UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Let’s see if I remember how to do this.

(Week 1 NFL thoughts to come tomorrow…I hope.)

Random thoughts from the past week:

- Stupid commercials I’ve seen lately:

1) These two about high-fructose corn syrup. I was going to attempt a long-winded rant about these commercials, but I’ll let The Consumerist and their readers handle it.

2) “Pasta player-hater!” WTF.

- I have something like ten rebates that need to go out in the next week or so.

Who wants to bet that I won’t send them out until two days before the postmark deadline?

- Eight straight wins, and now nine of ten. A 2.5 game lead over Arizona. Four wins against Arizona aces (Brandon Webb and Dan Haren).

Three thoughts here:

1) Why aren’t teams giving Manny the Barry Bonds treatment? Manny had another HR today, as well as a scoring fly ball. Can we etch his name on the MVP award right now?

2) Speaking of Manny…hey, Jeff Kent, Andre Ethier is Exhibit B of the Manny effect, is he not? He had four more RBI today, including a huge bases-clearing double to give the Dodgers’ bullpen some breathing room.

Don’t rush back, Kent.

3) Derek Lowe just made himself a ton of money over the past few weeks. And who knows how much more money Manny made himself.

- So some of you might be thinking that I was kicking up my heels and celebrating the season-ending torn ACL that Tom Brady suffered.

You’d be wrong, and I will neither confirm nor deny that that eleventy billion replays I’ve seen of the hit that Brady took might have changed my opinion of the injury. Despite what I may have written in the past about the Cheat-riots, nobody deserves a season-ending knee injury, especially on a fluke play in the first quarter of the first game of the season.

And please stop with the “karma’s a b!tch” talk. If anything, the Pats got what was coming to them in last year’s Super Bowl.

I first heard of the injury when I woke up late Sunday morning, fired up my laptop, and saw something about Brady leaving the Chiefs-Pats game early in the first quarter with a knee injury. When I first read that headline, I immediately thought “Oh oh…season ender?” After seeing the replay for the first time, I was about 90% sure he was done for the year.

Was the hit dirty? I don’t think so. It seemed desperate, and definitely unnecessary, but I didn’t think it was dirty at all.

What sickens me about the entire situation is the fact that one could argue that Diva Favre’s Jets team might very well be the favorites in the AFC East. If the Jets win the East (even with Brady’s injury), we might not hear the end of it until after the Super Bowl, even if the Jets lose in the first round of the playoffs! Worse, we might have to suffer through weeks and weeks of “See? The Packers should never have gotten rid of Favre!”

(shudder…)

More NFL thoughts next time…

- My two fantasy football drafts had one thing in common: I somehow missed the first pick of each draft.

Both leagues are Yahoo! standard, ten-team leagues. Unfortunately, I was not able to get twelve players to partake in a BargainShare league. Oh well.

(Note: For some reason, I’m having difficulty getting screenshots of my draft results. As soon as I figure out what is going on, I’ll post the full draft results. For now, I’ll just list my team.)

Team 1 (currently 0-1 and in DEAD FREAKING LAST):

• Round 1, Pick 4: RB Steven Jackson

(Grrrr…I was going to draft Joseph Addai here. I was also considering Tom Brady here, so at least I didn’t do that!)

• Round 2, Pick 17: WR Reggie Wayne

(Peyton Manning better get back into “game-shape” real soon.)

• Round 3: RB Maurice Jones-Drew
• Round 4: QB Carson Palmer

(This is the pick that is going to make or break my team. So far, I’m leaning towards “break.”)

• Round 5: WR Roy Williams

(I was going to take Williams in round 4, and was very happy to see him fall to me in round 5.)

• Round 6: TE Dallas Clark
• Round 7: DST Minnesota

(Don’t ask.)

• Round 8: WR Donald Driver
• Round 9: RB Thomas Jones

(Sleeper! And with the way Steven Jackson and the Rams are playing, he might be a starter soon enough.)

• Round 10: WR Bernard Berrian
• Round 11: WR Reggie Brown
• Round 12: K Phil Dawson

(He has since been dropped.)

• Round 13: RB Kevin Smith (Lions)
• Round 14: WR Drew Bennett

(Rams’ loyalty :P)

• Round 15: QB Jeff Garcia

I could see this team easily finishing 5-9 or something like that. I am not too thrilled with this team, and believe it or not, this was my “casual” draft.

Team 2 (1-0, second place after scoring 111 pts):

• Round 1, Pick 4: RB Brian Westbrook

(I actually wanted Addai here too. I think I’ll live with this pick.)

• Round 2, Pick 17: RB Ryan Grant
• Round 3: WR Andre Johnson
• Round 4: WR Roy Williams
• Round 5: TE Antonio Gates

(Why was I not notified that he still has a foot injury???)

• Round 6: QB Donovan McNabb

(Possibly my best pick of both drafts, if he stays healthy.)

• Round 7: WR Donald Driver
• Round 8: WR Jerricho Cotchery
• Round 9: DST Pittsburgh
• Round 10: RB Selvin Young

(Michael Pittman? Andre Hall? Stupid Mike Shanahan :P)

• Round 11: WR Nate Burleson

(Ouch…torn ACL? Now who is Matt Hasselbeck going to throw to?)

• Round 12: K Phil Dawson

(Dropped.)

• Round 13: RB Justin Fargas
• Round 14: QB Matt Schaub
• Round 15: WR Ronald Curry

If (and that’s a huge IF) my top six stay healthy, this team is going to be a force to reckon with…I think.

Until next time!

Tags: andre ethier, derek lowe, fantasy football, hfcs, high fructose corn syrup, jeff kent, los angeles dodgers, manny ramirez, new england patriots, season ending injury, stupid commercials, tom brady, torn acl by Peter
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Wow.  It’s been a week since I last blogged?!?

Whoops!

I’ve got lots to talk about, but I’ll split it over two or more blog entries.

Random thoughts (aka an extended version of “Quick-hitters”):

- Speaking of not blogging lately, apparently one week of not blogging has absolutely killed my blog traffic statistics.  I got about one-third of the normal hits over the past few days.

- This is a very cool Eddie Izzard fan site, which I found via Google Analytics shortly after I posted my Stripped mini-review.

Check it out!

- How great is it that Diva Favre is no longer the top sports news story out there?

Thank you, Michael Phelps (more on him another time).

(And do we really have to hear about how his arm was fatigued after a practice?  What’s next?  Will we get an article about him being constipated before a preseason game?)

- In succession, I just viewed the following annoying-as-hell commercials:  a McDonald’s commercial advertising their apparently still “New” Southern Chicken sandwich, a Wal-Mart commercial (Do you know what I like about Wal-Mart?), and a really obnoxious Target commerical (You…say…goodbye…and I…say…hello…).

I need a TiVo.

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,100.  I received a couple hundred bucks in rebate checks and gift cards in the last week, and, naturally, I added about $200 in unfiled rebates over the weekend.

- Hey Dodger fans, do you realize that your team could easily be on an eleven game winning streak?

Stupid bullpen.  Damn you, Broxton, Kuo, and Park.

And what the hell was Matt Kemp thinking in the Dodgers’ most recent loss, a 4-3 decision against Milwaukee on Saturday?  For those of you that didn’t see the game, Kemp was at first, and Andre Ethier hit a towering drive to center.  Brewers’ CF Mike Cameron missed the ball as it bounced off the base, but Kemp was only able to get to second?!?  Apparently, he went back to first, thinking Cameron caught the ball.  What the hell?  If Kemp were standing at or near second, like he should have been, he ends up at third at the absolute worst, and a Kent sac fly (he lined out to center eventually) ties the game!

Dumb base running, a terrible bullpen, games choked away…I’ve seen this script before.  Oh yeah, I saw it last year.

Other Dodger thoughts:

- Two more bombs by Ethier, including a game winner.  Shouldn’t that all but cement Andruw Jones’ status as a $36 million cheerleader, and seriously shorten Juan Pierre’s playing time?

- I know Manny has only played a few games as a Dodger, but is it too crazy to consider him a possibility as the NL MVP?

(Call me a homer.  Go ahead!)

Isn’t it amazing what happens when this guy tries?  Six HRs, an NL-leading 21 RBI in August, and look what he’s done for Jeff Kent and Andre Ethier!  Ken’t BA has gone up 20 points or so, and Ethier’s raking!  Now, if Manny can rub off on Loney and Martin, look out!

What scares me about the Dodgers is that, despite their very nice run of late, they’re only tied with the D’Backs, and we know that the D’Backs won’t run into too many prolonged losing streaks (not with Webb and Haren on the mound).

Until next time!

Tags: andre ethier, bullpen woes, chan ho park, diva favre, eddie izzard, fan site, hong-chih kuo, jonathan broxton, los angeles dodgers, manny ramirez, matt kemp, nl mvp, stupid commercials by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- Man-Ram: 2 for 4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, .500 batting average since the trade.

I’m just sayin’

By the way, what is it going to take for Joe Torre to realize that Ramirez-Kemp-Ethier MUST be his outfield against any RHP??? Does Torre have something against Ethier?

And does anyone want Andruw Jones? We’ll take a bag of sunflower seeds for him!

- (Un?)fortunately, it appears that Sprint has fixed my billing issues from yesterday, and I only owe the correct amount of $31.77.

Drat. I really wanted to yell at them too!

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,300 and still falling.

Big-box-in-living-room-o-meter: nine and rising

- Dear Fedex delivery guy,

2 <– This is a TWO.

3 <– This is a THREE.

1 0 2 <– This says “ONE ZERO TWO,” as in “Unit 102.”

1 0 3 <– This says “ONE ZERO THREE,” as in “Unit 103.”

If a package is addressed to “Unit 102,” you should probably leave said package in front of the door labeled “102.”  You probably should not leave said package in front of the door labeled “103,” and you definitely should not stack three huge, heavy boxes in front of the door labeled “103.”  What if my neighbor couldn’t move the boxes, and, therefore, could not get into his house?

(And you most definitely should not do this on consecutive days.)

I’m thinking about asking my neighbor if I could stick a sign on his door with a huge arrow on it and the words “ONE ZERO TWO is over there!”

- As soon as I found out that Foreigner was headlining the August 2nd edition of this year’s Alhambra Summer Jubilee, I circled this date on my calendar.  That was several months ago.

We swung by Victory Restaurant for lunner—a late lunch/early dinner—and had the grilled garlic with chicken.  In other words, it was a grilled piece of chicken with a crapola of chopped fried garlic on top.  Good stuff, though it was a shame that we couldn’t get there in time for the lunch specials.

We got to the Jubilee at around 5PM, and apparently they now require you to get wristbands before you could sit in the bleachers.  These wristbands had section, row, and seat #s on them; I don’t recall getting assigned seating at last year’s Jubilee.  After we got our wristbands, we strolled onto Main Street where we listened to this “band” butcher GnR’s “Sweet Child of Mine” for 30 seconds, or 29 seconds too long.

After that horrific experience, we went east of Garfield to a drink shop (I forget the name), where I had a Green Apple Green Tea.  At least, that’s what they said the drink was; it tasted like slightly watered-down Apple Pucker.  It was ridiculously sweet!  I felt like I was eating one of those green apple lollipops.

From 6-7 and 7:30-8:30, we were entertained by 80z All Stars.  They weren’t terrible, but I couldn’t really get into the music, as I was anxiously awaiting for Foreigner.  Finally, at around 8:45 (fifteen minutes later than scheduled), Foreigner finally came on stage, starting off the night with Double Vision.

When the second song came around—I believe it was Head Games—some guy who sat directly to our left returned to his seat, and proceeded to royally piss me off.  He got to his seat, but instead of sitting down, he started singing and gesturing to the band!

Picture this:  Head (gesture) games (gesture)…It’s you (gesture) and me (gesture) baby (gesture)…Head (gesture) games (gesture)…and I can’t (gesture) take it (gesture) anymore (gesture)…

(EDIT:  After a bit of deliberation, this douchebag’s act reminded me of this.  Go to 1:07 in the video, and focus on the guy in green.  Note the gestures, and then realize that the douchebag sitting next to us gestured at Foreigner

Not much later, the guy left again, and thank goodness that he never returned.

As for the rest of the concert (Note:  I’m recapping this off the top of my head; if I made a mistake somewhere, please let me know):

1) The first half of Waiting For a Girl Like You, sans strings, was incredible, as well as their new “remix” of Say You Will.  I especially loved the latter.

2) Urgent got the biggest screams of the night…at least by the individuals near me (and my ears have yet to recover from all that screaming).  Jukebox Hero was S T R E T C H E D out to nearly fifteen minutes, mostly of crowd interaction, and they could have ended the show right there without anyone being disappointed.

Fortunately…

3) After Long, Long Way From Home (a song I’ve heard once or twice before), Foreigner played an amazing rendition of I Want to Know What Love Is, and they could have ended the show after that song.

4) Then again, what better way to end a concert on what started as a hot summer evening than with Hot Blooded?  Right?

Awesome concert overall, and the fact that it was free doesn’t hurt.  And thank goodness that the Lou Gramm Jr. left us after only a few seconds of torture.

Tags: alhambra summer jubilee, andre ethier, billing issue, delivery guy, double vision, fedex, foreigner, head games, hot blooded, i want to know what love is, joe torre, jukebox hero, long long way from home, manny ramirez, say you will, sprint, urgent, victory restaurant, waiting for a girl like you by Peter
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Sunburns are bad.

They’re really bad when they prevent you from sleeping.

Time to apply some more sunburn lotion.

(AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!)

No quick-hitters tonight.

- I got an email last night from Sprint.com, telling me that my next billing statement was ready to be viewed. I said to myself, “Oh great. I get to call Sprint CS again to get my 10% credit manually added to my account!”

That’s when I saw this:

Total Due by August 20 $31.77

OMG. Sprint added the 10% discount to my account AUTOMAGICALLY??? Whoa!

EDIT: WTF? Just a few minutes ago, I logged on to my Sprint.com account, and saw this:

Last Bill Amount $527.01
Adjustments/Credits $0.00
Recent Payments -$118.00
Total Due $409.01
Pay By August 18

Completely horrified, I clicked on “View latest bill,” and saw the correct amount due: $31.77. I then logged on to My Account through my cell phone, and saw that I owe $536.41, due on August 5!

Sprint’s customer call centers are closed right now, but you better believe that I am going to call them first thing tomorrow morning afternoon.

I love you, Sprint.

(Now, I’m just going to assume that this is an obvious error on Sprint’s end. However, we are talking about Sprint here…)

- Manny Ramirez is a Dodger, and the dividends are already coming in!

(Granted, one of his hits was a check-swing grounder, but still.)

The last time I saw a Dodger crowd THAT energized, we had another future Hall of Famer playing on our team: some guy named Mike Piazza. Geez, did you hear how loud the crowd got when Ramirez made a catch on a routine fly ball? And how about when he got his first hit, nearly taking out D’Backs’ SS Stephen Drew in the process?

I heard that the Dodgers sold somewhere around 10,000 extra tickets for the remaining games against the D’Backs once it was official that the Dodgers traded for Manny. Is anyone surprised by that? Did Frank McCourt not realized that trading for a big name was going to increase ticket sales?

(Sigh…what if the Dodgers had traded for C.C. Sabathia???)

As for the deal itself, I absolutely loved it. When the rumors about Manny coming to LA first circled about, I heard Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp’s names. Had the Dodgers dealt Matt Kemp, I (and a number of Dodger fans, I would imagine) would have been royally pissed. At first, I was sorta OK with giving up Ethier for Manny, but then it quickly became evident that another prospects—LaRoche?—would have been involved in the deal.

Naturally, when I found out that LaRoche was the only key prospect involved, I was filled with glee. Andy LaRoche had virtually zero trade value, thanks to the Dodgers’ terrible mismanagement of his career to date as well as the “emergence” of Blake DeWitt. To flip him and an inconsequential minor league pitcher for two months of a future HOFer, as well as at least one compensatory draft pick, AND the rest of Ramirez’ salary, one has to give some props to Colletti.

(On the other hand, one could argue that Boston REALLY wanted to get rid of Ramirez. I mean, they had to pay the Dodgers to take him, AND trade two of their own prospects, all to get a downgrade in Jason Bay?)

Dodger fans have to be elated by the fact that we know we’ll get two months of the maximum effort Manny; after all, he’s basically playing for one more huge contract. That’s just even more reason to be giddy.

Does Manny guarantee a Dodgers’ NL West victory? Not if they keep scoring one run against Arizona. However, you better believe that I am going to thoroughly enjoy every AB Manny has from here on to the end of the season.

I feel like a kid in a candy store…on Christmas.

Tags: 10% discount, andre ethier, andy laroche, Arizona Diamondbacks, billing errors, blake dewitt, C.C. Sabathia, los angeles dodgers, manny ramirez, matt kemp, sprint by Peter
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