(in the dark) the shine of small things

JEREMY GUTHRIE IS ON TEAM USA'S FINAL ROSTER \o/

Okay, that doesn't really merit all caps. I'm just glad someone I even remotely care about is participating in this damn thing. It's not like I'm going to Toronto for my health. I'm still rooting for Canada, of course, unless Guthrie gets in the game.

In the matter, fellow citizens, of American Disillusionment v. Alex Rodriguez, may I make a small suggestion? Do not allow yourself to be surprised that any hero who competed during the prime steroid years used performance-enhancing drugs. Really, acceptance of this fact will be so beneficial to your emotional health whenever the next big name surfaces ... guilty.

In the specific case of A-Rod, for goodness' sake, all the signs were there along with the manifold rumors. He is strictly a Type-Me personality, just the sort to try anything to abet his own cause. We know all too well that he is insecure and susceptible to temptation.

...[I]n a very real way, what has happened to Rodriguez isn't all that bad for baseball. Really. Nobody much liked him when he was supposed to be clean. He might as well be the new Bonds, an even more divisive figure in pinstripes. - Frank DeFord cracks me up.

What's your take on the dugout shouting match between Huston Street and Bob Geren? Much ado about nothing, or is there something more beneath the surface? I would imagine that Street is one of the more respected players on the team at this point, and he disrespected the manager in a very public setting. Do you think he's trying to get out of Oakland?
--Joanie R., San Francisco

I definitely don't think it's much ado about nothing. I think it was simmering for a long time. Huston genuinely feels bad about what happened -- he apologized to Geren and the coaches on Wednesday, and he called a team meeting before Thursday's game to apologize to his teammates -- but I don't think it was simply a heat-of-the-moment thing.

When Huston lost his job as the closer, Geren suggested to the media that he'd get the job back if and when he started pitching the way he did to earn the job in the first place. Well, he's done that, and he still doesn't have the job back. And he's a highly competitive guy who takes a great deal of pride in being a closer, so I have to believe there's some resentment there.

It has to be noted here that Street frequently acknowledges how well Brad Ziegler has been pitching, and he's been very complimentary about Joey Devine. But in his mind, he's a closer, and that he's been turned into a setup man on a mediocre team just a couple of years after closing for a great team has to hurt.

Is he trying to get out of Oakland? No. I don't think the dustup was calculated, if that's what you're suggesting. But does he want out of Oakland? He won't say it, but I think he does.

I love when Mychael Urban does nothing but confirm the obvious. Why doesn't he do something useful like go to Billy and find out how the long-term outlook of the team is served by dicking Street around? Granted, Billy won't give you a straight answer, but maybe you want to try acting like a real reporter, every now and then, Mychael. I don't think Huston's recent decline in performance is entirely unrelated to the fact that Geren and co. buried the proverbial goal post on him, so while it helps the A's some come arbitration, let's not act like this isn't something that will impact his value when the A's try to move him.

( Yes, I already smell the WBC in the air )

+ People Who IM Me On The Rare Occasion I Am On IM And Have Not Blocked The Entire World: I'm officially retiring Jerizan, Jalenn, Anquiatas, and Deliani. So feel free to delete them from your buddy list. I haven't used most of those in ages, so if you actually ever had them on your buddy list, I am impressed. I am also going to be paring down my buddy list, so if I have more than one SN for you, please email me with the SN you prefer I keep.

+ [Bad username or site: trailer_spot / @ livejournal.com] has a link to the new Da Vinci Code trailer. It is spoilerrific if you haven't read the book. Like, amazingly so. I've read it, and I might just wait for it to come out on video. They're giving away an awful lot.

+ The World Baseball Classic is over. What a ride. I fell asleep around the 3rd inning, and woke up in the ninth, because I'm the oldest 24 year old ever, so I missed the majority of the game. I'm not sad about how it turned out, though; it would have been neat for the Cubans to win it all, if only to watch how the White House would approach the question of congratulating them on the win. Heh. I think the Cubans should be really proud of their run. Japan had its own neat WBC storyline, what with the threat of elimination and the match-ups with Korea, so, good stuff. Also, I was kinda crushing on Otsuka. Guess that business about Ichiro being the A-Rod of Japan doesn't extend to him being a championship jinx ^_~

+ I have heard "2009" about five times as often as I've heard "2010", so I'm going with "2009" being the next go around.

+ Now that the WBC is over, I suppose I should, um, work on my Note. And get back to the tiring business of coming up with things to think about that are not the Orioles.

+ What is the holdup on the 2006 A's commercials? The '06 Mariners commercials rolled out last week. BOO.

+ [Bad username or site: phantom_hpuff / @ livejournal.com], I believe the CJ was mailed out to you at some point last week. Please let me know if/when you receive it.

Hee. I am never gonna hear the name of that place without seeing Jeremy fretting in my mind. "If it rains at Indian Wells we're covering the second round." "...what do you mean?" "If it rains at Indian Wells we're covering the second round." "...I don't understand."

+You know, I go months at a time without thinking about Patrice O'Neal. And then I see him guesting on some sitcom or I stumble across one of his specials on an old tape, and I am reminded all over again how much I love him. Caught him hosting some show called Web Junk 20 on VH1. I laughed until I almost cried. He slays me. There's just something about the way he delivers a line. The latest episode featured a clip of two Indian guys singing a song about their ideal woman, called Curry & Rice Girl, to the tune of Stefani's Holla Back Girl. Patrice: "See what America does to you, people? If we ain't bombing you, we're destroying your culture with our shit."

Reminded me to poke around and see who's coming to the Improv in Baltimore this summer. Turns out it closed last fall. No one ran that by me! Sadness ;_; I saw Brian Regan, Jim Gaffigan, and Judah Friedlander there. Fun times. Jim signed a picture of a manatee for me :-P

+ The Cuban players took part in an Habitat For Humanity effort on Sunday. Aww. I missed the rumor that was apparently going around that one of them defected. My brother is rooting for Japan tonight, and I'm rooting for Cuba. Given that, we've decided the likely outcome of the game is that with the teams tied, Petco Park will break off and sink into the ocean, all Atlantis-style, never to be seen again. We're both of us terrible jinxes.

+ ( 10 songs I've been listening to a lot lately )

Speaking of Fort Minor's Where'd You Go, anyone know who the player wife featured in the video is? I'm not up on my Diamondbacks like that. I find her appearance in the video pretty random, but she seems sweet. She misses little things like holding her husband's hand, y'all! Aww. But not as aww as that kid with the divorced parents. Woobie!

+ [Bad username or site: phantom_hpuff / @ livejournal.com]: I went to scan the pic of David and Jose for you and I couldn't find my usb cord. So I'll do that once I've cleaned my room.

Cuba - 3
Dom. Rep. - 1

And The Powers That Be weren't even gonna let those kids play in the tournament, people. Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, and making $25 a month playing ball in Cuba. Pujols, Tejada, Ortiz - names that make major leaguers crap their pants and these guys come into this thing and they battle, and they play hard, and they contain them. There's gonna be a lot of emphasis put on the fact that the Cubans are in midseason form and most of the other tourney participants weren't. But that's just noise. I think what they've done in this thing is pretty incredible, and I'm way jazzed to see them play an undefeated Korea in the Championship.

(And if I just jinxed Korea, seeing them play Japan will still be fun, too.)

+ No matter how many times I saw the trailer yesterday, I could not comprehend this Snakes on a Plane thing. And then [Bad username or site: scornedsaint / @ livejournal.com] informs me that Samuel L. Jackson never even read the script for it, he just jumped on the title. Which makes as much sense as anything else about this movie. And how is it that I never heard word one about this movie until yesterday? And then everyone and their mother was posting about it?

(Oh, looks like YouTube has killed that video of the trailer. [Bad username or site: trailer_spot / @ livejournal.com] has other links to the trailer in his most recent post.)

+ MOVING ON. Taped Doctor Who last night! I've heard nothing but good things. I remember [Bad username or site: scifigirl / @ livejournal.com] being hella jazzed about this show last year. I missed the first 15 minutes, but I imagine I will be okay. But who knows, with British things ^_~ I had something of a burgeoning crush on Christopher Eccleston after Revengers Tragedy and 28 Days Later, but it was kind of waylaid by other things. Look forward to watching.

Btw, I somehow completely missed that the third season of BSG wasn't slated to start up until October. What the fuck. I suppose if I could managed to survive the ridiculous break taken by Deadwood, I can survive this. But still. Annoying.

+ WBC semis today. Cuba v. DR @ 3pm EST, and Korea v. Japan (Round III) @ 10pm EST. I am hella excited.

There have been several good articles in recent days about Team USA's exit from the World Baseball Classic. I especially like Ken Rosenthal's characterization of where they went wrong: The United States players were the naturally gifted students, thinking they could ace their final exam without studying. Their World Baseball Classic opponents were the kids who pulled a series of all-nighters, terrified they might fail. (Snurched from [Bad username or site: angisageek / @ livejournal.com].)

A-Rod's quoted in the piece as suggesting it would make sense for Team USA to start training together as of the first of February the next time the competition rolls around. I don't necessarily know that the team needs to start training together earlier; I just think guys that step to the plate to participate in this thing need to start working on getting back into form a lot earlier than the middle of February. "I just think if you're going to make the commitment . . ." Rodriguez said, stopping in mid-sentence. "Three weeks ago, everyone said it was an exhibition. Now it's like the World Series because we lost. When you put "United States" on the uniform, the ramifications are big."

Well...yeah. Says Jones: "I would give anything to be able to have another opportunity to play in this tournament." Shoulda, woulda, coulda, pal. And Chipper was actually one of the few guys on the team that came up big, production-wise.

The BBC article on the US loss is kinda funny. The teaser was: The Americans exit the World Baseball Classic at the second group stage with a humiliating 2-1 defeat to Mexico. lol, wow. Humiliating? Embarrassing, yes. But humilating? It's not like the boys got mercy-ruled. That would have been humilating.

Oh and just because: "Empty. Just empty," reliever Huston Street said Thursday night outside a quiet clubhouse after Team USA was eliminated with a 2-1 loss to Mexico, which celebrated on the field as its fans celebrated in the stands. "I don't know how to feel listening to them cheer right now. I completely understand what it means to be at a loss for words. I was totally expecting us to go to San Diego. . . . I love the Oakland A's and everyone on that club," Street said, "but I wasn't ready for this to be over." -- Adios! Mexico knocks off the U.S.. All together now...awww.

Randomly: I heard South Korea exempted their WBC players from the 2 years of otherwise compulsory military service required of their citizens, as a "reward" for how well the team has played.

( other interesting news natterings: STL, OAK, CLE, DET, KC, FLA, HOU )

And...for [Bad username or site: kmousie / @ livejournal.com]: I know this will come as a surprise to you, because I've long allowed you to operate under the misconception that I do not suck. But I kinda do. I've been sitting on some blanks of Brad Ausmus for a while now, and yesterday I added a few more. But I really didn't have anything doing on the inspiration front as far as jazzing them up. I'm really bad with, like, requests and stuff. SO. Here are the bases/blanks. If you want to pick out 5-10 that you'd like me to focus on doing something more with, I'd be happy to. If there's any specific text you'd like me to add to any of them, that's cool, too. Just let me know.

( it's a cornucopia of brad )

I'm very tired.

+ Why do people who pay for delivery confirmation on a package ask you to let them know when you've received something? Isn't that, like, the SINGULAR purpose of delivery confirmation? You type in that number and the USPS tells you when the package was left at the delivery address? Leave me alone.

+ Someone, someone who is not me, should take a look around and do an impromptu survey of news stories on the Japan v. U.S. game yesterday, noting which is mentioned first: the blown call or the way the game was won. I think I've seen a 50-50 split so far.

+ Mike & Mike are talking about brackets. **is confounded** I do appreciate the enthusiasm, though. Y'all have fun with that.

+ From the 'A-Rod's Blood Could Cure Cancer and People Would Still Mock Him Mercilessly' File:

• "I got an email from a friend, after A-Rod got that hit, that said 'Mr. March!' " - Buster Olney.
  
• "In the World Baseball Classic, the United States defeated Japan 4-3 behind a gamewinning single in the ninth from Alex Rodriguez in Anaheim...where he didn't do anything the last time the Yankees were there." - ESPN 2's Bob Picozzi

How is A-Rod the joke here instead of Bob Davidson and that appalling reversal call?

+ Snurched from [Bad username or site: angisageek / @ livejournal.com]: WBC could face major ump controversy.

( handful of other assorted news stories... )

( Some pics from yesterday. Oddly - thankfully? - there are no pics up from the Japan/U.S. or Venezuela/Cuba games )

**yawns** Yeah. Ray Liotta, though. Heh. That kills me.

ETA: On his return trip to Anaheim, Rodriguez waited until the end to guide a broken-bat single up the middle. The ball slipped between the Japanese shortstop and the second baseman.

"Last time here, I was the biggest goat," Rodriguez said. "Today, I get to be the hero."

Few will count this as a heroic performance by the United States. -- To Japanese, California Scheming; to U.S., Good Call. Heh. I hope for his sake this isn't the only big moment he has to write home to his mama about.

Alright. I kinda need the taste of that Japan/US game washed from my mouth.

Come on, DR and Puerto Rico. Good, exciting, clean game? kplzthnx.

Aww, Jose. I feel better already.

This game is actually being aired live on ESPN 2, kids. Will wonders never cease?

ETA: "Man, I feel for Japan, after watching that replay. . . . That was a bummer." Understatement much? ALSO, I AM TRYING NOT TO THINK ABOUT IT, KPLZTHNX.

edit 2: Um, wtf? I get on the phone for a couple hours and the game gets all kinds of out of hand. I love how the ESPN announcers can't seem to call the outcome any of these matchups.

Oh, ALEX. October or March, doesn't make much of a difference for you, does it? You might be the chokingest guy I've seen since...Moose.

Thank goodness for Chippah, apparently.

ETA: Um, is OSCAR WINNER George Clooney doing voice-overs on Budweiser commercials now, or do my ears deceive me. (Why, yes, yes, he is.)

edit 2:

Heh, Lee and Jones have some kind of weird synergy developing, I think. I'm a little amused that it's been the National Leaguers who have sort of carried Team USA offensively in this tournament. I mean, considering how the recent World Series have been decided.

I suppose I could read for Labor Law between now and then. Le SIGH.

+ After his outing, Harden bemoaned Canada's fate in the WBC. His countrymen were knocked out despite a 2-1 record.
"It's frustrating," he said. "Canada beat the U.S., that's a pretty big deal."

LMAO, oh man. Yeah, Huston's never gonna hear the end of it. I can just see it now. Rich will leave his dishes in the sink and Huston will politely ask, "Do you mind cleaning up after yourself, man?" And Rich will be like "Whatever, bitch. Remember that time my countrymen beat your ass at baseball?" And Huston will be like "What does that have to do with your dishes in the sink?" Rich: "I'M JUST SAYING. You better recognize, Street. That's all."

Or whatever people say in Canada in place of stuff like "you better recognize/recognise" :-P

+ Everett has procedure to relieve pain. (Adam, not Carl, because no one cares about Carl.) My mom had that done. Hope it works better for him than it did for her.

+ ( random WBC-MLB picspam of stuff from yesterday )