Random Thoughts - 7/17 - Tiger is Back

And the beat goes on . . .

The Cleveland Indians have dropped nine of their last 10 games . . . after firing hitting coach Eddie Murray, at the beginning of June, the Tribe’s bats heated up and The Plain Dealer began insinuating that Murray may have been the cause for Cleveland’s slump at the plate . . . well, in their last 10 games, the bats have cooled down . . . the Chicago White Sox swept the Tribe four in a row since the All-Star break . . . In fact, the White Sox never trailed in any of the games and shut out the Indians in two of the four games . . . how come The Plain Dealer is not responding about that? . . . somewhere a rare event is happening – Eddie Murray smiling . . .

The Plain Dealer’s Roger Brown reported in Sunday’s paper that the Cincinnati Reds may trade outfield slugger Adam Dunn to Cleveland for Chi Chi Sabathia . . . if the Indians brass had any brains, they would make the deal . . . Sabathia has brought nothing to help the team this year . . . In my weekly Chi Chi watch, Sabathia got rocked on Friday night to bring his season record to 6-6 with a 4.63 ERA . . . he is 1-2 since opening his mouth and stating that he "is back and ready to dominate the rest of the season" . . .

Don’t be surprised if the Indians unload catcher Victor Martinez in the off-season in order to get a true starter . . . after his All-Star season last year and new long-term contract, Martinez has dropped off considerable as he is batting .243 and has not been effective behind the plate . . . he has been the Indians biggest disappointment . . .

The Yankees pitching staff is depleted . . . rookie Chien Meng Wang has been lost for the season with a rotator cuff injury . . . that has forced New York to trade for 39-year-old Al Leiter . . . besides starting pitching, the Yankees need to reinforce its middle relieves being that the starting pitchers are very old and can no longer pitch seven innings . . . the Yankees should consider acquiring 37-year-old Hideo Nomo who was released this weekend by Tampa Bay . . . Nomo is done as a starter, but he may prove effective as a middle reliever who can pitch one inning . . . its something the Yankees should consider . . .

I think it is safe to say "Tiger is Back!!" . . . Watch out! . . .

NFL training camps will be opening next week . . .

I already saw the first "Back to School" commercial . . .

A nice article appeared in Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post about the Big 33 Football Classic that is played every summer between the Ohio and Pennsylvania All-Stars . . .

Big 33 Article

It is amazing that every Super Bowl had at least one player who participated in the Big 33 game . . . here is the link to learn more about the game:

Big 33

On a personal note, Friday I had a meeting in Boardman near the Southern Park Mall . . . so I stopped in the mall’s food court to have lunch – first big mistake!!! . . . first off it was like a daycare/pre-school . . . there were more double seated baby strollers than there are taxi cabs in Manhattan . . . there were so many kids and young mothers . . . with all the noise, I decided to get something quick, so I decided to get a Big Mac at McDonald’s – second big mistake!!! . . . for being a "fast food" place, I waited a good 5 minutes for my food along with a mother and her screaming child in a stroller . . . the entire time waiting, this kid kept screaming while the mother did nothing . . . after finally getting my meal, I barely found a table where there were less populated kids . . . through all this chaos, I noticed an elderly woman sitting peacefully eating ice cream from Dairy Queen . . . my only thought was that this woman had to be hard of hearing . . . overall, I learned never to eat a mall food court . . .
I went grocery shopping this past week and picked up a bag of Doritos . . . before tossing it in the cart, I noticed written on the front of the bag was "improved taste" . . . does that mean for the last 20 years I was eating not good tasting Doritos . . .

Speaking of Doritos, the last issue of Vanity Fair had a story of the U.S. soldiers who had to guard Saddam Hussein . . . the soldiers stated that Saddam loved Doritos . . . in fact they said he could eat a family bag of Doritos in about 15 minutes . . . I could just picture what Saddam looked like after that – he probably had cheese stains, from the chips, all over his face and mustache . . .

Until next time . . . the beat goes on . . .

Random Thoughts - 4/10 - Missed it by a "Wie" bit

And the beat goes on . . .

I want to spend a few seconds on the Olympics . . . it was unfortunate that New York City did not get the call to host the 2012 Olympics . . . however, congratulations to London in surprising the arrogant French in winning the bid . . . Paris was a heavy favorite and all the French were ready to celebrate . . . but all for not . . .

One more note about the Olympics . . . how could the International Olympic Committee (IOC) vote to not have baseball and softball in the 2012 Games? . . . for many Central American nations, especially Cuba, Olympic baseball is an important sport . . . give the IOC two Errors on this . .

Why isn’t golf in the Olympics? . . . it’s played worldwide and it would be interesting to see the professional men and women represent their countries . . .

Talking about golf, 15-year-old Michelle Wie choked on the last four holes in the 2nd round of the John Deere Classic which is a stop on the PGA Tour . . . it’s just a matter of time though before Wie starts to make the cut and one day win a PGA event . . .

I read recently read an article in The Plain Dealer about Wie . . . she is a prodigy . . . she was able to read when she was like 2-years-old . . . Wie’s goal is to play and win the Master’s someday . . . with her determination and rare ability there is no doubt that she will indeed accomplish this goal within the next 20 years . . .

Also, I believe she has that natural swing that will enable her to compete with the men . . . when I watch her swing, I see Tiger Woods . . . plus, for being only 15-years-old, she is already six feet tall and wears a size 10 men’s shoe . . . to put it simply, I am a big fan of Michelle Wie . . .

Last Friday, Chi Chi Sabathia pitched seven strong innings against the Baltimore Orioles and proclaimed that "he was back" and that he was going to dominate the rest of the season . . . five days later Chi Chi and his fat ass could not make it out of the fifth inning as the Detroit Tigers tattooed him for five runs . . .

The "ace" has a record of 6-5 and an ERA of 4.50 . . . when will the Indians front office realize this man is not a number one starter . . . in fact, Jake Westbrook, Kevin Millwood, and Scott Elarton are all better pitchers than "the ace" . . .

Why is the Detroit Tigers Jeremy Bonderman not on the All-Star team especially with the game being played in Motown? . . . Bonderman is 11-5 with a 3.99 ERA . . .

The San Francisco Giants organization notched its 9,999 team victory on Saturday when they down the St. Louis Cardinals 2-0 . . . the winning pitcher was former Youngstown State University pitcher, Brad Hennessey who gave up only three hits in seven shut-out innings . . . Hennessey is 3-2 with a 5.23 ERA . . .

Major League Baseball handed down a 20 game suspension for Texas pitcher Kenny Rogers after he deliberately shoved a cameraman during batting practice . . . with Rogers being a starting pitcher, it means he only plays every five games . . . so basically this turned out to be a four game suspension which is nothing . . . Bud Selig needed to suspend Rogers at least 35 games which is equivalent to seven games . . .

Rogers made a mistake and has apologized for it . . . and he should be given a second chance after he serves his suspension . . . however, there is no place in sports for that type of behavior from an athlete . . . the cameraman was not following Rogers by sticking the camera directly in his face . . . the guy was doing his job – that’s all . . . the same job that helps jerks, like Rogers, get their mug on television so they can sign those million dollars contracts . . .

I pick the American League to win Tuesday’s All-Star Game . . .

Even though Tiger is the favorite, my surprise pick to win next week’s British Open is Peter Lonard . . . I’m also putting money on Ernie Els . . .

I’d like to see President Bush select an African-American female to replace Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court . . . interestingly, it is not the Democrats, but the Republicans that may balk if he nominates current Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez . . . the conservatives are worried that ‘Berto may be a tad moderate . . .

Why isn’t an Asian-American being considered for the position on the high court . . . remember, the president can nominate anyone he wants – there is not a prerequisite that the nominee has to have experience on the bench . . .

Finally, our country’s prayers should go out to our friends in London after the dastardly act of cowardness by terrorists this week . . . sometimes we all forget that we are fighting "the good war" . . .

God Save the Queen

Until next time . . . the beat goes on . . .

Random Thoughts - 7/3 - Someone stole my idea

And the beat goes on . . .

For years my friend, John Valentine, and I talked about producing a fantasy football magazine . . . our magazine was going to be different from others . . . instead of just football, we were also going to have articles about beer, gambling, and of course chicks . . . and to differentiate our publication from all the other fantasy football mags, we were not going to have a Peyton Manning or Tom Brady on the cover . . . instead we were going to have chicks in skimpy football jerseys . . . . our publication was going to be called T.A.G. Fantasy Football Guide . . . T.A.G. stood for "Two Average Guys" . . .

But someone has beaten us to that idea . . . the other days I was looking through the magazine rack at my local Giant Eagle when I came across this hot chick on a fantasy football book . . . I knew right then and there that our idea was shot . . .

So remember, if you ever have an idea for something – go for it before it is too late . . .

The Boston Red Sox will not win the World Series this season if they keep Keith Foulke as their closer . . . Foulke has a whopping 5.82 ERA . . . the Sox need to get a closer before the trading deadline if they want to repeat as champions . . . it takes 11 playoff games to win the World Series, and your closer is going to be needed in at least seven of those wins . . . it ain’t happening for Boston if Foulke remains the closer . . .

That’s it, the American League Cy Young Award race is over . . . this year’s winner is going to be Cleveland’s Chi Chi Sabathia . . . after an impressive performance on Friday night in Baltimore, Chi Chi proclaimed that "he is back" and he has turned around his season . . . okay, he opened his mouth, so we will have to keep track of his record beginning with Friday night’s win . . .

A few weeks ago it looked like Bob Wickman was going to be the Tribe’s lone All-Star representative . . . Travis Hafner is sure working his way toward a spot on the team . . . Pronk is swinging a hot bat once again . . .

It was reported in The Plain Dealer that the Indians are looking at the Reds’ Joe Randa, the Royals’ Mike Sweeney, and the Giants’ Moises Alou for a possible trade by the end of July . . . it is doubtful the Tribe will acquire Sweeney or Alou being that they make $11 million and $7 million a year . . .

What do you get for $17 million these days . . . for that price the Yankees got themselves a 41-year-old "has been ace" who is 7-6 with a 4.24 ERA and who got shelled this week in Detroit . . .

Whatever happened to Jimmy Key? . . .

The Milwaukee Brewers Rickie Weeks is showing that he may be the real deal . . . the rookie second baseman has been instrumental in a couple of the Brewers wins of late . . .

At Wimbledon, I knew Lindsay Davenport was cooked after she blew a championship point against Venus Williams . . . never let a match or championship point slip by when you are playing the Williams sisters . . . they will make you pay . . .

Davenport, who has won three Grand Slam titles, will be nothing but a footnote in women’s tennis history because her prime came at the same time as the Williams sisters . . . that is unfortunate for Lindsay . . .

I pity whoever President Bush nominates to fill the seat on the Supreme Court . . . it will be a brutal nomination hearing in which their personal life will be scrutinized more than any other nominee. . .

On the local beat, the second coming of East High School will occur in 2007 with the opening of the soon to be constructed new high school . . . of course, nothing happens in Youngstown without some controversy . . . the new East High will not be known as the Golden Bears with the colors of blue and gold . . . no, the YCS Board has chosen to name the school the Panthers with the colors of light blue and silver . . . the East High alumni are upset . . . and rightfully so . . .

Finally, Happy Fourth of July to all . . . and God Bless America . . .

Until next time . . . the beat goes on . . .