Thursday, August 26, 2004
EVERYWHERE
Just a bunch of tidbits here, all over the map...
-- Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready were at Safeco Field last night. As I've probably said here before, Pearl Jam hasn't been the same since Vitalogy, and not even one of my favorite drummers (Matt Cameron) can get me to listen to their newer stuff. My friend Steve and I always get into heated arguments over the song "Black." I think it ruins the emotion of the first four tracks on Ten, whereas he thinks it's a lyrical masterpiece and a welcome diversion. I think barely any of Vedder's lyrics actually make sense.
-- Van Halen is suing the Orioles for $2M for reneging on a scheduled concert, but that's sort of old news. Van Halen got me through high school, but I still wouldn't pay $70 to see Sammy Hagar do the same four David Lee Roth songs he's done on every Van Halen tour he's been on. Say what you will about Gary Cherone, half the set list at the Gorge the night I went consisted of a handful of Roth songs that hadn't been played in decades.
-- This doesn't even link to sports, but how would you have liked to be on that tour boat in Chicago when the Dave Matthews Band's tour bus allegedly dumped 800 gallons of human waste off a bridge onto the boat? Let's hope no one on that tour boat was on their honeymoon. Yikes. By the way, I hate whoever made the unwritten law that absolutely everybody on a college campus has to think Dave Matthews Band is the best damn band ever. Maybe it's just at Central, who knows. I came into those four years at school thinking they were extremely skilled musicians and were a very good band. After the four years, I think the same thing, except I'm really sick of them.
THERE'S SPORTS IN THIS POST, DON'T WORRY!!
-- Kyle Turley is done for the year. The Seahawks get to face a decimated Rams team twice. They might be less decimated by the second time the teams meet, but they won't have Turley. Man, the Seahawks better win this division.
-- Wide receiver Mike Williams was not granted eligibility by the NCAA, and will basically be working out until next year's NFL draft.
-- Whoever mows the grass at Shea Stadium is out of his mind. The Padres/Mets day game today showcased a concave diamond pattern (think playing card suit) in the grass, with maybe a few thousand people witnessing the game. Who thinks Thursday getaway day games are a good idea?
-- Short Canuck tidbit. Brendan Morrison and Dan Cloutier are working out, and both think the odds are bleak that the NHL season will start on time. Also, Todd Bertuzzi pleaded not guilty to an assault charge in connection with the suckerpunch and piledriving into the ice of Colorado Avalanche player Steve Moore.
-- I could get on a roll with why I hate the Little League World Series (no, I won't even think of trashing the kids from Redmond here, I'd much rather congratulate them), but I'll try to keep it short. My main reason: curveballs thrown by kids that age. These kids are still growing, and I think they shouldn't be throwing curveballs until they're 14 or 15. When I'm flipping through the channels and see these kids throwing curves, all I say is "don't come crying to me when you're begging your parents for Tommy John surgery at the age of 16." In a somewhat related story, the lefthanded teammate I hung out with the other day began throwing curves pretty early in his baseball life, and I tried to play catch with him just one year out of high school, and his arm is now shot. Dude can't throw anymore. If I ever coach or have a little baseball-playing chip off the block, he's locating a fastball and a changeup until he turns 14 or 15, no questions asked. Location, location, location. If he throws curves anyway, I don't know what I'd do; that's why I'm not a parent.
I didn't even get started on why I don't like ESPN televising it, the role that that plays in the parents that are overzealous (I know most probably aren't), the fact that if the tournament just had (for example) 10 teams from 10 countries with the US represented by one team in a round-robin pool-play type deal, they'd probably get stomped every year.
Oh man, I didn't even get started on some of these kids' pitching mechanics. A few of the pitchers look fairly smooth out there, but a lot of them are just painful to watch. I know these kids are 12 years old and everything, but I'm weird. I was complimented on my pitching mechanics once by an umpire (I was probably 13 at the time), so it's given me somewhat of a complex. I was the kid who was watching baseball games on the TV all through the 90s and picking an open space on the floor and imitating the motions I saw on television. Years of this. In my most embarrassing moment, I took a Rich DeLucia delivery to the mound (don't ask me why) when I was about 10 or 11, and I managed to nail a Westgate batter in the foot. Pretty short outing for me, much like DeLucia's career.
For the record, Bremerton does not have Little League. I'd explain to my dad all the time that even if I was on an awesome team that kept winning, we'd never go to the LLWS and for some reason, he never understood that. Bremerton has the Kitsap County Pee Wee Association, which basically consists of teams from Bremerton, the Silverdale area, North Mason (Belfair), and sometimes North Kitsap. South Kitsap and Bainbridge are Little League.
-- Jeremy's right. This commercial with Macy Gray doing the cover of "Walk This Way" is just beyond putrid.
This post was weirdly exhausting to construct.
-- Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready were at Safeco Field last night. As I've probably said here before, Pearl Jam hasn't been the same since Vitalogy, and not even one of my favorite drummers (Matt Cameron) can get me to listen to their newer stuff. My friend Steve and I always get into heated arguments over the song "Black." I think it ruins the emotion of the first four tracks on Ten, whereas he thinks it's a lyrical masterpiece and a welcome diversion. I think barely any of Vedder's lyrics actually make sense.
-- Van Halen is suing the Orioles for $2M for reneging on a scheduled concert, but that's sort of old news. Van Halen got me through high school, but I still wouldn't pay $70 to see Sammy Hagar do the same four David Lee Roth songs he's done on every Van Halen tour he's been on. Say what you will about Gary Cherone, half the set list at the Gorge the night I went consisted of a handful of Roth songs that hadn't been played in decades.
-- This doesn't even link to sports, but how would you have liked to be on that tour boat in Chicago when the Dave Matthews Band's tour bus allegedly dumped 800 gallons of human waste off a bridge onto the boat? Let's hope no one on that tour boat was on their honeymoon. Yikes. By the way, I hate whoever made the unwritten law that absolutely everybody on a college campus has to think Dave Matthews Band is the best damn band ever. Maybe it's just at Central, who knows. I came into those four years at school thinking they were extremely skilled musicians and were a very good band. After the four years, I think the same thing, except I'm really sick of them.
THERE'S SPORTS IN THIS POST, DON'T WORRY!!
-- Kyle Turley is done for the year. The Seahawks get to face a decimated Rams team twice. They might be less decimated by the second time the teams meet, but they won't have Turley. Man, the Seahawks better win this division.
-- Wide receiver Mike Williams was not granted eligibility by the NCAA, and will basically be working out until next year's NFL draft.
-- Whoever mows the grass at Shea Stadium is out of his mind. The Padres/Mets day game today showcased a concave diamond pattern (think playing card suit) in the grass, with maybe a few thousand people witnessing the game. Who thinks Thursday getaway day games are a good idea?
-- Short Canuck tidbit. Brendan Morrison and Dan Cloutier are working out, and both think the odds are bleak that the NHL season will start on time. Also, Todd Bertuzzi pleaded not guilty to an assault charge in connection with the suckerpunch and piledriving into the ice of Colorado Avalanche player Steve Moore.
-- I could get on a roll with why I hate the Little League World Series (no, I won't even think of trashing the kids from Redmond here, I'd much rather congratulate them), but I'll try to keep it short. My main reason: curveballs thrown by kids that age. These kids are still growing, and I think they shouldn't be throwing curveballs until they're 14 or 15. When I'm flipping through the channels and see these kids throwing curves, all I say is "don't come crying to me when you're begging your parents for Tommy John surgery at the age of 16." In a somewhat related story, the lefthanded teammate I hung out with the other day began throwing curves pretty early in his baseball life, and I tried to play catch with him just one year out of high school, and his arm is now shot. Dude can't throw anymore. If I ever coach or have a little baseball-playing chip off the block, he's locating a fastball and a changeup until he turns 14 or 15, no questions asked. Location, location, location. If he throws curves anyway, I don't know what I'd do; that's why I'm not a parent.
I didn't even get started on why I don't like ESPN televising it, the role that that plays in the parents that are overzealous (I know most probably aren't), the fact that if the tournament just had (for example) 10 teams from 10 countries with the US represented by one team in a round-robin pool-play type deal, they'd probably get stomped every year.
Oh man, I didn't even get started on some of these kids' pitching mechanics. A few of the pitchers look fairly smooth out there, but a lot of them are just painful to watch. I know these kids are 12 years old and everything, but I'm weird. I was complimented on my pitching mechanics once by an umpire (I was probably 13 at the time), so it's given me somewhat of a complex. I was the kid who was watching baseball games on the TV all through the 90s and picking an open space on the floor and imitating the motions I saw on television. Years of this. In my most embarrassing moment, I took a Rich DeLucia delivery to the mound (don't ask me why) when I was about 10 or 11, and I managed to nail a Westgate batter in the foot. Pretty short outing for me, much like DeLucia's career.
For the record, Bremerton does not have Little League. I'd explain to my dad all the time that even if I was on an awesome team that kept winning, we'd never go to the LLWS and for some reason, he never understood that. Bremerton has the Kitsap County Pee Wee Association, which basically consists of teams from Bremerton, the Silverdale area, North Mason (Belfair), and sometimes North Kitsap. South Kitsap and Bainbridge are Little League.
-- Jeremy's right. This commercial with Macy Gray doing the cover of "Walk This Way" is just beyond putrid.
This post was weirdly exhausting to construct.
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