Random Notes, Vol. 2

What is up, people! Taking a break from all the unpacking after selling the old house, moving in with the in-laws for a week, and pretty much unpacking for the last five days. Also had a lot of fun with Verizon trying to get that installed... and by fun, I mean sitting on hold for a long time before getting hung up on, having them not come out because they "forgot to call," then having them mess up the install by not activating all the phone lines in the house. Already got one month taken off the bill, and we're sicking the wife on them next week when our account is officially activated. I'm afraid for them, no joke. Let's just say Verizon will never be an unofficial sponsor to the blog.

Lots of good sports topics out there right now, and by the time I get to all of them, I think they'll be old, so we're dishing out the second installment of random notes. Before that, here are some LB random notes: the last post is actually dated 5/6/10, the day I started it. Blame blogspot on that one, I thought it would date the day I posted it. And Mojo may be making his way through South Jersey again this weekend, wife in tow, and if he does, we could get ourselves another podcast, topic TBD. With that, we are unofficially sponsored by Panasonic, maker of the new 50 inch plasma screen I'm watching the Stanley Cup Finals on. It almost makes me want to forgive Verizon... almost.

- Instant blog request from our newest character, My Hero (he and the guys I play fantasy baseball with know who he is). "Call for the death of Jim Joyce." Armando Gallaraga of my beloved Tigers was one out from a perfect game, and Jim Joyce, the first base umpire, blew a call at first that would have been the last out. He has already come out and admitted he missed the call. Sure makes it tough for baseball to argue they don't need to expand replay any further, doesn't it? One minute under the booth corrects that error. I'm all for replay, for the record, you can keep the whole historical nostalgia of baseball for the old white haired white guys and have replay, too. If anything, it ensures the purity of the game. Unlike the steroid testing program, which doesn't do crap.

- Stanley Cup Finals, still one of the greatest events in sports. I'm watching it as we speak. Loved Chicago in this series, which is easy to say in retrospect, but if you check my last post, I told ZWR I liked them, so take that. Philly blew their chance to win this in Game 1. The wife, JB's wife, and I were mocking all the people who hate hockey during that game, "there's not enough scoring, blah blah blah." Boo freaking hoo. Hockey has the most non-stop action of any of the major sports, and that's not a debate, it's a fact. Almost nothing better than OT hockey in the playoffs. That's a fact, too. I'm not in the mood for debates tonight, sorry. In fact, I'm declaring everything I say from this point on in the post a fact. Even if the wife disagrees... well, maybe not then. She is 8 months pregnant and I have to live with her.

- I just saw a commercial with Taco Bell offering three item deals for $2. The catch, you ask? Two of the items are a bag of Doritos and a medium drink. Dude, that's less than a dollar at WaWa or 7-11. Goes to show you how dumb the general public is though, since I bet 90% of the people watching that were like, "wow, great deal!" Sorry, digressing.

- LeBron. Something tells me this will still be a topic when I get around to writing longer topics, but just a quick prediction: He's not going back to Cleveland. I'm leaning against New York (they suck, he wants to win, and even if Bosh went with him, they still aren't good enough to win soon) and Chicago (Jordan's shadow, he'd hate the comparisons). How about a darkhorse pick? Goes to Miami in a sign and trade to play with Dwyane Wade. Okay, so that's not a fact... actually, yest it is. It's a fact that's my prediction. O'Doyle rules. By the way, on that whole "free agent summit" that looks like it's going to happen between what is arguably the greatest free agent class in the history of sports, I saw somewhere there is over one billion dollars in salary going to be dished out just to the top 10 or so free agents. Wow, can I get a loan?

- Big Ten expansion. Rumor has it that Rutgers is a near definite to join the Big Ten, and if they do, the wife and I will be the first to sign up for season tickets. Please, God, make this happen. I really could care less about the whole conference title game, but I love the idea of seeing all the Big Ten schools every year an hour from my house.

- 4 minutes to go in the 3rd, tie game. Looking like OT in Game 3. I love the Stanley Cup.

- Speaking of terribly run sports, how about the NBA sticking with its TV schedule and making everyone wait for the Finals to start. Nothing like killing momentum and ripping your sport from the headlines for a week. Do you really think ESPN/ABC/TNT wouldn't be willing to adjust their schedules to accomodate the NBA? Please. I am so sick of L.A. and Boston, too. This is one of those series where I am rooting for enough players to get hurt so they can't finish the series, and we get no champion. Not bad injuries, just a bunch of sprained ankles, you know, non-career threatening. Can't mess with karma, ya know?

- My cat says, "purrrr" and miubvygfvrtdaexed.

- For the last three weeks, I've been trying to figure out what's with all the no-hitters, perfect games, and near no-nos/perfect games this year in baseball. I seriously have no explanation for this at all. My only thought is maybe, MAYBE there is a water-down effect going on with the offenses, but that really doesn't make any sense, since the pitchers should be watered down, too. Maybe the batters stopped juicing. Maybe I'm going to win Mega Millions and Powerball this weekend. Either way, this is eerily strange and we're only in June. Over/under on number of no-hitters the rest of the way: 1.5. Bet the under.

- OT it is. I can either end this now, or keep babbling while I wait for the game to start again. Or I can say good night and get another beer without re-reading for editing and adding that ending paragraph I don't think I need to write anymore.

Good night.