If anyone didn’t get info on my NCAA pool, here’s the link to sign up:
http://fish2006.mayhem.cbssports.com/e?referrer=MKTG_BM_INVITE Our Group password is: fish
I’ll collect via PayPal later…
Category: Sports
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Let the madness begin…
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March Madness?
I knew this wasn’t going to be much of a college hoops season for me. I’m an Indiana fan and this was clearly going to be a rebuilding year. But damn, I didn’t think we’d be this lame. Thankfully I haven’t watched much.
In truth, I’m pretty out of the college hoops scene this year. I don’t even know who’s leading the Big Ten. But regardless, I’ll still be doing an NCAA pool.
I’ll start taking names now. If you were in last year’s pool, you’ll get an invitation but it will go to the email that you used to register with CBS Sportsline.
Here’s a form connected to a Google Doc that I’m using to collect names and emails of people who want to be in the pool:
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Where have I been?
OK, I’ll admit it. I’ve been a blogging slacker. And I’m unemployed so you’d think I’d have tons of time.
In an attempt to catch up, this will be a fairly random posting.
Fist of all, what have I been up to? Hmm. Not telling. There are some things going on that might work out or might not and for now my answer is no comment. I do not currently have a job, I am not currently making any money, I am strangely busy and having fun. Create whatever rumor you like based on those minimal facts. You are unlikely to be correct.
To get in shape, I’ve been trying to get into swimming. We belong to a new YMCA with a nice Olympic sized pool. I take Danielle there, but when I’m with her I basically stand around trying to teach her to swim. My running tends to slack off in the winter (between the cold and the dark I am just not motivated) so swimming seemed like a good approach for someone with some free time (though lately not as much).
So I’m still a fairly lame swimmer, but I’m to the point where I can do 20-30 minutes of lap swimming at an easy pace with no breaks. It is really good exercise. The strange thing is that as a runner I expect to be sore after a workout, but swimming is so low impact that I’m not. So I feel like I didn’t work that hard. Until I walk home. Then I realize that I’m exhausted.
What else? Football season has been interesting but not so great. My Packers are just beat up and lame. I’ve been following the Jets as a Favre fan, but they are all over the place. I’ll root for the Giants if they aren’t playing the Packers, but they are starting to show major problems.
The past few years have taught me (as a Knicks fan) to not pay much attention to the NBA. This year the Knicks are actually watchable, though they are clearly laying the groundwork for 2010.
Normally I’d be gearing up for college hoops, but Indiana is going to be so bad this year. I like their new coach but he has a couple years of rebuilding to do. I’ll be doing a pool for March Madness so if you are interested enter your information here.
It will be a mild Christmas this year as we try to be frugal, but we’ll do the usual. We always go to my wife’s sister’s place for Christmas morning. That’s a good, casual Christmas day. Close family, minimal stress, fun with the kids.
The girls are doing great. Danielle just turned 6 and Victoria just turned 2. Victoria has started to (occasionally) use the potty which is awesome. She has a while to go before she’s doing it for real, but I can see the end of Pampers forever.
Victoria is a piece of work. In many ways she is the total opposite of Danielle. Dan is a typical first child. Generally well behaved, smart (OK, I’m biased), a bit shy, always wants her parents.
Tori gets into everything she shouldn’t. Just today she managed to get to the power strip with the plugs for cable/phone/cable modem/router and turn everything off. I think she’s smart like Dan, but at 2 it’s hard to tell. But shy? Forget about it. If I’m staying in the apartment and a random stranger is going outside, she’s going with the random stranger.
Danielle is starting to read on her own which is huge fun. She’s really into it and will try to read every book we have. You realize how wacky many English words are when you are helping someone learn to read. When she sees a word like “right” telling her to “sound it out” just isn’t that effective.
My mom’s Alzheimer’s is a bit worse. She’s to the point now where she forgets words so often her sentences are total gibberish. It’s hard being far away because talking to her on the phone is largely pointless. She was given hospice care a few months back which is supposed to mean that she has 6 months or less, but I think she’s going to be around a while. Which is somewhat ironic because I know that she wouldn’t want to stick around in her condition. Probably the hardest thing this fall was not being able to discuss the election with her. My mom was a hugely political person and extremely liberal. She probably would have voted for Hillary in the primary to try to elect a woman, but she would have been incredibly happy to see the first black president elected. Sad that she has no clue.
But otherwise our family’s health is good. My wife’s brother (who smoked like a chimney) had a mild heart attack and then had triple bypass. That turned out to be the best possible thing because now he’s quit smoking, is exercising and is really turning his health around.
2008 was definitely a challenging year, but 2009 should be much better. I am definitely looking forward to the new year.
And I’ll try to blog a bit more…
Random links:
Might only be funny if you’ve been in NYC cabs…
A tremendous "year in pictures" page. The last surfing picture is amazing, but there’s something about #23. It looks like a bunch of guys at a park until you look close and realize they are shooting bows and arrows.
And finally, I’ve said this before, but the best Christmas album ever…
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Yankee Stadium is boring?
To my 5 year old daughter, apparently so. We’ve talked about going to Yankee Stadium and the abstract concept excited her. Though she’s never been interested in baseball. She knows I’m a Yankee fan but that’s about as far as it goes.
We were thinking about buying tickets to take her to a game so she could see Yankee Stadium before it closes, but the cost of buying decent seats seemed crazy for someone who may not even like it.
So we got lucky. My wife knew someone who got tickets through Marsh and he gave her two tickets to Saturday’s game, the second to last game at Yankee Stadium. Not great seats, upper deck, but right behind home plate so really not bad.
We wanted to get there early to see batting practice, but we didn’t quite make it. The subway was slow and tons of people were going early because it was the last weekend. Amusingly “Freddy Sez” was on our subway car going to the game (Freddy takes the D train, if you are curious).
It’s hard to convey the sense of history to a 5 year old, but the whole concept of a baseball stadium was new and interesting. For a while.
And there was cotton candy. And we brought some books. So I tried to keep her entertained so I could watch as much of the game as possible (I had no delusions that we would make 9 inning). It was a pitchers duel, which didn’t help keep Danielle entertained.
Finally I heard the dreaded words from my daughter. “Yankee Stadium is boring”. Argh. So much for my dream of father/daughter baseball outings. At least I still have Victoria to work on…
But of course there were pictures. Someday Danielle can say she was at the “old Yankee Stadium”
Pre-game:
Top of the 6th. We’re almost done…
Exhausted on the D train coming home…
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Football Season
As a Yankee fan, normally this time of year I’d be totally into the end of the baseball regular season and upcoming playoffs. Oh well, that’s what happens when you put your season in the hands of rookie pitchers.
So on to football. It’s weird not seeing Brett Favre playing for the Packers. I find myself rooting for the Packers and paying attention to the Jets. It was good to see Brett have a good (not great, he clearly doesn’t know the offense yet) first game. And it was even better to see Aaron Rodgers look good for the Packers. You don’t want to lose to the Vikings in week one.
This whole season there will probably be a weekly comparison of Rodgers’ and Favre’s stats. That’s unfair on both sides. Rodgers has a better team around him and is working in an offense he’s known for years. But he doesn’t have to be Brett, he just has to win. So far, so good.
But he has to work on his vertical on his Lambeau Leap (go to the 2:55 mark)…
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NFL Game Coverage
Here’s a cool site forwarded to me by Elven Corder. It shows (unofficially) what NFL games will be shown in what parts of the country. It’s a classic Google Maps mashup and it’s pretty cool.
I also find it interesting that CBS will be showing Jets-Dolphins to most of the country. A couple of months ago you wouldn’t have expected that to be a high profile match-up. Brett Favre clearly has an impact on NFL TV coverage…
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I love the Olympics but…
As I watch the Olympics it reinforces my personal rules about sports:
- If the costume matters, or makeup is applied, it’s not a sport
- If you can’t tell who won without a judge (all the time, not once in a while) it’s not a sport
- If the name has the word “synchronized” in it, it’s not sport
I’m not saying that things that aren’t by my definition sports aren’t important, interesting, worthwhile, etc.. I’m just saying they aren’t sports.
Remember I used to be a trumpet player. Trumpet is a very physical instrument. You have to be in shape, endurance matters, etc. It is as physical as archery, marksmanship, many actual sports. But ultimately the judging of good trumpet playing is artistic. There are high profile trumpet competitions. Lots of pressure. Real money (generally scholarships) on the line. But it’s clearly not a sport.
So I always keep that in mind. My daughter was watching gymnastics and she liked one Chinese girl because she was wearing glitter eye shadow. Sorry, rule number one (and number two, actually). Diving? Rule number two. Synchronized diving? (when did this get added anyway?) Rules number 2 and 3. And while I would normally consider boxing a sport, I have to say no based on rule number 2, particularly amateur boxing where knockouts are rare (and judging suspect).
So I love the swimming. Of course I love the basketball. Volleyball rocks (both beach and regular). Soccer, excellent. Softball, sure (not sure how international it is, but whatever). Track, of course, totally classic. You get the picture. I find the gymnastics fantastic and amazing, but unless someone wipes out I’m not qualified to decide who did better. Turn the sound off so you can’t listen to the announcers and then try to predict the winners. I think diving is very cool but it’s the same thing. Sure, if they screw up I can tell, but if you showed me video of the gold, silver and bronze winners and asked me to pick which was which, I would get it wrong and so would most people.
If a casual fan can’t tell who won, it’s not a sport.
Doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching, that’s just my definition. And synchronized diving is like synchronized swimming – just goofy.
Go USA basketball…
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Baseball Odds
This post is from the Yankees blog which is on the right of this page, but this is an interesting one I thought I’d point out. I’m fascinated by betting odds (even though I’m not a gambler at all), mainly because Vegas tends to do a very good job of establishing these odds.
So for the baseball junkies, here are the current baseball odds.
Mariano Rivera is currently 13/2 to win the AL Cy Young. I don’t think they’ll give it to him as a reliever, but a 1.21 ERA, 100% save percentage and a ridiculous 54 strikeouts to 4 walks over 44+ innings is pretty impressive…
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Brett Favre, Mr. Indecisive
OK, as a Brett Favre fan, I was a bit concerned about this. But the way he retired after such a great season I really thought he was serious. Everyone expected him to say he was coming back, so when he said he was done, I thought he really was.
Great quarterback, great career. Didn’t end on top, but honestly that is just so rare. Elway did it. Who else?
So when I started hearing the rumors that he wanted to come back, I didn’t believe them. Slow sports news day, I was thinking.
Then the whole story breaks. Egads. Neither side looks completely above board, but clearly Favre has been flip-flopping for months. And then the posturing starts.
Again, I’m a huge Favre fan. I’d love to see him do one more season with the Packers. But I think he blew it. He could have announced this a few months ago and it would have been great. But now it’s just crazy.
I understand the Packers position. Aaron Rodgers looks pretty good, but you’ll never know if you don’t give him a shot. Favre went back and forth enough, you had to move on. He asks for his release. That would be crazy. It’s a business, why would you give up a valuable asset? Especially when there’s a decent chance he could end up with the hated Vikings?
The funny thing is that Brett holds all the cards here. All he has to do is ask the NFL for reinstatement and show up for training camp. The Packers can say all they want that Farve would have to compete for the starting spot, but there’s no way he wouldn’t get it. The players are going to want him. He’s better. There is no way you could send Aaron Rodgers out as the starter with Brett on the bench. The first three and out and he’ll get booed and the crowd will be screaming for Brett. The Packers would have to either make him the starter or work a trade.
So I find it interesting that Favre isn’t doing that. It tells me he’s not 100% committed. He doesn’t want to have to go through training camp. He just wants to play the games. I don’t blame him, that’s a good gig. It worked for Roger Clemens for a couple of years. I’m not sure it will work in the NFL though.
All Favre needs to do is call their bluff. But I don’t think he’s going to…
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Football economics
This is very interesting, in that the Packers are the only publicly owned football team (and my team). You initially think, “only a $21.4 million dollar profit, boo hoo”, but then you realize that as a $241 million dollar operation that isn’t a huge margin.
Though the $127 million dollars socked away as protection against a work stoppage make you even less likely to feel sorry for them.
The Packers are an amazing phenomenon in sports. There is no team so high profile in such a tiny town. Green Bay Wisconsin? Are you kidding me? But it works. Nowhere else like that it would work, but in Green Bay it works. And that is part of the charm…
Steve Fischer's Random Blog 