I just don't know what to say about the Mets.   Finally, David Wright starts hitting and the rest of the team completely stops.

And I guess Joe Smith realized he was Joe Smith, too.

But back to back to back home runs.  Dude...  Baseball 101.   If two guys hit home runs on you on two pitches, the next guy gets one right in the mouth.  Frankly, after you give up one, you should always throw behind the next guy. 

Somehow, we're still two up on the Braves, with the Phillies just three behind.

This team better start turning things around, especially now that the Yanks are winning.  If, at any point, the Yanks have a better record than the Mets this season, I think I'm going to blow chunks.

And Pedro isn't the answer either...  its not the pitching... they're not hitting.  They need to get Alou back and figure out how to hit in the clutch.

PS... I played softball last Friday night and the guy on the other team looked exactly like Pedro Cerrano.   I yelled out "Hats for Bats" from the outfield, but I don't think anyone got it.

Noticed this story on how Sen. Chuck Schumer contracted Lyme upstate....   it was sent to me by one of my teammates on my softball team, which is aptly named: Four of Us Had Lyme Disease.

In fact our jersey has a tick in the O...

Just wanted to let Sen. Schumer know that he is absolutely welcome to throw out the first pitch at any of our upcoming games (or play a few innings, if he’d like).   The great thing about the acronym is that it scales...  allowing for “FIVE of us...”

Here's our schedule, Senator...

5/30    Wed    8:45pm    Col. Charles Young #3
6/5    Tues    7:45pm    Asphalt Green #2
6/17    Sun    6:30pm    CP North Medow #2
6/20    Wed    7:15pm    Riverside 107th #6
6/26    Tues    7:45pm    Asphalt Green #1
7/11    Wed    6:15pm    Col. Charles Young #3
7/18    Wed    6:45pm    Riverside Park #8*
7/26    Thurs    5:45pm    Roosevelt Island

And yes, I was one of the four.

Sah-weet.  I'll be there to see what Willie has to say.  Hey Willie, I'm faculty... get me some tix. 

The Mets are in first and the Yanks are in last.

Really, would you have it any other way?

The Yanks have already had nine different pitchers start games, including Darrel Rasner, Jeff Karstans, and Chase Wright.

haha

(Sorry.)

You know what the best part of this is?  The Yankee MVP and frankly, the MVP of the whole baseball universe was A-Rod.  He's batting .355 with 14HR and 35 RBI after 23 games.   In 1968, I think that might have qualified for the Triple Crown. 

Everyone makes such a big deal about Captain Derek Jeter, but for my money, A-Rod is the best shortstop on the team.  Captain Derek wouldn't come to A-Rod's side last year when Rodriguez was struggling and he added to preseason controversy by saying a chilly "We get along on the field" or some garbage like that.  Derek, I think it's time for you to embrace the guy who is carrying your patchwork overpaid team on his shoulders.

Jeez...  How's that Kris Benson trade looking now?  John Maine is 4-0 with a 1.35ERA.   In fact, the Mets have a team ERA of 2.74.

No Bradford?  No problem.  Submariner Joe Smith hasn't given up a run yet.

Ya gotta believe... in April.

Who said our pitching has issues...  USS Maine 1-hit the Cards through 7 strong...   Bye bye Birds!

Its great when you can score 6 runs without hitting the ball hard more than once all night.

A few thoughts:

Glavine should win at least 15 games this year....     He looked real sharp, especially with the change.

Moises Alou looked pretty good.. hustling around the basepaths, taking an extra on an aggressive play. 

Kind of ballsy to bring out Joe Smith in the 8th there.  Talk about trial by fire for the sidearming rookie.   Did Willie think that was Chad Bradford?   That should have been Heilman's spot all the way. 

I'm concerned about David Wright.  He had a weak 2nd half last year and he grounds the ball around the infield a lot, instead of driving the ball.  I'm afraid we're going to see him at .210 after April, but I hope I'm wrong.

First round of the A-10 Tourney...    Dunston has 21, Stout 17.  Go Rams.

Here's the deal.   13 Team League.  260 Fake dollars to spend.  10 Categories...  AVG, HR, R, RBI, SB, W, K, ERA, WHIP, S.   Top team in a category gets 13 pts, bottom gets 1.   Total points, not head to head.

I can protect 3-5 players at 5 dollars more than last year's salary.  Last year, the highest paid player went for 42 I believe.

Here's who I could protect at what prices:

Juan Pierre 26
Chone Figgins 16
Joe Crede 6
Michael Cuddyer  6
Anibel Sanchez  6
David Wright 34
Adrian Gonzalez 6
Bobby Jenks 12
Curt Shilling 19

What do you think?  Which 5 do I protect?

My ZogSports Football Team, "Ludacris Speed" is having its first practice today at 2:30 on 52nd/11th.  Wooooo.

When the Mets were in the playoffs last year, I couldn't get a video stream of the game on the web, even though I had paid for MLB Extra Innings.  Why?  Because I was actually in New York, so the game was blacked out locally.  Well, without a TV at my desk, I literally had no access to some of the daytime games.  It had nothing to do with whether I was willing to pay...  I was just shut out cold.

Now, the NFL wants to feature similar TV packages exclusively on DirectTV.  I don't have DirectTV.  Therefore, this sucks.

Argue away about business models and pricing...   about whether content should be free, paid for, freemium, ad supported or what have you... and that's fine...  but the following is UTF (utterly... ridiculous).

It is 2007 and there is digital content that I as a cable subscriber and broadband internet user  still cannot access, even though I am willing to pay for it.

When is this going to end?  It's one thing to say that the stuff is mispriced, but access?  Access should not be an issue.  If I want to watch any baseball game, I should be able to... on my TV or on the web, regardless of who I pay for my big fat dumb data pipe, which seems to be getting dumber by the minute.

All content on demand for anyone, period.  If I have to pay, I'll pay, but at least give me the opportunity.

Anyone want to venture some guesses as to when this happens?

...or the ads just royally sucked.

But Fred and I are in agreement....  the Doritos one was the hands down winner... and of course, it wasn't created by an ad agency...  it was a make your own ad contest winner.

Users 1.  Ad agencies 0.

I'd be curious to hear from agency folks on this one...  did they really think any of these were any good? 

Here are some random thoughts on the bunch...

Of course I was eyeing the Careerbuilder ones, and, well, they were sort of amusing, but really kind of heady, I think, for Joe Six Pack.  I mean, if you don't work in a cubicle, did you really relate to that commercial at all?  So it was like Office Survivor... I guess?

And what about those Toyota commercials.  So let's get this straight.  We go out to a canyon and contruct a huge and overelaborate track that just ends hanging over a cliff.  Then, we construct two huge metal doors halfway down the track... and see if this dude in a pickup truck can accellerate fast enough to make it through the closing doors, then brake hard enough not to go over the cliff.  If he fails on either part of the course, he'll die.

Are these people Bond villians, or what?

What else was there?  I vaguely remember some floating car parts.  Of course, there was GoDaddy...  was it me or was the GoDaddy chic not as hot as usual on that one?  I think that gag is getting a little tiresome.

The worst of the bunch?  Anything with a song was root canal painful...  the Garmin one, the Chevy song, Sheryl Crowe.   

I will hand it to K-Fed, though...   took a lot to totally make fun of himself like that. 

Hmm...   Jeez... I don't even remember half of them...    Some lame animal ones...  Gorillas, lions...   

I watched the game in Brooklyn with about a dozen people and we were all in agreement... worst superbowl for commercials ever.  Maybe the remakes on YouTube will be better.  Wait... I'm confused... YouTube has me voting for existing Superbowl commericals... weren't they having fans make their own versions or something?

It was a sloppy game and the commercials were pretty much the worst of all time, except for the fan created Doritos one in the beginning...   but at least one good thing came out of this year's Superbowl: 

$550 in charity donations in the Charity Superbowl Wiki.

At the end of the first quarter, it seemed like we might have an upset in the making.  The first play of the game resulted in a Bears TD and Peyton was the first QB to throw a pick.   Six turnovers later, the Bears were up 14-6, making sexy commedianne blogger Heather Fink our first quarter winner.  That will send a $55 check over to RAINN.

Of course, the Bears hold on the game, and the football, didn't last, and the Colts came back with 10 unanswered second quarter points, taking a 16-14 lead into the half...   which...   wait a second...   makes Heather a winner AGAIN.   Tack on another $137.50 unto the check for RAINN, bringing her halftime total up to $192.50.

The third quarter was all about kicking...   and three fieldgoals later, the Colts extended their lead ever so slightly with two of their own to one from the Bears, making the third quarter score 22-17.  Score the third quarter for Matt McLaughlin of Thermodepot's sponsorship of the American Cancer Society.  They'll get a check for $82.50 on Matt's behalf.

Still, the Bears were in the game...  until Grossman tossed up a duck and the Colts returned it in the fourth, putting the game out of reach, and giving us a 29-17 final, eh...   I add the "eh" because our final score winner is Ken King and he has selected the Canadian Diabetes Association as his sponsored charity.  They'll receive 50% of our pool total: $275 American.  I wonder if Ken is as successful in his Grey Cup boxes.

Thanks to everyone who played our Charity Superbowl Wiki... see you next year!

Checks will go out tomorrow.

Thanks

So, it turns out I screwed up the roman numerals for this game....  its XLI not LXI...   eh...  Doesn't change the fact that we'll be giving away $550 (thanks to a few people for some extra donations to the pot) to charity today based on the scores of tonight's game.

So here's the number selection video.  Check out what numbers you got here.  (Everyone got an extra box, by the way).

So, I'm a little bit disappointed we couldn't get a meme going out of the Charity Superbowl Wiki, but the momentum has slowed and I'm only up to 40 bloggers.  Right now, there's a CSS design post up at the top of the popular list.  I guess charity doesn't really get the blog world hot and bothered.

Maybe the combo of the wiki and paypal was a bit too technical for people?  I dunno.

So, I figured I could just push for 10, give everyone a free box, and call it a day.. but that would only give 500 bucks to charity.   

Instead, I'm going for broke and opening it up to anyone.  Still one box per person, but you can now sign up regardless if you have a blog or not.

So, seeing as how there are supposedly 970ish of you out there, I don't think its asking too much that 60 of you contribute a 10 spot to charity.

So, pick a charity, pick a box, and tell others!

Right now, after a day, we have 23 participants in the 100 Bloggers, 100 Boxes Charity Superbowl Wiki.

A good start, but we have a long way to go, so please, pass the word and consider participating.  It's for charity!   We'd love some tagging, digging, and reblogging to help get this out.

As an experiment in non-profit collaboration on the web and to give us reason to keep watching in case Rex Grossman throws 4 INTs, I've created The Charity Superbowl Wiki for 100 bloggers to participate in a charity game.

For a donation of $10 (plus PayPal transaction fees), you get to stake claim over a box on a 10 x 10 table whose row and column numbers will represent the last digit of the scores of the Colts and Bears at various points in this Sunday's Superbowl. 

The key is that you are playing for a charity... and all of the proceeds, net of PayPal fees, will be going to charity.  When you win, your charity will get money. 

Check it out here, and please help us run up the various meme lists by linking, digging, tagging, etc.  It's for a good cause.

Are you going to be one of the 100 bloggers to participate?

Fantasy baseball draft at Mondial Tiles.

I hear the Sox are going to give JD Drew $15 million a year.

That makes Carlos Beltran's $13 look like a steal, considering Beltran has more power, more speed, plays better defense at a more important position, and, oh yeah, is good for more than 130 games a season.  Out of Drew's 8 full seasons, he's only played more than 130 games 4 times.

Then again, if Gary Matthews, Jr. can get $10 million a year for five years at 32, after only playing fulltime the last two seasons...    The guy's never hit more than 19 homers, never driven in more than 79 and he's a career .263 hitter. 

Put it this way...  Jay Payton is two years older than Matthews, but his career stats per 162 are .284-17-70 with a .439 slugging.  Matthews?  .263-14-58 and a .419.  

I think Jay needs a new agent, because he's only making $4 million.

Looks like the Mets just lost Chad Bradford to the Orioles.   That really stinks.  Bradford was a double play waiting to happen every time he came out of the bullpen.  I loved watching him pitch, since I throw a little bit of sidearm myself.  In fact, my one and only career pitching win in little league (the only game that I really ever found the plate) was a complete game throwing sidearm.  It's also how I pitch in wiffleball.

Wiffleball...      sigh.   Boy, do I miss wiffleball.

Anyway, this is a big loss, since Mota will miss the first 50 games of the season due to his roid suspension.  They also traded away Henry Owens.  I guess the return of Duaner Sanchez made a righty in the pen expendable, but it was nice to have someone who keeps the ball in the park.

Last night, after 2 kickball seasons, 3 other dodgeball seasons,  3 softball seasons and a football season, on my 10th try, I finally won my first ZogSports Championship!   After going 18-6 in the regular season and finishing in second place, Dodge This! edged out Chico's Bail Bonds for it's rightful place in obscure sports history.

Pictured (L to R): Allison Auman, Rebecca May, Alex Lunney, Nancy Kish (seated), James Pastore, Charlie O'Donnell (me, seated), Abby King, Evan Timbie, Erick Bond, Courtney Bongiolatti.   Not pictured: Doug Miller (injured reserve)