Indians - 22

Yankees - 0


Twenty-two. Nothing. Halleluiah.


Joe Torre is a classy guy though. He took the loss well and made no excuses. Even if you don't like the Yankees, which I don't, you have to give Torre credit.

Day 1 of the RNC national convention. McCain's speech... so so. Guiliani's speech... pretty good.

The best part was in the post analysis though when Brit Hume said "What was the feeling in the Democraps convention." He actually said Democraps. I thought that was hilliarious, but that's probably because I have the humor of a 7 year old.

Talking toilets have been installed in Amsterdam. If they detect "material" on them with their lid still down, they will remind the user to lift the lid first.

"You might consider sitting down next time," the toilet told a male Reuters reporter politely in a female robot voice. The next user was told that "The last visitor did not take heed of basic rules of hygiene."

Depending on circumstances, the toilet might remind you to wash your hands or ask you to lift the seat.

"It could suddenly start coughing and warn you about the dangers of cigarettes, or name all the cool movie stars who smoke. It just depends what mood it’s in," van Munster said referring to people who sneak off to secretly have a puff.

Dear USA Basketball,

We'd all like to thank you for never learning the basic fundamentals. You have favored athleticism over being able to play the game for about a decade now, and we couldn't be happier with your decision.

Sincerely,

The World

Stephon! Stephon! Show up today and play! Stephon! Stop shooting recklessly. Stop dribbling eratically. Stop being a bitch.

Team USA needs a victory.

Stephon, if it takes me calling you out in order to get you to play like you did today, I will call you out every day. You had a great game. Congratulations. Now play like that again for the rest of the Olympics, because that's what it's going to take for a gold medal.

29 minutes
10 - 15 field goals
6 - 9 three pointers
5 - 6 free throws
2 rebounds
4 assists
2 steals
2 turnovers

31 points

Very nice game.

Chewing is under-rated. I can eat solid food, but it doesn't seem to be very satisfying. Food is flying all over the place in there.

Listen here food. You go into my mouth, disintegrate, and then fly into my stomach. That is your job. No lounging around in my gaping toothless holes. Slackers.

The Olympics are a sham. Not all of the events, just the ones that have judges.

I was watching mens high bar gymnastics tonight. I'm not sure why. Some Russian Nemov guy had an awesome (turn / event / thing) and he got completely screwed by the judges. The Greeks go crazy, so the head scorer goes over and they change his score. Too bad they still had it way too low. Just the fact that they have the power to change his score after the fact shows how screwed up it is, but then they should have at least got it right.

I ate pizza yesterday, a mere 33 hours after getting my wisdom teeth out. It was excellent. I'm not sure whether that's because the pizza was actually good, or because for the previous 33 hours all I was eating was apple sauce and pudding.

Also, Stacy Dragila is pretty hot, and she is in my key demographic, which makes it even better.

Is it possible for Stephon Marbury to be any more useless in international play? I don't see how he could pull that off. Let's look at his game by game results:

USA vs Puero Rico
25 minutes
1 -5 field goals
0 - 0 free throws
1 rebound
0 turnovers
1 assist
3 personal fouls


USA vs Greece
26 minutes
3 - 7 field goals
1 - 2 free throws
1 rebound
2 turnovers
6 assists
0 personal fouls



USA vs Australia
23 minutes
0 - 4 field goals
1 - 2 free throws
0 rebounds
1 turnover
5 assists
3 personal fouls


USA vs Lithuania
32 minutes
2 - 14 field goals
3 - 4 free throws
1 rebound
0 turnovers
3 assists
2 personal fouls



WHY IS THIS FREAKING GUY STARTING?!?!? He's shooting 20% from the field and 63% from the free throw line. He has 8 fouls and 3 rebounds. Whoopty do. If you're telling me that this is the best that USA basketball can send to the Olympics, then it's no wonder why they have now lost 2 of their 4 games. Marbury cannot defend. He cannot shoot. He cannot rebound. He can't lead the team down the floor, and he can't think. USA down by 4 with 3 seconds left. Hey Stephon, lets shoot a useless layup. GREAT! Ever hear of trying to draw a foul on a three pointer? Remember.... Lithuania just pulled that off a minute ago? Remember that? It's called fundamentals. You don't have any. Sit your ass on the bench. If I can see this, why can't Larry Brown? This is driving me crazy.

What the freak. Who the hell cares that team USA is made up of mind blowingly fantastic athletes when, if you're not named Tim Duncan, you can't play a drop of actual basketball.

TEAM USA, DO YOU WANT TO WIN THE GOLD MEDAL??? Here's how you do it.

Give the ball to Tim Duncan EVERY SINGLE TIME. If he shoots 60 times a game, you WILL WIN. I don't care if he is being guarded by 4 guys every time he touches the ball. I don't care. He can score, and get this... he can SHOOT FREE THROWS. Do you know what those are? Those are shots where no one is guarding you. Not even a single person. And you still miss 45% of the time.

Give Duncan the ball. For the love of God.

I had my wisdom teeth pulled today, about 12 hours ago in fact. Frankly, I don't see what the big deal is. I have no swelling, and I haven't had any pain other than the occasional dull throb. Two more days and I should be able to eat real food again.

I think it's time to bust out the neutron bomb and drop it on Al-Sadr. If he doesn't want to come out, then we can carry him out. With this bomb, none of the Muslim holy sites would be destroyed, but all of the people inside them would be. I've been wondering where the Islamic outrage is over a bunch of militants standing inside one of their holiest sites firing rocket propelled grenades. There doesn't seem to be any. Can you imagine what would happen if a marine shot a hole in the wall however. Oh the humanity.

It's nearing the time when the U.S. military needs to stop playing by some constrictive rules that no one else obeys, and just goes in and finishes the job. The only thing that militants respond to is overwhelming force. Diplomacy obviously doesn't have any effect.

I haven't finished putting together all of my latest panoramics, but here are 1 of each from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and Shea Stadium in New York City. As always, if you want me to email you the full size version, I will.




Citizens Bank Park








Shea Stadium

The freaking Cleveland National Air Show doesn't have the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds this year. How can they even call it a national air show now? The have the idiotic US National Jet Aerobatic Team... which is just another way of saying a big pile of crap. Give me a break. The Dayton Air Show was better than this is going to be, and that was by far the worst air show I've ever been to.

Give me a break.

United States: We're going into Iraq. Who's with us?

Germany: Not us. This is an unjust war. Won't someone please think of the children.

United States: Since we are so unjust, we're going to pull our troops out of your country.

Germany: No! This is unjust also. Won't someone please think of the children.


They can't have it both ways. If the U.S. is truly the imperialists that they would have us believe we are, then why don't they want us to pull our troops out of their countries? Perhaps because they need our protection? Hmmm. Interesting.

This link is what I'm talking about by the way.


I'm tired of most of Europe and their Soldiers of Surrender. The only place keeping that continent alive isn't even attached to the mainland.

Citizens Bank Park in Philly is a very nice place to catch a game. It has vaulted into the top 5 of all parks I've seen, and probably will settle in at number 4, with a possibility of going as high as number 2.

Preliminary top 5 (since I am going to Shea today, and I expect it to contend for a spot in my list. Of all the parks I've been to.)

1. Minute Maid Park - Houston Astros
2. PNC Park - Pittsburgh Pirates
3. Pac Bell Park - San Francisco Giants
4. Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia Phillies
5. Jacob's Field - Cleveland Indians

I'm supposed to go to baseball games in Philadelphia and New York City this weekend. Guess what else is supposed to go to those games.

Two freaking hurricanes. Two. Two times. Twice.

What are the odds of that?

Here's what I was doing yesterday, as we continue our week of Random Days in Hi-Def

Is anyone excited at all about the Olympics? I know I'm not. I haven't watched any qualifying events at all. The only thing that's even close that I have watched is the USA basketball team versus Serbia-Montenegro.

I remember watching Michael Johnson in Atlanta, and not really anything after that in the Summer Olympics. Maybe we need a dominating track and field star with some personality to spice things up a bit. Maybe all Olympics need to be held in the U.S. I'm not sure what it really takes, but I'm not interested right now.

Here are the panoramics I took from my recent excursion to the Great American Ballpark in Cinncinati. The ballpark is neither as great nor as American as it's name implies however.

Here's an exceprt from the blue ribbon season preview on Purdue. It looks pretty encouraging, which of course means that we're doomed.

BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS

OFFENSE: A; SPECIAL TEAMS: B; DEFENSE: C-; INTANGIBLES: B

Purdue might have the best offense in America, but if the Boilers can't stop anybody, it won't matter.

With the front seven going through nearly a complete overhaul, the defense will depend on cornerback Rogers and strong safety Pollard to lead the transition. If the Boilers can survive the problems that typically come with an inexperienced defense early in the season, and get better every week, they have an offense that's capable of steam-rolling anyone.

Quarterback Orton, receiver Stubblefield and kicker Ben Jones are three of the top players in the country at their respective positions. And the running game trio of Void, Jones and Brooks is vastly underrated. About the only question mark on offense is how much the loss of center Nick Hardwick and tackle Kelly Butler to the NFL will affect the line.

The schedule provides a few challenges, but overall is in Purdue's favor. Non-conference foes Syracuse, Illinois and Notre Dame hardly strike fear into their opponents as they may have done several seasons ago. The Boilers also have three of the best Big Ten teams (Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio State) at home, with the only major road challenge at Iowa.

Overall, it's hard to figure Purdue's chances considering the sheer number of personnel losses on defense. Because of that, the unit is definitely below average entering the season. However, if the defense can raise its level to at least average, the Boilers' offense could again put the team in position to gain at least a share of the Big Ten title when the Buckeyes visit Ross-Ade Stadium on Nov. 13.

Mens Basketball

Italy 95 - USA 78


I enjoyed the professional years while they lasted (especially when Mark Price was on Dream Team 2), but I don't think that the USA can just send over a bunch of NBA players that practice together for 30 days and expect to waltz to the gold medal anymore. Other countries have national teams that practice all year round, and then when the World Championships or the Olympics come around, they add 1-2 NBA players. By then the teams already know what to expect from each other and know the tendencies. It's easy to just include the new additions and keep on rolling. I think that the USA has to go this route also. The national team doesn't have nearly enough practice time. It should be obvious now that talent alone is not enough. The USA team has now lost 4 games in 2 years, and I'm sure that with the effort I saw today, that there are more losses on the way.

There are only two solutions to this problem, and one I think is much better than the other.

I think that the NBA should send the reigning NBA champions to the World Championships and the Olympics. Subtract the foreign players off the team and add in some college kids or other All-Stars. That would go a long way towards guaranteeing success.

The other option is to have a team that is similar to an AAU team. Professional players that aren't quite good enough to play in the NBA, but are still excellent players, and more importantly are players that have been together for a while. Then if you want to add a Shaq or Tim Duncan to the team, there won't be a problem.

I'd by lying if I didn't admit that I am a little apprehensive about going to New York City and northern New Jersey in a few weeks... especially after the news from yesterday. You can't stop living your life though, because when you do that, the terrorists have reached their goal.