UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Quick-hitters:

- Boy was it COLD today.  Cold, chilly, windy…can I have summer back?

Oh well…cold weather means I can go have pho again!  Yum!

(And yes, I did have some today.  Gosh I missed that stuff.)

- A new toy arrived at my doorstep a few days ago, delivered by USPS (more on that later):  an LG Shine!

Too bad it was for my sister.

Nevertheless, I ripped open the box, popped the battery into the phone, popped the backplate onto the phone, and then immediately plugged it in.  I hit the power button, and it immediately asked me for a SIM card.

Nooooooooooooo!  A new toy, and I can’t even play with it???

Then I remembered…I used to have an AT&T Prepaid plan.  Would the SIM card work?  I rushed to my desk, dug through my desk drawers, and somehow found the little SIM card buried between some manuals.

I rushed back to the phone, stuck in the SIM card, and it worked!

I played with the phone for about ten seconds, before putting it away :P.

- Current rebate-o-meter:  ~$1300.

With the fall season comes new TV shows, the MLB Playoffs, NFL football (of course!), and the NBA regular season on the horizon.  For me, I like to add “2009 Rebate Deals!” to that list!

Yeah, I’m a rebate degenerate, as well as a gambling degenerate, and a fantasy sports degenerate.

- My USPS carrier has NEVER left a package on my door.

(I’d argue that she never actually knocks, but who knows?)

The package could have been torn apart to reveal a t-shirt inside, and she still wouldn’t have left the package in front of my door.

So you could imagine how absolutely shocked I was to see a USPS Priority Mail box sitting on my front door, containing my sister’s cell phone!!!

(clears throat)

YOU WON’T LEAVE ANY OF MY PACKAGES ON MY FRONT DOOR, EVEN IF I FILL OUT THAT STUPID POSTCARD PERMITTING THIS, BUT YOU DECIDED THAT THIS ONE PACKAGE WAS WORTH LEAVING ON MY DOORSTEP??????????????????????????

(I need a throat lozenge.)

- To my loyal readers (all none of you), I present an UngsungBlog PSA.

If you have attempted to order from Frys.com lately, you might have run into a situation where adding an item to your cart leads you to a webpage asking you to enable cookies.

If you run into that problem, there’s an easy workaround:

1. Copy the seven-digit Frys.com item number.
2. Enter the item number into the search field.
3. When the item shows up, click on the “Buy” button, and the item should show up in your cart.

Hope that helps.

- (Yeah, I should have posted this yesterday.  Shoot me.)

Andre Ethier at first, none out, and the Dodgers played hit and run.  James Loney hit a grounder to short, and oops!  SS Ryan Theriot, running to cover second base, overran the grounder, and stuck his hand out to try to barehand the ball.  It glanced off his hand, trickled into left field, and all of a sudden, it was first and third with none out.

You could just feel Cubs fans fearing the worst.  Even after Matt Kemp struck out looking, you could hear the nervousness in the crowd’s response.  Once Blake Dewitt hit that grounder directly to 2B Mark DeRosa, though, you could almost hear the crowd breathe a heavy sigh of relief.  4-6-3, inning over, right?

Whoops!  DeRosa kicked the ball, and then tried a desperate flip to Theriot.  Loney beat the throw, Ethier scored, and you just had the feeling the the Cubs were in deep trouble (and members of the crowd were probably calling their therapists).  But then, Casey Blake hit a hard grounder to 1B Derrek Lee, and the Cubs had ANOTHER chance to get out of the inning!

So close!  Derrek Lee booted it, everyone was safe, and now the Dodgers had the bases loaded with only one out.  At this point, you almost felt sorry for Cubs fans.  But wait!  Chad Billinsgley was up, and down he goes on strikes!  Two outs now, and Carlos Zambrano only had to get Rafael Furcal out to escape the inning!

Of course, Furcal ends up burning the Cubs by laying down a perfect drag bunt—it would have been terrible, except for the fact that Mark DeRosa was playing on the outfield grass!—and all of a sudden, it was 2-0 Dodgers, and Zambrano had to face Russell Martin.  The rest was history; Martin lined a double into the left-field gap, and the rout was on.  The crowd was ABSOLUTELY DEAD by that point.

I could spend some time explaining how the Cubs aren’t close to being done in this series—Harden could quickly shut down the Dodgers’ roster, and so could Lilly, and then the Dodgers would have to win a Game Five at Chicago, possibly facing Zambrano!—but I’m not going to waste my time.  It seems that Cubs fans are so certain that their team is cursed that Peter Gammons couldn’t convince Cubs fans otherwise, much less a stupid blogger.

One parting topic about this series:  can people stop arguing that the Cubs are choking this series away more than the Dodgers are winning it?  Sure, Ryan Dempster was crazy wild in Game One, but Loney still had to hit a 1-2 pitch into the center field seats, right?  Sure, the Cubs’ infield defense looked like they were using frying pans as gloves, but the Dodgers still had to make contact with Zambrano’s pitching, right?

Sorry, Cubs faithful, but the Dodgers are winning this series 2-0.  However, THEY HAVE NOT YET WON!

(Never mind.)

Other Division Series-related thoughts:

- How are all four DSes 2-0?

- How did Brett Myers (????) draw two walks against C.C. Sabathia?

- How are the Rays doing it?

- How are the Angels not?

One parting thought about the Angels:  as an Angels “hater,” I was mildly amused with watching K-Rod give up the game winning bomb in the Los Angeles Angels nowhere in Los Angeles’ loss to Boston tonight.

Then I realized who hit the game winner.

Damn that unnamed right fielder.

Until next time!

Tags: chicago cubs, cold weather, comedy of errors, cookies, frys.com, lg shine, los angeles dodgers, rebate-o-meter, ungsungblog psa, usps by Peter
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Let’s get right into the topic of the day.

- After watching Cubs’ pitcher Ryan Dempster yield his seventh walk of the day, and then making James Loney look bad on three straight low pitches, I was very upset when I saw Loney swing at another one.

Routine fly ball to center, I thought to myself. Another wasted opportunity—thanks, Andre Ethier—in a game where every run was going to be huge.

That’s when I noticed that TBS’ camera was still panning up, and all of Wrigley Field immediately became silent. Even the winds that make Wrigley Field famous couldn’t knock that shot down.

As I watched Loney’s slam find its way into the bleachers, I had no idea how to react. Cheer, dammit, I kept thinking to myself. For some reason, I felt paralyzed. James Loney hit a grand slam, and you can’t even utter a “YES!”???

Eventually, I had the wherewithal to text my sister the following message: BOOM!!! OUTTA HERE!!!

In a matter of mere moments, the Dodgers erased a 2-0 deficit, and all of a sudden, Cubs fans everywhere are seriously gripping with the possibility that they may have to wait another year for a World Series opportunity.

(Don’t include me in that list, Cubs fans! As far as I am concerned, the series is playing out exactly as I expected it to; I figured that the Dodgers’ best chance to steal a game was Game One, and I just don’t see the Cubs—and Zambrano—losing Game Two. In fact, I actually predicted that the Cubs would win this series in four games, losing Game One in the process.)

Yes, Cubs faithful, many things were going against the Cubbies in this game: Derek Lowe being on top of his game, the euphoria running about in Wrigley, the adrenaline flowing through Ryan Dempster, and that guy named Manny.

(Did you see that lob wedge he hit? What a showoff he is, applying a tiny bit of draw to the shot :P)

However, even after that seventh walk—did Dempster really walk Derek Lowe TWICE????—it looked like Dempster was going to escap. Too bad he hung just one pitch right over the plate, and as the ball was lifted into the sky, you could have heard a pin drop in Wrigley. Even still, Cubs fans…

(clears throat)

IT’S JUST ONE GAME!!! CALM DOWN!!!

Worry not, Cubs fans. Z will lead your team to a win tomorrow.

Seriously, Cubs fans, I sincerely hope the reports that some of you were acting like the series was over were exaggerated. Come on! That’s why the NLDS is a best-of-five, right? That’s why your team earned the home field advantage, right?

(This isn’t helping, is it, Cubs fans?)

Here are some other thoughts on topics in the sports world:

- Oh, Terrible Owens, I expected more out of you than a weak “The media blew it all out of proportion” argument. I’m almost disappointed in your poor effort. Couldn’t you have uttered this phrase while doing some chin-ups, at least?

My favorite part:

“That is not to say nothing about Tony Romo,” Owens said. “I am not going to be able to catch every ball thrown my way. Every pass was not a valid catchable pass.”

Do those two sentences bolded above appear even somewhat contradictory? They sure do to me; after all, who is the one throwing “every pass?”

I can’t wait for T.O. to be traded to another team, just so I can hear what he really thinks about Tony Romo.

- In the wake of Lance Armstrong’s return to competitive racing (a terrible idea, IMO), apparently the French anti-doping agency wants Armstrong to approve the testing of his 1999 Tour de France “B” urine samples, a request that Armstrong has since rejected.

(Here’s why I think Armstrong returning to the sport is such a bad idea: his legacy is intact, speculation aside. He’s has nothing close to a Kirk Radomski (Roger Clemens) or something as damning as a grand jury perjury charge (Bonds) on him. And no, it doesn’t hurt that he’s perceived as a “good guy.”

So what’s the point of coming back? To prove that he did everything legitimately?

If Armstrong comes back and fails, what would the main reason be for his failure: lack of cheating, or simply age?

If Armstrong comes back and succeeds, and doesn’t pass a test, would Armstrong really be perceived as clean, or could there be additional speculation that he is simply “getting over” on drug-testers?)

As much as I admire Armstrong, I gotta ask this question: if he knows he didn’t cheat, then why wouldn’t he approve of the re-test? Wouldn’t declining the test only provide even more speculation that he really did cheat?

I hope I never see the day where Lance Armstrong is proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to be a cheat. At the same time, though, if he is a cheater, I would want to know. Allowing a test on urine samples from 1999 would, in my opinion, be a huge step in proving his innocence.

On the other hand, who knows what state those samples are in? Who knows if those samples are tainted? These are just even more reasons why Armstrong should not bother returning back to a sport that is going to monitor his every action, 24/7, for who knows how long.

Until next time!

Tags: carlos zambrano, chicago cubs, james loney, lance armstrong, los angeles dodgers, manny ramirez, nlds, ryan dempster, tour de france by Peter
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No quick-hitters tonight.

- So as my loyal readers (all none of you) know, I’ve got idiot neighbors.  The neighbors upstairs, though, are especially rude and inconsiderate.  Everyone up there seems to enjoy constantly running around their condo with absolutely no regards for us downstairs.  I used to wonder if there were nine or ten people in that condo, or if the residents there were just all really…um…lead-footed?

Well, according to my sister, part of the reason why they are so noisy is because there are at least TWO families that share the condo!  Additionally, my sister, being awfully gratuitous, pointed out that several of them are…well…lead-footed?

(Hank—where are you???—might dub some of them “heroically portly.”)

Form your own conclusions; I am just speaking the truth!  Wouldn’t YOU get riled up about being forced awake at 5:30AM to hear what sounds like the National Jume Rope Competition going on upstairs?

- Shot-Online update:  I made it!  I am now a Semi-Pro—thanks to a -8 on Gladsheim—and I absolutely LOATH it.

I hate losing EXP just for making bogeys.  I hate the Pro courses!  Can I go back to being an amateur?

So, because only I care about how I got to Semi-Pro, here’s a brief recap of my Gladsheim round:

• Birdie on 1 (-1)
• Lip-out for birdie on 2
• Birdie on 3 (-2)
• A medium-length (3-7yd; the hardest putt to make consistently) double-breaker par save on 4
• A similar par save on 7
• Another birdie somewhere between 3 and 7 (-3)
• Chip-in birdie on 8 (-4)
• Birdie on 9 (-5)

And then…

• A 2yd putt for par broke unexpectedly, and rolled 4yd back.  A tough putt for bogey kept me at -4
• Pars on 11-13
• Birdie on 14 (-5)
• Par on the toughest hole on the course (IMO):  15
• Birdie on 16 (-6)
• Thinking I needed “insurance,” I made birdie on 17 (-7)
• Birdie on 18 (-8)

Further proof that I’m a Shot-Online dork, right?

- Reason #9080329483242342 why I hate Fantasy Football:

My sister somehow blonded (please save the hate mail!) her way to a 2-2 record, while I’m 1-3 in one league and 1-2-1 (I absolutely stole a tie against a 3-0 team, thanks to Pittsburgh’s DST) in the other.

It’s not fair!

Amazingly enough, Le’Ron McClain was available as a FA in both of my leagues, as well as popular pickups as Lance Moore (WR - NO), Steve Slaton (RB - HOU), and Muhsin Muhammed (WR - CAR).

Hopefully this is the week teams start quitting, so I can start rallying towards respectability

Other, non-fantasy, football thoughts:

- No, the big story of the weekend was not T.O. remembering that he is T.O.  It was not the whole Al Davis-Lane Kiffin ordeal.

Tampa Bay K Matt Bryant playing one day after burying his infant son has to be the story of the week, if not the entire NFL season:

“The biggest thing for me, I wanted to honor [son] Tryson’s name,” Bryant said. “I mean, I don’t think it was very fair for his life to end so short. This is the best way I believe I could get out and honor him. I miss him and wish he was here, but he was here with me. He helped out.”

Prayers go out to the Bryant family.

That being said…

- Thank you, T.O., for remembering that you, not Tony Romo, are the most compelling figure on the Dallas Cowboys’ roster.  Seriously, complaining that you weren’t involved enough in the offense?  By everyone’s count, you were involved in 20 of 58 plays, or over 1/3 of all the Cowboys’ offensive plays!

Should we expect to see T.O. lined up as QB and/or RB sometime next week?

(And nice job, T.O., giving absolutely no credit to Washington DB Shawn Springs, who was in your back pocket all day.)

- Boy…what to make of the entire Al Davis/Lane Kiffen situation?  I certainly don’t know all of the facts, but if anyone has a case against the other, it’s Kiffen for everything Davis has done to him!  Remember the resignation letter Davis drafted for Kiffen to sign?

I sincerely hope Kiffen gets the money left over on his contract.  Should this be his one and only NFL contract, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind having to “settle” for a college football job.

Also, who the hell would want the Raiders’ coaching job, after this entire episode?

- Ninety-one points combined for Arizona and New York (Bretts)?  Crazy.

And I guess the “Greatest [QB] of All Time” can still play.

(Yes, that remark was made tongue in cheek.)

- Speaking of Diva Favre…are Packers fans seriously panicking now that the Packers are 2-2 and Aaron Rodgers might be hurt.

I sense that Diva Favre is quietly celebrating by himself right now.

- I hear there are plenty of job openings available in Pittsburgh’s backfield.

- With Kansas City out of the picture, that leaves my Rams as the only team winless.

The fact that they came from ahead to lose to Buffalo gives me hope!

- I guess Chicago’s defense is for real.  Same with Pittsburgh.  I guess Buffalo is really for real.  I guess L.T. is just fine.  And is Carolina for real?

Until next time!

Tags: aaron rodgers, al davis, diva favre, fantasy football, gladsheim, lane kiffen, semi-pro, shot-online, stupid neighbors, t.o. by Peter
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