(no subject)

Local news keeps doing this thing, whenever they talk about the 5 US soldiers accused of raping an Iraqi girl/woman (I've heard that she was 15, which makes her a girl to me, but different reports keep refering to her as 'iraqi woman') and then killing her and her entire family, local news keeps doing this thing where they wrap up the story by saying something along the lines of "the accused soliders are part of the same unit that had two members kidnapped and killed by insurgents last year." Like...oh, well that makes all the difference! Guess I won't lose any sleep over it tonight. I swear, they don't do that for any other crimes they report. It's not like they're reporting on the guy who attacked and crippled a man on the Baltimore National Pike and then going "It is believed the suspect was routinely beaten by his father as a child." Sometimes I hate people.


/ talking about stuff that is not sports-related.

Bri wants to know why no one cares about Jason Isringhausen and his 7 blown saves this year. Which, for those who are counting, is actually more blown saves than one Brad Lidge. He's also got 4 losses, which is 1 more loss than Lidge. Buuut he's saved 4 more games and his era is two runs lower, so. Yeah. Also, Lidge looks like he might shatter into a thousand pieces at any moment and Izzy just doesn't. Also he's a Cardinal. So, no, NO SYMPATHY, BRI.

I gotta say I'm really enjoying the development of the HOU/STL rivalry. It's as much fun for me as NYY/BOS used to be before I got worn down by all of FOX & ESPN's hype and hullabaloo. I wouldn't have thought it was possible, I used to eat Sox/Yanks up, but it's gotten to the point where I'm not so much interested in who outplays the other; if I watch at all anymore, it's just in case there's a throwdown.

The debate on Mike & Mike this morning, which I missed some of, because the DC affiliate that carries ESPN programming has apparently decided to go with a local sports call-in show instead of M&M (BOOOO), was about whether there should be a consequence to an uninjured player opting out of the All Star Game when he has been voted in by the fans as a starter. Dickie Vitale was calling for any such player to miss a week of regular season games, which sounds ridiculous even to me, and I might be in favor of some kind of public shaming for players who blow this thing off. I mean, a player can bean a guy in the head and not miss a week of regular season games, so let's not get crazy. The blase attitude some guys take to this thing really bugs me as a voting fan. But at the same time, I don't want a guy there who doesn't want to be there anyway, so I'm not sure you want to use the threat of punishment to force a guy to attend. Just let someone else go. There's always a list of snubs as long as my arm, so it's not like you're ever gonna be lacking for a deserving replacement. Rip a guy in the papers and on the air for not going, fine by me. But I don't know that there should be regular season consequences for a guy not going, because then you're just gonna make a guy be there who probably won't even try.

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't even realize Manny Ramirez *hadn't* played in the All Star Game the past couple of years, so I wonder if this is much ado about nothing. Golic says you could print on the all star ballot itself Manny Ramirez will not attend the All Star Game if voted in and Manny would still get a ridiculous number of votes, and I think he's right. I cast a few votes for himself this year, and now that this pattern of him blowing it off has been pointed out to me, I won't vote for him in the future, but I doubt most people care. Do you?

(no subject)

Noooooooooooooo. Reyes won't play in the All Star Game. David Eckstein is going as his replacement.

"I'm disappointed," Reyes said before the Mets' 7-6 victory over Florida on Sunday. "I'm not going to play, but I'm still going." Aww.

Also, people who feel bad for Lidge when he sucks it up: if there's a reason besides your being an Astros fan, Bri would like to know.

(no subject)

Liriano gets All Star nod, after all. After Glavine bowed out, I wondered what Contreras would do. I'm very, very happy Liriano will be there...though I couldn't pick the guy out of a line-up. It's embarassing that it's taken up until today for the baseball machine to finagle him onto the roster, but the point is he's going, so yay. Still rooting for the NL, though.

I totally Jeter fist-pumped in the car when they said it on the radio. It's really a miracle I haven't run my car off the road listening to sports radio when I drive.

Also, there was this great thing where the news dude is talking about all these planned renovations for RFK, and how thousand of tickets in the upper deck will be slashed to $3 and $5. He pauses a beat and then he goes, "winning? would also help." I just about died laughing.

Other things that are awesome: The webcast of the Derby tonight! The woman I'm living with doesn't believe in cable (HEATHEN) so I wouldn't have been able to watch otherwise. So yay, internets.

Also, all that talk in the comments of the earlier post about the STL/HOU rivalry was pretty interesting reading. So thanks for that :P

(no subject)

Aww! Yay NL kidlets bringing it! I was really worried David would pull a Jason Bay or something. But third highest single round total in Derby history! **is stupidly proud for some reason** And okay, I'm proud of Cabrera, too.

I loved that shot of Phil Garner apparently getting a huge kick out of David's performance.

I loved that shot of McCann video-taping David's at bat and then trying to be slick and put the camera away when he realized the ESPN crew were all in his business. Where's my Jump To Conclusions mat? :P

Grady Sizemore looks like he's been doped up and dragged out to this thing. LOL, weirdness.

I could have done without the shot of AJ Polish and his female spawn. ...and without this extended segment of mic'd AJ and female spawn. What is the deal? Is MLB out to try and fix AJ's image? Getting him "voted" into the All Star Game, mic'ing him up with his kidlet.... because...no, MLB. No.

During the commercial breaks on the mlb.com broadcast, they have these guys doing "commentary." They are godawful. I am pretty sure they are interns. They look about 16 years old. It's like a cable access production, for serious. I have to mute every commercial break now, lol.

eta: LOL, of course. A Ryan Howard - David Wright final. Just to mess with Leanne's head.

"It's The Neverending Story. But with no luck dragon."

Okay, I was supposed to be going to bed, but [Bad username or site: johnnybvo / @ livejournal.com] linked me to this and oh my god. This made me laugh so hard. Literally there were tears and I think I pulled something in the sternum area. I'm very easily amused after 11pm, I guess. Ask A Ninja: The Ninja reviews Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest.

For those who have trouble with streaming vid, there are downloads available on that page, and for those who can't download, I went ahead and transcribed it, because that's how amusing it was to me. Very minor spoilers if you haven't seen the film.

(  'The structure of the movie, the best that I can tell, is they loaded about 4 or 5 different screenplays into a shotgun, and then just pulled the trigger, and then sent somebody around, like a PA, around to just pick up random words and piece them together and then hand that to the actors. And then even that script was lost about halfway through shooting, so then the director just made it up every day. He was just like '...and then today...THIS person shows up, and...they're a pirate.'  )

And congrats to Ryan Howard, by the by!