understand the ending. Last Thursday I could not sleep so I turned on Turner Classic Movies and Citizen Kane was on. I've never seen it, so I made some coffee and I sat back to watch the movie and at the very end Kane says "Rosebud" and that's that. The son of a *%#^@. I don't know what it meant but I do know I wasted two hours watching this thing and I left scratching my head. I've asked five people that have seen this movie so far and none of them were able to help me. Next time I'll take two sleeping pills.

...Thank God Roger Clemens is going to be making another start for the Sugar Land Skeeters because ESPN was running out of Tim Tebow stories.

...Two New Jersey mailmen were arrested last week for dealing drugs while making their rounds and were charged with multiple drug counts that included possession of marijuana with intent to distribute near public property. The two suspects were watched over a three week time period but what really lead the police to make their arrests was when one of the suspects delivered the package containing the drugs to the wrong house.

...Have you ever noticed that you are the only one that isn't slow at a drive-up ATM machine?

...If there's a better way to describe this then by all means come in here and tell me but last week had to be the week of the idiots. Two drunken fans fall to their deaths at a football game (one off an escalator in Texas and one in Georgia who fell 45 feet from an upper deck) and one teenage boy from New York who stuck his head out of an emergency hatch in a party bus, hit an overpass and died of massive head trauma. Each incident was sad and all were avoidable had common sense been used but maybe, just maybe, that was asking too much out of one or all three of them. Rest in peace. :sad:

...Gas prices have been higher than they've been going into this Labor Day than any other ones in the past but the good news is that experts at the Oil Price Information Service are predicting that they will be going down very soon. No kidding? It doesn't take a qualified person in this field to hazard a guess about this. This is the last summer holiday weekend of the year and there was no way the price of gas was going to go down before this weekend. Maybe in a month when the kids are back to school but not now when everyone could have used a break.

...After watching Clint Eastwood give his speech at the Republican National Convention, Democrats everywhere must be happy that he's not on their side.

...Ten million pounds of maple syrup was stolen from a Quebec, Canada warehouse that so far has Canadian authorities stumped as to who did it. My question is why? I got one bottle of maple syrup in my cupboard that lasts us six months, maybe more. What are they going to do with all that stuff? I'm sure they'll try to fence it but there's only so much that IHOP and Perkins will take. I don't know who's more upset about this - the company that just discovered that they lost quite a bit of weight in syrup overnight or the bears that live near that warehouse.

...Thank you Oakland Athletics for beating the Boston Red Sox 20 - 2 on Friday night. It brought a tear to my eye.

...Then reality hit me when I suddenly realized that this could be the last time I break out in a smile during this baseball season with the way the Yankees have been playing.

[scottybilly]

Citizen Kane is a great flick. Y4L. Rosebud was the name of the dude's little red wagon

[Yankee4Life]

Citizen Kane is a great flick. Y4L. Rosebud was the name of the dude's little red wagon

Yeah man, I got that part. But why the hell did he say that right at the end? What did it mean?

[scottybilly]

It was the only thing that ever mattered to him in his entire life, more than everything. An obsession in fact.

It sorta reminds me of Marlon Brando pullin ghis hair and yellin "STELLA!" in Streetcar Named Desire

[Kccitystar]

...DJing is so fscking hard sometimes. It isn't even organizing playlists, spending days mulling over all of the top tracks for house music or even giving the endless amounts of remixes on soundcloud a listen. Sometimes it's just the people who book you that can make things incredibly stressful. For some context, I am booked to spin some tunes for my female friend's birthday on the 8th along with two DJs who are my closest friends, so we have a set goal to rock the night, from 10PM to 4AM. Thats' roughly 7 hours of music and partying. We've planned things for the last 3 weeks, you know, coming up with a decent playlist that can flow into each other perfectly fine, but a personal pet peeve is when the people who book you do so with almost no confidence.

I say "no confidence" because this woman worries way too much about apparently how we have to keep the audience dancing and not leave the dance floor empty. This is funny to me because it's a birthday party at a bar that has an outdoor patio. In these cases, it's okay to play songs that, in DJ terms, "clear the dance floor" so people can leave to buy drinks. Nobody makes any money when people just want to come in and dance nonstop, ordering nothing from the bar. I know this because this is how nightclubs are run when you have DJs spinning music. That said, we have 7 hours to have fun and play stuff. I'd be furious if we DJed and exhausted our entire set with hours remaining all because people wanted to hear THEIR favorite song at THAT particular moment.

I'm VERY passionate about DJing because we are the guys who set the atmosphere for the night, we set the tone/mood and play the tracks that keep that feeling going through the night. If people just want to hear their own particular songs with no technique going into them or anything like that, they can just go the F home and play music on an iPod.

Whatever.

I treat my gigs like a journey. I don't play heavy club tracks the minute the party starts because I will be left with NOTHING by the time the night is over. It isn't even an issue of me not having anything to play, but I will kill the vibe of the entire night if I start off DJing at 10 by playing every single top dance track and leaving nothing for the rest of the night to carry on that vibe. I like to start getting the crowd comfortable with songs that are easy to dance to and then slowly start easing in those hard hitting tracks that get EVERYONE riled up to dance. That's how a good night is formed. Apparently some people don't get the message. /rant

[Jim825]

Citizen Kane is a great flick. Y4L. Rosebud was the name of the dude's little red wagon

Actually, Rosebud was the name of his sled.

Orson Welles explains the meaning of Rosebud here: http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=187

[Yankee4Life]

Actually, Rosebud was the name of his sled.

Orson Welles explains the meaning of Rosebud here: http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=187

Thank you JIm. I'm never watching this movie again. :lol:

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 9-9

...A Detroit man who shot four people at a party he was at became so guilty about what he did decided to turn himself in and he found a fire station and went in and confessed that he was the one who was responsible for the shootings that eventually took two lives. The firefighters in turn called the police and were told that all available officers were on high priority runs and that no one was available to come there and pick up the suspect. Apparently a double homicide suspect is not something the police drop what they are doing and pay attention to in that city. Given a reprieve the man left the fire station and had the choice to hide from the cops which in Detroit means going back to doing what you've always been doing or trying again to turn himself in. This guy's conscience must have been eating at him and this time he walked into the nearest police station where he was taken into custody, only because the police didn't have to leave the building to go and get him. This tells you all you need to know why Detroit is the way it is.

...A task force of professors and trustees at Boston University released their conclusions last week that the players on the college's hockey team, because of their "elevated social status" on campus were able to have frequent sexual encounters with women without engaging in an emotional relationship or ongoing commitment. They needed a task force to find this out? Who would have thought that guys and girls in college would have sex without having a relationship? And these people were paid to come up with these determinations. It wouldn't surprise me if some of these people end up working in Congress.

...This same task force released a separate finding where they found that students who do not study have a higher rate of failing then those who do.

...Art Modell died last Thursday at the age of 87 of natural causes. If you don't know who he is ask any Cleveland fan. They'll tell you he was the Browns owner who moved the team to Baltimore after the 1995 season when they became the Ravens. Modell was associated with the NFL since 1961, the first year he owned the Browns and had many contributions to the NFL over the years. But what he did to Cleveland in November of '95 when he took their team away still makes him to this day more hated there even above Lebron James. R.I.P. Art, I hope it was worth it.

...I have always found it impressive to see drivers of those huge 18 wheeler Mack trucks be able to back those things into tight places, like a supermarket loading area without breaking a sweat.

...As I have watched the Yankees play since the All Star Game what really has amazed me the most is that my blood pressure has not gone up at all.

...By the way, have any of you Yankee fans noticed something about Nick Swisher? With the way he's been hitting lately he must think the playoffs have already started.

...Since the 9th of August the Pittsburgh Pirates have a record of 9 - 19. Whether they have hit a tough part of their schedule or have sunk back in their regular losing ways is strictly how you decide to interpret it.

...A mother in Utah took potty training to a whole new level last week when she potty-trained her twins in the middle of a restaurant with people eating all around them. According to a witness, when she first arrived she brought the portable pottys in with her and it was assumed that they were to be used as booster seats, but when the mother started stripping off their clothes, she realized the twins were going to the bathroom-in the middle of the restaurant in front of other diners. Stop and think about this for a second. I'm speechless. The restaurant was packed and the employees did not know this was happening at one of their tables. Usually your waiter will come by to fill your water up again or ask if they can do anything for you. Carrying toilet paper is something they don't expect to do.

...I called my mother immediately after I heard about this and asked her what she thought. Understandably at first she thought I was making it up. She told me that when I was a young kid they had a place to go to in the restaurant called rest rooms and people with young kids would try to sit as close to them as possible when they got a table. Now that I think about it, when my wife and I go out to dinner I noticed the same thing. She said the only problem they had with me was keeping my elbows off the table and I told her after hearing about this story she got off easy.

...Today's a day that whatever baseball does will be overshadowed by the start of the NFL season. True, the Giants and Cowboys started a few days ago but today's the day that everyone gets rolling, except for the Monday night games. It'll be interesting to see how many times Tom Brady's or Tim Tebow's name gets brought up in every telecast today.

...I'm not too concerned with having substitute referees for now. They can blow just as many calls and throw flags at the worst possible time for your team as well as the regular guys do. Should be business as usual.

...I don't get it, I really don't. The Nationals have shut down Stephen Strasburg for the remainder of the season. For the most part that wouldn't be that big of a deal at this time of year for them because they are usually playing out the string and getting ready for the off season. But this year they are in first place with a 6 1/2 game lead over the Braves and they have said he will not be pitching any more in 2012 - including the post season. If this comes back to bite the Nationals they'll never live it down. Years ago, back in the last century pitchers like Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Catfish Hunter, etc, etc would pitch fifteen or more complete games a year. Now if a pitcher makes it past the sixth inning he's a superstar and will make 20 million a year.

...I liked baseball so much better before everyone began treating pitch counts like it was the 11th Commandment.

[scottybilly]

I agree about Washington making a dumb move my shutting Strasburg down for the remainder of this season and post season. Where is all the sound medical advice they allegedly have that is backing up their reasons? He could blow out his arm again at any time regardless of how much he rests his elbow or arm. Seems they should have done what the Braves did with their own pitcher Kris Medlen. He had tommy john surgery as well, and the Braves kept him in the bullpen to start the season before he became a starter. I'll bet you $1,000 in Monopoly money that the Braves erase that 6.5 game deficit and win the division, and the Nationals lose the 1-game wild card playoff.

[jay16509]

Exactly. I hate pitch counts. Back in the day, you didn't see pitchers being pulled out cause they had reached 100 pitches. I can't see the Nationals going far. I'd love to believe that the Pirates are just going through a rough spell on the schedule, but then I start to look at how the roster is shaped, and the only player we have that is truly above average is Andrew McCutchen.

[Padres67]

Koufax pitched over 300 innings 3 times in his career. Pitchers are wimps today-they lack sound pitching mechanics and off season workouts that would strengthen their arms and lengthen their careers. But what do they care with the money they make today they don't need a long career anymore.

[sabugo]

Holy crap, my dad told me that story about the woman in the restaurant. Just to show how amazingly stupid that woman is, I can just say that even Portuguese newspapers ran that story.

The beginning of the football season depresses me because it's a sign that the baseball season is coming to an end soon. Also, I'm not that big of a football fan.

What really annoys me is that I only have one channel that broadcasts baseball, and come this time of the year, it's football all day long. College football, pro football, canadian football... Damn you ESPN America.

I wonder how that Boston College task force conducted that study...

And the Detroit PD gets the Laziest PD in the world award for 2012.

Swisher has been worrying me ever since I told Y4L that he was a valuable part of the NYY and that the Yankees should re-sign him. On the other hand A-Rod has been hitting a little bit better.

Note to self: Keep my mouth shut regarding Yankee's hitters and let the universe unfold as it should.

18-wheeler drivers amaze me too. Specially because there never seems to be enough space in wherever they're trying to park their vehicles and in the end, they're almost always perfectly parked.

I never understood the logic behind pitch counts. To me, it would make more sense if managers put a restriction on how many sliders, or curveballs or whatever.

Since different pitches put different pressures on different muscles and ligaments and so on, throwing 100 fastballs definitely shouldn't be the same thing as throwing 100 curveballs. And a combination of both would be different as well.

Then again, I know very little about the practical part of this game, so be free to teach me more about this.