i really think we need to get out of iraq and surrounding countries. now.
i really want to buy a home in the phoenix area with a partner. or two. interested?
i feel bad for the employees in las vegas. 35% layoffs and leading the nation in foreclosures. bad.
nephew rick is finishing up his bachelor's degree. good for him.
i know 7 people who hav filed bankruptcy in the last two years. bad.
you should take in a blackhawk game. very exciting.
buying a sports jersey for a kid is very exciting for xmas.
surprising an adult with a jersey for xmas is even better.
tickets to any game is ALWAYS a great xmas present.
i still hate the cubs.
being a bug man is cool. everyone is happy to see you. i think.
two of the nephews are moving to florida. good for uncle dan. that gives me california & florida. now i need a nephew to move to vegas.
i'm done. i hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
THINGS ON MY MIND PART 1
every once in a while, i like to turn the gunny sack upside down and shake out all the thoughts, opinions and ideas clogging my brain. i figured just before the holiday season is a good time to do that. so here goes:
in my LIFETIME, there have been just two female politicians who have scared the crap out of me. the first one was illinois senator carol mosley braun and the second is sarah palin. i watched the oprah interview and followed that with 20/20 and that woman made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. DANGER, will robinson!
is jay cutler of the bears a fraud? did we sell the farm for a guy who will never see the playoffs?
i'm thinking 18 years will be the sentence for rod blagojevich.
i hope disgraced governor george ryan has to serve his full sentence. the willis children were burned to death because of his misdeeds as secretary of state. screw him.
but in all fairness, he should receive his pension for the time he served in government before becoming secretary of state. his wife did nothing wrong.
does tom ricketts of the cubs come off as petty by putting up those billboards in left field rather than working with the owner of the waveland avenue building?
am i the only one who thinks 42 yr. old omar vizquel is a good pick-up by the white sox?
oprah is leaving. i don't care.
teachers are still the most underpaid and unappreciated professionals.
i think i would have been a good prosecutor.......... and an even better judge.
mayor daley can be mayor as long as he wants.
not too many things scare me but cancer does.
i still miss my friend bruce every day.
bruce's daughter still pisses me off.
i've got six pretty good nephews.
i always have fun when i dine with pete & jim.
alcohol is a very powerful controlling drug and does far more damage than good.
i glad i quit smoking.
my brother in law roy is a good guy.
patti whyte johnson still makes me laugh.
it was fun to catch a fish this year in arkansas. never did that before.
northlake was a great place to grow up.
more coming in part two.
in my LIFETIME, there have been just two female politicians who have scared the crap out of me. the first one was illinois senator carol mosley braun and the second is sarah palin. i watched the oprah interview and followed that with 20/20 and that woman made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. DANGER, will robinson!
is jay cutler of the bears a fraud? did we sell the farm for a guy who will never see the playoffs?
i'm thinking 18 years will be the sentence for rod blagojevich.
i hope disgraced governor george ryan has to serve his full sentence. the willis children were burned to death because of his misdeeds as secretary of state. screw him.
but in all fairness, he should receive his pension for the time he served in government before becoming secretary of state. his wife did nothing wrong.
does tom ricketts of the cubs come off as petty by putting up those billboards in left field rather than working with the owner of the waveland avenue building?
am i the only one who thinks 42 yr. old omar vizquel is a good pick-up by the white sox?
oprah is leaving. i don't care.
teachers are still the most underpaid and unappreciated professionals.
i think i would have been a good prosecutor.......... and an even better judge.
mayor daley can be mayor as long as he wants.
not too many things scare me but cancer does.
i still miss my friend bruce every day.
bruce's daughter still pisses me off.
i've got six pretty good nephews.
i always have fun when i dine with pete & jim.
alcohol is a very powerful controlling drug and does far more damage than good.
i glad i quit smoking.
my brother in law roy is a good guy.
patti whyte johnson still makes me laugh.
it was fun to catch a fish this year in arkansas. never did that before.
northlake was a great place to grow up.
more coming in part two.
Monday, November 9, 2009
BCS FOOTBALL REMEDY
what is all the fuss about a playoff? it seems simple to me.
take 7 major conference champs and then add 9 wild card teams from conferences or independents that play challenging schedules and you have 16 teams AND america's attention.
no one gets in if they have more than 2 losses or if they play in a traditionally weak conference like the sun belt, mid-american, western athletic or conference usa. if those teams want 'in the loop' then they'll have to switch to one of the major conferences and prove they belong and climb the mountain week by week like everyone else.
this year it might be FLORIDA, TEXAS, TCU, CINCINNATI, GEORGIA TECH, OHIO STATE & OREGON as the 7 champs. then add IOWA, ALABAMA, PITTSBURGH, MIAMI (FL), HOUSTON, ARIZONA, PENN STATE, LSU & WISCONSIN. utah & west virginia would also be candidates.
you seed the 16 and have then it's 4 games to the championship with the playoffs starting the second Saturday of December with the big game played somewhere around new year's day. it would generate tremendous interest and while it might mean the demise of about ten bowl games currently played (there are 34 scheduled this year!) but the less sucessful ones come & go on a regular basis anyway. no less than 9 bowls have gone the way of the dinosaur over the last 20 years so that would just be business as usual. i guarantee the playoff would guarantee sellouts all over the country
15 bowls sites would be used up for the big boy playoffs and then schools like akron, northern illinois, boise, nevada and the like could fill in whatever bowls that are left and remember there would also be twenty teams from the big boy circuit who had just 3 losses so you could set up all sorts of david/goliath showdowns. WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE? bring it on!
take 7 major conference champs and then add 9 wild card teams from conferences or independents that play challenging schedules and you have 16 teams AND america's attention.
no one gets in if they have more than 2 losses or if they play in a traditionally weak conference like the sun belt, mid-american, western athletic or conference usa. if those teams want 'in the loop' then they'll have to switch to one of the major conferences and prove they belong and climb the mountain week by week like everyone else.
this year it might be FLORIDA, TEXAS, TCU, CINCINNATI, GEORGIA TECH, OHIO STATE & OREGON as the 7 champs. then add IOWA, ALABAMA, PITTSBURGH, MIAMI (FL), HOUSTON, ARIZONA, PENN STATE, LSU & WISCONSIN. utah & west virginia would also be candidates.
you seed the 16 and have then it's 4 games to the championship with the playoffs starting the second Saturday of December with the big game played somewhere around new year's day. it would generate tremendous interest and while it might mean the demise of about ten bowl games currently played (there are 34 scheduled this year!) but the less sucessful ones come & go on a regular basis anyway. no less than 9 bowls have gone the way of the dinosaur over the last 20 years so that would just be business as usual. i guarantee the playoff would guarantee sellouts all over the country
15 bowls sites would be used up for the big boy playoffs and then schools like akron, northern illinois, boise, nevada and the like could fill in whatever bowls that are left and remember there would also be twenty teams from the big boy circuit who had just 3 losses so you could set up all sorts of david/goliath showdowns. WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE? bring it on!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
while channel surfing on one of our many rainy days in october, i came across a studio show being hosted by bob costas on the MLB network with special guests don larsen and yogi berra. i stopped to watch for a while because yogi is always good for a story or two about baseball but i soon discovered that this was indeed my lucky day.
the purpose of the studio show was to introduce a recently discovered kinescope of game 5 of the 1956 world series between the yankees and the brooklyn dodgers which showed the game in it's entirety. if you don't know already, game 5 was the perfect game pitched by journeyman larsen which broke a 2-2 series tie and steam rolled the yankees to their sixth title in the last eight years. think yankee fans are obnoxious now?
i settled in and watched every pitch and realized how much baseball has changed over the years. the uniforms were baggy and made of wool. there was no fist pumping by the players or any other forms of hot-dogging so prevalent today. if you got knocked down by a fastball, it was just business. you got up, dusted yourself off and got back in the batter's box.i did a little research and found the minimum salary in 1956 was $4,000 a year (yes, four thousand-you read it right). there was no free agency and when you signed with a team, it was for life unless THEY wanted you gone. almost all of the players worked full-time jobs in the off season just to make ends meet and 'training' was limited to the month of march in florida.
while watching the game.....the men wore suits & ties to the games and women wore dresses. foul balls were required to be thrown back as they were used for batting practice the next day. cigarette and cigar smoking was abundant in the stands. hot dogs were a dime and a beer was a quarter, plus it was given to you in a cold glass bottle. imagine that today.
the game itself was a classic. on top of the nail biting performance 2-0 win by larsen, it featured a total of 12 players who would be elected to the hall of fame plus both managers and one coach from each side. the pedigree for the game gets even better as both owners are in the hall of fame as well as both television announcers who shared time broadcasting the game, with yankee voice mel allen getting the first 4 1/2 innings and vin scully getting the remainder for the dodgers. radio announcer bob wolff is also enshrined in the broadcast wing of the hall.
larsen? well, he pitched 14 years in the big leagues and he only led the league once in any category....and that was 21 LOSSES in a single season. for his career, he pitched for eight teams and lost ten more games than he won and the only way he gets into the hall is to buy a ticket. but for one sun drenched afternoon in October of 1956, he was the best in the business.
the purpose of the studio show was to introduce a recently discovered kinescope of game 5 of the 1956 world series between the yankees and the brooklyn dodgers which showed the game in it's entirety. if you don't know already, game 5 was the perfect game pitched by journeyman larsen which broke a 2-2 series tie and steam rolled the yankees to their sixth title in the last eight years. think yankee fans are obnoxious now?
i settled in and watched every pitch and realized how much baseball has changed over the years. the uniforms were baggy and made of wool. there was no fist pumping by the players or any other forms of hot-dogging so prevalent today. if you got knocked down by a fastball, it was just business. you got up, dusted yourself off and got back in the batter's box.i did a little research and found the minimum salary in 1956 was $4,000 a year (yes, four thousand-you read it right). there was no free agency and when you signed with a team, it was for life unless THEY wanted you gone. almost all of the players worked full-time jobs in the off season just to make ends meet and 'training' was limited to the month of march in florida.
while watching the game.....the men wore suits & ties to the games and women wore dresses. foul balls were required to be thrown back as they were used for batting practice the next day. cigarette and cigar smoking was abundant in the stands. hot dogs were a dime and a beer was a quarter, plus it was given to you in a cold glass bottle. imagine that today.
the game itself was a classic. on top of the nail biting performance 2-0 win by larsen, it featured a total of 12 players who would be elected to the hall of fame plus both managers and one coach from each side. the pedigree for the game gets even better as both owners are in the hall of fame as well as both television announcers who shared time broadcasting the game, with yankee voice mel allen getting the first 4 1/2 innings and vin scully getting the remainder for the dodgers. radio announcer bob wolff is also enshrined in the broadcast wing of the hall.
larsen? well, he pitched 14 years in the big leagues and he only led the league once in any category....and that was 21 LOSSES in a single season. for his career, he pitched for eight teams and lost ten more games than he won and the only way he gets into the hall is to buy a ticket. but for one sun drenched afternoon in October of 1956, he was the best in the business.
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