Holy Pavano! Pedro to the Pen? The Baseball Quarterly Report

Well the Chinese drummers have gone home, and the Olympics are over and I wrote only one paragraph plus this sentence on this blog about the Summer Games! I watched 'em every night after the Met game was over, which will be my viewing habits these next 2wks when the US Open is on. Maybe they should have the ball girls wear beach volleyball bikinis? Is there anything dopier than those silly bikinis and how Bob Costas hyped the Finals taking place on a rainy wet day?

Well... here we go with another sports column.... and amazingly at the end of next wk, it will be time for our first week of NFL picks... featuring the very popular Pumpstradamus. And as we wind down into the last week of August on that dreaded path to Labor Day, it is time once again to revist the baseball scene with our Baseball Quarterly Report.

First... I gotta admit I was wrong with last weeks column speculating on the possibility that Mad Dog Russo's departure from WFAN was engineered by Mike Francesa. Doggie's quick jump over to satellite radio to not only host his own show, but also to program his own channel makes it obvious that Dog really felt it was time for a change and this whole transition had been in the works for many months. I actually am starting to think of subscribing now that I have realized that I can get satellite radio on my cell phone. We'll have to see how many shekels that is going to cost. As for Francesa.. I hope he hires a good sidekick/update person because he really doesn't have it what it takes to carry a 5 1/2 hour show by himself. Granted he knows his stuff, but its hard to maintain a Mad Dogesque stamina running a talk show solo over that long a period. Maybe the FAN should hire Warner Wolf to do the same stuff he does for WABC/ESPN.... do sports updates with a weekend show tossed in. That would inject some personality into the show. Sid Rosenberg would be a good addition too... he could be the Artie Lange of the Francesa show.


Baseball coverage fascinates me. When it comes to the NFL I'm really more interested in the Giants and Jets than the other teams. Yet when it comes to baseball... even though we hear a lot of Mets and Yankees talk here in NJ... fantasy baseball players like myself develop a keen awareness of the national baseball scene. I actually follow the national baseball scene more than the out of town NFL games... and its quite disappointing that the Newark Star Ledger seems to have dropped its long running Sunday Baseball column. Yet they have enough resources to deal with that crappy NJ.com website and its dastardly bulletin boards?

Anyway, we will first start with the locals...

The Yankees - it's over folks. They have no shot at passing Tampa Bay and Boston for the division title, and just to get the wild card they would need to not only finish 2nd in the East but still end up with a better record than either the White Sox or the Twins. Ain't gonna happen as the post season streak will come to an end. But they did get Carl Pavano back!

Speaking of Pavano.. isnt it interesting how we work in a society where workplace signs are posted mandating employees to report an injury no matter how minor it is. Then in George Carlin-esque irony, we have baseball... which has a website boldly announcing all the on field injuries. I can't understand why the fans were busting Pavano's chops these last few years... the guy was hurt on the job! (Granted he did suffer some injuries in a car accident he kept hush hush) If you were on the job and cut your finger you would make a whole case out of it. Pavano suffered an on the job injury that required major surgery. And in the NFL.... if you suffer an on the job injury... you don't have a guaranteed contract... they cut you - you're fired! Maybe Gene Upshaw's replacement can change this. Can you imagine getting hurt at work and then getting fired for it?

The Mets - Here we go with my controversial idea for the Mets.. especially in light of John Maine's possible season ending injury. I became a big Pedro Martinez fan on October 11, 1999 during Game 5 of the best of 5 playoff series between the Red Sox and Indians. Pedro was getting over an injury and was not even supposed to pitch in the game. He was unable to start, but surprisingly came in from the bullpen in the 4th inning of an 8-8 pitchers duel, Pedro pitched 6 innings of hitless relief to help the Red Sox win the game 12-8 and the Series 3 games to 2. He also did have a crummy relief appearance in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS when the Red Sox beat the Yankees after being down 3 games to none... but that game was so surreal and bizarre that you gotta take that appearance with a grain of salt.

I think about that 1999 game when I realize that the Mets have an outstanding rotation, and a pretty decent offense that has been able to compensate for shaky corner outfielders and a not so Beltraaaaaanish season by Carlos Beltraaaaaaaaaaan. Nonetheless, the starters and offense are quite outstanding compared to the other NL teams which puts them in a great position to win the division, except for the fact that the Billy Wagner-less bullpen has been awful. The Mets have gotten a couple of bandaids by acquiring Luis Ayala and Anthony Reyes from Tampa Bay. Ayala has been ok and Reyes was the Rays stopper in 2007... but who knows how much he has left in the tank. It would be cool to see him pitch in a mop up game batting 9th so that the Mets could go into an inning with Reyes, (Jose) Reyes, and (Argenis) Reyes due up. Has a team ever had 3 guys with the same last name bat consecutively?

Anyway, going back to that Pedro appearance mentioned before, could he be a 9th inning option after the manager opined about having a starter move to the pen? Pedro might not have the overpowering heat he had back in the old days, but a stopper only needs a strikeout if he has a runner on 3rd with less than 2 out. Plus he is a seasoned veteran with post season experience. The Mets got a break in the schedule these last few weeks playing a bunch of sub par teams, but now that that stretch has come to an end, its time to enact a battle plan to avoid the same late season tumble the Mets endured last year. Perhaps Pedro to the pen might be the answer.



As for the playoffs there are a few races left:

In the AL, the Angels have sewn it up and the only question is will K-Rod break the all time saves record. Over in the East, the Rays have been hanging tough despite injuries to rookie sensation Evan Longoria, outfielder Carl Crawford and stopper Troy Percival, The Red Sox traded away Manny but Jason Bay is a very underrated player who could develop into a big star. The Sox now have an outfield of JD (Drew) JE (Jacoby Ellsbury) and Jay Bay. The rest of the division could all finish above .500. Over in the Central the White Sox and Twins battle it out for the division with the 2nd place finisher trying to get the Wild Card. These 4 teams could battle down to the wire.... with only 3 making the post season, but I am going to go with Tampa succumbing to its injuries but icing the wild card with the Red Sox winning the division, and the Twins winning the Central with their terrific young team especially the pitching staff. It brings back memories of the days when Bert Blyleven used to to throw gas... See Bert's pic below. I found this pic on another blog awhile back.



In the NL... I'm hoping the Mets can pull it off.... their hitting has been pretty consistent and the starters have been doing the job better than their other division rivals. I'm picking them again this season to win the East, but with substantially less confidence of years past. 2nd place in the East might not be enough this season with the Cardinals and Brewers fighting to finish 2nd to the Cubbies. The Cards looked great for most of the season but the Brewers added CC Sabathia to a rotation anchored by Ben Sheets and their young sluggers Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder seem to have enough to take the Wild Card. Remember... Wild Cards are so hard to predict, because all it takes is a hot streak on a weak schedule for a team once thought dead to breathe life into its season. That was the case with the 2007 Rockies who rode a late season hot streak all the way to the World Series. Over in the West, The D-Backs have a terrific rotation of Brandon Webb, Dan Haren and the ageless Randy Johnson. I think they are going to hold off the Dodgers to take the West even though their bullpen looks a little shaky lately. Plus they just added Adam Dunn... the Dave Kingman of the new millenium.


Post Season Awards:

AL MVP - I thought it would go to Josh Hamilton at the All Star Break but you gotta go with Carlos Quentin. He leads the AL in homers, and who knows where the White Sox would have been with out him. He is the Carlos Pena of 2007... this guy came out of nowhere from a part timer in Arizona... and the DBacks could have used him this year with all the injuries suffered by Eric Byrnes.

AL Cy Young - Cliff Lee has had an awesome season and I would give it to him, however if Fransisco Rodriguez breaks the all time saves record, he should get it.

AL Rookie of the Year - Evan Longoria gets all the hype but Tigers starter Armando Gallaraga has been gaining steam now standing at 12-4 with a 3.17 ERA after the pitching challenged Rangers cut him in the spring. Longoria has played 104 games with 20 homers and 71 Ribbys.


NL MVP - Too close to call. If the Cardinals make the playoffs, I would go with Ryan Ludwick who has Quentinesque numbers. If they don't and the Mets make it, I would give it to David Wright. Nonetheless, there could be a scenario where the Mets pen knocks them out of the playoffs, and if that were the case it would cost Wright the award and probably give it to Chase Utley if both the Mets and Cards are out. I'm gonna put my faith in the Mets pen that they will make it, the Cards won't and that Wright will win the award.

NL Cy Young - I had picked Zambrano at the All Star Break but Brandon Webb has pretty much iced it.

NL Rookie - Edinson Volquez 15-5 2.73 ERA on a crummy Reds team.

Well now its time for the Democrat's Convention. I might chime in with some thoughts about it. But then again, I might not. Nonetheless, we will definitely be back September 5th which is my 4th wedding anniversary for our first week of NFL Picks with the popular Pumpstradamus.

CLIP OF THE WEEK

Let's hope Michael Strahan decides to come back. Here is that classic stomp clip from last year's parade. And to think that event included an amusing speech by Eliot Spitzer! As TMZ.com would say... Memba him?

The Blog and The Dog: One is Back and One is Gone!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand good afternoon everybody how are you today?

It's interesting to note that the FAN announced the Doggie departure by proclaiming that Francesa had signed a new deal to be the "solo" afternoon host. Also, keep in mind there is a new NY state law that doesnt allow "no compete" clauses anymore, a broadcasting industry twist that changes the playing field that used to keep media personalities off the airwaves after they left one station to head to the next. I remember Arnold Diaz appeared mustacheless on 20/20 one night, the same night he appeard on a spot on Channel 5 to announce that he was coming back to NY TV real soon.. with a mustache! Good thing there isn't a no compete clause in the mortgage industry: Last month I left one job at 10:05 AM and was at my desk at my new job at 10:10 AM!

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I have been following the saga on the terrific Neil Best's fine blog....(Not to be confused with Neil Fein's best blog). But I am wondering if this move was iniated by Dog's desire to expand his career elsewhere or was this a move engineered by Francesa? He saw that the station took a hit losing Imus... did he gamble that they would find him valuable by telling brass that he would only stay if the station allowed him to sign a "solo hosting" gig? Now with much fanfare lauding the new Mike solo gig, Dog is gone... even as the FAN website was touting a number of Russo promotional remote appearances?

I really like the Doggie - I met him many many years ago pre WFAN when he was hosting a little weekend talk show on WMCA where I did one of my two college internships... (the other was at WFAN). Here is a coincidence nobody caught. Mike's first show Friday featured a number of car commericals voiced by Patricia McCann. Back in the WMCA days, Doggie's talk show was on right before a show hosted by.... Patricia McCann! Russo was exactly the same way off the air then, as he is more than 20 years later on the air! And he was a really nice friendly fella too. I actually told him that one day he would replace the late Pete Franklin as the afternoon host on WFAN! And with Pumpstradamus like accuracy - I was right! Dog actually took me to Shea for Tom Seaver Day, and used his press credentials to get us out on the field to watch the ceremonies. What a day that was! Seaver was my hero at the time and it was fantastic. Later, Doggie and I sat in the Press Box during the game and I rattled off some stat about the game that was repeated a moment later by the Press Box PA announcer to which he exclaimed in typical doggie-esque fashion "Good job Nate! Good job!" A newspaper reporter heard this exchange and approached Dog and asked him if he was Chris Russo. I wondered if it was the first time he had ever been recognized in NY. Perhaps a star was born that day!

While still toiling in the obscurity at WMCA, Dog started moonlighting at WFAN picking up odd over night fill in shifts. It didnt take him long to get noticed as his loyal San Fransisco Giant fan-dom led him into a fiery on air debate with Mike Francesa over who is a better player - Will Clark or Don Mattingly. The 2 kept battling it out on the Imus show, and on Sept. 5, 1989 - (exactly 15 yrs before my wedding day!) the Mike and the Mad Dog show was born.

I think they actually did some shows together before the official 9/5/89 premiere. I thought they were on the air the day Bart Giamatti died which was September 1st 1989. The only reason I remember was I was working at a now defunct little AM station in Plainfield, NJ and I was anchoring a 30 minute news show at 5pm. At a few minutes to 5 the AP wire had an urgent announcement that Giamatti had suffered a massive heart attack. I had no way of leaving the studio during the show to get more AP updates, and there was nobody there to check the AP machine in the next room. So I was resourceful - I took a transistor radio to the studio and monitored WFAN and while I read other news stories about local mashugas I was getting Giamatti updates. I was really hoping he would be okay because I really admired him... but unfortunately his death was announced on WFAN near the end of my 30 minute broadcast, which was repeated by myself with the announcement that "Broadcast Reports indicate that Baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti has died". I more than made up for that theft, when I moved to a different station and the competing station always listened to me and stole my news stories.... even the ones where I mispronounced names (purposely).

Mad Dog picked up the nickname from NY Daily News Media Columnist Bob Raisman who like myself tends to pin nicknames on people - most of which don't stick. The Mad Dog moniker stuck.

I think the FAN made a mistake and the way this contract signing unfolded, makes it appear that Francesa played it out to have his own show. Unless Russo was behind the scenes clamoring for a solo show elsewhere these last few months, it just seems like the Doggie got stabbed in the back. But in his defense, Francesa was very humble and polite on Friday's show which consisted of hours of pro Russo calls. Who knows what the real story was... and who knows if we will ever know... until of course one of them publishes a book.

There was other stuff going on during our little blogging break:


OLYMPICS - Memo to NBC: Is there anything else going on besides swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball? With all these skimpy outfits.....All Ive seen all week are tuchises!! Michael Phelps has already dethroned Eli Manning as Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year... even if Bret Favre leads the Jets to a 16-0 season!But c'mon let's get to the track and field already!

THAT POOR MISSING KID - Why do I get the feeling that the cop with the missing wife Drew Peterson is wathcing this since it is keeping the news talk shows away from him. But this story gets stranger by the day as the kid's mom is in jail, yet it looks like her only crime... and its a pretty big one... is not reporting her kid missing. But is the kid missing? Why do I get the impression this kid was sold to somebody else? And these grandparents - c'mon their daughter is a single mom - she only has a part time job, yet they dont find it odd that she would leave for work and then a long vacation afterwards. What single mom can afford to take such a long exotic trip? And this "babysitter" who the mom says took the kid? They found her.... she claims she doesn't know the family.... yet the mom knew her name and where she was from. And then the bizarre love hate relationship that the grandparents have with the media just makes it even stranger since one minute they are begging the media to spread the word to help find this poor kid and the next minute they are snapping at them like bickering afternoon drive sports talk show hosts! It gets weirder by the day!

JOHN EDWARDS - Wow, are the Republicans having a field day or what? My original prediction of a Edwards vs. Giuliani election never materialized, and maybe thats a good thing. But wait a minute.... wasn't Rudy also committing adultery by two timing his wife Donna Hanover by publicly cavorting around town with his girlfriend Judy Nathan? Amazingly Republicans say what Edwards did was worse because he lied when confronted by reporters who asked him if he was cheating on his wife. Rudy was not such a tzaddik either publicly dumping Hanover by announcing his intentions during a press conference! And then... last weekend I was watching Geraldo Rivera's show on The Fox News Channel and Geraldo of all people had the audacity to rip into Edwards for two timing his wife!! Geraldo?? Who does he think he is... Mother Teresa?? Look at his sordid past!

THE NEW AND IMPROVED KOSHER- Speaking of Conservatives....The Jewish Conservative movement is behind a new idea to make food officially "kosher" if it passes stringent religious requirements AND the company that produces the food treats its workers properly and respectfully. There has been a lot of controversy lately because of the raid on the Rubashkin plant in Iowa that led to the arrrest of a huge number of illegal immigrants who were working at the slaughterhouse. This led to this new kosher concept, and amazingly the ultra-Orthodox, and the plant owner is one of them, seem to mock this attempt to avoid the embarassment of this type of news story. I see in the new Jewish Week that Rabbi David Lincoln is being ripped by Ultras after he criticized them on a cable tv show for trying to minimize wrongdoings in their community when they become public.

A periodical published for an ultra audience really took some shots at the Conservative attempt to correct this - or as they call them the "deviationist Conservatives". This periodical also had a glowing review of a tour of the plant that sounded like Mike Francesa touring the Yankee Monuments. The best line of this journalism described the "huge air conditioned dining hall where the employees ate". But how do you explain the large number of illegal immigrants that were discovered at the plant? Did they all coincidentally arrive there to watch Lucha Libre on the TV in the "huge air conditioned dining hall"??

Don't get me wrong - I like my ultra Orthodox brothers and sisters, but maybe they should write their newspapers in Yiddish so my fellow "deviationist Conservatives" won't understand what they are writing about!


CLIP OF THE WEEK

Earlier in the year I wrote about Andy who used to own the deli in my former office building. He was kind of forced out for a new deli whose owner bolted out in the dead of night breaking his lease and leaving the building deli-less until a new caterer moved in. Anyway, a tribute video was put together for Andy that I just recently discovered on You Tube and here it is - if you go to approx 8:50 of the video you will see what the big problem is in America - Shoplifters!!



SPECIAL CHINA CLIP OF THE WEEK

I get a kick out of the Chinese introductions to the National Anthems... not to mention the little music breaks piped in during the breaks on beach volleyball while the women adjust their wedgies. Here is an old clip of the Chinese version of Hava Nagila!

Casino Royale - A Movie Club Column

Hey... is the All Star Game over yet?

If only I was the Commissioner of baseball.... Besides giving the Mets the World Series each year, I would first get rid of the silly rule that the All Star Game "counts". Its the All "Star" game and people want to see the stars they vote for... not the backups that played the last several innings of that 15 inning marathon. I would make a rule that each manager needs to have 6 pitchers (including 3 starters) on the bench going into the 8th inning... and 4 pitchers (including at least 2 starters) going to the 9th. Then, if the game goes extra innings. allow free substitutions so the players voted in can come back into the game, but once you run out of pitchers, everybody gets together, sings kumbaya, shakes hands and goes home. And if its a tie... who cares? Its about the "all-stars", not the "game". Last week's Costas HBO show with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays showed you those players played competitively in a game that didn't "count", when the legends rattled off their All Star won lost records, and Hank bragged about winning all but one of those games.


Today we review our final James Bond movie picked by new papa Steve - Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.

Personally, I would have preferred that the producers kept Pierce Brosnan as James Bond... that way he would have been too busy when they were casting Mamma Mia and we would not have been subjected to his horrific singing! I saw a Mamma Mia matinee during the recent heat wave and lets say right off the bat - I hate musicals... (except for The Sound of Music). but I love Abba. I liked Mamma Mia on Broadway (see February 2, 2007 in the archives), so there is some bias when I went to this movie, I agree with the Star Ledger critic who says that Meryl Streep is way too old for this role, and that Brosnan as an American is a horrible singer, but I thought the movie deserved more than the one star he gave it. It is also not a good idea to see the movie too soon after seeing the musical... for me, a year a half was enough time so that the movie didn't disappoint. As a matter of fact all of the non Batman fans at the Friday afternoon screening stayed through the closing credits since it included a nice little treat that was similar to the post finale portion of the stage musical.

This movie shows how hard it is to put a stage musical on film, since some of the numbers in the show do not translate as well on screen, especially a dance featuring the guys on the island dancing with scuba flippers that just comes together a lot better when you see it unfold on the stage. The story is about the 19 year old daughter of a single mom who invites 3 suspected dads to her Greek Island home for her wedding - pre DNA it's the Daniellyn Nicole Smith Story. However, even though she looks younger, Meryl Streep at 59 is a fine actress, but for her to play the mother of a 19 year old who was the result of a "young indiscretion", just doesn't make sense - this role should have been played by a 40- 45 year old actress.... And even though Christine Baranski turns in yet another excellent performance as Streep's friend, her role and Brosnans might have worked better if they had been played by the less famous actors I had seen in the Broadway show - Judy McLane and David McDonald.


Besides Pierce Brosnan's unfortunate availability there is another link between Casino Royale and Mamma Mia. I saw on IMDB that Mamma Mia was the first movie to use the famed Bond movie Pinewood Studios after a fire broke out there after Casino Royale wrapped up shooting.

Casino Royale takes Bond into the new millenium.... by making it "the first movie" in the series taking place right after Bond is promoted to 00 status making it a bit of a time bender. It's not a prequel per se... just a mulligan on the prior back story... sort of like the first Christian Bale Batman compared to the Michael Keaton era. Casino Royale is based on the first Bond book of the same name, but legal maneuverings prevented the producers from putting this movie together until 2006. Because of that, the movie has no established history with some of the popular regulars so there are none of Moneypenny's flirty wisecracks, nor Q's gadgets and the cranky gadget training sessions.... Neither character appears in this movie. Bond doesn't even know yet that he prefers his martini shaken not stirred.

Casino Royale starts off in black and white! and doesn't use the traditional pre credit action sequence. I thought my dvd player wasnt working when I saw it was in b and w! This is the scene where Bond earns his stripes to warrant the promotion to 00 status. Bond earns it by showing off his cleverness... a far cry from the somewhat bumbling womanizer he will evolve into when Sean Connery becomes Bond. Bond might be too smart for his own good when he not only figures out "M"s real name (as predicted in the movie's opening credits - "You Know My Name") but breaks into her apartment and figures out how to hack into her computer. Bond doesn't get off on the right foot with "M" and goes off on his own for his adventure evoking memories of 24 when CTU is abuzz when Jack Bauer goes off one of his little unapproved side tangent terrorist hunts.

The plot revolves around a multi million dollar poker tournament where Bond is expected to beat out a terrorist named Le Chiffre who plans to win the contest in order to fund his terrorist operations. Even though this movie doesn't have the exciting pre credit action sequence... things pick up almost immediately after those opening credits. Bond's pursuit of a terrorist, starts with a bomb maker who he pursues in a wild and crazy foot chase through Madagascar that invovles people jumping off buildings and climbing walls and all kinds of other gravity defying hijinks. Bond also gets involved in a crazy airport chase with one of Le Chiffre's henchmen... that ends up in the parking lot with a surprise for the henchman. There are other memorable action scenes here too including Bond having to rely on his own wits and some luck to save his life after he is poisoned.... and a touching affair with a woman whose post poker tournament make out scene doesn't trigger the closing credits which makes you realize that this way too long movie is still not over yet.... and based on the Lanzeby movie, this chickie might not have such a happy ending.

I usually mentally write my reviews and then as I start to type I meander over to see what the Great Roger Ebert has to say. Incredibly he gave it 4 stars and loooooved it... but I was not quite that impressed. Bond loses a ton o' money on one hand when he thinks he sees terrorist Le Chiffre's "tell"... but even Cheers had its classic Harry Anderson poker cheating episode where Coach admitted that his "cheat" of scratching his nose only happened because his nose actually itched. And during the hand he asked several times if people saw him scratch his nose because it itched. Of course they played the hand.... lost... and then discovered that Coach's nose was really itching. But the whole idea of a terrorist fundraiser through a poker game strikes me as a bit nutty, especially in an era where we are over innundated with TV Texas hold 'em tournaments that are aired on virtually every tv channel. Maybe Gabe Kaplan providing commentary might have been more interesting, although there was one exciting hand where 4 people went all-in - I wasn't sure how realisitic that was, but one of my poker playing buddies told me that scenario actually does happen once in a blue moon...... kind of like my Royal Flush in Double Down Stud last Christmas! Personally, I like Omaha HI-Lo better than Texas Hold 'Em.

The Craig Bond is also a lot more serious - the movie is rarely funny compared to the other ones, and Bond only gets off one really good wisecrack when a potential suitor, the oddly named Vesper Lynd (no relation to Danielynn or Paul Lynde) responds to his "You're not my type" with "Because Im smart?" To which Bond retorts..."no, because you're single.:. " . You also know something is up when Bond gets his poker winnings from a banker who asks him for his password so the money can be wired to his account. As soon as we see him share his password with his Bond girl du jour (and it was not Bosco), you could see that something bad was gonna happen.

There is also a character in the movie who risks her life to save the life of a mysterious loved one who is never shown. That woman meets her end in a rather incredible Indiana Jones-esque building malfunction that will make you very nervous next time you enter a waterfront house! The "loved one", is never shown in the movie, but he is slated to appear in the next Bond movie coming out in 2009, and that character's appearance along with another character who may or may not have been a "bad guy" has already generated a lot of buzz - since the next Bond movie takes place just a few hours after Casino Royale ends,....... Its almost like when the first Bale Batman Movie's ending teased the arrival of The Joker.


I think in retrospect, maybe I should have watched these Bond movies backwards - starting with Craig and ending with Roger Moore and Sean Connery, because as the movies progressed, the Bond quality never lived up to the bar set up Connery and Moore. Not that I take particular issue with Craig per se, but he has tough shoes to fill in this movie, and this 21st century movie audience apparently likes its heroes to be more brooding and serious which makes you miss the old tongue in cheek humor of the Bonds of the earlier movies.

Overall, the story is interesting - the action is compelling and the music is okay. We don't hear the Bond theme as often as usual, but that could be the movie producer's attempts to distance this Bond from the other Bonds. Its too bad we didnt have Money Penny... but its a downright shame we didn't have Q and his gadgets... although Bond's computer hacking skills seemed to be quite impressive. On a scale of 1 to 4 Bladders meaning how less likely you would be to leave in the middle to go to the bathroom - Casino Royale gets 2 and a half bladders.... And Mamma Mia - it also gets 2 and a half bladders. Casino Royale might have been better with Pierce Brosnan, and Mamma Mia might have been better without Pierce Brosnan.

Here is the list of the prior Bond reviews:

October 19, 2007 - Sean Connery's Goldfinger
December 7, 2007 - George Lazenby's On Her Majesty's Secret Service
January 18, 2008 - Roger Moore's Octopussy
March 23, 2008 - Timothy Dalton's The Living Daylights
June 16, 2008 - Pre Mamma Mia Pierce Brosnan's Tomorrow Never Dies



Now time to announce our next movie series - Christian Bale had that notorious role in American Psycho playing the incredibly bizarre Patrick Bateman...which is why we will do.... "From Bateman to Batman - the Christian Bale 4 pack!"


CLIP OF THE WEEK:

Lemme tell you a little Clip Story. When I first started posting audio and video files online I used a company called Streamload. They were bought out by Media Max which is when everything went downhill. Due to Media Max's unreliability, I started uploading my files elsewhere, posting videos on You Tube and my Mortgage Podcast on Clickcaster. A few months ago, I got an email breathlessly announcing that Media Max was bought by The Link Up and TLU was going to migrate all files to its new site! Yippee - they emailed me a link to a manual file mover if I chose to do the move myself. I decided that to do the job right, I might as well do it myself, but alas - the link didn't work so I was at their mercy along with thousands of other customers. Well, the old Clickcaster became inaccesible and NONE of my files were moved to TLU - except one. Now, TLU just announced - they are closing in a couple of weeks and all the non migrated Media Max files are - gone permanently! For me, it was just a bunch of podcasts and videos that are saved on any of our 3 computers, but many of these other customers used that service for work, and they were billed every month for this (lack of) service and now they have... nothing. If any lawyers are doing a class action suit against the owners of Streamload/MediaMax/TheLinkUp, count me in!

Now the only file still on TLU - get it while it lasts - Jersey Dreamin' - The Jim McGreevey Song - by McG and DJ Fine Freddy. Please see the archives from June 4th for the liner notes how this song is about how Jim McGreevey used his homosexuality as a smokescreen for the real reason he stepped down.





See you later in the summer.

An Incredible (and Long) All Star Day in NY - The Baseball Quarterly Report

Greetings from the New York Metropolitan Area…where Tuesday Night we witnessed the final All Star Game at legendary Yankee Stadium as we know it. And after this classic, I don’t think any future All Star Games will be able to measure up! As a Mets/NL fan I don’t think I have been as emotionally tied to a baseball game since Game 7 Mets Cardinals in 2006 on the night Endy Chavez made “the catch”. And how ironic that the possibility of a tie was based on the arm of Scott Kazmir the pitcher who Mets fans still mourn and whose trade for Victor Zambrano led to the reversing fortunes of both teams. Of course, where was Commissioner Bud Selig during the Fox coverage when the tie talk started brewing in the 8th inning? And as I am editing this at 147 AM and I see Ed Peper give a Chevy to MVP JD Drew, Jeannie Zelasko just asked my question... can he drive everyone home,... especially the Jersey Fans whose last train left at 135 AM?

Today’s column was supposed to originate from LA, the site of the Hadassah Convention where Trophy Wife has been off gallivanting this week… I was originally going to tag along and hang out in LA while Trophy Wife hung out with the Hadassah Ladies,.. and I even entertained thoughts of attending the Match Game on TBS taping which had been originally scheduled for this week. Ultimately, I decided to stay home instead, but I will be heading off to the airport soon to pick up my sweetie! It was very strange watching an All Star Game without her around… especially since our courtship started during the 2002 legendary All Star tie. (see July 10, 2006 in the archives for the whole story)

The All Star Coverage that aired on Fox from 7pm to 8:30 was unprecedented in its fantasic-ness! The parade from 7-8 (aired on tape delay) was quite entertaining… and the introduction ceremony prior to the game was truly spectacular although I was not too thrilled to see that George Steinbrenner was involved in the pre-game when its quite obvious that his health has deteriorated so rapidly. It brings back memories of the summer of 1996… the last time the National League won the game… when the tabloids first started showing pictures of Bob Hope whose health suddenly declined in his early 90’s. Incidentally, George wore his sunglasses at night at a game that ended on a throw by... Corey Hart!

The idea of having the Hall of Famers appear on the field standing at their position was truly touching and a great history lesson for young baseball fans. All fathers with sons old enough to appreciate this should be plopped him down on the couch to watch this and given a test afterwards because of the incredible history that was on display there… It also showed how absurd it is that Pete Rose is banned from wonderful moments like this,…. especially with his past All Star Game history when he ran down Ray Fosse with the winning run in the 1970 All Star Game. If you listened to some of the old timers during the weekend you heard them talk about how back in the old days,.. like the 70s when I was an awe struck kid hanging on to every pitch… the players used to play all 9 innings and they were quite competitive. Who needs this silliness of making the game “count” to give the winning team home field advantage in the World Series? As I have said before, change the rule.. if it goes extra innings bring back the players that were taken out earlier. A team is allowed to bring back a catcher which is scary because I think Russel Martin who had just been removed, would have tagged out Justin Morneau in the bottom of the 15th!

Once the Hall of Famers were introduced, the 08 All Star players were then brought out and stood out in the field at their positions with the Hall of Famers. I got a kick out of Willie Mays who didn’t seem to care that he was standing next to Josh Hamilton who became a hero of sorts at the Stadium after his incredible power show during Monday Night’s home run derby. And interestingly enough, it was the Reds-Rangers Hamilton for Edinson Volquez trade that made quite an impact…. Hamilton with his rocket shots Monday Night and Volquez blowing the 2-0 lead before Jonathan Papelbon gave the National League a run back when he pitched the unfamiliar top of the 8th. That was around the time when Joe Buck and Tim McCarver started to speculate about a tie if the teams ran out of pitchers. And as the game went on, I thought we might see Tim Lincecum make a Willis Reed-esque appearance on the mound after being hospitalized earlier in the day with flu like symptoms.


The Home Run Derby was quite crazy as Hamilton put on a show that topped Bobby Abreu’s performance form a few years back. Of course Abreu’s home run pace dropped off after that performance, so I would be curious to see how well Hamilton will do. Nonetheless, Hamilton’s story is just terrific.. He bounced back from a life of drug addiction to turn his life around… a nice story coming so soon after the big steroids debacle that has rocked baseball. Hopefully, he will continue his straight living life unlike the late Steve Howe who continued to get numerous chances after numerous drug test failures. But Howe was a left handed relief pitcher which is always a valuable commodity for any pitching staff.


As we gear up for the 2nd half, it is time to look back at my preseason picks, but first some midway predictions for individual awards.

CY Young - Fransisco Rodriguez and Carlos Zambrano

MVP – Josh Hamilton and Chase Utley

Rookies of the Year – Evan Longoria and Edinson Volquez



Looking back to the preseason picks, I must be watching too many Met games because my American League picks were way off the mark. My American League pitching staff on my fantasy team is just as bad – My four top starters Erik Bedard, Shaun Marcum, Fausto Carmona and Vicente Padilla are all on the DL along with two of my outfielders – Eric Byrnes and Hideki Matsui! Isn’t football draft time coming soon?

In my Preaseason Top 14 List of Relevant Teams for 08, I only picked 6 AL teams and 4 of ‘em were Toronto, Seattle, Cleveland and Detroit! However, I did pick the White Sox as my surprise team and they have done quite well in the first half.. leading the equally surprising Minnesota Twins while The Tigers and the surprisingly bad Indians have been big disappointments. I thought the Mariners would win the division with their lineup and a rotation anchored by Erik Bedard and Felix Hernandez, but I was obviously quite wrong. My pick of Boston as division winner looks to be on the money, unlike my other 3 playoff team picks of Detroit, Seattle, and wild card Cleveland. It seems as if the West is going to the Angels, and I will pick the White Sox for the AL Central, although the post Santana Twins have some decent starting pitchers that nobody seems to have ever heard of.

And will the Rays hold off the Yankees to win the Wild Card? Or can the Twins or A’s sneak in for the Wild Card as the Rays pass the BoSox? Im going to stick with my Red Sox prediction, but I think the Tampa Bay Rays have the right combo of hitting and starting pitching led by former Met Scott Kazmir. Therefore I pick the Rays for the Wild Card even though everyone still calls them by their old name of Devil Rays. Can we call them Blu Rays instead? And maybe refer to the Yankees as the HD-DVD of the 2008 season? As I predicted, the offense has had its usual consistent performance, but the Chin Min Wang injury and the failure of the young arms is putting too much pressure on the aging Mike Mussina and Andy Pettite. Add to that the injuries to outfielders Matsui and Johnny Damon, and the Yankee playoff run appears to be in serious jeopardy.

As for the NL…. Of the 8 contenders from my preseason picks, a few have fallen short. Houston didn’t gel as well as I thought with their revamped offense, and their starting pitching let them down, The Padres offense has not come through for them and Greg Maddux continues to pitch there even though he has only won one game since April 13th. Is this guy ready for a trade to a contender? The Braves took a big hit with injuries to Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Mike Hampton, which I predicted could be a season killer in our baseball preview. And speaking of Smoltz, Glavine and Maddux, do you realize that if all 3 retire at the end of this season or next season, it is very likely all 3 would be voted into the Hall of Fame together. That would be one heck of A Hall of Fame induction ceremony! I hope baseball gives the Braves and Bobby Cox the day off so the fans can watch the inductions – maybe on TBS which doesn’t air Braves games anymore but does a Game of the Week on Sunday afternoons.

I’m not going to ask for a mulligan for my NL picks since The Phillies, Cubs, and D-Backs as division winners with a Met wild card looks quite realistic. The Cardinals and Brewers have been fighting it out for the Wild Card, but the Central has a pretty decent division – even the also rans Pirates, Astros and Reds are actually fielding somewhat competitive teams. The Central’s unbalanced schedule could hurt the top teams in that division, while the Mets can feast on Washington and the fading Marlins and Braves. And as good as the Phillies line up is… the pitching leaves a lot to be desired. The Mets strong pitching might not be enough to overcome the Phillies big bats, but there is room in the playoffs for both of ‘em! I don't think the Phillies have enough pitching this year, but if they made the World Series, isn't it incredibly dopey that they lose home field advantage because Brad Lidge had to pitch at 1:30 in the morning in The All Star Game?

And my revamped AL World Series team – get the rally monkeys ready for the Angels in their futile attempt against - I really want to say the Mets. Let’s hope they pick up some help for the corner outfield spots – and I am not talking about Trot Nixon! Otherwise, the Mets could see a big opportunity slip away in what might be Pedro’s last year – and see the Cubbies win the NL Pennant!

And can you just imagine that Hall of Fame Line up – The Braves Big 3 and Pedro Martinez? Wait a minute – isn’t Victor Zambrano retiring too?? Nah – just kidding with my fellow Met fans who still curse the Scott Kazmir trade, the same Scott Kazmir who got the win in the 2008 All Star Game! By the way Victor is 0-6 in the minors this season with a 9.45 ERA and a 2.30 whip… and the Yankees are thinking of acquiring him!!

Let the games resume!

Did We Just Have a Full Moon During the Holiday Weekend?

Hope everybody enjoyed the long 4th of July Weekend. I never thought my idea of a Wimbledon Mens Final/Met game twinbill would turn into a 12 hour rain delayed marathon. The most exciting story was the rescue of those hostages in Columbia - the most daring and miraculouos rescue since Entebbe back during The Bicentennial in 1976. During the long rainy weekend, I have been catching up with the news, Now that I look at all the craziness going on, I am starting to wonder if there has been a full moon for the last few days. Here are a few reasons for this theory:

*Nathan’s – We’ll start with my name sake and the great hot dog eating contest. I ran into this guy I knew from college a few years ago and he told me that he had launched a side career as a competitive eater. I actually did the Carnegie Deli Knish Eating Contest approximately 20 years ago and after meeting Henny Youngman and hearing him say “Take My Knish Please” and having Vic Miles stand over me as I took an early lead… I knew this type of craziness was not for me. I blew my lead, but not my lunch… lost to a skinny guy and finished in the middle of the pack. This other guy from college subsequently won a knish eating contest on Jewish Night at a Brooklyn Cyclones minor league game.

The hot dog contest has turned into a national event, and is broadcast live by ESPN. The 10 minute contest didn’t commence till 40 minutes into the 60 minutes of coverage which included lengthy eater introductions along with some heart warming Olympic-esque features about the competitors. They also made a big deal about the fact that the competition had been shortened from 12 minutes down to 10 and compared it to other sports which instituted major rule changes such as baseball going from 154 games to 162 games. Uh… hot dog eating is not a sport… its entertainment… so I wouldn’t quite go as far as to equate it to baseball or football. It was also quite entertaining to see the little graphics about other contests won by the competitors. It was also interesting to note that a contestant is eliminated if he or she pukes. And maybe if ESPN wouldn’t have had so much pre game filler we would have had a chance to see Joey Chestnut's post game celebrating after his overtime victory.


*Christie Brinkley - We went into the long weekend with headlines blasting about A-Rod splitting with his wife just a few short months after she gave birth…. And blaming the Kaballah wackos for it. I actually stumbled into a crazy Kabbalah service one Friday Night in Manhattan and this was no Friday Night Service… it was a bunch of malarkey. They did have a lot of very good looking babes dressed totally in white for this so called service. Now the big questions are is ARod with Madonna and is Mrs. ARod with Lenny Kravitz. And if they do get divorced, will it be as crazy as Christie Brinkley’s bizarre trial??

Brinkley’s divorce case has become a hot topic on the local newscasts… The stunning revelation came early on when she testified that she found out her husband was having an affair with a teenage girl when the girl’s step dad spilled the beans as the one time supermodel was about to deliver a commencement address at a local high school. Not such a great idea on the husband’s part to make negative comments to the media about Brinkley’s testimony, considering how bad this whole thing is making him look. And he pays for porn? Hey save your shekels.. there is a TON of free porn out there – at least that is what I have heard. I would think that this is only such a hot topic since Brinkley was a former model who has aged quite well now that she is in her 50s…. I woulda thought she would have started to look like David Brinkley by now…



*Belmar Finger Ban: Back in my knish devouring youth.. Belmar, NJ was the big party headquarters at The Jersey Shore. They had this big McDonalds right on the boardwalk, On non-Subway nights, Angelo’s Pizza which burned down many years ago was the spot for a quick dinner break before and/or after trips to Tropicals Pub. The powers that be that run the town however have never been thrilled with all the problems associated with young whippersnappers cavorting around, so laws were passed to minimize the seasonal visitors. According to Saturday’s Star Ledger, there are now approx. 300 summer rentals there… as opposed to 1990 when there were approximately 1200! Not good news for the rental agents there.

The town also passed the usual laws to keep debauchery to a minimum. Public pishing laws were passed among other things… they will actually give you a ticket if your pish ends up in a place other than the appropriate location. They also passed a law that forbids you to give someone the finger in public… but now, the law has been repealed… They apparently felt it was impossible to enforce… Now they figure this out?? What happens if someone scratches their nose? Or picks it? How about people who use the middle finger to press buttons when they do debit transactions at the grocery store? And what happens if they use the middle finger while ticked off about high prices? Is that an illegal use of the finger? Or… what happens if you flash someone fingers 2-4 and implore the recipient to read between the lines? Ultimately, they couldn't enforce the law for freedom of speech reasons, so use of the finger is now legal.



*Governor of FL falls in love! – I saw this story about Governor Charlie Crist on the news and thought – well good for him. The middle aged governor met a stunning young woman in her late 30’s last September and now he is planning to get married. But before you start finding out where the lovely young couple is registered – the rumor mongers are already tossing out some allegations about this love affair.

Crist is being hailed as a possible VP for those evil Republicans. So is Minnesota Governor Pawlenty who I talked about more than a year ago on my mortgage podcast about his idea to get rid no document and no income verification loans for residents of his home state. That decision could come back and bite him when retirees and the temporarily unemployed find themselves in adjustable rate mortgages that they can’t refinance.

Well according to the comments on a few of the news sites such as The New York Daily News and Wall Street Journal – Crist has to get himself “in order” as a potential GOP Veep. And the gossipers are saying – Holy McGreevey – that Governor Crist is gay… not that there’s anything wrong with that…. Could that mean he would actually hide his gayness because Republicans won’t accept that lifestyle?? Kind of like Dennis Prager who claims that gay marriage is a bigger issue than the economy that George Bush wrecked. I really don’t know one way or the other what the deal is with Governor Crist.… but I do know that my friend McG the musical genius who wrote the McGreevey song might have to put together another song if this is actually true! Either way… I’ll have to ask former Floridian DAS about these rumors next time I speak to him… (or next time he comments here)



*Terrorist Mentally Ill? Speaking of Das…. Hey it’s Bicentennial Boy’s birthday today, so I thought I would write about something that would tick off him and his fellow wacky liberals. I gotta credit the Israeli government’s decision to tear down a now dead terrorist’s family’s home, after he used his construction vehicle to kill three and injured dozens of others. Let’s gas up the bulldozers, and send them over to Hussam Dwayat’s house….. now that the Israeli government has temporarily halted their home demolition program.

This latest attack though comes with a bizarre twist right out of TMZ. An Israeli woman who won’t reveal her true name claims she had an affair with Dwayat many years ago and he is the father of her 7 yr old kid. While this so called mystery woman says that Dwayat would not kill Israelis...but would knock one up. The terrorist’s family say he had “mental issues” and drug problems. I’m surprised Jimmy Carter didn’t try to open a Betty Ford clinic while he was over there negotiating with those terrorists…. Unless there is still a grudge that Jimmy beat Gerald Ford in the ’76 Bicentennial election.

This woman said she was willing to convert to Islam for her man… I guess Madonna couldn’t reach out to her with her Arod Kaballah rap…. But she was forced to leave him because he was beating the crap out of her. This woman’s family also apparently intervened and convinced her to leave him…. I guess the welts on her face from the ass kickings he gave her wasn’t enough reason to leave this creep. Maybe he wasn’t too thrilled by the Jewish family that was not so accepting of their daughter’s baby daddy. She also pressed charges against him – he spent time in jail for beating her. The woman also says the child doesn’t know who his daddy is. Personally, this sounds to me like a big lie.

So I guess the next time a terrorist violates the cease fire in the Middle East they will play the ol’ TMZ – mentally ill Hollywood star card. Maybe we can kill 2 birds with one stone and send the home materials from the torn down terrorist buildings down to New Orleans so we can finally finish (or in some cases start) rebuilding the homes down there. And gas up a 2nd bulldozer because they’re also gonna tear down the home of the terrorist who bombed that Jewish seminary back in March.


Next week – the Baseball All Star Game Report – then we’ll have our next James Bond review, and then it’s time for our summer blogging schedule as McG and I will be putting together the video for his McGreevey song.


CLIP OF THE WEEK:

TV Quarterly Report: NBTD-TV

So the big news story of the week is the hullaballoo regarding Imus's wisecrack about NFL Player Pacman Jones. My question is why are people making a bigger deal about Imus's comment than the fact that Pacman Jones is a lifetime thug with a rap sheet longer than his on field accomplishments??

Here's an interesting tidbit.. I did a Google search using the search this blog box and I discovered that the TV Quarterly Report that we ran 2 Junes ago (June 16, 2006), marked the only times this blog ever mentioned Tim Russert and George Carlin. I was criticizing that skank Anne Coulter and her new book and talked about her appearance on Jay Leno while Carlin stood by silently as we all knew full well that at any moment he was capable of verbally tearing her to shreds. I also said not to buy her book but to buy Russert's instead. And, did anybody have a better command of the clever nuances of the English Language than George Carlin? I saw him at Kean College back in 1985... and it was by the far the funniest show I ever saw in person.

For this TV Report, I am going to propose my own new cable network. I'll call it NBTD TV... Nothing Better To Do Tv... the kind of channel you flip on when.... you have nothing better to do. NBTD will have a line up of reality shows.. your typical how to home improvement programming plus an occasional rerun of Mister Belvidere. That seems to be what TV is all about... you got nuthin better to do... you watch this channel,

The Fall Season seems to be full of those kind of shows. Even though I saw the announcements of the new network schedules, I already forgot most of the new shows and I really don't get too excited until September rolls around. This past season, only 2 shows caught my attention.... One was The Big Bang Theory on CBS which is absolutely hysterical.... and if done right could be the Seinfeld for geeks for years to come. Also, the late lamented Journeyman... the time traveling show on NBC that was quite well done but never caught on. There is one more show that I started watching this season.... it was originally intended to be a midseason replacement show... but it didnt premiere till June and we'll discuss that later in today's column.

Here are some TV highlights for the times I am not watching baseball or managers getting fired in the dead of night or the Yankee owner ripping interleague baseball because his ace pitcher got hurt running the bases. And since I have already realized that my rotiserie team is not gonna do well this year, I have more TV time on my hands. Here are some tidbits:


*Job Opening at NBC - I really must admit I never watched much of NBC's national news and only caught Meet The Press once in a blue moon. Nonetheless, I had seen a lot of Tim Russert and it was sad that he had died so suddenly. Its very rare that a network news person dies suddenly... I remember David Bloom from NBC died a few years ago in Iraq and prior to that the last time I recall the sudden unexpected death of a network news person was back in 1983 when Jessica Savitch was killed in a car crash.

Now Tom Brokaw is gonna host the show through the election. After that... its gonna be a toss up. I would think that Jeff Greenfield might be a good host... or as a longshot, John King from CNN who has done a terrific job covering the election. Maybe even toss in his fiance Dana Bash as a co-anchor.


*Howard Kurtz interviews Dennis Prager - All summer long we will be hearing about this year's Presidential election, but last Sunday's show may have provided the sound bite that could catapult Obama to the White House. Kurtz was talking about how the media covered Gay Marriage last week and how it was not quite the issue in the Presidential election as predicted by Prager and his fellow right wing Republicans. To which Prager corrected Kurtz by pointing out that the liberal acceptance of Gay Marriage is indeed a huge issue this Nov. The GOP has already Foshnizzled in their attempts to catapult Hispanic Immigration as a major issue. And not only that, pointed out Prager, gettng rid of Gay Marriage is a bigger issue than gas prices!! That just shows how out of touch the Republicans are,.... I see a lot of people pulling up to the gas pump and paying a lot of money and not once have I heard anybody fork over a stack of shekels and complain that homosexuals are getting married. By the way, I don't have a problem with gays getting "married", but semantically speaking "married" does mean men and women.. but this is not an issue that Presidential candidates should be talking about with all the other problems we are facing in the United States!


*Larry King interviews Ed McMahon - Oh gosh... what a person to use as the poster child for the foreclosure crisis. Everybody likes ol' Ed and nobody wants to see anything bad happen to him, but no way is he a representative of the typical homeowner facing foreclosure. Ed broke his neck more than a year ago... he won't say how... and its affecting his ability to work, although I thought he cohosted the entire Jerry Lewis Telethon last year even though he didn't look too good during the show. Now, the job offers will come pouring in for Ed and he will get his money and all will be well. But the typical Joe Shmoe in foreclosure doesn't have a management team that can put him on a national cable show that will create a fundraiser to pay off his bank loan.

You gotta love Larry for the stuff that comes out of that mouth of his. At one point, Ed's very young wife said she had enough of homeownership, to which Larry correctly but maybe not so tactfully pointed out... "Oh you're never gonna be able to buy another house after this....".....to which Mrs. McMahon rebuffed Larry's idea of the typical foreclosure rent-a-condo by pointing out that they have seven dogs. And then when Ed pointed out that the house was for sale, but they couldn't find a buyer, Larry blurted out... "Hey isn't that the house that had the mold problem?" I'm sure Ed's realtor was thrilled with that disclosure!


*Mark Goodson and Bill Todman must be proud! - Game Shows seem to be the in thing. Password is a big hit for CBS... All Star Family Feud is back with Al Roker. I just saw the first episode on NBC.com, and Roker did a decent job. I did notice that Ice T's mother in law is actually quite attractive and was probably better looking than the much younger daughter of Wayne Newton. And that Raven Symone from The Cosby Show - gosh is she nutty and when did she become so uh bosomy? The show is just like those old 70s specials when Richard Dawson would host thrilling battles between the casts of The Love Boat and Soap. The show took a Match Game-esque route with double entendre questions, but Ice-T took the "implication" away by tossing out shmeckle as one of his answers.

Speaking of which, one of my all time favorites is also coming back. I was thinking of going to CA for a few days next month and my trip coincided with the taping of a Match Game pilot. But they moved the pilot up and it was shot last week. Some guy from Mad TV is hosting it and the fact that he is a no name might bode well because that show needs a low key host who will play straight man to the funnier celebrities. The panel looks good - Sarah Silverman.... (go see her amusing Joe Franklin wisecracks in the Aristocrats movie) and Super Dave Osborne who is knee slappingly hilarious! Sometimes he fires off ad libs on Curb Your Enthusiasm that are so hysterical that I don't know how the rest of the cast doesn't start cracking up. According to the game show blog BuzzerBlog, the set is similar to the 70s set which might be a good idea for people looking to capture the old 70s magic. I also noticed that the Roker Family Feud is using the same theme song from the Dawson feud.


*The Best New Show of 2008 - Speaking of the 70's - Ladies and Gentlemen... the most original show I have seen in ages - Swingtown! Imagine if Dallas wasn't about oil barons but a bunch of swingers, and there you have it - a prime time soap opera taking place in the 70s consisting of 3 couples. One couple is very square; one couple is a bunch of wild and crazy swingers and the third couple who just bought a house and moved to "Swingtown" is finding themselves torn between both lifestyles.

Swingtown was supposed to be a mid season replacement but got bumped to the summer by the writers strike and folks, this show is fantastic. Alan Sepinwall. the great Ledger TV Columnist actually hates this show, and I can't figure out why. The only actor I knew from this show was Grant Show who was on Melrose and now sports a cheesy Jason Giambi moustache. The characters are fascinating, and the couple torn in the middle of all this - The Millers are just trying to find their way in that post sexual revolution, pre AIDS era. The square couple is quite amusing - the husband wishes his wife would loosen up, and ultimately you know that as the season progresses, she will come out of her sexually repressed cocoon. And the swinging couple - hes a pilot; shes a former stewardess and the first episode featured a menage a trois featuring a 2nd stewardess. And then moments later the characters are drinking from vintage Tab cans (not the updated 80s cans sold in stores), using Kodak flashbulb cameras, and watching Tony Randall carefully toss out clues in the bonus round of the 10,000 Dollar Pyramid.

Here is why I think this show is so awesome - it's not just about swingers. The kids on the show, preteens and a girl who seems to be about 18 are getting some very heartwarming storylines. This is almost like a Michael Landon show its so sweet! The Miller preteen son befriends a young preteen neighbor girl who runs away from home and builds a tent in the park. He goes to visit her and brings her food and when she says she will go home soon because her mom probably has the cops looking all over for her, he tactlessly but correctly points out that her weird mother doesnt even realize she's missing. The girl ends up coming home anyway when she realizes her cry for attention went unanswered. Another preteen kid gets his mitts on some liquor and gets so drunk that he wakes up in a neighbor's backyard the next day bellowing... "Where the hell am I?" I guess this show took place before cell phones with built in GPS, specifically designed for people who get drunk and wake up lost!

And the Miller's 18 year old daughter - makes an inappropriate pass at her summer school teacher at the local library. The show takes place around the Bicentennial, yet nobody has mentioned Entebbe. While this little library pass is unfolding, the Millers hold a housewarming party where Susan Miller decides to cut loose and rips off the tacky wallpaper left by the previous owner. Since the wallpaper will be replaced, she gives out markers and encourages people to draw on the walls. The party is long over when the daughter comes home, and with some cool 70s music playing in the background - part of the shows phenomenal soundrack - she discovers this crazy wall and with little stars in her eyes writes her intials and her teachers initials and draws a little heart around it. I wonder if in 2008, this same character who seems destined to be an English Professor is drawing little hearts with the initials of one of her college students she is probably banging!

Sepinwall is usually on the money with his reviews... (except for his intense love of The Sopranos) but it seems that Swingtown is the most original, most well presented show that has come our way in a long time. It's definitely Thursday Must See TV for the summer... As for the rest of the drek... just toss that on NBTD-TV!



CLIP OF THE WEEK:

Check out this young comedy legend:

Tomorrow Never Dies - A Movie Club Column

Hope all you baby daddies out there had a Happy Father's Day!

Today for our movie club, we present the Pierce Brosnan edition of our James Bond series. The 1997 movie Tom'w Never Dies has a timely for the late 90s villian named Eliot Carver.... a rich ego maniac who decides that having a strong media presence means you can control the world.

As I started to prepare today's column, I was trying to think of which 1990s media icon reminded me the most of Carver, and a few come to mind But now that NBC has dusted Tom Brokaw out of mothballs to anchor the coverage of Tim Russert's sudden death, its interesting to note that Russert was the anti Eliot Carver.,.. Russert was actually a very powerful guy.... hosting political debates....calling races on Primary and/or Election Day... (and ticking off Hillary Clinton by accurately calling it for Obama a few weeks earlier than she would have preferred) plus he was not the host, but rather "the moderator" for Meet the Press.... Guests on that show knew they needed to be on their toes because Russert was quite sharp and extremely well prepared. But unlike Carver who tries to manipulate the news for his personal agenda.. the people who have paid tribute to Russert say that he would follow up a tough interview with a teddy bear charm, and people who were just grilled by him, would come off the air afterwards treating him like a buddy. Apparently they felt it was hard to begrudge a tough, well prepared interviewer who was notorious for being such a big family man especially to his dad Big Russ and son Luke who he talked about endlessly. And you can tell by NBC and MSNBC's weekend coverage that this was one well liked fella. Can you imagine him at the hospital introducing himself to his newborn son with a Vader-esque..."Luke I am your father".

In this movie Tom'w is the newspaper that publishes the news before it actually happens in the race for the exclusive, On the other hand, Friday, NBC waited hours to announce the news because they had to track down Tim's Family in Italy, before announcing it on TV. That explains how the retired Tom Brokaw had enough time to throw on a suit and tie and get over to 30 Rock Friday afternoon to cover for Brian WIlliams who was overseas on a different assignment... I thought Brokaw retired and was fishing in North Dakota. If he had not been in NY, who would they have brought in to anchor the coverage....89 year old Edwin Newman?? Wolf Blitzer said on CNN that they knew about it most of Friday..... but felt that the right thing to do was to allow NBC to make the initial announcement. By the way, I had no clue that this was going on...until a buddy of mine sent me an email praising Russert's journalistic integrity. Perhaps the best example of his honesty was the fact that it was his testimony that put away Scooter Libby after that evil George Bush henchman got into a he said - he said battle after he accused Russert of outing Valerie Plame. . And although I rarely watched Meet The Press (except for Sunday night cable repeats), I spent more Sundays watching NBC Football games with one of the best NFL Announcers ever - Charlie Jones... whose death was also announced Friday but got lost in the shuffle.

By the way the funniest news blooper I ever saw was when Tim had egg on his face when he breathlessly reported a big exclusive during the Clinton administration that turned out to be erroeneous - the name of the Clintons new dog!! Hey if your biggest booboo involves a dog's name.. that ain't too shabby.


Getting back to the movie,.. Here is the trailer...




Eliot Carver seems to "see" the future.... his Tom'w newspaper breathlessly announces news moments after Carver creates it. The Carver ego brings to mind some other ego maniacal media moguls from that time period. The Daily News had a wacko publisher named Robert Maxwell who once fell off a yacht and drowned. And the NY Post had a brief fling with nutty ol' Abe Hirschfeld... writers there were so ticked off that they published a special edition where every article blasted the guy. Even Luann in the comics sat on her bed talking to Bernice about how bad the Post was going to be under Hirschfeld. Nowadays we have Rupert Murdoch running The Post and Fox News.... but the Carver network sort of reminded me of CNN. Carver has a sidekick named Gupta... kind of reminds you of Sanjay Gupta... except the Gupta in this movie is American! And the actor who played him also played the caretaker at that mysterious mansion in The Prestige. Carver also has a fascination with GPS....... CNN has a new Sunday afternoon show after Wolf Blitzer with some guy that has GPS in its title... plus Carver also has a henchman named Stamper who looks like a mix of Anderson Cooper and Bull from Night Court.

The movie starts with a bizarre military encounter between a British Naval ship and The Chinese Air Force. The navy is stunned to hear that they are in Chinese waters even though their radar shows that they are not. And how does this relate to Carver? Well Bonds bosses realize that this amazing 1997 concept called Global Positioning Systems.. which we now lovingly call GPS.. and it turns out that the GPS was showing the British ship to be where it shouldnt be due to tampering from a satellite tracked to Carver. As Bond is sent in... he is forced to confront his past... Mrs. Carver played by Teri Hatcher... and a possible future babe..a Chinese agent played by the Chinese Walker Texas Ranger - Michelle Yeoh. I wasn't paying attention to the opening credits so I was surprised to see Hatcher playing Paris Carver... who the heck in 1997 was named Paris?? - Unfortunately, I also had a mental block during the movie and I couldnt remember Teri Hatcher's name.. so after about 20 minutes, I paused the dvd, went online to imdb and looked it up! I must say she looked spectacular!!

Bond's arrival at Carver's shindig.... along with his reunion with Paris... he had loved and left her many years ago - coincides with the launching of Carvers new Global News Network. Prior to the premiere, Carver meets with his worldwide reporters and has an amusing news briefing... interrupted by an update on a new computer software program his company is releasing which Carver requests have enough bugs in it so customers have to come back and buy upgrades. How Gates-ian. He also announces plans to blackmail a politician with a video involving a young cheerleader and then instructs his underlings that when he gets his demands.. to just release the tapes anyway!

As usual, Bond has his debriefing with Q - Desmond Llewelyn's record 16th appearance in the Bond series - who at the time of this movie was 83 (six years younger than Edwin Newman)... and 33 years after his first appearance in Goldfinger... The toys are pretty cool... the cell phone is a hoot with all the stuff it can do... but the 97 futuristic phone has a black and white screen! Bond also gets a snazzy BMW that he can drive utilizing a remote control in the phone... which is activated by flipping it much like one flips one of those teenybopper cell phones with the dual text messaging keyboard. Q seems to have a problem controlling the car... but Bond gets the hang of it pretty quick taking it for a "joyride" at a parking garage. Llewelyn appeared in one more Bond film after this one and died 2 years later in a car crash in England.

Once Bond has his toys.... he is ready to go.... its off to meet Carver on the night of his big coming out party culminated with a live broadcast launching the new network. But a little technical snafu courtesy of Bond... throws Carver off the air causing him to throw a hissy fit... and apparently upsetting him more than the death of a close relative later in the movie. That death... not shown.... is perpetrated by Dr, Kaufman played brilliantly by Italian character actor Vincent Schiavelli. In the movie Dr. Kaufman is the bad guy who can CSI proof any murder scene... and as Bond discovers a woman's body, a tape of a Carver anchorwoman plays on a TV in the background announcing breaking news that the womans body has been found along with that of a dead man! The whole Kaufman storyline made me chuckle since the local Dr Kaufman in our neighborhood has to be one of the nicest gentlest doctors this side of the Mississippi. He also lived in Italy for awhile.... and not only does he speak fluent Italian... but on my wedding video... he offered his best wishes to the Keans.... in Italian!! As The movie's Dr. Kaufman is about to kill Bond, the drs cell phone rings.. it turns out the Carver henchmen are trying to break into Bonds car to retrieve the GPS busting device that Bond had taken from Carver... but they cant get into the souped up car. Its quite funny watching Kaufman interrupt his "I'm about to kill you" moment to politely inquire how to break into his car.

It's very difficult to compare Brosnan's Bond to the legends of Connery and Roger Moore. These movies are more up to date... as are 007's headquarters as the newer movies used more modern sets to ease away from the images of the classic older films. Even Moneypenny continues to get younger.. in this movie she is played by Samantha Bond. Brosnan's Bond gets his uniform dirty... even though he is as debonaire as always.... he actually has hair out of place during the climatic battle with Carver. And even though Bond is supposed to be THE star.... Yeoh's character gets a lot of screen time...yet always gets bailed out by Bond... Apparently there was an idea that her character could one day get a spinoff movie, but that never materialized. She does a pretty decent job however

The storyline moves along very well. Jonathan Pryce turns in a stunning performance as Carver as he concocts an elaborate plan to start a war between England and China. A military intervention looms unless Bond can prove that Carver instigated this brouhaha. And Carver doesn't disappoint pulling out some hysterical quotes,.... such as threatening to drown Bond by tying him and throwing him off a ship... he tells Bond he can be his news "anchorman". Carver also amusingly taunts Yeoh by loudly mimicking her karate moves. That scene along with Kaufman's interruption of his Bond shooting are two of the most amusing scenes in this movie. Futuristic is a difficult concept when viewing a 10 year old movie... but when Lost on TV brings us people moving islands... it would seem that the idea of sabotaging a radar system was incredibly clever. But with a big military movement looming... Bond's race against time creates quite an entertaining adventure in that race against the clock to pin the military attacks on Carver. Ultimately when Carver meets his fate, James Bonds bosses decide to issue a press release that evoke memories of the story of Maxwell who met his demise in 1991, the same year by the way that Russert took over Meet the Press.


As a movie itself, its quite entertaining.... but when it comes to Bond movies, fans of Connery expecting Brosnan to live up to that standard will be disappointed... although probably not as disappointed as Bills Fan Tim Russert was when Scott Norwood missed that field goal in 1991 that handed the Super Bowl to The Giants. On a scale of 1 to 4 bladders meaning how less likely you would be to leave in the middle to go to the bathroom... Tomorrow Never Dies gets 3 bladders.

McG

Gosh what a week to be a Democrat.. especially in NJ. Barrack clinched the division title while Hillary appeared at Baruch College and added an atta adonay to pray that she can somehow not give up her race for the Democratic ticket. Our former Governor Jim McGreevey is telling a divorce lawyer that he has not been able to manage his finances well enough to pay the amount of child support that his ex wife is asking for. Remember McGreevey was a governor whose job was to figure out how to balance a STATE budget!! And then we have good ol' Frank Lautenberg celebrating victory today after surviving a dirty primary race against Rob Andrews. Even if Andrews is right and Lautenberg is too old to finish out his term, I am sure somebody else not named Rob The Backstabber Andrews will be chosen to finish the term if necessary. Kind of odd that Andrews gambles on his youth... for all we know Lautenberg could very well outlive him.

Anyway, I must admit that I am quite excited! With the zeal of a teenybopper texting in votes for David on American Idol.... I have discovered a terrific new musical artist and a great new song about our former NJ budget balancing Governor!

It's equal to the excitement I felt this past Sunday at the Israel Day Parade when I ran into some old friends who I had not seen since I married Trophy Wife! We even jumped into the parade at one point and joined some marchers just so we could hook up with some friends who were standing across the street. It was also fun heckling those phony Neturei Kartas... a bunch of hasidic impersonators who have some bizarre notions about everything pertaining to Israel. Nobody really takes them seriously and I think the cops actually tossed them out of the parade.

Almost one year ago, The Ballad of Melanie McGuire was released right here on NWOW, a song about the NJ Suitcase Killer that was to the tune of The Mamas and Papas classic song "Creeque Alley". A year later the video still gets comments on my You Tube channel from goofballs who insist she was framed and is 100% innocent. When nutjobs come out of the woodwork claiming that she was framed, I ask one simple question - How do you explain the fact that EZ Pass puts her right near the scene of where poor Mr. McGuire's body was dumped more than a hundred miles from her home. When that callous murdering wench got her EZ Pass statement, she freaked out to see that EZ Pass caught her red handed near where the body was dumped, so she arrogantly called them to complain that the charges were erroneous and they should be removed.

Now, a year later, more loonie kazoonies continue to profess Melanie's innocence. And when I simply ask them Was EZ in on the frame job too... this is the type of response I get from the Melanie supporting morons:

Well, I do think she tried to erase evidence that made her look guilty. She was being investigated.

So she drove the same roads as the people who dumped the body. So what??

We all drive the same roads.


Eventually I guess all these morons will go back into the woodwork.

Shortly after the song was released, I was trolling around late one night on the internet... somewhere after my avatar phase and before my Facebook phase... when I discovered a gentleman named McG... not pronounced McG like McDonalds... but McG (emcee gee) like MC Hammer. And we had a very interesting connection.... as I was putting out a song to a Mamas and Papas tune about this poor fella Jim McGuire... he was putting out a song about another Jim McG - Jim McGreevey! And McG was doing his masterpiece to not one but two Mamas and Papas songs... a medley of California Dreamin' and Monday Monday..

I was very honored when McG asked me to help launch the new song right here on NWOW. We are embedding the song on an audio player here, but my unreliable hosting site Media Max has moved all its files to another site called The Linkup. I hope Linkup is more reliable than Media Max because frankly Media Max was a disaster. Last month they sent me an email telling me my files (all the audio and some video that has appeared here over the last 2 1/2 years) would be moved to Linkup by June 1st, yet that has not been the case. Media Max also sent a link to a program called the "manual uploader" which would allow clients to manually move the files from Media Max to Linkup.. but of course when you click that service - it is a dead link. Of course they continue to charge me every month, although I really don't know exactly what I am paying for. Hopefully, the song will appear here for your listening pleasure. It took me until past 230 this morning to figure out the html coding. At least I had a great Pedro return to keep me entertained.

McG and I have had some interesting chats about McGreevey over the last several months. As we have heard during his divorce trial. he and his partner have some kind of bizarre mixing of their finances going on where McGreevey is saying that he cannot afford to pay the amount of child support being sought by his wife. Yet, McGreevey feels its ok to not work full time but to use that time to attend school to be an Episcople Minister... If anybody else owes child support.. they are forced to work all day and go to school at night. And not to sound like Dr. Laura, but if the kid needs more money, you quit school and take a night job too. I can't understand how McGreevey has the guts to tell this judge that he can't afford the money that his kid needs.

McGreevey stepped down as Governor back in 2004 claiming he was the victim of a shakedown by Golan Cipel with whom he claimed he had been having a homosexual affair. On the surface, you could say.... good for Jim McGreevey for coming out in public that he is gay. If Senator Craig would do likewise, he probably wouldn't be mocked as much as he has been since his toe tapping mens room stall episode. But Craig continues to profess his straightness, even though the media in his state has been writing about his allegedly homosexuality for years.

But did the married McGreevey really step down just because he was gay? A lot of us think that Mcgreevey had a lot of other troubles and used his homosexualty to cover up other growing problems in his administration. Cipel said he was straight as an arrow and had been sexually harrassed by McGreevey. Usually in one of those one word against the other deals, you really do not know how to believe. However, Cipel hired a lawyer named Alan Lowy who I happened to know back then... (although I have not spoken to Alan since all this happened) Lowy is a very staightforward honest lawyer who is neither sneaky nor sleazy like a lot of other lawyers we see in day to day life. The concept that Lowy would try to shake down the governor is just downright preposterous, and he is also not the type of guy who would take on a cause if he tought the story was shaky. This is one major reason why I believe Cipel and not McGreevey.

If we turn the clock back to 2004... we will recall that it was a time when Oceanic flights were not crashing into wacky time traveling islands.... Sawyer was a con man,.... Jack was mourning his dad's death... Locke was wheelchair bound, and Kate was a handcuffed murderess.... and I was planning my wedding! By the way, speaking of Sawyer.. I dont know where that island was moved to... but I think its more a question of "when" it was moved to..... But where the island was before... was a time when Sawyer was living. There is no way he could land in the water after that helicopter jump, manage to swim to shore and still have enough strength to flirt with Juliet... who I think is THE best looking woman on that show! I think the Time Loop theory people are right... the island heals because it takes you back to a time that predates the ailments that either injured you.... or killed you!

Anyway getting back to that fateful summer... McGreevey was facing a lot of problems at that time. And many truly believe that this whole "Im a Gay American" speech was a red herring for the real truth. In one of the best lines in the song, McG evokes memories of the infamous Machiavelli episode where Machiavelli was the code word involving an FBI sting that tied McGreevey directly to a shakedown involving Mark Halper who was being forced to pay money to help save his Piscataway, NJ farm farm from corrupt politicians who ended up taking it away using that sleazy eminent domain. Mark Halper went to the FBI and said he was being shaken down and told them that McGreevey was involved in this.... and that at an upcoming meeting... the code word from McGreevey was going to be "Machiavelli".... sort of like Tippytoe in the infamous Seinfeld episode where George has to steal a woman's answering machine tape. The FBI wired Halper for sound... and McGreevey dropped that fateful M word. Here is the classic line from McG's Jersey Dreamin' - (sung to the line of "Oh Monday Morning.... you gave me no warning of what was to be" line from Monday Monday,....)

Oh Jim McGreevey you gave me no warning of what was to be
That you’d see Mark Halper and say Machiavelli

Every other word … every other word….
Every other word… is fine yeah…
But when Halper came (repeat)
You denied machiavelli had to do with crime

One last liner note before you hear the song.... and this is part of the reason why its not being put out as an mp3 just yet... Its about context. McG has said many times that the song is NOT poking fun at McGreevey's homosexuality.... indeed it was gutsy of him to come out in such a public forum.. Instead, McG says it is McGreevey's resigning due to being gay.. when actually the gayness was not the real reason he was stepping down. In reality, McG says he would have preferred to have every gay reference in the song followed up with the Seinfeld-esque "not that theres anything wrong with it". But its hard to find rhymes for "not that there's anything wrong with it".


And now Ladies and Gentlemen... McG and Jersey Dreamin!







CLASSIC CLIP OF THE WEEK (from January 2007)

Dick Martin died last week, the same week that Password came back. Here in honor of Dick and Password is an old Tom Kennedy episode where Dick tries to pull a fast one with one of his clues. Kennedy has to try to explain what happens but can't keep a straight face as they keep trying to restart the taping. Also quite amusing is the poor woman who doesn’t know the word that Betty White gives as a clue!

The Light in the Piazza: The Baseball Quarterly Report

When last Friday Night's Mets game got rained out... it was time for the schedule makers to pull out their Palm Pilots (or Blackberries or BlackJack IIs) to try to figure out how to reschedule the game. Despite the teams close living arrangements, it is apparently tough to find an open date when both the Mets and Yanks are in town. In the old days they just played a regular old doubleheader the next day. But nowadays with so many sellouts on the calendar, the teams don't want to give up a home date so that means its time for one of those wacky day night seperate admission doubleheaders. With the Mets and Yanks... it means a 2 stadium double header... There have been 2 of them held in past years... the first ever was on July 8, 2000 and I was at both of those games!

The second game was rather notorious when Yankee starter Roger Clemens beaned Mike Piazza right in the head and knocked him out of the game. Fans at the game that night were buzzing.. we didn't have cell phones with internet access back then... and there was concern that Piazza might be out for quite awhile. As it turned out, he bounced back quickly from that beaning and that little Clemens-Piazza rivarly took a bizarre twist in the World Series later that year when Clemens threw a peice of Piazza's broken bat at him! Back then we thought that this was a tiff between 2 future Hall of Famers.. but now 8 years later... just days after Piazza retired, we have a situation where fans debate if Mike will wear a Dodger or Mets hat to the Hall.... while wishing Clemens would just go away. Clemens' involvement in the steroid debacle along with his alleged lies topped off with the recent revelation that he was involved in an extra marital affair with a jailbait country singer put us in a situation where the retired Piazza is looked at with great admiration, while the retired Clemens is looked at as an embarrasment to the game.

And Piazza is not only going to be remembered for his excellent hitting skills.. He has more homers than any other catcher in baseball history... a heckuva lot better than what the Mets had during the Junior Ortiz era... Piazza's dramatic home run in the 8th inning of the Brave game on September 21, 2001 the first game back after 9/11 finally gave New Yorkers something to be happy about again! And.... even though most of us Met fans have bad memories of the Yankees celebrating at Shea after winning the World Series... it was Piazza who came up with the tying run on base and hit a ball so hard that many thought that last out was actually about to be game tying home run.

And that leads us to today's Baseball Quarterly Report as we have passed the 40 game mark. Yep, even though Opening Day seems like it was just yesterday.. we are at the quarter point of the season..... The strike ruined TV season is over... American Idol has a new winner, and all 3 CSIs have cliffhangers involving key characters in deep doo doo. (By the way, if Caruso's character was saved by his sunglasses stopping the bullet,.. I declare the show has jumped the shark!). Lost still has another episode left where if we apply the Time Loop theory.com logic that a person can be in 2 places at the same "time", our rescued Losties are actually home AND still on the island. Anyway, Memorial Day and the official start of summer is just around the corner... Last weekend marked the beginning of interleague play... and the Sunday Night ESPN Met Yankee game which means we got to hear Jon Miller refer to the Mets outfielder as Carlos Beltraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan...

The Met Yankee interleague series is one of those things that generates a ton o' excitement in the NY Metro Area but just a collective shrug in other areas. And while there are other regional rivalries that generate a lot of buzz, locally, none is as exciting as the Met Yankee games and even that is a bit anti climactic after that 2000 World Series. You kind of miss George Steinbrenner... it seems like the natural aging process has taken over The Boss now that he has reached his late 70s.... considering he rarely speaks publicly anymore. (And has anybody heard any word on Yankee PA Announcer Bob Shepherd who has gotta be pushing 100... I know Neil Best interviewed him on his Watchdog blog back in March) If The Boss was his old feisty self, Kyle Farnsworth and Russ Ohlendorf would have been cut moments after their outings last weekend when the Mets exposed the Yankee bullpen as being extremely weak. They even scored a run off Joba Chamberlain!

So far there have been some interesting developments in the 2008 campaign. I have noticed through my rotiserrie team and those of others in my league that there are a lot of pitchers off to excellent starts and a lot of hitters who have just looked absolutely lost at the plate. The ERAs are sinking as are the Batting Averages. (My fantasy pitching staff has an ERA of 3.26 - a full run lower than it usually has in May). I have always noticed that pitchers are always on top of their game in the beginning of the season, but as the weather starts to get hotter, the pitchers tend to fall off the pace a bit and the hitters tend to take over and more runs start scoring. Perhaps that might be the reason that the hot weather based Florida and Texas teams are playing a lot better than expected. We are all quite surprised so far by The Tampa Bay Rays and the Florida Marlins while the giant payroll NY teams have been floundering around .500.

Amazingly enough, the two worst teams right now in the American League were expected to be contenders in '08 - Seatlle, Detroit and The Yankees. And when it comes to Detroit and The Bombers, both teams have terrific hitting, but their weak pitching has been exposed as a glaring issue for those teams and it shows by their disappointing 1st quarters. And while the Tampa Bay Rays have dropped the word Devil from their team name, the slumping Tigers closed business on Thursday with pitchers Kenny Rogers and Zach Miner sporting identical ERAs of 6.66!

Speaking of ERA.. if I was the commisioner of baseball I would make a change to the way relievers stats are kept. Forget that silly hold stat.. that is just a dopey stat used by agents to get big bucks for middle relievers. ERA can tell you something about a starter but in an incredibly misleading stat for a reliever.. What they should do is also post the average inning per outing.. (thats an oxymoron) so you can see the relativity of his ERA... Who cares about how many runs he gives up in 9 innings if he never pitches 9 innings? But if he has an ERA of 3.00 and he typically pitches 1 inning every time out... wouldn't you get a better grasp of his success by seeing that he typically gives up a run every third appearance??

In the early season, some young players have gotten off to terrific starts. Ryan Ludwick has been showing some power helping the Cardinals off to a decent start. Over in the American League, Josh Hamilton has lived up to his potential and has turned into a run producing machine. But the biggest overall surprise is how well some small market teams have performed... and oddly enough my preseason picks have not been too far off... except for the aforementioned Mariners and Tigers. who decided to go with a hitting team in a year where pitchers are dominating. Let's take a look back at my preseason picks from March to see how close I was to predicting the season.

In the National League... the Mets have been quite mediocre in '08... and Ryan Church who has made many of us forget Lastings Milledge now has his 2nd concussion which makes one worry about his ability to come back. Jim Edmonds has not been the same since his concussions, and Corey Koskie had to retire after suffering 2 of those tricky head injuries.

My surprise team - The Astros have played pretty well this season... and they along with the unexpectedly good Cardinals are giving the Cubbies a run for their money in the AL Central. Looking back at my NL Picks.... Philly, Chicago, Arizona and The Mets as a Wild Card.. its really too early to say that these teams won't be there. The Braves looked disappointing but after clobbering the Mets this week, they look pretty good even though their rotation will not have John Smoltz and Mike Hampton's comeback continues to look like a dream. One surprise so far.... has been the lousy performances in the NL West. The fact that the Padres and NL Champ Rockies are lower in the standings than the Giants shows that those 2 teams have fallen far since their marathon 1 game extra inning playoff thriller last year. Injuries to starting pitchers Jake Peavy and Chris Young might make this a very long season in San Diego. The Dodgers have played pretty well... their offense has some good young players in Matt Kemp and Blake DeWitt who are also on my fantasy team which by the way sucks again this year. They also have a rookie infielder named Luis Maza... no relation to local singing legend Avi Maza. Speaking of fantasy baseball, last year's 2nd place team was named Havana Gila in honor of my 2 Cuban players.. This year's Cuban less team took on a Hockey Legend angle when I named it Havana Guy La Fleur. .


Looking back my AL picks were not too spectacular although I did predict the good year Shaun Marcum was going to have. He has only allowed 36 hits in 64 innings. His bizarre outing on Sunday... 1 inning and out of the game after a lengthy rain delay makes some managers look very good who hold out starters on a rainy day so that a reliever starts... the rains come.. and then the starter comes in and tosses more innings after a rain delay. Nowadays, with day night doubleheaders and the unbalanced schedule, some teams make only 1 visit to certain cities so a lot of games get started in yucky weather... plus the Parking Lot Attendants make a few shekels off the fans who pay high stadium parking fees when they drive out to a game that later gets called due to rain.

I picked Boston, Detroit and Seattle as Division Winners with the Indians being The Wild Card. Oddly enough despite their slow starts, I wouldn't quite write off either Detroit or Seattle. The AL West is not that good... The A's got off to a good start, but the Angels seem to be the class of the Division. Their young catcher Mike Napoli is turning out to be quite the hitter... it brings back memories of a young California catcher named... Mike Piazza...


CLIP OF THE WEEK:

I have been meaning to comment on the Sue Simmons hullaballoo.. but the blogging schedule has been off lately since I started a new job last week. Nonetheless, I always thought that those promos are taped and that somebody might have played the wrong news tease tape. Whatever the case may be, I think the best all time live news snafu was this old Good Day NY Clip when Anchorman Jim Ryan and Reporter Dick Oliver engaged in this lively discussion.... the type of talk you never see among co workers.... It seems like Dick Oliver was half asleep during the interview and Ryan was not too thrilled....

glumbert - Anchor vs Reporter

BONUS CLIP:

Are the SNL writers Match Game fans too??