Tuesday, November 23, 2004
TUESDIFEROUS
A couple things before launching into the regular output...
So, anyone that saw the ABC Monday Night Football intro this week was clearly told that it was 9pm on the east coast, surely a veiled shot at everyone complaining about last week's Towel Drop. I'm not surprised by the arguments by either side in this whole spat, but was ABC for some reason completely oblivious to the fact that it was 6pm on the west coast when their MNF intro was rolling? Of course you're going to get some sort of reaction if you're showing something like that at 6pm on the west coast. No ABC affiliate in this time zone is showing Monday Night Football at 9pm (KOMO/KATU came closest with tape-delayed MNF at 7p back in the day), and nobody's putting their kids to bed at 6. Call me stupid, but not a lot of parents are expecting Desperate Housewives-type stuff on their televisions at 6pm with the kids still awake and perceivably watching a football game on network television. Stuff yet another one into the "east coast bias" file.
No, I did not have anything to do with nor did I have knowledge of the supposedly real-life Wisteria Lane (another Desperate Housewives reference) that apparently exists in Bremerton. In a related story, KOMO needs to give John Sharify something worthwhile to do. I just checked the phone book, and Wisteria Lane is north of Riddell Road and is therefore not within Bremerton City Limits. Although they do get to put "Bremerton" on their outgoing letters, all kids residing on or near Wisteria Lane that end up graduating from high school will be graduates of Olympic High School, not Bremerton High School. Just had to clear that up for the 0.25 people that cared about it.
In what is no surprise to me, the NASCAR track in Marysville is dead. I remember Mike Gastineau (race fan from Indiana) talked about this on his show at the end of last summer, and I knew when even race fans were calling in saying that either they didn't like this or they thought it would be really tough, that this was going down. From everything I heard, the highways around there were nowhere near sufficient for the kind of traffic NASCAR races (and other lower-tiered races on race weekends) would have brought.
The NASCAR article linked above also mentions that the International Speedway Corporation is still looking for other sites, with a spot near the Bremerton National Airport as a possibility. Good luck with that. The existing Bremerton Raceway (there are signs for it, anyway) is basically a drag strip next to the airport that I don't know much else about. Though there is some space around the airport (lots of trees too), the only way in and out of that place right now is State Route 3, and that thing definitely doesn't need any more congestion. It's one of those roads that you can find congested at any odd time you could think of. If they widened that part of Highway 3 (not just the hills) to two lanes both ways, I think the drive-in theater, the skeet shooting range, and a few other property owners might have something to say about that too. Also, I don't think there's anywhere close to the amount of hotels necessary in this area to accommodate the 90000-plus race fans that would come in. Also, race fans would have to create their own nightlife if they didn't want to sleep or be bored, because not a lot of it actually exists in these parts.
But enough about Bremerton, here's the headlines...
MARINERS
Bob Finnigan (insert warning here) says that Carlos Delgado is most likely the guy at the top of the Mariners' free-agent list.
I'll post my immediate thoughts as I'm reading the Finnigan article. What the hell are Jaret Wright and Jon Lieber doing in this article? Negotiations with Dan Wilson are stuck? Seeya, Dan. The thought of Wilson backing up Ben Davis in Chicago is a funny one, but it's also one that's being brought to us by Bob Finnigan. Dammit, Bob, you had to put Wiki Gonzalez' name back in my mind again. Why? And he's the backup if Wilson bolts? Yikes. I'd also like to know who in the organization actually thinks Wiki is a "sleeper." The thought of using Mike Hargrove's hookups to land Jaret Wright is a scary one. Mike, stick with the good players, for instance, Manny or Jim Thome (yeah, I know, contracts). Oh man, Pavano rejected $7M/yr? Presuming that's real and isn't Finnigan math, I would say Pavano and his agent is nuts, or I'd say they're trying to take advantage of the idiotic contracts that have been signed already, as well they should.
SEAHAWKS
Seeya, Koren. Thankfully, Clare Farnsworth clears up the fact that the three violations leading to the suspension don't have to be failed tests; they can also be missed tests, kinda like the two Greek sprinters in the Olympics. So Koren didn't necessarily get caught for pot three times. Still, this is inexcusable. Of course, given how many passes he's dropped, the effect of his absence on the Seahawk offense is arguably negligible or possibly even positive. So what does Koren do yesterday at Kirkland HQ? Jump and touch the overhead water pipe (both articles reference this). Romero likens it to stress release, whereas Farnsworth sort of leaves it open to interpretation.
Well, Chad Brown, it was nice having you. Go rehab for a while. He had surgery to repair torn knee cartilage yesterday. The Seahawks kept this all under wraps pretty well (at least to the dailies), but probably because they actually played him on Sunday. Solomon Bates, Orlando Huff, and Isaiah Kacyvenski will most likely be the starting linebackers. Injuries suck. In the same article is another injury that sucks. I've twice called Matt Hasselbeck's injury the "charley horse from hell" and Mike Holmgren now calls it the "most serious charley horse in the history of charley horses."
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
In North Carolina's 86-50 thumping of BYU at Maui, Marvin played 20 minutes off the bench and had 8 points (perfect in 6 shots from the line), 6 rebounds, and 3 steals.
Upcoming for the Tar Heels...
Sunday vs. Southern California (can't confuse them with South Carolina by saying USC)
Wednesday (1 Dec) at Indiana
Sonics
It's Danny Fortson time in the Seattle press. It's obvious that Fortson is being targeted by the league officials, but I really wish he wouldn't actually acknowledge this. I wish he'd just let Coach McMillan and Rick Sund handle it, but it's probably not Fortson's personality to do that. It's weird because in those first couple Sonic wins, it seems like he was just nuts, and then there was the Chris Bosh foul, which he later got suspended for, and now Fortson is getting called left and right for illegal screens. It seemed like the pace really picked up. He is now averaging a foul every 3.21 minutes, according to the O'Neil article, which also says the calls might have something to do with the defamation suit against Jerry Colangelo for calling Fortson a "thug."
Upcoming for the Sonics...
Tonight at Minnesota
Wednesday at Memphis
Friday vs. New Jersey
(I mistakenly had the Sonics not playing until Wednesday in my Sunday post.)
HOCKEY
Tonight, if you get the CBC, the Making the Cut show is on at 8pm. Two teams' worth of players remain. Here's the promo for it.
No big ceremony in front of 20000 fans or anything like that; fifteen of the Tampa Bay Lightning visited the St. Pete Times Forum and got their commemorative Stanley Cup rings last week. I think it might finally be hitting me that there won't be an NHL season. How could they all be so stupid?
None of the six teams I've been tracking take the ice until Wednesday. Hence, I need to come up with stuff for the next three of these posts.
Tonight it's the standings of the super six teams in their respective divisions...
Western Hockey League
Western Conference -- US Division
(rank_team, games played, record[points], last 10, streak)
1 Seattle Thunderbirds, 21, 16-5-0-0[32], 8-2-0, W3
2 Everett Silvertips, 24, 13-7-2-2[30], 7-3-0, W2
3 Portland Winter Hawks, 22, 10-10-1-1[22], 4-5-1, L2
4 Tri-City Americans, 22, 8-11-3-0[19], 4-5-1, L2
5 Spokane Chiefs, 21, 7-12-1-1[16], 2-7-1, L2
Western Conference -- BC Division
1 Kootenay Ice, 25, 16-7-2-0[34], 8-2-0, W7
2 Kelowna Rockets, 24, 15-6-3-0[33], 7-1-2, W2
3 Vancouver Giants, 25, 12-11-0-2[26], 4-6-0, W2
4 Prince George Cougars, 24, 9-12-2-1[21], 5-5-0, L2
5 Kamloops Blazers, 25, 7-15-2-1[17], 3-6-1, L3
American Hockey League -- North Division
(rank_team, games played, record[points])
1 Edmonton Road Runners, 18, 11-3-2-2[26]
2 Manitoba Moose, 18, 11-5-0-2[24]
3 St. John's Maple Leafs, 16, 9-6-0-1[19]
4 Rochester Americans, 16, 8-5-2-1[19]
5 Cleveland Barons, 17, 7-8-1-1[16]
6 Hamilton Bulldogs, 19, 6-9-3-1[16]
7 Syracuse Crunch 17, 5-7-2-3[15]
Northern Pacific Hockey League -- West Division
(rank_team, games played, record[points])
1 Puget Sound Tomahawks, 22, 20-2-0[40]
2 Portland Pioneers, 16, 15-1-0[30]
3 Tri-City Titans, 20, 6-14-0[12]
4 River City Jaguars, 18, 2-16-0[4]
Upcoming...
Tomorrow's post: league-leading scorers
Wednesday: Calgary at Seattle, Medicine Hat at Portland
Friday: Medicine Hat at Everett, Tri-City at Portland, Regina at Vancouver
Saturday: Medicine Hat at Seattle, Calgary at Portland, Milwaukee at Manitoba
---
Enjoy your Tuesday. If you're making any musical purchases, remember there are three different versions of the new U2 album today, so find out which version is which if you make a purchase.
So, anyone that saw the ABC Monday Night Football intro this week was clearly told that it was 9pm on the east coast, surely a veiled shot at everyone complaining about last week's Towel Drop. I'm not surprised by the arguments by either side in this whole spat, but was ABC for some reason completely oblivious to the fact that it was 6pm on the west coast when their MNF intro was rolling? Of course you're going to get some sort of reaction if you're showing something like that at 6pm on the west coast. No ABC affiliate in this time zone is showing Monday Night Football at 9pm (KOMO/KATU came closest with tape-delayed MNF at 7p back in the day), and nobody's putting their kids to bed at 6. Call me stupid, but not a lot of parents are expecting Desperate Housewives-type stuff on their televisions at 6pm with the kids still awake and perceivably watching a football game on network television. Stuff yet another one into the "east coast bias" file.
No, I did not have anything to do with nor did I have knowledge of the supposedly real-life Wisteria Lane (another Desperate Housewives reference) that apparently exists in Bremerton. In a related story, KOMO needs to give John Sharify something worthwhile to do. I just checked the phone book, and Wisteria Lane is north of Riddell Road and is therefore not within Bremerton City Limits. Although they do get to put "Bremerton" on their outgoing letters, all kids residing on or near Wisteria Lane that end up graduating from high school will be graduates of Olympic High School, not Bremerton High School. Just had to clear that up for the 0.25 people that cared about it.
In what is no surprise to me, the NASCAR track in Marysville is dead. I remember Mike Gastineau (race fan from Indiana) talked about this on his show at the end of last summer, and I knew when even race fans were calling in saying that either they didn't like this or they thought it would be really tough, that this was going down. From everything I heard, the highways around there were nowhere near sufficient for the kind of traffic NASCAR races (and other lower-tiered races on race weekends) would have brought.
The NASCAR article linked above also mentions that the International Speedway Corporation is still looking for other sites, with a spot near the Bremerton National Airport as a possibility. Good luck with that. The existing Bremerton Raceway (there are signs for it, anyway) is basically a drag strip next to the airport that I don't know much else about. Though there is some space around the airport (lots of trees too), the only way in and out of that place right now is State Route 3, and that thing definitely doesn't need any more congestion. It's one of those roads that you can find congested at any odd time you could think of. If they widened that part of Highway 3 (not just the hills) to two lanes both ways, I think the drive-in theater, the skeet shooting range, and a few other property owners might have something to say about that too. Also, I don't think there's anywhere close to the amount of hotels necessary in this area to accommodate the 90000-plus race fans that would come in. Also, race fans would have to create their own nightlife if they didn't want to sleep or be bored, because not a lot of it actually exists in these parts.
But enough about Bremerton, here's the headlines...
MARINERS
Bob Finnigan (insert warning here) says that Carlos Delgado is most likely the guy at the top of the Mariners' free-agent list.
I'll post my immediate thoughts as I'm reading the Finnigan article. What the hell are Jaret Wright and Jon Lieber doing in this article? Negotiations with Dan Wilson are stuck? Seeya, Dan. The thought of Wilson backing up Ben Davis in Chicago is a funny one, but it's also one that's being brought to us by Bob Finnigan. Dammit, Bob, you had to put Wiki Gonzalez' name back in my mind again. Why? And he's the backup if Wilson bolts? Yikes. I'd also like to know who in the organization actually thinks Wiki is a "sleeper." The thought of using Mike Hargrove's hookups to land Jaret Wright is a scary one. Mike, stick with the good players, for instance, Manny or Jim Thome (yeah, I know, contracts). Oh man, Pavano rejected $7M/yr? Presuming that's real and isn't Finnigan math, I would say Pavano and his agent is nuts, or I'd say they're trying to take advantage of the idiotic contracts that have been signed already, as well they should.
SEAHAWKS
Seeya, Koren. Thankfully, Clare Farnsworth clears up the fact that the three violations leading to the suspension don't have to be failed tests; they can also be missed tests, kinda like the two Greek sprinters in the Olympics. So Koren didn't necessarily get caught for pot three times. Still, this is inexcusable. Of course, given how many passes he's dropped, the effect of his absence on the Seahawk offense is arguably negligible or possibly even positive. So what does Koren do yesterday at Kirkland HQ? Jump and touch the overhead water pipe (both articles reference this). Romero likens it to stress release, whereas Farnsworth sort of leaves it open to interpretation.
Well, Chad Brown, it was nice having you. Go rehab for a while. He had surgery to repair torn knee cartilage yesterday. The Seahawks kept this all under wraps pretty well (at least to the dailies), but probably because they actually played him on Sunday. Solomon Bates, Orlando Huff, and Isaiah Kacyvenski will most likely be the starting linebackers. Injuries suck. In the same article is another injury that sucks. I've twice called Matt Hasselbeck's injury the "charley horse from hell" and Mike Holmgren now calls it the "most serious charley horse in the history of charley horses."
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
In North Carolina's 86-50 thumping of BYU at Maui, Marvin played 20 minutes off the bench and had 8 points (perfect in 6 shots from the line), 6 rebounds, and 3 steals.
Upcoming for the Tar Heels...
Sunday vs. Southern California (can't confuse them with South Carolina by saying USC)
Wednesday (1 Dec) at Indiana
Sonics
It's Danny Fortson time in the Seattle press. It's obvious that Fortson is being targeted by the league officials, but I really wish he wouldn't actually acknowledge this. I wish he'd just let Coach McMillan and Rick Sund handle it, but it's probably not Fortson's personality to do that. It's weird because in those first couple Sonic wins, it seems like he was just nuts, and then there was the Chris Bosh foul, which he later got suspended for, and now Fortson is getting called left and right for illegal screens. It seemed like the pace really picked up. He is now averaging a foul every 3.21 minutes, according to the O'Neil article, which also says the calls might have something to do with the defamation suit against Jerry Colangelo for calling Fortson a "thug."
Upcoming for the Sonics...
Tonight at Minnesota
Wednesday at Memphis
Friday vs. New Jersey
(I mistakenly had the Sonics not playing until Wednesday in my Sunday post.)
HOCKEY
Tonight, if you get the CBC, the Making the Cut show is on at 8pm. Two teams' worth of players remain. Here's the promo for it.
No big ceremony in front of 20000 fans or anything like that; fifteen of the Tampa Bay Lightning visited the St. Pete Times Forum and got their commemorative Stanley Cup rings last week. I think it might finally be hitting me that there won't be an NHL season. How could they all be so stupid?
None of the six teams I've been tracking take the ice until Wednesday. Hence, I need to come up with stuff for the next three of these posts.
Tonight it's the standings of the super six teams in their respective divisions...
Western Hockey League
Western Conference -- US Division
(rank_team, games played, record[points], last 10, streak)
1 Seattle Thunderbirds, 21, 16-5-0-0[32], 8-2-0, W3
2 Everett Silvertips, 24, 13-7-2-2[30], 7-3-0, W2
3 Portland Winter Hawks, 22, 10-10-1-1[22], 4-5-1, L2
4 Tri-City Americans, 22, 8-11-3-0[19], 4-5-1, L2
5 Spokane Chiefs, 21, 7-12-1-1[16], 2-7-1, L2
Western Conference -- BC Division
1 Kootenay Ice, 25, 16-7-2-0[34], 8-2-0, W7
2 Kelowna Rockets, 24, 15-6-3-0[33], 7-1-2, W2
3 Vancouver Giants, 25, 12-11-0-2[26], 4-6-0, W2
4 Prince George Cougars, 24, 9-12-2-1[21], 5-5-0, L2
5 Kamloops Blazers, 25, 7-15-2-1[17], 3-6-1, L3
American Hockey League -- North Division
(rank_team, games played, record[points])
1 Edmonton Road Runners, 18, 11-3-2-2[26]
2 Manitoba Moose, 18, 11-5-0-2[24]
3 St. John's Maple Leafs, 16, 9-6-0-1[19]
4 Rochester Americans, 16, 8-5-2-1[19]
5 Cleveland Barons, 17, 7-8-1-1[16]
6 Hamilton Bulldogs, 19, 6-9-3-1[16]
7 Syracuse Crunch 17, 5-7-2-3[15]
Northern Pacific Hockey League -- West Division
(rank_team, games played, record[points])
1 Puget Sound Tomahawks, 22, 20-2-0[40]
2 Portland Pioneers, 16, 15-1-0[30]
3 Tri-City Titans, 20, 6-14-0[12]
4 River City Jaguars, 18, 2-16-0[4]
Upcoming...
Tomorrow's post: league-leading scorers
Wednesday: Calgary at Seattle, Medicine Hat at Portland
Friday: Medicine Hat at Everett, Tri-City at Portland, Regina at Vancouver
Saturday: Medicine Hat at Seattle, Calgary at Portland, Milwaukee at Manitoba
---
Enjoy your Tuesday. If you're making any musical purchases, remember there are three different versions of the new U2 album today, so find out which version is which if you make a purchase.
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