Big Sports Weekend Coming Up!

This Saturday is going to be one of epic sporting awesomeness! We are going to the San Francisco Giants FanFest during the day and then there is the rather superb card of fights on tap for UFC 126. Seriously, this card is rocking! And, oh yeah, there's a little football game on Sunday to determine the greatest team in the entire universe (or America). I'm a Steelers fan and expect a great game with the Steelers emerging victorious!

Hands Down, Rookie of the Yearrrrrrr!

Congratulations to Gerald "Buster" Posey for not only being a major part of the 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants success but he has also snagged the rather coveted National League Rookie of the Year award honors as well.

The title, for the few fans that haven't seen it yet, is a riff from Ashkon's absolute crushing of Don't Stop Believing. If you have not gone and listened/watched yet then you should go and do that now, you can come back here when you're done.

He is truly a man beyond his years. He carries himself like he's been playing in the majors his whole life. He's even keeled, he's humble, he's a team player and he's a 100% Giants giant.

Unlike the ridiculous Gold Glove awarded to Derek Jeter last week when it was clear that he wasn't even a top 5 Shortstop this season, the Rookie of the Year is incredibly hard to win because there are always some incredible talents coming up. And there is no inertia, there is no "He's won it before so he should win it again" bullshit like Jeter's Gold Glove. There is what he did on the field, what he meant to his team and his production.

Buster's main competition was Jason Heyward of the Atlanta Braves who had a stellar year for his first go-around in the bigs. But he also had alot more at-bats and barely edged out Posey in the stats. Heyward also plays an easier position in the outfield as compared to Buster catching one of, if not the, best pitching staffs in the majors.

At the end of the day, I'm extremely happy for Buster Posey and for all that means to the team. I'm looking forward to many years of seeing him calmly running the games behind the dish. In fact, can we just skip the off-season and start up with baseball now? I already miss it!

Black and Orange 'til I die! Indeed.

One Game To Go

The sea of orange clad Giants fans are pinching themselves this morning after Madison Bumgarner served notice on the national stage that he is here and he is to be feared. Ths 21 year old kid carried himself like a long seasoned veteran last night, he pitched 8 dominant innings of shutout ball before handing it over to Brian Wilson for a, thankfully, drama free finish to a 4-0 shut out of the Texas Rangers to give the Giants a commanding 3-1 World Series lead.

The awesome sauce was flowing liberally last night. Between MadBum's pitching wizardry, Freddy Sanchez' fielding wizardry and the combo Torres and Sanchez working pitch counts all night long and getting on base and then Aubrey Huff's first post season dinger to break open the scoreboard and Buster "ROY" Posey's blast to cement the lead, there is a distinct feeling of "This is the Giants year!". Fifty six years have gone by since this team won a world title, they haven't won one since they came west.

What a Night, Oh Man!, What a Night!

As if the Giants working hard to win game six of the NLCS to advance to the World Series against the Rangers wasn't enough (believe me, it was!) there was also one of the most amazingly stacked fight cards in the history of the UFC on last night as well.

I had the Giants game on the big screen tv in all its HD glory and rode the Giants Torture Roller Coaster all the way through until Juan Uribe put the Giants on top in the 8th with a solo home run. It was torture but it was the sort of delicious torture that you just know is going to end up the way you want it to, with a victory.

Fixing the Giants

My main issue with how the San Francisco Giants are muddling through this season is not that they aren't winning games they should be winning, it isn't that they are on a pace to ground into more double plays than any other team in history, its that they look bad doing it. The Giants aren't even playing good baseball and losing, they are playing shoddy, crap baseball and looking like oafish amateurs doing it.

I can't get that image of Pablo Sandoval attempting to get back to second last night and instead he ended up flopping around a few feet from the base, rolling on his big belly and getting tagged out.

On Tap for This Week

Note, NOT Dodger Blue.

After last week started off pretty well, I got a little ill mid-week and it mostly kept me on the sidelines until yesterday. Not sure what the deal was, it felt like my brain was too big or something and would send shooting pain through my body if I moved my head too quickly.

Not too much fun, especially with one or two little boys constantly clamoring for "uppy" or horse back rides or for me to toss them around like tiddlywinks (which they surprisingly love).

But this week is gonna be big, fun and awesome with a little work thrown in to make the fun time that much more fun by comparison. And I'm jumping back into my training schedule after last week's near complete washout. I will take it a little easy to start but will need to start getting in some hard workouts as the race is just about six weeks off now.

We are very likely going to go to see the Giants play the Dodgers tomorrow night which should be lots of fun, especially if the Giants bat's spark up a little hot streak. Heck, I'd just like to see Pablo Sandoval get on a tear, he's so due, he's getting calls from collection agencies!

And any week that includes the San Francisco Giants playing against the Los Angeles Dodgers is gonna be a week to get "up" for. Ideally we'll see the Giants crush the Dodgers three games in a row, and by crush I mean double digit whoopings!

Plus, "The Lost Boys" will be shown on Wednesday at 9pm at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, Corey Feldman will intro the movie! It should be one of those wonderful Santa Cruz memories and I'm looking forward to seeing the movie again, this time shown mere feet from where it was filmed! Plus, its totally got vampires AND motorcycles AND the Feldman/Haim super Corey twin power so suck on that Twilight!

This coming Saturday is going to be a blockbuster day. Combined with Grady's sixth (how in the heck did he get to be 6 already?) there's this little thing called UFC 116 that is headlined by 530 pounds of men in Brock Lesnar taking on Shane Carwin for the unified UFC Heavyweight Championship. These are some big, big men and they will be throwing bombs at each other. Someone's getting their lights turned off and I'm betting/hoping it'll be the classless ass Lesnar getting put down and out.

Since we've already had a party for the boys, Saturday will likely be less friends and more family oriented stuff. Maybe a beach trip, maybe some bike riding, maybe something else altogether but definitely an all-family event.

And in between now and then there will be lots of training going on! I feel healthy again, I feel ready to rip it up. I'm throwing some road semi-slicks on my Ibis Mojo to do some training rides for the style of bike stage in the Santa Cruz Sprint Triathlon (one long dead straight ride out and then swoopy, curvy awesomeness along West Cliff back in) and I will be working on both my swim stroke and my running. I am going to shave minutes whenever and wherever I can. I expect to do well in this race!

Time to get on it!

Sports Wrap

This was a pretty good weekend for sporting activities. With the Sharks pushing hard to make it past the second round of the NHL playoffs, the Giants going into the weekend with a series sweep and the fourth winning series in a row and a rather stacked UFC 113 card, this was a good weekend to slug out and make sweet love to the television remote.

If only those pesky kids didn't keep wanting stuff...

Between my wife's Saturday appointments and Sunday being both Mother's Day and Sullivan's fourth birthday, there wasn't a whole ton of time for me to do me stuff. Not that I'm really complaining too much. Well, maybe a little.

The Giants nearly got swept by the Mets after losing the first two games but they pulled out the win yesterday even though Tim Lincecum didn't get the win like he totally deserved. Just like his last start but that's baseball, sometimes you do everything right and you still don't get the win.

I didn't get to watch any of the Sharks games because we don't have the cable anymore but I followed them online and did log in to catch a few minutes of live action every so often. After the 7-1 drubbing the game before, the Sharks re-established themselves and took care of business against the Red Wings.

But the main event of the weekend was UFC 113 featuring some big match ups. The fight between Koscheck and Paul Daley was billed to be a barn burning slug fest. The rematch between Lyoto Machida and Shogun was also looking solid. I'd not given Kos much of a chance in his fight having seen Daley walk through his last couple of fights. But Kos had a great game plan and applied it perfectly. A striker clearly has the advantage when the fight is on the feet but he is at a clear disadvantage when put on his back. And all I could think of when Daley was on his back was Houston Alexander who is damned scary on his feet, he throws wicked hands and has truly devastating knees. But when he's on his back he's like a turtle. And once the fighters figured that out, he was done. We'll see if Daley can reload his game and overcome this loss. But apparently he won't ever fight in the UFC again because of his classless antics after the fight was over. Cheap shots and sucker punches are never, ever a way to endear yourself to fans or Dana White.

And Kimbo Slice fought again in the UFC. He also lost again in the UFC and looks like he's not going to get another chance to fight for the UFC. I give Kimbo lots of props for his heart and effort but he's never going to be even a middle of the road mixed martial artist. He's a decent backyard brawler but he will get his ass handed to him every time by a dedicated mixed martial artist.

And, as always, Tom Lawlor spiced everything up with his antics, humor and sweet, sweet mustache. Shame he wasn't able to capitalize and get the W as well. He had been working Doerkson but got caught and then got choked out. Oops. He's still a fan favorite but he needs to get some wins rolling! And I'd like to see the Marcus Davis versus Jonathan Goulet fight sometime.

And let's not forget or overlook Dallas Braden's perfect game yesterday against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (one of the hottest teams in all of baseball right now). This is the guy who got national interest when he yelled down A-Rod for walking over his pitcher's mound on the way back to the dug out a couple of weeks ago. A-Rod was headed back to his dugout after getting thrown out at 3rd and thought it would be a good idea to walk over the top of the pitcher's mound. Only Braden didn't think so and started to shout at him to get the hell off his mound. And many people thought Braden was finding something to get pissed about. Maybe he was but I think he had a good point. The pitcher's mound is his office, he had it set up the way he wanted, A-Rod had absolutely no business or need to go walking through his office. That was just lame and yet another sign that A-Rod's a self-absorbed douchebag.

On the personal exercise front I still find myself lost in the post triathlon malaise. My legs feel tired, my brain feels tired and I know I need to get some exercise but I just can't see to pull the trigger and make it happen. I think I may need to find another race to focus on to start training for in order to kick the jams back out and get back on the training track.

I'm hoping that we are able to get back on a regular-esque schedule this week. I think we all need to re-settle down and get back to something more resembling a routine. It'd be helpful for me, that's for sure.

Things I'm Thinking About

Like most other people with ADHD, I've usually got five or six (or more) things juggling around in the front of my thinking. There's work stuff, geeky tech stuff, Kyani stuff, exercise stuff and lots more. I thought I'd share some of the cooler things that have passed my plate recently.

YouTube hack - found a video on YouTube that you love, love, love and you want to have a local copy on your computer or one that you can put on your iPhone or other portable device? There's a very cool way to do that. Replace the "Y" in YouTube with a "3" and you will be presented with an option to download the file in two different formats. It doesn't work perfectly all the time so be patient but it definitely does work and is very cool!

There was a cyclist killed on Monday morning in Los Gatos. His name was Joshua West, he was a single father of a seven year old girl. He was killed by an SUV that had drifted onto the sidewalk (note, he was on the sidewalk at an intersection, stopped) and annihilated him from behind. There were no skidmarks from the SUV indicating he didn't even see Joshua until after he had killed him. I spent a major portion of yesterday thinking about his daughter and the fact that her life has been completely ruined by a jackass named Kevin Derr who, according to eyewitnesses, was traveling at around 50 mph in a 30 mph zone when he killed Joshua. The link above includes information on how to donate to a memorial fund for his daughter. I am planning on donating to it and hope others will as well.

And, as I was writing the above, Jay posted more crappy news about another cyclist getting killed by an inattentive or distracted driver. And another kid who's lost his father needlessly because people can't seem to put down their damned phones while they are driving. Very sad!

On to lighter things, I've been geeking out on Logitech's very cool and fun to play with TouchMouse app and software. It allows you to control your Mac using your iPhone or iPod Touch. It is, for all intents and purposes, magic.

For some gorgeous and insane photographs of the 2010 Toughman Challenge, check out The Boston Globe's Big Picture series. Not only is the race crazy, the photographs from it are astounding.

I have truly started to doubt the competency of the San Francisco Giants leadership group. They fell all over themselves to pay Barry Zito a ridiculous sum to be a bottom half of the rotation pitcher and they are trying to lowball the best pitched in baseball, Tim Lincecum. Seriously? The guy's won the Cy Young in his first two years in the league and they don't want to pay him what he's worth? Stupid, stupid, stupid. I say they go back to him and add 10% to his last salary request. Do not piss off The Francise because he is the future of the club.

Plus, I need to talk with my doctor about possibly trying a differnt ADHD medication to see if something else might work a little better for me. Which presumes, of course, that I remember to take it every day which I've forgotten today and will take it right now.

And, oh yeah, our pending move, the upheaval, stress, painting and prepping and everything else that goes with relocating a family of four with a dog, cat and two fishtanks. When do we get to the easy part?

Birthday Shoutouts to my 9/11 Peeps

There are lots of pretty cool folks born today. Let's give a quick shout out to some of them.

Ludacris, Maria Bartiromo, Harry Connick Jr., Kristy McNichol, Tom Landry, Bear Bryant, D. H. Lawrence, O. Henry, Lola Falana, Brian de Palma, Ellis Burks and, let's see, who else, oh yeah, ME!

Of course, today has been permanently clouded over by the terrorist attacks in 2001 but it will always be our birthday first.

To celebrate, we are heading to the beach with the whole family including Nande, our over-sized wild dog. And next week I am planning on going sky diving over the Monterey Bay. We're also going up to San Francisco on Tuesday for the Giants game against the Colorado Rockies, I scored a great deal on some club level seats a couple of weeks ago!

Throwing A Real Perfect Game

Congratulations to Mark Beuhrle for throwing a perfect game recently.

However, my fickle brain has decided to get focused on the concept of the perfect game and would like to suggest that he threw a near-perfect game.

You see, in the ridiculous world that my brain tends to exist in, a perfect game would be just that, perfection. "Perfection is, broadly, a state of completeness and flawlessness." That is, something complete and without even the tiniest glimmer of a flaw, a hint of not-perfection. My confuddled brain takes that to mean something much more than merely preventing all the opposing team's players from reaching base. Let me break it down.

There are 27 outs for each team in a 9 inning baseball game. To strike out each pitcher in the minimum number of pitches requires three pitches. Three times 27 is 81. A perfect game then, in my aforementioned ridiculous world, would be 81 pitches, all of them strikes without a single ball and without any of those balls being hit. All 27 outs recorded by strikeout without contact. No foul balls, no balls off the mark. No flaws in the perfection.

THAT would be a perfect game. And yes, I fully realize how utterly insane it is to propose such a strict definition of perfection but, hey, perfection is perfect. Perfection isn't something close to perfect, perfection IS perfect.

Now please don't think that I am, in any way, shape or form, trying to diminish what Buehrle did. I'm not, he threw what Major League Baseball defines as a perfect game, I'm merely suggesting that what MLB is proposing as perfect isn't quite as perfect as it could be. And I realize that, under my re-defined version, the likelihood of a perfect game EVER being thrown is just about zero since the most anyone's ever struck out in a game is 20, much less 27 on 81 perfect pitches. But, if the word "perfect" is to be invoked and revered as the sacred perfection it is then the deed to which it is being attached should embody that perfect perfection accordingly.

Why yes, I do end up arguing semantic points at parties, why do you ask?

Canseco = Fail

Jose Canseco's press conference to announce his fight with Hong Man Choi, the 7'2" behemoth MMA fighter, does not get the clamoring crowds he'd been hoping for.

To which I say, Ha. Ha. Ha.

I'd be tempted to suggest that the one guy in the chair there is actually asleep or a blow up doll. Or Canseco's lover. Or a corpse. Or an escaped mental patient. Or Roger Clemens.

Why do I dislike Canseco so much even though he's been a major catalyst in splitting open the pinata that is performance enhancing drugs in major league baseball? Because he didn't do it out of the goodness of his heart, he did it for money and because he's a bitter, washed up and poor jackass. He has no interest in helping to clean up the sport, he is only interested in making money because he blew all his money on hookers and blow or whatever his chosen vices were that he can no longer afford.

Jose Canseco happily took part in the steroid era and then, when he bounced out of baseball, he tried to make a buck off of it again.

And now he's been reduced to fighting and getting knocked out in freak shows. Boo-hoo.

My Three Step Plan to Clean Up Baseball

Here's my simple plan to clean up baseball and restore its integrity.

1. Announce a one month amnesty period. Any player that comes clean during that period is exempted from repercussions in their past (not any future cheating, of course). This exemption, obviously, wouldn't extend to the fans who would very likely be thoroughly disgusted and pissed off about so many players having been cheaters. There would be a real danger of baseball folding because of the revelations of those taking up the amnesty offer.
2. At the end of the amnesty month, hair samples, urine samples and blood samples will taken from each player, part of the samples will be tested and part will be stored to be tested at a later date as testing methods improve.
3. Any player that did not take the amnesty and is found to have cheated in any way, at any level is permanently banned from Major League Baseball. No baseball, no Hall of Fame, no residuals, no pension, nothing. It would be as if they had never played the game.

It would be brutal to implement and, by some estimates, up to 75 or 80% of players might be eligible to take the amnesty offer. Some would not, of course, and some would eventually be found out to have cheated. Some players would have to pay the price and be banned but the vast majority would see the wisdom and fairness of the new rules and play fair.

Making the penalties severe enough would make the risk/reward equation too lopsided to make sense to even attempt.

But, for something as harsh as this to go into effect, it would require an untainted commissioner with a great big set of balls which pretty much excludes Bud Selig. It would also involve the player's union realizing that these steps would be for everyone's betterment. Why? Because PED's shorten player's lives and suck the quality out of lives that aren't shortened. A cleaner game is a healthier game and that means the players' long term interests are being better served.

Let me know what you think in the comments, I don't pretend to have all the answers and this may not be the perfect solution but I believe its on the right road to a real solution to drugs in professional baseball.

Reflecting on Manny

For those of you not knowing, Manny Ramirez just got handed a 50 game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance. His first attempt at an excuse is that he was taking a boner medication that happened to contain a banned substance. Yes, his story is that he took steroids to get an erection.

The fact that those steroids made him stronger and able to hit a ball further and recover more quickly is just a lucky side effect. Of course.

And he feels really, really bad about it. Of course.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports is recommending a lifetime ban. Make an example of one of the game's premier hitters. Take away his meal ticket, take away his fame, take away everything that is supposed to mean something to him.

Only by banning cheaters can baseball start to clean up its image. Only by throwing out those that would cheat can baseball regain its integrity.

I'm not so sure how I feel about a lifetime ban.

On the one hand, it is the Dodgers and I hate the Dodgers. On the other hand, it doesn't seem fair to, all of a sudden, start banning players for transgressions in the past. In fact, I think there's a legal term, ex post facto, that covers the concept. It says, basically, that you can't change the law and then go back and prosecute people who broke the newly changed law. You can prosecute moving forward but you cannot do it retroactively.

There's also the very difficult to test for without drawing blood, HGH, human growth hormone, issue. Some speculation is that use in the majors is rampant because it is so difficult to detect. I know, if I were a pro baller and I needed some extra pop in my bat, I would not even consider steroids because of the risks and would go straight to the HGH. But I'm not a baller and am not a cheater by nature. I prefer to win or lose on my own merits and not because of chemicals in a needle.

Do I dislike baseball as a result of all the cheating, the fake apologies (like A-Roid's utter BS, orangeface ridiculousness), the denials, the convoluted excuses, the false outrage by an enabler like Bud Selig, the taint on the name of the game? Yeah, I do certainly do like the sport less. Do I still enjoy it, watch it, consume it and play it via fantasy leagues? Yeah. Its probably akin to learning that Santa Clause isn't real, it doesn't mean you stop celebrating Christmas, it just means you are a little less trusting, it means you are a little more cynical and it means that monstrous whack knocking the ball clear out of the park is a little less laudable and a lot more suspect.

This Week in Weak and Strong #4

Lots of stuff going on this week. Let's get to it.

Weak Catch - Ex-MLB catcher Bobby (Ch)Estella, who was built like a brick shithouse and now we know why, will accuse Barry Bonds of getting him steroids in the government's never-ending witch hunt for one player while an entire league was rife with PED abuse.

Weak Reason to Fight - Two friends got into a little fight "over nothing" after some drinks and one was arguing with his girlfriend. One punch knocked the kid down, he smashed his head on the ground, never regained consciousness and died the next day.

Weak Legislators - The California budget impasse continues unabated. Three months and counting.

Strong, LiveStrong - The Amgen Tour of California is set to kick off. But there were already some pre-race fireworks when an asshat of a reporter named Paul Killage asked Lance Armstrong a question during a press briefing. This is the same reporter that referred to Lance Armstrong as "a cancer in the peloton". Nice.

Strong (and Just) Punishment - Richard Craig McNew raped and murdered a 90 year old woman. He's been found guilty and is going back to prison for the rest of his disgusting and pathetic life.

When Sorry Isn't Good Enough

Yes, I'm already biased against Alex Rodriguez, he plays for the Yankees after all. And he's been used to replace the now forcefully retired Barry Bonds as the face of steroids and drug use/abuse in Major League Baseball. He is, afterall, one of its stars and a story about him having lied in a national interview about using PEDs and then having to admit that he is a big fat liar, he did, in fact, cheat and use drugs to enhance his on-field performance (no word from Madonna if he's used drugs to enhance his on-hag performance yet).

But here's the thing, his apology, all softly lit to try and make him a more forgivable transgressor, his body language, his words all add up to a big fat nothing.

He wasn't contrite, he wasn't sorry for what he did, he was sorry for having gotten caught and for tainting every single record he's had thus far and every single record he may still break. He's sorry for tainting his chances at baseball immortality and he doesn't really come across as sorry so much as angry that he got caught and angry that he is being forced to apologize.

Do I feel bad for him being pushed out in front of the Steroid Witch Hunt 2.0? Nope. Nobody forced him to cheat, nobody forced him to take drugs for three years (at least that's what he's admitted to) and nobody forced him to air his false apology. Screw A-Tool, he's a plastic douchebag who isn't contrite in the least, he's more angry than sorry which means he's completely missed the point of apologizing for cheating.

Suck Failure, Dodgers!

Sandbagger Manny and his brethren in blue have lost their prescribed 4 games and were sent home by the Phillies last night. That just leaves the Rays and Red Sox slightly undecided but there's a strong possibility of the Rays overwhelming the Red Sox Cinderella-style.

I've watched a few games and the Red Sox just look flatter, less dynamic and not quite as capable as the Rays. The Rays, by the way, are a pretty good story and I'd have no problem with them taking on the Phillies for the World Series.

I'm just glad the Dodgers and Manny Ramirez have been sent packing. It took them alot longer to sparkle and then fade but they did indeed.

Have I mentioned what a limp bitch Manny Ramirez is for how he weaseled out of Boston? The dude pretended to be hurt, played at 75% effort and made it clear he wanted out. And when he got traded to LA, he miraculously got better and started crushing the ball again. I hate sandbagging bitches like Manny and I hope he gets too drunk in the off season and his friends shave his lame dreads.

The Worst Kind of Fan

There's been a little debate on the local sports radio lately about the baseball playoffs. One of the hosts believes that, because the Giants are long bounced from the playoffs, that its okay to root for the National League West representative team, the LA Dodgers.

But here's the thing, the Dodgers are the Giants long-time, long-standing rivals. The rivalry started in New York and came west and is as strong as ever.

You can't root for the Dodgers and then turn around and call yourself a Giants fan. It just doesn't work that way.

The only reason I'd want the Dodgers to get the World Series would be to suffer four straight crushing annihilations by the Red Sox or Devil Rays. And the cherry on top would be a fast ball in Manny's ribs for the bottom feeder style way he cheesed his way out of Boston and into LA.

To recap, if you're a Giants fan then you do not root for the Dodgers. Period. If you are saying "But, but, but" then you are not a Giants fan, period. You might get away with a little rooting for the Diamondbacks but that's because they aren't the fucking Dodgers!

The only baseball team I dislike more than the Dodgers is the goddamned didn't-even-mae-the-playoffs New York Yankees. As long as the Yankees keep flailing and failing, I'll keep smiling.

Chug Chug Chug

Some days I feel like the Little Engine That Could. Others I feel like the Little Engine That Could Not. And still other days I feel like the Little Engine That Just Wants A Nap.

I think part of this is due to my lack of exercise lately and the changing of the season from sweet summer to wet and windy fall.

Oh and the never-ending depression that is the state of politics in America. And its downstream effects on the economy, the mortgage nightmare, the endless war in Iraq, the disgusting Republican doublespeak and the generalized venality of partisan life these days. When I see a McCain sticker on a car, I have an immediate tendency to think that the person driving that car is an asshole. I know that's a bad kneejerk reaction but I just cannot help myself. If you support an asshole then it stands to reason that you are, at best, an asshole sympathizer.

Let's be clear, McCain and Palin are poison to the future of this nation. They are the continuation of the exact same policies that have gotten us to this sad state we're in now. Voting for them is a vote for more of the same, only worse since Palin is actually a nastier and more deeply frightening VP candidate than even Dick "Shoot 'Em in the Face and Fuck You All" Cheney. And that is saying an awful lot. But the McCain campaign is employing the politics of desperation, smear and lies now and its very easy to see how poorly their message is resonating with Americans (bye Michigan, bye Ohio, bye Nevada, bye Virginia).

As I'd noted before, I did watch the Elite XC fights on Saturday night already knowing that Kimbo got knocked the fuck out. There were still some decent fights on the card and, when there were not, I'd just jump to Spike and watch the Griffin/Rampage rerun. That was a 25 minutes war between Forrest and Rampage and it really could have gone either way. But Forrest won, Rampage's life went sideways for a little bit and now we're looking at Forrest fighting Rashad Evans (fresh off his knockout of Chuck Liddell).

And then there were the other sports, the baseball and the football. Bummer on the Cubs for meekly rolling over and letting the Dodgers have their way with them. That sucks because I like the Cubs and freakin' hate the Dodgers and loathe Manny "Duffbitch" Ramirez. They are the first to bow out of the post season after having an outstanding year. Which leaves the Phillies to face the Dodgers and the American league possibilities are still open with the Angels and Red Sox still fighting and the White Sox still alive against Tampa. I would be happy seeing anyone but the Dodgers in the World Series at this point but, if they do make it, I'd love for the Red Sox to pound them out in four.

As for football. I lost a mere 3 games in the football pool yesterday but they were three big point games and I was out of the running by the start of the afternoon games. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the games. The Niners had a chance to win but not much of one against a bye week Patriots team coming off a loss. The Raiders didn't lose because they didn't play and the Redskins continue to shock, amaze and awe with a win last week over the Cowboys and a win this week over the Eagles. Right on! Oh, and I got crushed in my fantasy league this week.

That's about it for the Monday morning wrap up. I suppose I should get to working now. Oh wait, I have been, I'm waiting for a drive to empty its trash. What joy.

Fantasy Sports Focus

So with the end of the regular season of baseball and football ramping up and hockey just around the corner, I thought it was high time for a little fantasy sports breakdown.

Of the three fantasy baseball teams I played this season, I came in 2nd, 2nd and 1st respectively. Rick destroyed everyone in one league and I squeaked into the running for league #2 only to get annihilated 10-0 in the final. But in my last league, I was able to barely get through the semi's by an odd tie breaker and then eke out a victory by just a couple of points to take the season win.

Not too bad on the fantasy baseball front at all.

Fantasy football got off to a rough start beginning with the auto-draft "scoring" me Matt Hasselback (yes, the one married to the big foreheaded GOP parrot annoyance on The View, Elizabeth) of the sucktastic Seahawks and Stephen Jackson of the pathetically awful Rams. Two games into the season and I was still looking for my first W.

A squeaker got me on the board and then I had Brett Favre playing this week when he threw for a record 6 touchdowns against the Cards. Not a bad play at all. This week I have brought the heaviest smackdown of the season and am evening my record to 2-2.

I am also positioned for a local football pool win tonight if Big Ben and the Steelers can put together a win over the Ravens which will not be easy. But it is doable and that's what matters.

And last, the fantasy hockey league needs more teams. Want to play? (I will freely note that I pretty well suck at Fantasy Hockey and am just a body to skate over by some fanatical Shark fan friends). If you want in then leave a comment with your email address and I'll get an invite out to you.

Did you notice a lack of fantasy basketball news? That's because I find basketball to be, overall, a boring ass piss poor sport that lauds flopping, pimpsmanship and generalized douchebaggery from players, owners and fans alike.

Oh and one word to my Mets fan pal, John. Dude! Duuuuuuuude! And, last word to the long suffering gentlemen of the Mint 400, I hope this is your year and I further hope the Cubs get to pound the Dodgers down and out. Because I am all about cheering for whoever is playing against the Dodgers and the Yankees. Plus, Chicago's a great sports town and deserves to finally move past Steve Bartman (who I still think is wrongly blamed).

Also, I didn't take Washington yesterday but I love that they beat the Cowboys! Love it, love it, love it! And not just because Tony Romo sold his soul to Jessica "Toot Toot" Simpson.

Besides, any post season without the frickin' Yankees is a post season I can enjoy! Go Steelers!

Won't Someone Think About the Poor Yankee Wives

Yes, yes I do have a third grader's sense of humor sometimes. You got a problem with that? I'll shake my wang at ya!