UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Quick-hitters:

- I woke up this morning, and went outside to my patio, when I noticed a ton of bird poop all over the place! Apparently, a couple birds have now taken control of my patio, and marked their territory accordingly.

- Law and Order: Special Victims Unit is an awesome show. USA Networks has had an SVU marathon, starting from 11am this morning, and yes, I’ve seen every episode since then.

- I inserted a DVD-ROM into my DVD+RW today, and absolutely nothing happened. The drive wouldn’t read the disc, and it wouldn’t even eject it! I used a paper clip to manually eject the drive, and that didn’t work either! I tried restarting the computer, and the drive tray eventually ejected.

I found a small piece of Play-Doh stuck to the bottom of the disc, and the tray itself…

- So after two games of the NBA Finals, some people are already calling for “LeBroom” (as in sweep, heh), as the Spurs demolished the Cavs. I only caught a little bit of the game–thanks, SVU marathon–but when I first tuned in, it was something like Spurs 33, Cavs 17. I did catch the fourth quarter, up until Manu hit that killer four-point play to put the game on ice.

I’m not convinced that this series is over, though. Lebron spent a bunch of the first half on the bench, saddled with foul trouble, and the Spurs blew out the Cavs during that stretch. Would it be that far-fetched to see Duncan, Parker, Manu, or Bowen, to be saddled with foul trouble in Game 3?

(Of course, I’m not suggesting that the referees are going to go out of their way to fix Game 3 in the Cavs’ favor…)

That fourth quarter push by the Cavs against an obviously bored Spurs team has to be encouraging for the Eastern Conference champs, who now get the next three games at home. I’ll pick the Cavs to win Game 3, with Lebron having a huge game.

(Of course, I also picked the Cavs + 7 here in Game 2, and that obviously worked out well…)

- According to a poster at DSLReports.com, Time Warner is announcing a plan to start “packet shaping” on their Road Runner HSI service. Packet, or traffic, shaping, is defined (via Wikipedia) as “an attempt to control computer network traffic in order to optimize or guarantee performance, low latency, and/or bandwidth. Traffic shaping deals with concepts of classification, queue disciplines, enforcing policies, congestion management, quality of service (QoS), and fairness.”

In other words, we can slow down your internet connection whenever we damn well please! As for “peak hours,” what’s to stop TW from deciding that peak hours start at 12:01AM and end at 11:59PM?

In all seriousness, I can understand why TW would want to attempt this; by slowing down bandwidth hogs, they can ensure that non-hogs will get decent speeds during peak hours. Here’s the problem I have with the new policy:

“Packet shaping” technology has been implemented for newsgroup applications, regardless of the provider, and all peer-to-peer networks and certain other high bandwidth applications not necessarily limited to audio, video, and voice over IP telephony. Road Runner reserves the right to implement network management tools for other applications in the future.

What does that leave? Text-based sites and web mail? Will TW only allow online tic-tac-toe and pong? By the way, TW does sell their own VoIP service; will they be throttling that as well?

- Remember the substitute teacher that was accused of “expos[ing] seventh-graders to pornography on a classroom computer,” and was threatened with up to 40 years in jail? Apparently, new evidence “presented belatedly by the state that suggested jurors received erroneous information” has come about, and now a judge has overturned the conviction.

Hooray for justice! In fact, in this sue happy world of ours, where just about anyone can sue for “mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, defamation of character, etc.”, I would not mind if this woman countersued for damages. And if she does countersue, I hope she wins, or at least gets a fat settlement.

Until next time…

by Peter
1 Comment »

- Roger Clemens (OH MY GOODNESS!) is back! He got the win today against the mightly Pittsburgh Pirates, going six innings while giving up three runs and five hits.

(Yeah, I don’t care either. That pic in the YouTube video scares me, by the way.)

- Scary story here: a 17-year-old female track star died from an overdose of methyl salicylate, the active ingredient in muscle creams:

Arielle Newman, a cross-country runner at Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island, died after her body absorbed high levels of methyl salicylate, an anti-inflammatory found in sports creams such as Bengay and Icy Hot, the New York City medical examiner said Friday.

Newman had been using at least three products–a cream, a pad, and an unidentified third product–containing methyl salicylate, and apparently it was the chronic overuse of these products that led to her death.

What a frightening story! I have, on a couple occasions, used way more than the recommended amount of a product, and far more often than the 3-4 times daily as suggested. I have even used expired medication in the past, without batting an eye. I wonder how often she was using these pain relievers; usually they say to stop using them after 10-14 days and consult a physician if the ailment persists (a warning I also find myself ignoring).

The article also says that she was using anti-inflammatory pads. I wonder if she was using them at the same time as the creams; the creams specifically say not to bandage or wrap tightly.

I wonder: was there someone pushing Newman so hard, that she had to rely on the pain medication to get through her races? I always hear stories of overbearing parents, mentors, coaches, etc. pushing their athletes far past the point of exhaustion (or worse). I don’t want to suggest that this is what happened, but one can’t rule out that possibility.

- Today’s TotD sounds like fun:

A giant enemy crab approaches. What do you do? There is only one right answer.

Correct, there is only one right answer.

(By the way, how do we know it’s an “enemy” crab? Most crabs I see are pretty neutral, until I attempt to throw it in a pot of water, that is.)

What would I do? I’d take a stick, stab both its eyes, then take a huge rock and smack the hell out of the crab’s exoskeleton. When I’m sure it’s dead, I’d go to my local grocery store to get a bunch of lemons, some butter, and fresh peppercorn, and have a feast!

(That is the correct answer, is it not?)

BTW, Cavs +7 over Spurs tomorrow.

by Peter
2 Comments »

Quick-hitters:

- AK is truly an evil hand. I lost three buy-ins today with AK: first against 77, where the flop came K7x; second against T8, when he flopped a flush and I had a chance to draw a better flush; and third against AQ, where he spiked a Q on the river (naturally).

- For some reason, I cannot stop following the Paris Hilton story! What outrageous twist will come next? Maybe the Governator will finally offer a pardon…

By the way, this picture is traumatizing me.

I don’t know what was the best scene of the day: there was that guy holding a “Liberate Hilton” sign outside her house, there was that guy screaming “NOOOOOOOOOOO” when it was announced that Hilton will have to serve the entire 45-day sentence (as if that is going to stick), there was a guy holding a “Obama-Hilton 08″ poster, and there was the usual scene of rabid paparazzi members chasing the police car as it drove away from her house.

Why do I have the feeling that Hilton’s fans (how she has fans to begin with, I do not know) will be outside the facility she’s being held at, offering her a standing ovation once she’s released from prison? If people did that during the Wacko Jacko case, why not this?

- Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard bared all in this month’s issue of Playboy, citing this as a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” While there are lots that are happy for her decision–I mean her own family, not the thousands of Playboy subscribers!–she also expects to get some criticism, specifically from mothers of younger swimmers.

I can understand both sides of the argument; would you blame the mother of a young female swimmer if she took offense to Beard–a role model for many swimmers today–posing in Playboy? Also, I can understand how this decision only serves to further demean female athletes. There is such a disparity of respect between male and female athletes as it is; why further this disparity by doing something like this?

Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is. For one thing, I commend Beard for seeing this as an opportunity to build a career outside of swimming:

Beard is trying to position herself for a career away from the pool, and she sees the magazine spread as a way to attract nonswimming fans.

She envisions developing her own business empire, similar to former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kathy Ireland’s line of apparel and home furnishings.

She’s 25, probably going to call it quits after the 2008 Olympic Games, and is already thinking ahead of her next phase of life. What is wrong with that? Sure, maybe she could have thought of a better way to advertise herself, but in this day and age, is Playboy really that big of a deal any more?

Do I believe her decision to pose in Playboy will only serve to further demean female athletes? No; she wouldn’t be the first female athlete to pose for Playboy. If anything, I agree that this will bring more attention to Olympic swimming. Unfortunately, I also expect the attention for the sport to wane once she retires.

- Today’s TotD:

What would you do without internet access? A cell phone? Cable television?

I should point out that this topic was shamelessly ripped from a thread over at the Bargainshare Forums. I will briefly answer all three questions below:

1. I’d probably keel over, or end up in the fetal position for eternity.
2. I could live without a cell phone; nobody calls me, anyway, except for these voice recordings in Spanish (I found out that these recordings are scams, trying to get unsuspecting people to pay fines they never knew they owed).
3. Without cable television, I’d be in a bit of trouble (no ESPN? AHHHHHHHHHH). However, if both cable television and cable internet are taken away from me, one might as well end my life now.

(Ok, I’m not totally serious about that last statement.)

by Peter
2 Comments »

Quick-hitters:

- Freaking Dodgers. 5-1, 9th inning, about to beat the best pitcher in the National League, and then they decide to play like a Pee Wee league softball team. Damn I’m pissed.

- You know you’re in pain when it hurts just to sit down. I’m probably a pair of Tylenol away from being classified as an addict.

- Did I mention, freaking Dodgers?

- So after Game 1 of the NBA Finals, I can safely say that the Cavs are in a little bit of trouble. They played well for a half, but apparently the Cavs couldn’t answer the bell for the second half. A few thoughts on Game 1:

• The Spurs are NOT boring to watch! Watching Tony Parker carve up the Cavs’ PGs, and watching Duncan operate down low, are works of art.
• Less Larry Hughes, more Daniel Gibson!
• Hey, Lebron, if your shot isn’t working for you, it’s probably not a good idea to continue throwing up fadeaways.

By the way, did anyone see that weird home video (aired during halftime) of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich visiting Tim Duncan at the Virgin Islands? Am I the only one that thought that the video was kinda creepy, especially the scene where the two of them were on the beach together?

Anyway, the Cavs need to give more minutes to Daniel Gibson, and they might want to think about playing Eric Snow for a few minutes. The first half of Game 1 had to be encouraging for the Cavs, but the Cavs better get that third quarter out of their system as soon as possible. That first half illustrated my belief that the Cavs might, in fact, have a shot at winning the series.

I still think they’ll come up short, however. I expect the Spurs to win Game 2, using the same blueprint as they did to outmuscle the Cavs in Game 1.

- Silly me; I finally provided some TotDs for the IMBC, and I went ahead and skipped yesterday’s topic. I will now go ahead and answer both of them here. Yesterday’s TotD:

Describe how you came up with your blog name/username.

I remember watching my local NBC news one day, when they were handing out that week’s “unsung hero” award. I stuck an extra “g” in there–my last name is Ung–and presto!

(Tangent: People on online forums frequently leave out that “g” in ungsunghero. It used to really bother me, but not so much any more.)

(Tangent #2: Once, a guy on an online forum insisted that my name had a typo in it. I assured him that that was not the case, and he insisted that I was the one mistaken. That’s kinda like the guy that calls your phone number, asks for [insert name that you don’t recognize], and then after you tell him that there is no one by that name, he insists that you have the wrong number. And yeah, that has happened to me on more than one occasion.)

I don’t need to explain UngsungBlog, do I?

As for today’s TotD:

by Peter
No Comments »

First, a quick-hitter:

- The Anaheim Ducks are your 2006-7 NHL Stanley Cup Champions!

Yeah, I don’t care either.

(Raise your hand if you even knew that the NHL season started.)

- The NBA Finals is finally upon us! Duncan, Manu, and Parker versus Lebron! Will the Spurs cement their dynasty with their fourth championship in nine years? Will the Cavs be able to ride their superstar to a title? Will the refs, once again, prove to be the deciding figure in who wins the championship (I’m not suggesting that the NBA and their refs fix games, by the way *whistles*).

So, who do I think will win? Here’s a better question: how can I pick against the Spurs? This matchup seems to be a bigger “mismatch” than the 2004 series between the Lakers and Detroit (of course, we know how THAT turned out!). Actually, I can see a couple of ways the Cavs can upset the Spurs:

1. If Bowen gets into foul trouble–definitely a possibility, considering that Bowen will have to guard Lebron–forcing the Spurs to use Manu to defend Lebron.
2. If Duncan gets into foul trouble–also possible, considering that Big Z, Gooden, and Varejao could be used to defend him–forcing the Spurs to use some combination of Oberto, Elson, Horry, et al., or go small.
3. If Big Z, Marshall, Gibson, Pavlovic, Gooden, et al., all play out of their minds.
4. If David Stern has something to say about the result (kidding!)

That being said, I don’t see the Cavs being able to stop Tony Parker on the perimeter, nor will they be able to stop Duncan on the inside. Yeah, Lebron is a super-duper-star, and he could carry his team past the Spurs, but I just don’t see it happening this year. It wouldn’t surprise me at all, though, if he wins a title sometime in the next five years. Spurs in six games.

- A Boston doctor has coined a new injury he developed after playing too much Wii tennis. The name? You guessed it: Wiiitis. As the story goes, Dr. Julio Bonis woke up one morning with a sore shoulder, and determined that the injury was due to too much Wii tennis. “The variant in this patient can be labeled more specifically as ‘Wiiitis,’” declared the doctor.

Will this open the door to a huge Wiiitis-related class action lawsuit against Nintendo? Maybe this will lead to a huge increase in the sales of pain medication. Or maybe, this will be the start of a worldwide Wiiitis epidemic, causing millions of hours of missed work/school time and billions of dollars of health care to be administered!

Or maybe the doctor should have realized that several consecutive hours of just about any activity probably isn’t a good idea…

- Finally (from Digg), I leave you with this list of the 100 words that every high school graduate should know. I am proud to admit that I do not know, or have forgotten, the definitions for most of the words on that list :P. In today’s world, lacking in self-accountability, I would like to blame my high school for my not knowing most of these words.

Or maybe I should go read the dictionary…

by Peter
No Comments »

Some quick-hitters:

- Drat! While moving my old CPU heatsink/fan from my secondary computer to my DOSBox–I picked up this heatsink/fan (FAR at Buy.com; I might post a mini-review about this product in the future), and I needed to replace the hs/f in my DOSBox–I somehow broke the blue LED in the fan! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I so wanted the cool blue LED in my otherwise crappy DOSBox!

- One quick blurb about Billy Donovan: Jay Bilas wrote that Donovan’s handling of his contract situation with the Magic was “unprofessional” (ESPN Insider subscription required). I could not agree more. Why Donovan is getting so much support is beyond me; the most common defense that I’ve seen revolves on the “He made a mistake!” theme. If that’s the case, then why the hell did he sign the contract in the first place?!? And don’t give me that “he was pressured to sign the contract” BS.

- (from Consumerist) Four Midwest City, OK, employees of Home Depot have been terminated for (get this) helping the police catch suspected shoplifters! According to company policy, “associates cannot accuse, detain, chase or call the police on any customer for shoplifting.” Home Depot responded, saying that they have “standard operating procedures in place for situations like this.”

I’d really like to know what these standard operating procedures are. If employees aren’t allowed to identify shoplifters, how exactly is the store going to stop the guy? Maybe the “loss prevention” guys at Home Depot just pray that the shoplifters have a change of heart, and willingly return the stolen goods. That’s about as plausible as a store policy to fire any associate for stopping a suspected shoplifter. Or maybe, Home Depot fears that a store associate will wrongfully accuse a person of shoplifting, only to have that person file a harassment lawsuit?

In any case, yes, rules are rules, and yes, this rule is stupid.

- (also from Consumerist) According to Bankrate.com, you’ve got too much credit card debt if:

1. If you can’t remember the last time you had zero balances on all your credit cards.

2. If your FICO score is below 650.

3. If you don’t remember what you bought on your credit card last month.

4. If you don’t really know how many coffees, teas, soft drinks or snacks you buy every week.

5. If you use your credit card for utilities, food, snacks and so on, and you’re not doing it to earn frequent flier or bonus points.

6. If you have money in a 401(k), but you have to live on your credit cards in order to put it there.

7. If you have no money in any sort of general savings account.

8. If you’re still paying for restaurant meals you can’t remember eating.

9. If you have to take a cash advance from one credit card to make a payment on another one.

10. If you ever held a garage sale to raise money to make credit card payments.

I suppose some of these make sense, but a couple of them are garbage. For instance, #1 applies to me, only because I have a huge balance on one CC at 0% for investment purposes. Also, #3 and #4 apply to me, but that’s probably because I put just about everything on my CC, including $2 purchases at a fast food restaurant. #10 applies to me, too, but replace “garage sale” with “eBay/Amazon,” whenever there is a series of hot deals that I just can’t resist :P. #2 isn’t necessarily true, either; I personally know someone with a low credit score and zero credit card debt. That person got his low score from delinquencies on his student loan payments.

I totally agree with #6-9, though.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

by Peter
2 Comments »

So I’ve spent the last hour (as of 1:20AM) chatting with Krunk about 80s music, sparked by my discussion of the Survivor concert I attended on Sunday. That was kinda fun, considering that we usually talk about tech stuff, hot deals, Heroes, and other geeky topics.

- So apparently Billy Donovan cannot make up his mind. Apparently Billy has had a change of heart, and wants to get out of the $27.5 million deal he signed literally hours ago, citing that it was the wrong decision to join the Magic. In fact, the Orlando Sentinel has reported that he will be let out of the contract, pending a discussion between lawyers representing both parties.

What took so long, Billy? Why didn’t you tell the team immediately after signing the contract that you had second thoughts? The sad thing about this whole story is that, while Donovan may never be offered a contract by another NBA team again–some team probably will, eventually–he’s going to be beloved by Gator fans once his return is official.

(Actually, I wouldn’t mind if a really bad team gave him another chance. That way, he could coach for a couple years and compile some pathetic record, before running back to the college ranks.)

I gotta feel for Virginia Commonwealth coach Anthony Grant, who was rumored to be the lead candidate to replace Donovan at Florida, and for the Orlando Magic, who now have to go with Plan B (Stan Van Gundy?) to fill their coaching vacancy. Imagine if Donovan and Van Gundy were both candidates for the job, and Van Gundy had gone to another team before Donovan announced that he was backing out! I hope Orlando does everything they can to penalize Donovan for quitting (yes, quitting) on the Magic.

Yeah, I have a little Billy Donovan hatred, due to the fact that his Florida team beat my Bruins two consecutive years in the Tournament. Still, what he’s doing is reprehensible, and is possibly setting up a dangerous precedent.

(By the way, it wouldn’t surprise me if Donovan negotiated a new contract with the Gators for more money than the original extension. Maybe that was his plan all along!)

Maybe there is a silver lining in all of this. Maybe Donovan’s decision will spare Orlando a few underachieving seasons (similar to the way that many other college coaches-turned-pro have failed in recent years). Maybe Stan Van Gundy works out, and for less money!

- The Yankees are back! After beating the Red Sox twice in three games–one of those wins punctuated by an A-Fraud HR off Jonathon Papelbon–the Yankees are now only 12.5 games back of their rivals!

(BTW, awesome “Where Is Ro-ger!” chant at Fenway Park!)

No, I’m not myopic enough to think that the Yankees are done, despite all their injuries. Yes, I believe Roger Clemens will win a few games for them. But, can we save the “Yankees are back!” declarations for when the Yankees actually get within a couple of games of the BoSox? Let’s see them gain a few games on Boston before the All-Star break, and then we can talk about Boston possibly choking away their huge lead.

By the way, the Yankees are planning on making one huge trade soon, right? I wouldn’t mind them adding another overpaid superstar or two to their rapidly sinking ship.

Sorry, non-sports fans, but the Billy Donovan story was too compelling to pass up.

by Peter
No Comments »

(As promised…)

- So Day 3 of the NorCal trip started off with my waking up two hours before my alarm clock was to sounds (thanks, Mom). We left our hotel and headed to my cousin’s donut shop, where I loaded up on about four cups of coffee, a donut, and a ham and cheese croissant.

(Tangent: If I were forced to eat one breakfast item for the rest of my life, a ham and cheese croissant might be that item.)

After fueling, we loaded up my cousin’s van, and our party was joined by a family friend/tour guide, Jerry. We first dropped by a farmer’s market, and bought a ton of fruits and veggies. We bought some roma tomatoes, asparagus, and a bag of snow peas, among other things. The prices were pretty nice; $2.00 for six roma tomatoes, e.g.

After that, we drove to the state Capitol building in Sacramento, where my sister and mom continued to embarrass me by acting like tourists: they took tons of pictures, ooooh-ing and aaaaah-ing as they took each shot. Worse, my cousin–she lives up there, btw–had her camcorder with her. I declared that we were visors, cheap sunglasses, and city guides away from reaching full tourist status.

(Oh yeah, my sister was still wearing her LA Dodger sandals. Also, both my sister and mom were woefully underdressed; they complained of the winds all day [Thanks, Krunk, for pointing out that severe over- or underdressed people are also possibly tourists]. )

After that, we drove a few miles to Old Town Sacramento, where we had a late lunch at some cheap Italian buffet–the food was awful, but damn cheap. After that, we walked around and browsed through a couple of stores; I bought $12 worth of salt water taffy at one of the candy shops.

(Tangent: Peppermint taffy used to be my favorite flavor, until I tried some caramel apple and orange cream taffy. Peppermint is now, at best, #3 on that list, and I still haven’t tried a ton of other flavors I bought.)

(Tangent #2: Thanks, Krunk, for pointing out that groups of people that congregate into souvenir shops are also possibly tourists. I may have to make a blog entry about how to spot a tourist, based on my own experiences.)

We also visited the Sacramento River–much nicer than the Los Angeles “River”–and did a lot of walking around, snapping pics. Soon after, we left Old Town and headed for my cousin’s house, where we grilled up a ton of those veggies (and damn, were they tasty!). I also had a real thick London Broil, that I grilled medium rare. I should have cooked it a bit longer; tougher cuts of meat, like London Broil, need to be cooked a bit longer, IMO.

Day 4 of the NorCal trip involved us going back to the donut shop, fueling up again–3 cups of coffee, a couple donut holes, and then a quick stop to Carl’s Jr. for a burger–before we took off for SoCal. We said our goodbyes, left at around 1:15pm, and despite a couple of stops, we got back in town at around 7pm (not bad for 300-350 miles!).

- Today, we dropped by Warner Center Park in nearby Woodland Hills, because Survivor was in concert! I was only familiar with a couple of songs they wrote–Eye of the Tiger and Burning Heart, of course–but then I found out that they also sang Search is Over (this song was AWESOME, live). The concert, as a whole, was great; of course, they ended with Eye of the Tiger! There were some sound problems at the beginning of the concert, but for a free concert, I can’t really complain. I didn’t appreciate the knuckleheads that kept standing up during the concert–the pavilion has no seating, so people sat on chairs or the grass–and I really didn’t appreciate the older woman that sat on my right, and lit up a cancer stick. Another woman came up to her, scolded her about the cigarette, busted out her wooden fan, and starting waving the smoke towards the smoker; too bad most of the smoke was sent right towards me. Eventually, the woman got a clue, put out her cigarette, and left.

By the way, did I mention that “Search is Over” is an awesome song?

Next time (maybe in a few minutes), I’ll be talking about Billy “John Kerry” Donovan, the Yankees, and a few older stories that I haven’t gotten to for some time.

by Peter
1 Comment »

- Now THIS is one sick beat. I’ve had full houses lose to four-of-a-kinds, but never on the flop!

Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 6 - PLAYER 1 ($515 in chips)
Seat 8 - PLAYER 2 ($403 in chips)
Seat 9 - VILLAIN ($151 in chips)
Seat 1 - HERO ($41 in chips)
PLAYER 2 - Posts small blind $3
VILLAIN - Posts big blind $5
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [9c 9s]
HERO - Raises $10 to $10
PLAYER 1 - Folds
PLAYER 2 - Raises $12 to $15
VILLAIN - Calls $10
HERO - Raises $10 to $20
PLAYER 2 - Calls $5
VILLAIN - Calls $5
*** FLOP *** [5c 5s 9h]
PLAYER 2 - Bets $5
VILLAIN - Calls $5
HERO - Calls $5
*** TURN *** [5c 5s 9h] [Ah]
PLAYER 2 - Bets $10
VILLAIN - Raises $20 to $20
HERO - All-In $16
PLAYER 2 - Folds
VILLAIN - returned ($4) : not called
*** RIVER *** [5c 5s 9h Ah] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HERO - Shows [9c 9s] (Full house, nines full of fives)
VILLAIN - Shows [5d 5h] (Four of a kind, fives)
VILLAIN Collects $115 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($117) | Rake ($2)
Board [5c 5s 9h Ah 2h]
Seat 1: HERO HI:lost with Full house, nines full of fives [9c 9s - P:9s,B:9h,P:9c,B:5s,B:5c]
Seat 6: PLAYER 1 (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 8: PLAYER 2 (small blind) Folded on the TURN
Seat 9: VILLAIN (big blind) won Total ($115) HI:($115) with Four of a kind, fives [5d 5h - B:5s,P:5h,P:5d,B:5c,B:Ah]

(Names changed to protect the innocent, of course.)

It’s a damn good thing that the Hero only had $41 in chips when the hand started. Incidentally, that was his last $41 he had (not just at the table, but at the poker site altogether).

- Poor, poor Billy Donovan. Weeks after supposedly negotiating a contract extension to remain the Florida Gators’ head coach, Donovan found 27.5 million reasons to go back on his word and become coach of the Orlando Magic. The best part? Apparently, Donovan “agonized” over the decision to leave Florida, as if it was that hard to accept the $27.5 million contract to jump ship.

(Yeah, I know, I will never be in this position, so I will never know how difficult this decision really was.)

You can stop the argument that you wanted a new challenge, and “the right opportunity” happened to present itself; if by “the right opportunity,” of course I mean “exorbitant amounts of money.” In fact, the next time a player/coach/exec/etc. says he left one organization for another because of the money will probably be the first to do so. Look, $27.5 million is a ton of money; it’ll set you, your wife, your family, her family, and their families for their lives (ok, slight exaggeration). So please stop trying to convince people that you went to Orlando for a challenge; if you wanted a challenge, why not wait for the Bobcats’ job to open up?

- As if the Yankees needed any more bad news, their savior, Roger Clemens, will skip his expected start against the Chicago White Sox due to a groin injury. Fear not, Yankee fans! Kei Igawa will most likely take Clemens’ spot on Monday. Quoted from the article:

Clemens believes he needs an extra four to five days to recover, keeping him out of the four-game series at Chicago, and that this is not a major injury.

That timeframe would put him in line to face the Pirates in Yankee Stadium next weekend.

I’d be lying if I said I was not laughing when I saw this news. I have a feeling that ESPN won’t bother showing Monday’s Yankees-White Sox game now. Also, how convenient is it that he now gets to start against a bad Pirates team, instead of a contending team like the White Sox? Hey Roger, why not push back your return against the Royals or Devil Rays.

Oh wait, the Rays might actually beat you.

I was going to post about Day 3 of the NorCal trip, but my BBQ is ready to go, and I have a couple nice, juicy ribeyes ready to go. Until next time!

by Peter
No Comments »

(Day 3 of the NorCal trip will have to wait until tomorrow…)

So what’s the big news story of the day? I’ve been invited back to the IMBC! What does this mean?

1. I can, at least for now, no longer root for Amy to win. I imagine that I will be rooting for her to win again soon enough :P.
2. If I somehow win this thing, it’ll be a tainted victory. I’ll have to ask Hank to put an asterisk next to my name in the IMBC record books.
3. I better make a note (mental or otherwise) to check the timestamp on all future entries.

- Here’s the latest in the Kobe Bryant saga: Kobe and owner Dr. Jerry Buss had spoken to each other, and Dr. Buss promised Kobe that he would “‘pursue every avenue possible’ to improve the team.” Quoted from the article:

“I talked with Kobe this morning and assured him that I share his frustration and, more importantly, I assured him that we will continue to pursue every avenue possible to improve our team with him as the cornerstone,” Buss said in a statement. “I told him that we will keep him apprised of our progress and we agreed that we will talk again in the very near future.”

Wait a second…didn’t Kobe just whine about being misled and back stabbed by the team, angering him to the point where he needed a change of scenery? Didn’t he just say that there was nothing the team could do to make him change his mind about wanting a trade? Also, why would be want to stay with a team that apparently pissed on the previous three seasons of his career? Here’s a better question: how did I not see this coming? How was I not able to figure out that everything would be OK once Kobe and Buss started talking to each other?

It appears that Kobe will be staying in LA. Let’s see if he actually gets the help he needs, starting with a point guard not named Smush Parker.

- The Yankees’ Jason Giambi will miss, at the very least, the next three weeks of the season with a foot injury. He could, potentially, miss the entire season. At least the injury occurred on the playing field, although I’m guessing the team would have been happier if the injury didn’t occur while he was celebrating a home run trot. The foot was already injured, and it appears that the trot aggravated the injury. In a season where the Yankees are currently a billion games out of first place (to the hated Red Sox, no less), and where a 44-year-old six-inning pitcher is labeled your savior, what else could possibly go wrong (other than a pair of scandals involving a certain player, on successive days, one of which I must talk about tomorrow)?

(By the way, as a Yankee hater, I am seriously enjoying this.)

Line of the night: hearing an ESPN personality (it might have been on SportsCenter, I forget) saying that “at least” the injury occurred to a position player, and not a pitcher.

- The other big news story of last night? Steve Kerr, TNT and Yahoo! Sports personality, and minority owner of the Phoenix Suns, will be named the president and general manager of the team, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. This is horrible news, as far as I’m concerned. Why? It’s because I always enjoyed reading Kerr’s articles on Yahoo! Sports, as well as listening to him and Marv Albert doing play-by-play on TNT. Kerr might be my favorite NBA color analyst out there today; he’s very insightful, articulate, and has a sense of humor, without trying to be over the top (you hear me, Stu Lantz?).

Until next time!

by Peter
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