Oye

Well, that 'statement' game I talked about in my previous post(Some Thoughts) for the Knicks went like this:

Dallas Mavericks - 123
New York Knicks - 94

The road to nowhere leads to Madison Square Garden...with dead end exits to:
Shea Stadium
Giants Stadium

and coming sooner than you think, the new off ramp to:
Yankee Stadium

Holla.

Some Thoughts

So the Mets actually did sign Pedro Martinez! How about that? My prediction - 17-7, 3.15 ERA. Lot's of strikeouts. Two bench clearing brawls as a result of his beanballing. He gets thrown at a few times while at bat but avoids any serious cranial damage.

The Giants are 5-9, and still in the NFC playoff hunt. How horrible is that? They can finish 7-9 at best and still squeak into the postseason, they are one of many teams in that same boat however. One positive thing that can be drawn from their Saturday afternoon defeat at the hands of the Steelers was the play of Eli Manning. If not for a falling Amani Toomer, who knows how that game would've turned out. Eli played a solid game of football and a performance like that should quiet some of those sour puss critics who said things like 'this experieince will ruin him' and 'it would be nice if they(the Giants) had a quaterback.' ESPN & HBO analyst Peter King said after the game it was clear which one of these two rookie quaterbacks is headed for a more successful NFL career, referring to Eli Manning, not Ben Roethlisberger. Hopefully his prediction holds true. I get the sense he is correct in his assertion, and I'm an NFL genious.

The New York Knicks have the most losses of any first place team in the NBA and currently hold the #3 seed for the playoffs. Their play has ranged from impressive to embarrassingly bad. Currently they are on a 2 game winning streak heading into tonight's game at home against the Dallas Mavericks. If they can beat the Mavs tonight it will turn some heads. They will have beaten the Jazz, the Nuggets and the Mavs, and came within 1 point of beating the defending champion Detroit Pistons. This is a Knicks team that can beat some of the 'elite' teams in the NBA East and West, they just need to play smart every game. Watching Jamal Crawford huck up jump shots in the 4th quater against the Pistons was maddening. If only he had passed the ball around, or drove the lane to create a scoring chance/draw a foul, we'd be looking at a Knicks team that beat all four of those powerhouses leading into tonight. Which is why tonight is so important. I can remember during some of the Riley years, coming up to their Christmas Day games against either the Bulls or the Pacers, when their record would stand at .500! This was unheard of and unacceptable, the NY papers would rip the Knicks for being mediocre when they should've been dominating like their Eastern Conference rivals. That would be when talk of Riley's downfall would start, or that Ewing was too old. It was that Christmas Judgement period that instilled in me the notion that every Christmas time is a time to evaluate the Knicks season so far. Obviously the game and the team has changed a lot since then, but here we are, coming up on Christmas and the Knicks, who are usually mocked by NBA and Sports Talk folk around the nation, are in first place and have a winning record. Tonight the Mavericks game is pivotal. It's one of those games I've referred to in previous posts, it's a game they need to win. If the Knicks hope to change their fortunes and create a new energy this year at MSG, they need to win tonight. They need to show the fans that they can consistently win the statement games. With each big win, the teams confidence will grow, and they will need all the confidence in the world for when they evetually meet the Heat. I'm hoping to see a rebirth to the Knicks/Heat rivalry, then maybe next Christmas Day we can see a competitive rivalry game on TV, not a soap opera mess featuring an accused rapist.

Not Just An Academic Venting Session

I have been watching on CSPAN 2 tonight a Congressional Panel Discussion about the alleged Ohio election fraud from last month's presidential election. There is a lot to this story, and it's actually footage that was shot on Wednesday Decemeber 8th, yet I have heard nothing about it until flipping to DirecTV channel 351 this evening. To describe quickly the content of this hearing, I shall list and briefly describe:

1. There are numerous lawsuits that are in motion and will be heard regarding the subject of voting fraud and voter disenfranchisment during this year's presidential election in Ohio.

2. There has just been approved by the Ohio Federal court a re-count of every vote cast in Ohio. There was a lot of dirty work involved in this re-count being stonewalled for a while. Two Independent candidates for president excersized their right to call for a re-count. The state said they could, but they needed to pay a $113,000 + Bond to have it done. So the candidates got the word out and they raised enough money. The state repeatedly rejected their right for a re-count even after the money was raised. It was only after the effort was brought in front of the Ohio Federal court that it was finally granted. But not before it was too late to get the re-count done before the Ellectoral College casts their final ballots on December 13th. Those in charge of the re-count effort expressed in this hearing that if the re-count resulted in the state being called in favor of Kerry(I paraphrase that, John Kerry was not mentioned in the hearing as I watched it), then a new Electoral College would be charged with casting their ballots based on the 'will of the people', and when the new session of Congress starts up in January of '05, they would be forced to deal with two election results.

3. There was a call for a reform on Federal Election procedures. Most expressed their opinion to make Federal Elections run in a uniform style, as outlined in a Federal law as opposed to state law, meaning the same voting machines/technology used throughout the country in Federally mandated districts(meaning no last minute juggling of district borders).

4. Jesse Jackson Jr. called for a Constitutional Amendment to give all American citizens the right to vote. He has tried to get such a motion passed through congress three times and has yet to succeed, though it is gaining steam.

As I write this, the link to the video of this meeting on CSPAN.com is down :(

This was an informative discussion about a topic that should smack every American right in the face. Jesse Jackson Sr. said "I hope this doesnt amount to just an academic venting session", I couldn't agree more.

2 Things

Hello there...I changed the options so that anyone can leave comments, not just fellow Blogasses. Also, if you click on 'Rumsfeld', it links you to the article that inspired me.

Briefly, it looks like the Knicks really do still suck.

Rumsfeld

I know this'll get jumped on by many, but I saw it and had to share. Donald Rumsfeld was fielding questions from troops about to head to Iraq when he was asked about why there weren't enough state of the art armored vehicles being used in combat. These quotes are part of his answer:

"Something like 400 [vehicles] a month are being done," he said. "And it's essentially a matter of physics, not a matter of money. ... It's a matter of production and the capability of doing it."

--It's funny that he used physics as a reason, and the answer essentially says 'Yeah, well, tough luck, we'll get them to you when we can' More from the article:

In April, the Pentagon said it was spending $400 million to replace the Army's thin-skinned Humvees in Iraq with the so-called "uparmored" reinforced versions.
"As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want," Rumsfeld said.

--Also a funny answer, perhaps if we really needed to go to this war, we should've waited until we had enough of the best equipment and vehicles for our troops to avoid casualties and injury, that might be 'the Army you want', no?

He added, "You can have all the armor in the world on a tank, and it can [still] be blown up."

--Thanks for that Donnie, but they're more worried about the armor piercing rounds that are ripping them and their fellow soldiers to shreds, which might be avoided by having the best armored vehicles we can get. We had the technology before the war, why was it not implemented? I find it intruiging, perhaps we rushed to combat?

Pedro in Flushing?

When I first heard that the New York Mets had offered Pedro Martinez a big honkin' contract I was unhappy about the matter. I thought to myself -- he's old, he can't pitch late into games anymore, he says dumbass things publicly(See: 'New York is my Daddy'), he sometimes loses focus and his pitches end up being deposited 400 feet away, and then his next pitch is aimed squarely at the batters head, he also might have a problem with his shoulder(but that seems to be said every off season).
But time passed. And I read about him, and I thought about it, and now I think, why not Pedro in Flushing?
The man's career record is: 182 wins, 76 losses. That's as a starting pitcher since 1994. His carreer ERA is 2.71! And the last 7 seasons, he's been in the American League, which is the land of 4.00 and higher ERA's for top winning pitchers annually. Just last year, when I had been under the impression Pedro was having a bad season, he finished 16-9 with a 3.90 ERA. He also helped the Red Sox come back from a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS and then he helped them win a World Series. He broke the friggin' curse of the Bambino for God's sake! This is a pitcher who knows how to win big games, and who helps his team win any way he can. Even if that means throwing Don Zimmer to the ground by his head.
By comparison, last year the Mets winningest starter was Steve Traschel. He had a 12-13 record with a 4.00 ERA. Though the ERA's are comparible, Traschel pitched in the National League, a much more pitcher friendly league. Glavine and Leiter had decent years, but Leiter will be pitching in Miami or the Bronx next year and Glavine will fall apart in the second half like he did this past year. That leaves Benson and Zambrano to bring the Mets to glory and that just doesn't sit well with me. Benson is spotty at best, and Zambrano's arm might fall off.
Pedro Martinez will bring his snotty, immature attitude and yeah, he'll cause some problems here and there with the Media and probably some teammates. But he's going to win basbeball games. He's going to strike out 15 batters in a game at Shea Stadium. He's going to throw some beanballs, probably at Yankees and Braves players. The bottom line is, he'll bring an electricity and excitement to Flushing that hasn't been seen since the coked out Doc Gooden was throwing bb's past juice-free National League sluggers. He's also only 33 years old, which means by the time his contract expires, he'll only be 37. By comparison, Leiter and Glavine, the Mets top two pitchers, are at 39 and 38 respectively.
Maybe it's a lot of talk over nothing though. He could end up back in Boston. Or if the Yanks can't land Randy Johnson, Pedro will be striking out and throwing beanballs at Red Sox players. But if he lands at Shea, I forsee it being a good thing. Mets in '06!

Eli Manning

Eli Manning will be fine. I watch these Giants games, these terrible, terrible games and it's hard to watch the season slip away, but let's get serious. This team was never going to be great this year, and probably won't be next year either. The offensive line is horrible, whether it's Warner or Manning back there. The sacks are inevitable. Warner played well, but what's the point of using him when we all know he's gone next year and Eli needs to get NFL experience. For all those haters out there who are saying things like "This experience won't help him, he'll be ruined!" are forgetting that Eli Manning is a human being. And he comes from an experienced football family. His older brother Peyton, who is going to break Dan Marino's single-season TD passing record in the coming weeks, came into the NFL in 1998. The Colts were a bad team then, and Peyton threw 28 interceptions. He was sacked a lot, and he lost a lot of games. It was only in his third year that people started seeing that Peyton learned the game, adjusted, and started leading his team and dominating the league's defenses. He gets better every year. I am astounded that people ignore these facts when talking about Eli.
In these few games we've seen Eli struggle. He has thrown some INT's(None today by the way). He has under and over thrown receivers. He has taken some big hits. He has made some bad decisions. But it doesn't matter. This season is a wash. It's not about this year. It's about 3 years from now. When Eli Manning is throwing those 30-40 yard bombs with 100% accuracy to his receivers on a regular basis, not just here and there as we've seen so far. Once the line improves, and once Eli starts seeing with 'NFL Vision', the haters will have to find somthing else to complain about.

Washington Journal

I've been watching the Washington Journal lately. It's a CSPAN news show which has a format that doesn't make me ill. The host reads newspaper headlines and articles from around the country, and he doesn't offer his opinion. They take callers from around the country who are allowed to comment on anything they want. Most of the callers are allowed to speak freely, while on occasion if someone gets a bit silly, the host will simply ask them why they feel the way they do and if they continue to spew forth garbage, the caller gets the boot! They have interviews throughout the show usually on the big topics in the news, for instance in the last couple days they've discussed the Ukraine election debacle, today they are discussing the rush by the President to get the new intelligence bill passed as well as the dumping of 2%, or $105 million dollars, from education funding in the area of science and engineering. So they read an article from Thomas Friedman on the subject and then callers chime in on the article and the topic in general. If you're looking for a news show that doesn't assault your senses, I say give this one a whirl. It's on CSPAN at 7am EST, and is repeated at 11am.

Typical

The Knicks lost to the expansion Bobcats tonight. The Knicks are the best worst team ever.

That's questionable

I work at a major chain bookstore in Hollywood. Tonight a guy wanted to return a book without having a receipt. We have a clear policy on the matter, if we don't carry the title, we don't take it back. He didn't like that answer. After talking with one manager, it came to me to verify that the other manager wasn't wrong. I concurred, we won't take it back. He got real condescending after that. He said, and I quote 'Is there any OTHER manager I can talk to at the store right now?' I replied, 'No.' He rolls his eyes and said 'So, you two are running the store right now? Just you two?' I replied, 'Yes.' He then says, 'Wow, you two running this store, wow, that's something else...that's just, wow, that's questionable.'

Testing Sandwich

Behold...it begins...with nothing.