Welcome to KP's house...

Helpful Links for Research

2009-12-27T16:38:00.001-08:00

The following links are listed here as a reference for myself in my extensive research on sports history.

1) Montreal Canadiens 100-year history examining each decade

2) Cleveland Indians history listing seasons and star players

3) Knuckleballs and knuckleballers - the best in history

4) San Diego Padres history

5) Juan Guzman and his sliders

6) Tom Candiotti's career bio

7) The complete list of all major-league knuckleballers

8) The dangers of signing Roy Halladay

9) A directory of Canadian libraries

10) Donna Candiotti's interview

11) SI Inside Pitch ('83 pennant race), 87 Indians, 88 Indians, 94 Dodgers, Vault

12) News (Google)

13) Busch story, 92 Dodgers futility, 92 Gruber's boast (Key almost started ahead of Guzman in playoffs), Ramon 92 Opening Day

Random Baseball Thoughts I

2009-04-11T14:43:00.001-07:00

Well, the 2009 season has started. Last season, I started taking shots at the Detroit Tigers when they stumbled out of the game, mainly because they were one of the AL contenders who passed up on signing Home Run King Barry Bonds.

This year? Maybe my target is the Texas Rangers.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/154116-opening-week-random-baseball-musings

Why? Well, it's because when they started out 3-0, some of their players were talking about "expecting to win" this year. Hello? It's still early!

Marlon Byrd: "This team has a different feel. We go out there and we're expecting to win now."

"The team chemistry in here is second to none, and right now it's a special team to be part of," said pitcher Brandon McCarthy.

Funny. McCarthy didn't even pitch all that well (2 HR, 4 BB, 3 R, 5 IP). And it's not like he's been in all MLB clubhouses to know that. (To steal a line from Rick saying that anyone who listed Toronto as the top 10 cities in the world had only been to 9 other cities.. hahaha)

Well, in their 2nd and 3rd wins, Texas pitching allowed 13 runs (but scored 20 runs total).

In their 4th game, the Rangers lost 15-2. Okay, no perfect season after all.

In their 5th game, today, the Rangers lost 4-3. Their pitcher (someone named Harrison) gave up four runs, nine hits, and five walks in 5 2/3 innings.

Well, I wonder what happened to their winning attitude.

The bottom line is, they can't pitch (as usual), so it doesn't matter whether they expect to win or they have good chemistry. They're still going to have a rough year.

Of course, after that 3-0 start, there were people blogging on the Internet about how the Rangers have "proven" they're the team to beat in the AL West.

What a joke.

And oh, in that link I posted above, I also talked about former Jay A.J. Burnett. Wonder if he'll be injury-free this year...

Boston-Montreal ?

2009-04-10T14:18:00.001-07:00

The Boston-Montreal tilt Thursday night at the TD Banknorth Garden was a thriller, to be sure, with the B's coming out on top with a 5-4 overtime win.

Sure, the Bruins have shown they can beat the Canadiens, and the Habs themselves have shown they're vulnerable this year, including in goal and now with injuries to their defense.

Boston won the last five meetings against Montreal this season, and are the Eastern Conference's top seed. And though the Canadiens lost this contest, they still (finally) clinched a playoff berth by earning a point in the defeat.

Thus, the Habs will be in the playoffs, and if the postseason started right now, Montreal (eighth seed) and Boston (first) will clash in the opening round.

Sure, there's one more game to go in the regular season, and Montreal and the New York Rangers are tied for the seventh position. However, the Blueshirts own the tie-breaker by virtue of having more wins.

If the Habs (against Pittsburgh) and Rangers (in Philadelphia) both win their finales, New York would get the seventh spot, with Montreal being the eighth seed.

Now, I've talked about this before earlier in the year, but Boston-Montreal in the playoffs... doesn't favor the Bruins.

If you believe in 'hockey gods', then despite the regular-season records, you'll probably believe Montreal has some sort of an edge.

The Habs have owned the Bruins in the playoffs throughout hockey history. Yes, in 1971, the B's outscored everyone by over 100 goals and were clearly the league's best team, but they fell to rookie Ken Dryden and the Habs in seven in the first round.

It was in the spring of 1984 when an unknown named Steve Penney (another rookie) helped Montreal upset Boston in the opening round in a shocking sweep.

And who can forget 2002, when Boston was the top seed in the Eastern Conference, only to see Jose Theodore make miraculous save after save to help the eighth-seeded Habs on to the next round with a six-game triumph? When Joe Thornton was sent to the penalty box for a double-minor in the sixth game with the score tied, you just knew Montreal was going to score. The Habs did, and it turned out to be the series-winner.

Yes, the players are different now, the teams are different now. But once the playoffs start, throw out the season records. Everyone starts 0-0 in the postseason.

Goalie Tim Thomas--who will be 35 next week--may be the MVP of the Bruins and may be the top netminder in the league, but weren't we all raving about Byron Dafoe years ago?

In the playoffs, it's all about matchups. During the last Cup run for the Habs in 1993, yes, Patrick Roy was the savior, but you can't overlook the fact the Canadiens had somewhat of an easy ride without playing some of the top teams in the league. Those Habs faced inferior teams like the Sabres and Islanders on their way to the Finals. Oh yeah, matchups are important in the playoffs, and I just don't feel comfortable, being a B's fan, seeing Boston-Montreal in the first round.

And, let's not forget, this is the Canadiens' 100th season, and it looks like they've overcome a lot of adversity--with the mid-season slump and Carey Price's poor play and some players being mentioned hanging out with a gangster and Guy Carbonneau's firing--and have finally made the playoffs.

Oh yeah, and the Habs' Alex Kovalev has turned it around after being sent home earlier in the season for a couple games. Kovalev led all skaters a week ago with nine points (with seven assists) and was named the "first star" in the NHL on Monday.

Perhaps the Habitants will come together and win at least one round, led by the rejuvenated Kovalev?

Boston-Montreal also will undoubtedly bring out a lot of emotion on both teams, and in an emotional series between two long-time rivals who have already played seven times during the season... there's just no edge for either team, regardless of seasonal records.

Thus, as a Bruins fan, I desperately want to see Montreal finish seventh so the B's avoid a first-round matchup against the hated Habs. Pray for the Rangers to stumble in Philly in their final game of the regular season, and for the Habs to beat Pittsburgh.

Let's take our chances with the Rangers in the first round instead.

TEYC Day 2

2009-04-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well, since I've been spending / will be spending a bulk of my time teaching, revamping curriculum, doing market research, and prepping for lessons this week, I won't have time to do any writing. :-(

Thus, no point in updating the blog.... but, since I don't want to leave it for months (just as some people on the zonk), I've decided to list the game plan for Day 2 the TEYC program that I've 'revamping.' At least it will help me to reflect on how the lesson goes if I get to teach it again next time.

Day 2:

Game Plan:

-Songs
a) Go over "Make a circle" with Ss (ie. Demonstrate) / talk about the purpose of the song & routine / talk about the vocab that needs to be pre-taught (ie. This will be an example)
b) Split class up into groups: One group gets "Clean up!", another gets "If you're happy...", etc. Ss have to demonstrate PLUS explain purpose of the song & routine AND vocab to be pre-taught
c) Re: "If you're happy...", go over "IQ" vs. "EQ"

-Emotions
a) Elicit emotion words
b) Have Ss make an emotions poster

-Helpers
a) The importance of helpers

Well, that's the game plan anyways... We'll see how it goes.

[But damn.... no time this week to write.... :( ]

TEYC Day 1

2009-04-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

Well, class is over now. It was a fun first day of class for "my" new TEYC program.

I go into any class with the simple attitude that I will be successful, and I'm going to teach students things that will be useful for them. Personality is a big thing too; be friendly, positive, especially in a teacher-training course such as this one.

Things I went over Today:
-Policies of the program
-Introductions / interview a partner and share with the class
(Award "stars" for each successful introduction of partner)
-Go over mark distribution and when each assignment will take place
-Elicit what "routines" mean / give personal examples / elicit examples from students / talk about why routines are important for children / give examples of various routines that are helpful for children's learning
-Have students do an activity involving "classroom rules" / explain why "classroom rules" are important
-Give students examples of HOW to encourage children for having done a great job
-Have students think of WHEN "stars" (rewards) should be used in a classroom / give examples of situations
-Explain words such as "elicit", "TPR", "visual aid", "realia" and give examples.
-Ask students to work in groups to prepare a very short lesson at the front of the room using one of "elicit", "TPR", "realia", etc.
-Critique what students did during their demonstrations

Lunch!!

We'll see how it goes the rest of the way.

TEYC on Monday!

2009-04-05T20:21:00.001-07:00

After teaching the Business program for years, I've been assigned a new task starting Monday:

Teach TEYC and revamp its curriculum.Last week, the school let go the TEYC teacher when another instructor who was due to return from vacation came back. However, the returning instructor doesn't each TEYC (but neither do I), so that meant reshuffling was needed.

I was told there were a couple candidates to be the new TEYC teacher, and ultimately the owner and management decided I was the one who should do it.

In reality, the TEYC program has been in decline--or so I've been told--and the school was at one point considering dropping the course. However, they'd like me to teach it, look at the curriculum, revamp it as much as I could, so that it could become a stronger program.

For me, it's like trying to study a new offense, like a quarterback who's run the same offense for years but goes to a new team and has to start over. The TEYC book is thick and I've had a chance to look through its pages and figure out a plan of attack.

Their idea is for me to revamp it so that not only it becomes a stronger program, but also any teacher could look at the curriculum and figure out how to teach it (and thus I could one day return to the Business program).

We'll see how it goes.

Interestingly, I've been subbing for Writing class the last couple weeks and have to give up that class starting Monday. The interesting thing is that I'm kind of a writer and I'm not teaching writing class. Haha! (It's like having the slugger sitting on the bench instead of being asked to pinch hit in a key spot--or Gretzky not used for the shootout in the Olympics; ha ha!)

The good news is that this week, including the weekend, I finally had a chance to do some serious writing. When I am in a groove, I just keep writing--I wrote about 10,000 words this week--and don't stop. It's a story about a hockey player.

The bad news: Apparently, the estimated release date for "Replacement Pitcher" has been pushed back several months. :-(

Hope to have more positive news next time!

Next up: TEYC?

2009-03-31T21:51:00.000-07:00

I was pulled aside by Steve for a quick meeting earlier today, and was briefed about a few things:

Seems as though one person will be laid off next week, and of course, it's not me, since I am high on the depth chart (hahaha). The reality is that the student numbers will be the same for the next semester, and ordinarily, that would mean everyone (ie. staff) gets to stay. However, Giles has been on vacation for a month, so in fact, that would mean when he does come back (at the start of the new semester), there will be one extra teacher.

Thus, I was asked if I could teach TEYC, something I've never done before. I was told that James and I were the two candidates for this, and if neither of us could, then "Teacher E" would have to be retained to teach it, while the popular Kyle would be gone (since he was the last person hired). I was asked to think about it, see whether or not I would want to teach TEYC, and not try and "save" someone's job, in this case, Kyle's. (If Kyle's job was saved, then "Teacher E" would be the one out of one.)

Here's the thing though: Even if I do try and "save" Kyle, it's not like it will be recognized. It's like one of these hush-hush internal matters, so it's like it stays within the few of us and doesn't get out to everyone. So, even if I try to be the 'good guy' here, so to speak, no one will know or care. Whatever.

I was told that James was briefed on this earlier (before I was ever told about this) and had apparently said he wouldn't mind, though he wasn't all pumped up for it. I'd told myself repeatedly, learn to say no, learn to think about myself and not whatever is convenient for everyone else (because sometimes it ends up with me doing more work). However, with the fact that one of the candidates (James) had already consented, I wasn't about to reject the idea. And of course, it's all about the competitive nature in me; if James could do it, obviously I could do it too, and likely better.

So, I could be the person teaching TEYC. Who knows... Well, the decision will be made in a day or two, so it's up to the decision-makers now. To use one of my sports quotes, two quarterbacks vying for the one job on a team with no defense... Who's going to win the job?

Random Thoughts X

2009-03-29T17:41:00.001-07:00

The ECHL, the fantasy hockey league I've involved in for the last couple years, is no longer a fun league.

Don't know if it's because the commissioner team has been changed or what, but the league is getting to be less interesting.

First off, it was suddenly not okay to make fun of other teams, which was part of the fun to begin with. Whenever I made fun of the Atlanta franchise losing, Mike (who was not even the GM of said team) was intent on picking fights with me on the message board. Repeatedly.

Secondly, when I publicly decided to root for other clubs, that wasn't okay either, with two of the four current commissioners jumping in to attack me. All in good nature, I'm sure, but again, I don't see why I needed to have multiple people bashing me. It's just like, there's a minor problem with the photocopier, let's say, and we have two people there to fix it. Unnecessary. Add to that, there are several making fun of the quality of my team, which is fine. However, there are a few teams right now that are worse than or on par with mine, and yet I don't see anything negative said about them.

Now, suddenly I am told I am a useless GM, with apparently all four commissioners questioning my trades.

This is supposed to be a fun fantasy league. Suddenly this league just isn't fun anymore.

* * * * *

On another note, back to work:

I'd been teaching the Business program for years now, and with the fact the current student numbers aren't high, I've been asked to take on curriculum development for half of my days. So, morning time it's Business, afternoon time it was supposed to be curriculum stuff for the whole school. (And believe me, I was handed a long list of things to fix.)

However, as luck would have it, some teachers had been sick, or most recently, quit suddenly, and I've been subbing for, and now teaching, afternoon English classes.

When I was teaching Business full-time, it was all a balancing act. Most of the time, be strict, but sometimes, be coddling. Now, it's being strict in the morning with Business students, and being coddling with the afternoon students.

I was invited to a party on Saturday, and normally I wouldn't be going to these student-teacher get-togethers. See, Business students didn't want to hang out with their teachers after school, while English students did. Thus, at these parties, Business students usually weren't around. However, it was not cool to skip these functions for an English teacher. Thus, in my afternoon classes, my students were already asking me to commit to attending. And, because you try to provide a friendly and encouraging atmosphere, it would be uncool to say no. Therefore, I promised I would attend, and I did.

At the party, Chan expressed his appreciation for my being there, and also thanked me for being a great teacher, for explaining things clearly, and my geniune kindness. It was an alright party overall; I hung out for a couple hours before taking off.

It's certainly refreshing to hear people thank you and be appreciative of your efforts... unlike situations where people stab each other's backs in highly competitive work environments. Just a comment.

Top 5 ?

2009-03-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

This "top 5" thing on FB must be a new thing or something; lots of people have it now.

But the one category I saw on someone's profile was just plain nonsense.

Ken picked their (5) for "Pick Your Five Favorite NHL Teams". What are yours?

Okay. Seriously?

Five favourite teams? For the record, this person selected Dallas, Anaheim, Philadelphia, Washington, and San Jose.

Okay, no offense, but that's really dumb. This would be something if it said "top 5 logos", but it doesn't.

How can one like five teams? (NO, this isn't a shot taken at Rick. As you can clearly see, the person in the example above is called "Ken.") Is it like, each weekday of the week you like a different team? Or is it like if one team loses, you disown them and claim support for the others?

What about the playoffs? Suddenly you have five shots at winning the Cup?

Even if you wanted, say, a team from each division, that's still pretty dumb. And I can't see how any Stars fan, for example, could also be a Ducks and Sharks fan.

Crazy.

Random Thoughts IX

2009-03-21T17:07:00.000-07:00

CBC Marketplace aired this story two weeks ago about "Lawless Loan Companies", and my response to that is: Those awful banks are partly to blame too. If not for the fact those banks rejected their customers, those customers wouldn't have to resort to seeking out those scammer online companies. Thus, blame in on the CIBCs, the RBCs, and the TDs of the world. Of course, just a couple weeks prior to this particular story, CBC Marketplace had also reported about banks (namely, RBC) and credit card companies that scammed customers of their own by charging extra credit card fees! Shame on those big bad banks.

People are talking about Brodeur vs. Roy because of the fact the Devils goaltender has surpassed St. Patrick's wins record. But hold on a second; Bob McCown has said let's put an asterix beside Brodeur's record (for now), as his win total includes 27 shootout wins... something that Roy never had a chance to get. (Shootouts were introduced after Roy had retired; back then, once overtime was over, the game was a tie and that was it.) But all this talk of "who's the greatest of all-time" crap is just pointless. Fans who grew up in this generation had never seen Jacques Plante or Terry Sawchuk play. (And I've seen numerous articles which laughed at people who claim Sawchuk as No. 1 all-time as being old, etc.) With different eras, different rules, and so on, what's the point of comparing different goalies (or any other position, for that matter)? Goalies before the expansion era played against tougher teams and players (since there were only six teams in the leagues), played under tougher travel conditions, played fewer games in a season, and so on. To suggest goalies of this era was better than ones in the past would be silly. A pointless discussion.

Did you hear about Chipper Jones' comments about Toronto? Jones left the WBC (a joke of a tournament, by the way) to return to the Braves' spring facility at the start of the week because of an injury, and then blamed the tournament format because they didn't play on a regular basis. He then suggested the city was boring. "I don't know if you ever stayed in Toronto, but it's not exactly Las Vegas," he told an Atlanta newspaper. It's one thing to knock the WBC, but then to take shots at the city of Toronto at the same time?

Check out my fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com. Check out my latest sports book too, on Lulu.com.**

What if...?

2009-03-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

I like these "what-if" scenarios, and this book is all about that.

Only $19.95!

The cover might suggest it's all about baseball--and a whole chunk of it is indeed about the game on the diamond--but it's got info on teams like the 1993 and 2002 Maple Leafs, and the 2004 Flames and 2006 Oilers.

Oh yeah, a few stories about Kerry Fraser too.

Weird Slogans, Annoying Fans...

2009-03-08T10:02:00.001-07:00

Last week, I was emphasizing "Slogans" in class, about how the right ones were needed to pitch products.

And then I googled and came across a, well, shall we say, weird, slogan.

The Florida Marlins were dead last in the National League in attendance last season, drawing just over 1.3 million fans. (Still, this was more than what the Marlins had in 2003, their last championship season. By contrast, in their heyday, the Blue Jays were getting over 4 million per season.)

Yes, the Marlins have won two World Series championships (1997, 2003) in their very brief existence in the majors. (They began play in 1993.) However, their low payroll, stadium issues, etcetera, are probably some of the reasons fans aren't filling Dolphin Stadium. In fact, since 1999, the Marlins have finished in the bottom three in attendance every single season!

So, guess what the Florida Marlins' official slogan is?

Get ready for this....

"IT'S WHERE YOU WANNA BE!"

Nice slogan... except not many in Miami actually agree with that...

You never want to wish ill will on someone, so I say hopefully they are able to draw more fans with that catchy slogan. After all, they did finish above .500 last year and are sort of an up-and-coming team.

****************

On to the topic of annoying fans:

Thanks to the Internet these days, anybody (such as myself and House) can have a blog (hahaha - no doubt one of Trout's pet peeves). I thought it'd be interesting to check out what other sports fans' blogs look like, so I took a random peek at some.

"I can say without hesitation that I am the biggest (name of football team) and (name of baseball team) fan that has ever lived. I even worked for the (name of football team) in the 2007 season (as an usher)."

Okay. What the heck does that mean?? "I'm the biggest (blah) fan that has ever lived"??? How can you quantify or measure that?? Oh yeah, and this dude says on his blog he's 19 years old. Okay.

How about this one:

"I will see (name of football team) win a Super Bowl because I refuse to die until they win one."

Okay, you're not kidding me, right? Sounds like an arrogant SOB. This next one, however, is more humble and sounds better:

"I could die a happy man if the (name of baseball team) could just once win the damn World Series. But I refuse to die until they do, which ensures a long life, come to think of it."

It's all about how you say it; the first guy sounds like a jerk, the second sounds rational.
"The (name of football team) were better than your team in 1948, 1949, and 1960."
So???

This one:

"I think that (name of city) fans have been given an unfair rap by just about everybody since one particular incident (example given). In reality, there is no city in the world that displays passion for its teams like we do. We are the most knowledgeable fans in the world. We want perfection, and if you don't give us perfection, we will let you know. We may boo our players, but do we ever stop going to the games? No. Those that criticize us are simply jealous of our unbelievable passion."

I underlined a few phrases on there - because I wanted to know: How on earth can you measure or quantify that?? How??

Hogwash, I say.

Sometimes, fans are just annoying... or as Trout says, a lot of times, this blog is annoying...

Check out my fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

Candiott, Jerseys, and more...

2009-03-07T15:34:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago, CBC Marketplace aired an episode on how a certain well-known magazine company is sucking in seniors on the 'sweepstake scam.' The episode can be found here.

Over a decade ago, I'd subscribed to that magazine company too, and had once entered their dubious sweepstakes. I remember they said on the sweeptakes entry form to write down the name of a celebrity you'd like to hand you the grand prize cheque should you win the big one!

I wrote in "Tom Candiotti."

Of course, I never won the prize but I gave up soon enough.

Now, I still haven't gotten a chance to meet with the pitcher, unlike guys such as Rick, Rick, and House, who've all met their favourite athletes at some point. However, I did manage to get a Candiotti Dodger jersey. He was kind enough to send one to me this past week. Nice!

That brings me to the topic of jerseys...

It's obviously an expensive hobby, but this "anthentic, autographed" business sounds a bit over the top. Example?

Here's an autographed Andy Moog Bruins jersey, which, according to various sites, costs over $500.

The problem? Moog never wore this jersey before... Moog played for the Bruins from 1987-88 to 1992-93, and Boston never used this jersey until the mid-90s, well after he was gone.

So, it's like having a Gretzky jersey with the current Kings logo. Strange!!

How about this one, also listed at over $500?

Again, when Moog was in Dallas, the Stars had a different uniform. Moog was a Star until the end of the 1996-97 season, while this black and green jersey wasn't introduced until the 1999-2000 season.

When Moog was in Big D, this was what the team wore:

Too bad these things cost that much but aren't even the "real" thing.

(PS: I don't own these pictures; they are from Grandstand Sports and GameWorn Jerseys.)

Check out my fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

Easy work!

2009-02-12T21:59:00.000-08:00

One month ago, I had the feeling that there were going to be fewer students registered at school, and I was proven right. At that time, I approached the head teacher (SL) and the counsellors and mentioned I wouldn't mind going part-time if necessary. For a while, it looked like that was what they were going with. (I'd explained to them that I was trying to 'help out' by volunteering to go part-time.)

However, now with fewer students and classes indeed, I was kept on as a full-timer (despite my generous offer; not that I'm complaining or anything...). I am teaching my career program in the morning, but am now doing mostly curriculum development in the afternoon. (The school chose to lay off one teacher and reduce the hours of another.) Doing curriculum prep stuff is okay, but I got a chance to hang out with my morning students when they came out to do Steve's in-class assignment on the computer. Good times.

Today I got to substitute conversation and writing classes in the afternoon, something I hadn't done for years. And it was a big contrast indeed. In the career programs, it's serious and academic. In the ESL programs with conversation and writing, it's more about having fun and being friendly with students, making jokes and laughing. Totally different.

What the normal writing teacher had taught the day before was how to write party invitations. Thus, my task was to follow up with that, and what I did was review the students' work, encourage them, and then teach them how to respond to an invitation, formal vs. informal responses, sample sentences, and then a 10-minute game to cap off the lesson. Easy. Anyone can do it. Sounds like a $10 an hour job, as opposed to what these teachers actually make.

My conclusion? Yup - ESL teachers are indeed paid too much. It didn't take me much time to prep for those classes and deliver good lessons. For my career programs, it's about being prepared with hardcore materials, marking papers, and evaluating presentations and offering constructive feedback--more work involved.

Well, we'll see how it goes next week...

Crazy, crazy last few weeks

2009-01-13T23:59:00.001-08:00

No time to do much updating on here, because things have been HECTIC!

Two weekends ago (Jan 3-4), I was supposed to be off and could work on my writing. But alas, the Saturday (and Sunday) Team Leader (yes, I call her that to her face too, so it's not like I am talking behind her back) was sick, rendering my weekend meaningless. I had to go into the office both Saturday and Sunday and help out while she recovered. Oh well.

Monday (Jan 5th), a supervisor was laid off, so that meant as Team Leader, my role became worse (ie. I had more duties to do). Add to that, I had to train a newbie the last couple shifts, so that added to my list of responsibilities--yikes, tough to complete all my tasks with added stuff to do!

At school, I've had to train Marcel in teaching my business program (because the other teachers were shifted to another course) and have had to meet up with him every day and chat about things and how to handle the classes. Not a bad thing; I don't mind it, honestly, because I know what I'm doing--I designed the entire half of that curriculum from scratch, basically--and everything about the course.

And this afternoon, I had to be part of a meeting with the administrators and head teacher because students apparently were complaining about the class sizes. (Some were complaining they wanted ME to teach them instead--hehe--but of course I took the professional route in handling their comments.) There were 12 students in one (veteran) class and six in the other (which is a brand new class), so it was my idea to mix them up, with Marcel getting half and me getting the other.

I'd intentionally split them up in a while which gave Marcel the good and active students, while I kept some of the quieter students--mainly to help Marcel out. But alas, what can I do? I tried to help out the other teacher and actually make more work for myself, but the students don't like it... oh well. We'll see what happens.

Hmm - no time to write and continue my little projects. But we'll see what the next day or two brings.

Simpson on Crack?

2009-01-08T13:53:00.001-08:00

Some of the Baseball Hall of Fame votes have been made public.

Only one HoF voter hasn't selected Rickey Henderson for the Hall so far - and it's a retired writer named Simpson.

Simpson contradicts himself when he selected Tim Raines for the following reason:

Tim Raines, a seven-time All-Star outfielder, 1986 National League batting champion, and four-time (NL) base-stealing champ.

People like Simpson should have his voting previledges revoked....

Dee S Knight and KP Wee Talk Radio Show

2008-12-30T08:39:00.000-08:00

"KP Wee appears on BlogTalkRadio to discuss his romance and sports books, as well as read an excerpt from 'False Ex-Pectations'. Check it out, and if you like what you hear, his books are available at Amazon."

Click here for the interview, with KP's portion about 36 minutes in. Enjoy!

Randomness... II

2008-12-25T17:41:00.000-08:00

Today's Random Link
15 jobs you can't pronounce

Jets lose again!

2008-12-22T00:19:00.000-08:00

The New York Jets went out and acquired Brett Favre in the offseason, trying to rebound from a 4-12 season last year.

Of course, after the Jets knocked off the previously unbeaten Tennessee Titans 34-13 in Nashville on November 23, New York was looking good at 8-3 despite a slow start to the season.
The Jets had just won their fifth straight, and had pulled off a bunch of shockers along the way: an upset win in Buffalo (tops in the AFC East at the time), an epic in New England (which of course, was 16-0 last year), and the big victory over the Tennessee.

Three huge wins on the road, to be sure.

There was talk the 8-3 Jets were the 'best' team in the AFC, as they had dominated the 10-1 Titans and other contenders like the Indianapolis Colts (7-4) and San Diego Chargers (4-7) either hadn't hit their stride yet or were just struggling. The Pittsburgh Steelers (8-3) weren't on many's radars at that point.

The Jets were proclaimed to be the team to beat in the conference.

Well, guess what?

Click here for more.

**Not only does KP Wee write for Bleacher Report, he’s also a published author. Check out his fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

Blackhawks for Real?

2008-12-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

Is there any stopping the red-hot Chicago Blackhawks?

Chicago's remarkable season continued on Saturday night as the Hawks defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 at G.M. Place. The win marked the Blackhawks' seventh straight win, a feat last accomplished by the franchise 28 seasons ago, and they have not lost in regulation in December.

The streak included three victories in a three-game road trip through western Canada; the Blackhawks had beaten Edmonton (9-2) and Calgary (3-2 in OT) prior to ending Vancouver's modest two-game winning streak.

Against the Canucks, Chicago fell behind just 3:45 into the game when Daniel Sedin scored his team-leading 15th goal of the year for Vancouver. The Blackhawks, however, rallied with two goals less than four minutes apart early in the second, and goaltender Cristobal Huet took care of the rest with 30 saves.

To read more, click here.

**Not only does KP Wee write for Bleacher Report, he’s also a published author. Check out his fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

NFL's Two Key Week 16 Matchups

2008-12-20T23:02:00.000-08:00

Originally posted Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008

Once again, credit the schedule makers for a pair of big games on the Week 16 NFL schedule.

On Sunday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Steelers (11-3) take their 6-1 road record into Tennessee (12-2) for a showdown for the AFC's No. 1 seed. After starting the season 10-0, the Titans have now split their last four, and now are in danger of losing the conference's top seed to the red-hot Steelers.

Pittsburgh, winners of five straight, clinched its second straight AFC North title with a 13-9 come-from-behind win in Baltimore. The win over the Ravens marked the second straight week the Steelers rallied late in the fourth quarter to pull one out, as this time Santonio Holmes caught a four-yard TD pass from Ben Roethlisberger with only 43 ticks remaining.

A week earlier, the Steelers had stunned the visiting Dallas Cowboys with 17 points in the fourth quarter for a 20-13 triumph.

Meanwhile, Titans head coach Jeff Fisher will be second-guessed for his decision in the fourth quarter of Tennessee's 13-12 defeat in Houston. Down by the same score with two minutes remaining, Fisher opted to go for it on 4th-and-3 at the Houston 32-yard line instead of trying for a go-ahead field goal. QB Kerry Collins' thrown down the field went just out of Justin McCareins' reach.

So this sets up a classic Steelers-Titans tilt at LP Field in Nashville on Sunday, where things get interesting.

Click here for more.

**Not only does KP Wee write for Bleacher Report, he’s also a published author. Check out his fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

The "Idiot Kicker" in the NHL

2008-12-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

People will rip me for this article, but that’s fine.

It may or may not garner me votes for "Controversial NHL Article" awards down the road, but whatever, I’m cool with that.

Yes, I am comparing NHL players to baseball and football players, which is like comparing apples to oranges; yes I know, totally different things. But I’m going to do it anyway.

Nope. I am no Sean Avery fan; I have no rooting interest in whether or not he plays again in the NHL. I don’t really care much for Dallas Stars netminder Marty Turco either.

Turco has been called "the smartest goalie in the NHL" by Don Cherry before, so perhaps that’s gone to his head or something.

But anyway, the Avery suspension by the NHL for comments about opposing players and ex-girlfriends has been well documented.

Of course, Stars forward Mike Modano was publicly critical of Avery, saying the team had been "tarnished" by the comments, which were "unacceptable."

Fine, I can live with that. Modano, of course, was a former captain and a Cup winner with the team. In fact, Modano has been with the Stars organization his entire NHL career, so his opinions can be respected. After all, captain or not, he is one of the leaders of the Stars.

Goaltender Turco, however?

Sure, Turco has been a Star (a Dallas Star, that is, not a superstar) since the 2000-01 season, but can he really be looked upon as one of the "leaders" on the team?

Click here for more.

**Not only does KP Wee write for Bleacher Report, he’s also a published author. Check out his fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

Tale of two NFL teams...

2008-12-19T23:54:00.000-08:00

After Week 8 of the NFL season, two of the AFC’s perennial contenders were arguably the biggest disappointments of the entire league.

The Indianapolis Colts were coming off five straight AFC South titles and looked again to be the class of the division. In fact, the Super Bowl XLI champs had won at least 12 games in each of those last five campaigns, and were expected to continue that trend. Heck, didn’t they start off every year going 7-0 and challenging to go undefeated?

The San Diego Chargers had won three AFC West titles in the last four years—including a 14-2 season in 2006—and were one victory away from getting to the Super Bowl last season. Many were picking the Chargers as a Super Bowl team this season.

After Week 8 though, things were completely different from the way many had envisioned. (Let me now say that I am neither an Indy nor San Diego fan, before the Chargers fans email me to rip me for 'praising' the Colts.)

The Colts were 3-4 at the time, and were considered lucky to even have three wins.

The Chargers were 3-5 following two straight defeats heading into their bye week.

The Colts have managed to recover. The Bolts, however, couldn’t. But thanks to the sometimes-ineptness of the Denver Broncos, the Chargers are somehow still alive in the AFC West race despite a 6-8 record...

Click here for more.

The worst employee ever?

2008-12-10T08:49:00.001-08:00

A week ago, I had posted a link where someone wrote about the worst employees/co-workers of 2008.

I beg to differ on all of them.

As a co-worker of a certain NDP person, I think it's my responsibility to post about the antics of this particular individual....

More to come later.

But let's just say if he wants to sue me or something, go ahead, because I speak the truth and actually I'd love for all this to come out.

Laughing at the Jets

2008-12-07T23:34:00.000-08:00

It is certainly amusing to see the New York Jets lose...again! Hahaha. I think over the years the Jets have lost meaningful December games when they were in contention... other than the 1998 season. Anyway, a loss in San Francisco (4-8 going in) for Favre's troops, after a defeat at home to the Denver Broncos (6-5 at the time) last week. The Jets are now tied with New England (which had a late comeback in Seattle) and Miami (which beat Buffalo in the first regular season game held in Canada). All three teams are 8-5. Miami's story is certainly a great one, since the Dolphins were 1-15 last year and have the ex-Jet Chad Pennington (who was dumped in favor of Favre) leading the way. New England, of course, has been without MVP Tom Brady since Week One, and is doing just fine with Matt Cassel leading the way.

(Okay, okay, before anyone gets excited, New York currently holds the tie-breaker, so the Jets are No. 1, followed by the Pats and 'Fins.)

Looking at the remaining schedule for the three teams, it shapes up to be a fun way to end the season.

Jets: vs Buf, @ Sea, vs Mia
Pats: @ Oak, vs Arz, @ Buf
Dolphins: vs SF, @ KC, @ Jets

The Bills have been fading (1-6 since a 5-1 start) and have already lost to the Jets earlier in the year. The Seahawks are brutal (2-11) and have lost six in a row. Assume the Jets beat the both, setting up a showdown at the Meadowlands against the Dolphins to end the season.

Chad Pennington, dumped before the season because of Favre, going back to Giants Stadium and coming up with a big game against his ex-teammates, potentially knocking the Jets out of the playoffs? That'd be interesting to watch.

Miami, though, plays the equally inept 49ers (5-8) and Chiefs (2-11) prior to the finale against the Jets.

Meanwhile, the Patriots will face the Raiders (3-10), the Cardinals (8-5) in Foxborough, and then take on the Bills.

Interestingly, of Oakland's three wins this year, one came against the Jets. And now the Jets also fell in 'Frisco. Don't forget the San Diego Chargers, who have been snake-bitten all year long and are 5-8, have also beaten New York. Could the Seahawks, 1-6 at home this year, pull out an upset win over the Jets at Qwest Field in Week 16?

Arizona in New England in Week 16 is an interesting opponent. The Cards have wrapped up the NFC West and would be playing for one of the top two seeds in the conference, but have been brutal against teams with winning records, losing already to the Giants, Eagles, Redskins, Jets, and Panthers. The Cards are 3-4 on the road, but those three wins came in San Fran, St. Louis, and Seattle. Hardly anything to brag about. They might well lose in the cold in New England.

Thus, if the Pats win out--don't forget, they are 21-2 in December since 2003, they would clinch the AFC East if Miami wins in New York. Could happen!

Random Thoughts VIII

2008-12-05T22:20:00.001-08:00

Trout, here's my thoughts on Maddux and his retirement.

Random Links:
Woman dies during proposal
Holiday dating tips
10 Worst Employees of '08

Legends of the game...

2008-11-25T23:16:00.000-08:00

Rick and Trout are true legends in my book. Trout with his wit and everything - despite his status as a fish, he'll always be a legend.

Cliff is one too! He's on TV so many times it's old hat, and check THIS out!

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=C4&Date=20081123&Category=SPORTS01&ArtNo=811230802&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=2

Way to go, Cliff!

Gala: Show Time! (Part 3)

2008-11-24T22:41:00.001-08:00

Saturday was time for the Gala, and there were dance performances from the local kids - nope, I didn't take pictures of them... (kinda creepy, I think, for me to post pictures on here when I don't know them and I don't want to just post random people's pics on the Internet... who knows what psychos out there might get them?)

Sandra K., one of the authors, got the big prize: a surprise song-and-dance performance dedicated to her title, "Numbers with Attitude." THAT was huge. However, I didn't get any such stuff for "Rainbow Trout" but oh well. Would have been cool. In fact, I hadn't known Sandra K. would be in attendance, otherwise I would have brought my copy of "There are no Lighthouses in Kentucky" for her to autograph it.

Got a chance to chat with Donald Mills as well as a few others at our table, a little bit of dancing and mingling, so it was a fun event. Well planned and a good turnout!

The book signing for Sunday had to be postponed because the Wal-Mart store - where I would be doing the signing - hadn't received their shipment of my books (there were 50 being ordered). Thus, the CPH CEO offered to pay for my transportation once they books are in so I could take part in the signing, which is fine. I ended up not leaving early on Sunday afternoon, taking the opportunity for picture-taking; I checked out the museum, glass museum, and the Tacoma Dome - but alas, my battery died before I got a decent picture of the Dome.

All in all, a fun weekend and great hospitality from the CPH staff. Wasn't too bummed out about the missed signing - after all, as one wise man said recently (and you know who you are), "Don't get caught up in always striving for the next level of success, enjoy the success you're achieving now!"

Congratulations to Cliff! He got on a website talking about the Detroit Lions! Way to go!

Gala Trip: a hectic week (Part 2)

2008-11-24T22:31:00.000-08:00

So, things looked great on Friday, Nov. 14th, when I was notified of the potential book signing.

Alas, bad news came right away. I was sick on Sunday the 16th, but had to report to the office because because I'd committed to being there (as Team Leader I probably should), and the Yogurt project was happening the day after. Luckily I was there and kind of salvaged that project, and Project Manager Jay expressed appreciation for my efforts.

Then the next day I found out I would be training FOUR new employees simulatenously, basically starting from scratch, and I hadn't fully recovered yet, so it wasn't a great experience for me. Fortunately, only three showed up, so I can't complain there.

But come Friday, it was off to the Greyhound terminal, with the creatures on Zonk entertaining me as I was waiting for the bus to depart...

Trip for the Gala: Setting the Stage (Part 1)

2008-11-24T22:01:00.000-08:00

Okay, so here's the Seattle trip info:

All authors were notified over six months earlier the annual CHP Gala would be held Saturday, Nov. 22nd. I'd immediately decided not to attend, as I didn't think it was an important event for me to be present for.

However, in October, we were reminded about the Gala again, and asked to see if we'd like to attend, as there would be readers and book lovers present for authors to sign books and mingle. That caught my eye, as I figured it'd be nice for me to put a face to my name, and perhaps talk some book stuff with readers. So, on Oct. 21st, I asked for an estimated itinerary for the event, and I was told there would be "(a) silent auction, dance performance by a local dance school, poetry reading, live singing, dinner, DJ with dancing and awards for our authors..." Sounded like a fun event... BUT one thing from the reply stood out.

Now, for those of you who read my posts regularly on the Zonk on overanything.com, I'll bet you know which ONE word in the quoted text jumped out at me. If you see how I post on there, you'll know. Yup. I was extremely intrigued by that ONE word:

Awards.

Thus, I definitely wanted to check it out and see if "Young Chasing Rainbow Trout" would garner any award or anything noteworthy. That way I could stick it to Trout. Bragging rights, you know. On the same day, I asked Farhan Devji (a Vancouverite like myself and a fellow author with CPH) if he was planning to attend, but alas, he couldn't, as he'd have exams coming up. But something he said to me eventually made me decide, sure, I'd go and check things out.

As some may know too, I do market research on the side too, and thus on Oct. 23rd, I asked Candace for the weekend of Nov. 21-23rd off, providing sufficient notice as a time-off request. If I didn't, Steph or Yana (long stories - for both) might mess me up with their scheduling.

Thus, everything was set. The time-off request was granted.

On Nov. 14th, I was picking up my tuxedo for the event (of course, I'd already confirmed my Gala attendance) when I received a call from the author liaison asking me when I would depart Tacoma, WA (where the Gala would be held). I'd just reserved my Greyhound tix online, scheduling me to leave Tacoma on Sunday at 1:45 p.m. The AL asked me if I could extend my stay because there would be a potential book signing event that Sunday from 12-2 p.m. Seeing that the awards were the main reason I was going down to Washington State, having a book signing was a bonus.

Thus, I found out from Greyhound it was okay to catch the 5:20 p.m. bus with my existing 1:45 p.m. ticket for no extra charge, so I jumped at the chance for the signing and agreed to it!

The obvious reasons for making the trip were: 1) potential award(s), 2) putting a face to my name - and perhaps being one of the "main" authors for CPH, ie. a star, and come on, really, a ride from Vancouver to the Seattle area is nothing... .and suddenly there was a book signing to boot. So, pretty good stuff!

Back in town...

2008-11-24T07:22:00.000-08:00

I'm back in town (got in late last night) - but no days off for me. It's back to work this morning, so I'll have to post details a bit later. Also, I'll need to figure out the camera and how to get them on the computer.

But, luckily the Greyhound ride wasn't as uncomfortable as people had cautioned before; it's the long wait at the terminals that weren't cool.

Got to watch USA Network in the hotel Saturday before catching HNIC on CBC in the afternoon - and hooray! heard the news of Luongo's injury. Nice!

Anyway, will post later.

Book Signing: Nov 23, 2008

2008-11-14T16:47:00.001-08:00

Great news! My publisher has set up a book signing for me for Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008, in the Seattle, WA area.

The signing will last four about two hours starting at 12 noon, which will allow me to do autographs, smile, and talk about my book.

Then afterwards, it will be back home for work on Monday morning... *sigh*

In the meantime, here's the Amazon link to purchase your own copy...

Randomness...

2008-11-12T00:05:00.000-08:00

KP's Sports Link:
Warner's Cards: 10+ wins?

Today's Random Links:
Incomes based on birth order
Foods & Health: Tips

Yesterday on the news, today (actually later...) at the library

2008-11-08T15:59:00.000-08:00

Well, an interesting two days that surely wiped out all the negative stuff that happened earlier in the week.

On Friday, it was my brief appearance on the CBC News.

Today, I found out by checking out the VPL.ca website that "Showing Their Scales" by KP Wee has been ordered by the public library! Hooray! That means the book will be on the shelves soon enough.

During the graduation party of the previous group of students that finished my course, I presented the student with the top score a signed copy of my book.

On Friday, another group of students completed the course, but I didn't hand out any prizes. Two students failed to receive a diploma because they didn't successfully fulfill the requirements of the program, so it wasn't really a celebration for everyone else, I would think.

Besides, I spent the bulk of the day researching the CBC stuff I was talking about and had to run off to another meeting after that.

Anyway, wonder if there'll be any more nice stuff coming...

CBC.... ah, CBC...

2008-11-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

Talk about irony.

This morning at work, I was compiling a list of educational videos on the CBC website for the courses I teach. The reason was to contact CBC to get those tapes.

Well, this afternoon as I was walking downtown, I was approached by a CBC news and camera man to get my thoughts on the Olympic fiasco. I gave my two cents, and hoped they would air it on TV!

Yup. I was on the CBC Evening News at Six, for three seconds! Good, I was on TV. Bad, it was for three seconds. For TV veterans like Rick and Cliff, this is nothing.

Well, never mind those educational videos... I want a copy of that CBC newscast!!

Today's KP Link...

2008-11-06T23:51:00.000-08:00

Baseball apparently wants to eliminate coin flips to determine the site of one-game playoffs.

Bad idea, I say.

Think 1995, 1978, 1951, and so on...

Here's my Bleacher Report commentary:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/78629-baseball-epics-created-by-coin-flips-please-dont-change-it

Random Thoughts VII

2008-11-03T23:22:00.000-08:00

Bruins October Recap:
In a sports town where the other three teams have won championships this decade, the Boston Bruins are the weak link in Beantown.

However, the B's had a decent month of October, and went 5-3-3. Along the way were some memorable games. Here's a brief recap on the thrillers last month:

Read more...

I jinxed them!
I wrote about the Calgary Flames' six-game winning streak Saturday.

Yup. I jinxed them....just as I'd done to Jesse Litsch and the other baseballers this past season. Calgary lost less than 24 hours later in Anaheim.

Say, didn't the Leafs lose in Carolina just hours after I'd complimented them too?

Today's Random Links
Who's the next MLB team to rise to the top?
More 2008 postseason stuff
Series MVP discussion

0 > 1 ?

2008-11-02T20:35:00.000-08:00

0 > 1 ? Yes, I would say so.

Read the following passage and write the appropriate word in the blanks.

-diverse

-enterprise

-esssential

-everyday

-functioning...

All businesses, large and small, must maintain an inventory of supplies. In most offices, the types of essential, but common,

(1)_________ items needed, including...

Every week, I give this type of test to my students, and the last two weeks, I discovered something "interesting."

One student scored zero out of 24 last week, with the test sheet completely blank. It appeared no attempt whatsoever was made on it, which I guess is okay once in a while. Perhaps that person was having a bad day or was sick and what not.

This week, that student's test sheet was completely filled out. The only problem? The score was ONE out of 24.

So, this brings me to my question: Which is better? Not trying at all and getting a zero, or trying (well, I'm not sure how much effort was put into it but hey, the sheet was filled out this time) and getting 23 wrong answers?

I would say the former is better. Getting the goose-egg. I mean, I wouldn't want to write all those answers and score only one point.

Wonder what other people think... Trout? Rainbow Trout? Care to weigh in?

Leafs won!? Another comeback from down 2-0

2008-11-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

Different Leafs in 08-09? (Rick says the Leafs are so terrible, but I'm sure House is excited about this one...)

The New York Rangers-Toronto Maple Leafs tilt at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night was the type of game the Leafs would have lost last season.

The NHL-leading Rangers were up 2-0 with under ten minutes left in the final period, having scored with 9.3 ticks left in the first and added another goal late in the second.

Rookie Leafs center John Mitchell went to the penalty box at the 10:10 mark of the third, and Toronto looked dead, especially with Steve Valiquette in the Rangers goal.

Valiquette was 3-0 lifetime against the Leafs, and had already beaten Toronto 1-0 in a shootout on October 17th.

Instead of going for another shutout against the Leafs, the wheels soon fell off for Valiquette and the Rangers.

New York didn't score on the power play, and Mitchell skated into the Rangers zone and beat Valiquette to break the goose-egg with 7:24 left.

It was Mitchell's first NHL goal, and it seemed to spark the Leafs, who amazingly reeled off five straight goals--all in a span of 5:21--to pull out a 5-2 triumph.

Incredibly, it was the fourth time in the last six in which Toronto had fallen behind 2-0, only to rally to get at least a point.

The Leafs lost in a shootout to Anaheim in the controversial "switch-to-Curtis-Joseph-for-the-shootout" game, and have now beaten Boston, New Jersey, and the Rangers despite the slow starts.

Had this been last season, no way the Leafs would have gotten points in those contests. In fact, they would have gone ahead 2-0 in every game and then found ways to blow them.

The Leafs won't have time to celebrate this latest victory, as they'll be in Carolina for a Sunday night tilt against the Hurricanes, who are coming off a 3-1 loss to Edmonton, a game in which Ethan Moreau scored twice with 1:28 left to clinch it for the Oilers.

**Not only does KP Wee write for Bleacher Report, he’s also a published author. Check out his fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

Why not Andy Moog?

2008-10-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

The Hockey News recently listed former Boston Bruins netminder Andy Moog's 1992-93 mask as being the scarriest in hockey history.

That's great, but why is Moog not applauded for his on-ice accomplishments?

Sure, the Hockey Hall of Fame is tough on goaltenders, as only a couple from Moog's era (Grant Fuhr and Patrick Roy) have been inducted.

Moog, however, won 372 games in his 18-year NHL career, and finished with a decent 3.13 GAA. (Remember he started his career in the 1980s, an era when high-scoring games were the norm.) When he retired in 1998, Moog had the highest winning percentage, all-time in history, among NHL goalies with at least 10 seasons.

Moog was the first of his era to reach the 300-win plateau. Sure, he began his career before Roy and Fuhr, and thus was able to get to the milestone quicker. But other top goalies who started playing before Moog did, such as Mike Liut and Greg Millen, never got to the 300 club.

Nope, Moog never helped a team win the Stanley Cup as a number one goalie, but he did have his playoff moments, both for the Edmonton Oilers and the Boston Bruins.

Moog was the 21-year-old rookie who had played only seven NHL games in 1981 when injuries to the other Oilers goaltenders made him the starter in the playoffs.

Edmonton, which had never won a playoff series up to that point, received spectacular goaltending from Moog as the No. 14-seeded Oilers upset the No. 3-seeded (and heavily favoured) Montreal Canadiens in a three-game sweep of the preliminary round.

The Oilers fell to the defending champion New York Islanders in the round, but Moog's heroics were certainly memorable.

After an embarrassing first-round defeat to the L.A. Kings in 1982 with Fuhr in goal, Edmonton coach Glen Sather went back to Moog in the 1983 playoffs.

Moog started every game that spring and went 11-1, carrying the Oilers to the Cup Finals against the Islanders. A 2-0 loss (Moog allowed one goal and the Isles scored an empty-netter to clinch it) in Game One against New York ended Edmonton's run, and the Islanders never looked back.

A four-game sweep at the hands of the powerful Isles wasn't a perfect ending to the 1982-83 season, but Moog had helped Edmonton reach the Finals for the first time in franchise history.

The next season, Fuhr was the starter between the pipes in the playoffs but it was Moog who played the final two games (with Fuhr out with an injury) as the Oilers defeated the Islanders to clinch their first Cup.

Moog was 143-53-21 in seven seasons with the Oilers. However, Fuhr was always seen as superior than Moog. (Ironically, during the same time, Fuhr's regular season stats were similar to Moog's; Fuhr was 148-56-33 when he and Moog were teammates.)

It was on to Boston, where Moog's Bruins, who had beaten the Canadiens in the playoffs only once all-time and had lost 18 straight series to the Habs, suddenly reversed the trend.

Moog's Bruins knocked out Roy's Canadiens in the 1990, 1991, and 1992 playoffs, with Andy owning a 12-4 record against St. Patrick in those contests. (Like Dave Stewart dominating Roger Clemens in the baseball postseason.)

With Moog, the Bruins made it to the Finals in 1990, before they fell victim to the Oilers in five games.

Boston made it to the Wales Conference Finals in 1991 and 1992, but the Bruins fell short, losing to Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins both years.

Leading the Bruins to three straight Final Four appearances is no small feat, and Boston has not come close to sniffing any kind of playoff glory since.

After Moog's departure from Boston (at the end of the 1992-93 season), the Bruins have won only two playoff series. Two series in the last 13 years. And the Bruins have employed a plethora of goalies, such as Jon Casey, Jim Carey, Bill Ranford, Andrew Raycroft, Byron Dafoe, Craig Billington, and Blaine Lacher. None have been as solid as Moog, the true "Hab-Killer" come playoff time.

Nope. Moog isn't seen as one of the top three goalies all-time in Edmonton, as Fuhr, Ranford, and Curtis Joseph are all highly regarded as Oilers legends.

Nope. Boston has its own history of great netminders in Tiny Thompson, Frank "Mr. Zero" Brimsek, and Gerry Cheevers, who'd all won Stanley Cups for the Bruins. So Moog isn't ranked atop the B's all-time list of great, great goalies.

Ironically, Moog was traded away from Boston before he could claim his 300th career win, and was also denied the opportunity to play in the final game in Boston Garden. (Moog was traded two seasons before the Garden was replaced by the FleetCenter.) Patrick Roy was also shipped out of Montreal before he could win No. 300 and shortly before the last game was to be played at the Forum.

At least Moog managed to play in the historic final game at the Forum, when his Dallas Stars took on the Habs in 1996. And Moog also participated in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, going 4-0-0 in his games. (Team Canada finished fourth, as the team didn't fare as well in Sean Burke's starts.)

However, no jersey retirement in Edmonton. None in Boston. It would have been nice to see Moog inducted into the Hall of Fame with Ray Bourque and Cam Neely, as they were the "Big Three" in Boston in the early 1990s, the way both Michel Goulet and Peter Statsny were inducted together as Quebec Nordiques' legends.

Mike Richter (Rangers) and Mike Vernon (Calgary), who are not Hockey Hall of Famers (yet), have all had their jerseys retired by their former teams. Ron Hextall is in the Philadelphia Flyers' Hall of Fame, despite not winning a Cup (losing the Finals in 1987 and 1997).

When will Andy Moog get his due?

**Not only does KP Wee write for Bleacher Report, he’s also a published author. Check out his fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

WS thoughts...

2008-10-31T00:08:00.000-07:00

Just over a decade ago, baseball’s Fall Classic was meaningful.

From 1991 to 1997, ie. Before the Yankees started their dynasty by proving 1996 wasn’t a fluke and minus the strike season in 1994, every World Series was intriguing. There was Joe Carter’s Series-winner in 1993, along with Gene Larkin and Edgar Renteria driving home the championship runs in extra innings in Game Sevens (1991, 1997). In the other Classics, the winning teams won by a single run in the clinching Game Sixes with the opponents leaving the tying runners on base or having them represented at home plate.

You had heroes like the Mark Lemkes, Len Dykstras, Luis Sojos, Chad Ogeas, Jim Leyritzes, Ed Spragues, Pat Borderses of the world, who came up big when you didn’t expect them to. Lots of memorable games to be sure.

The NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, and Super Bowls—which at the time featured blowouts seemingly every single year by the NFC squads—had nothing on the World Series.

But what about baseball’s championship series now?

Too many off-days for the Colorado Rockies (2007) and Detroit Tigers (2006) made them rusty in what turned out to be lopsided Series losses to the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively. Thanks to baseball’s new scheduling system in 2007 when extra off-days were included in the LCS, Colorado had too much rest (and rust) following a four-game sweep against Arizona in the NL Championship Series, wiping out whatever momentum the Rockies gained on the way to winning the senior circuit.

Late start times. So many World Series games end now when many in the East have gone to bed, thanks to the late starts, pitching changes that naturally occur in most every game, and the general length of contests to begin with. In the ridiculous third game of this year’s Series, which ended close to 2:00 A.M. Eastern, the action started at 10:06 P.M. following a 91-minute rain delay. Crazy.

TV networks. Many fans out there are complaining about the postseason coverage by TBS. Never mind how badly the commentators are doing, but why is the postseason on cable to begin with? Oh okay. The World Series is on FOX, but even Joe Buck gets lots of trashing, especially with his comments earlier in the postseason that he preferred reality TV to baseball (interestingly, even he suggested baseball games are too long.)

And this year’s “Classic”?

Bad managing, for starters.

With the Tampa Bay Rays’ backs against the wall, manager Joe Maddon decided to rest his two starters, “Big Game” James Shields and Matt Garza, in the completion of the suspended fifth game.

Shields, who was well rested and had pitched 5.2 scoreless innings against Philadelphia already to give Tampa Bay its lone win in the Series, was instead saved for a Game Six which ended up not being necessary. (Shades of Cubs skipper Lou Piniella saving ace Carlos Zambrano after just 85 pitches in a tie game in the 1997 NLDS?)

Maddon turned to his bullpen, which hadn’t exactly done the job if you counted the fifth game of the ALCS and a couple of the earlier contests in Philadelphia, with the score 2-2 when play resumed in the Phillies’ half of the sixth inning.

The bullpen couldn’t get it done, and the Rays were done.

Then we look at the way the suspended fifth game was handled by the commissioner.

With the rain coming down and field conditions becoming worse, Bud Selig could have suspended or called the game several innings back, but waited until the Rays tied the score at 2-2 before declaring the contest suspended.

Surely Selig must have been waiting for Tampa Bay to draw even, another fiasco much like the All-Star tie debacle in 2002.

Selig supposedly had made the decision before the game that no World Series contests could be rain-shortened contests the way regular season games sometimes are.

Except both the Rays and Phillies clubhouses didn’t know about this supposed decision. There were several players on both sides who were quoted as saying they thought if Tampa Bay couldn’t score to tie it and the game became “official” after 4 ½ innings, the Phillies would have won.

The point is, why wasn’t the game stopped innings earlier? Players could have been injured on the wet field conditions, and if the Series had been extended to a sixth or seventh game, either or both lineups could have been weakened had there been any significant injuries.

So, it’s hard to understand why the game was allowed to continue on until Tampa Bay was able to tie it. You had the feeling the game was going to keep going despite the rain if the Rays were still behind.

(Thankfully the Phillies fans weren’t screwed this year because their team won. Can you imagine if Game Five was won by Tampa Bay, which then took that momentum into the final two contests at Tropicana Field and ousted the Phils? All this when the Phillies were up 2-1 and the game was already official after five innings? This would have been worse than in 1993, when the Phils led the Blue Jays 12-7 in the rain and the game wasn’t called. Toronto came back and won 15-14, taking a commanding 3-1 Series lead.)

And while we’re at it, why was Game Five even started? Okay, enough about this year.

Given recent revelations, even past World Series can no longer—in my view anyway—be looked upon in the same way.

You have admissions from stadium employees that “home field advantage” actually meant something in World Series play. And this from a Fall Classic that ESPN had once ranked as the best ever played, and yes, it was played at the Metrodome.

Then you hear about players who slugged significant, Series-changing dingers in 1992 and 1996, who later admitted having used substances during their careers. In another "great" World Series, the first "November Series" because of September 11, the Game Seven winning hit was delivered by a playerwho had never before (and has never since) put up such big power numbers in propelling his team to the NL West title by narrowly edging out the San Francisco Giants.

And it appears dubious World Series contests go even way before that.

Any baseball fan knows all about or has at least heard of Shoeless Joe Jackson and his Black Sox from 1919. Even several years earlier, there were other “Suspicious Series” (as titled in Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Lineups, pages 42-43, 2003 edition) when the Red Sox took on the New York Giants in 1912 and even during Boston’s 1903 triumph over Pittsburgh. That would be the Red Sox’s first two ever World Series championships, if anyone is counting. Yikes.

The World Series… Yes, for me, it’s lost a lot of luster, and this year’s Rays-Phillies tilt didn’t do much to reverse any of that.

Well, baseball is over for another season. The World Series is done. Does it matter?

Rick? Trout? Cliff? House? Comments? Rainbow Trout?

**Not only does KP Wee write for Bleacher Report, he’s also a published author. Check out his fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

Nice! In the 2,500s...

2008-10-21T23:39:00.000-07:00

Well, this morning I found a very interesting statistic on Amazon.ca for "Showing Their Scales"... #2,556 in sales ranking! #5 in Anthologies!

Must have been a slow day for other books... ;-)

Anyways, click on the picture for a better view... these kinds of numbers don't last forever... in a few days, I'm sure it'll be down to the 1,000,000s again...

According to report, ex-Packer is a traitor...?

2008-10-19T23:48:00.000-07:00

Ha! For those who worship Brett Favre, here's another report that might change your minds...

Even the Great Ones Lose... HA!

2008-10-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

Click here to participate in my unofficial poll question...

Sunday... a great day of sports action with all the pigskin blowouts and nailbiters, a classic seventh game in the ALCS.

There were even a couple of contests on the ice to boot.

Two of the best in their respective sports--labels given to them by the media, not by me--couldn't deliver.

I'll admit it, I don't like either one of them. I wouldn't call either of them "the best", but I'm not going to start yet another one of those long arguments with you readers out there. Let's just say I was pretty pumped after the Jets-Raiders game ended, but we'll get to that in a bit...

Canucks-Blackhawks
There are those in who call the Vancouver Canucks' Roberto Luongo the best goalie in hockey.
On Sunday in Chicago, he was only second best to Cristobal Huet.

The Canucks are a tough team to figure out. Are they the outfit that blasted the Calgary Flames on opening night, or the one that managed only 10 shots in Washington just four nights later?

Chances are, they're somewhere in the middle. Thus, they need a goaltender who can be their stopper, one who is going to be the difference-maker to steal victories away from the opposition.

Besides, Luongo is their captain. He's the best, after all.

It didn't happen at the United Center on Sunday.

Chicago's Patrick Sharp had two goals and an assist, while Patrick Kane added a goal and two helpers, and the Blackhawks skated past the Canucks 4-2.The win was new head coach Joel Quenneville's first with Chicago.

Brent Seabrook also tallied for the Blackhawks.

Not a banner game for Luongo, who finished with 22 saves. The Canucks captain couldn't be faulted for one of the Sharp goals, which was a pass that deflected off Vancouver blueliner Mattias Ohlund's stick and past Luongo.

Huet, on the other hand, was solid with 28 saves in the Hawks goal, picking up his first win of the season.

The Canucks, now on a two-game losing streak, next play the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Tuesday. They'll need their captain to come up big then.

Jets-Raiders
In Oakland, Brett Favre threw two interceptions and couldn't lead the New York Jets to the winning score despite having three possessions in overtime, as the Raiders won 16-13 in NFL action.

It was easily Favre's worst game of the season, as he finished with a paltry 47.8 QB rating, going 21-for-38 for 197 yards.

New Oakland coach Tom Cable called a late timeout which negated Jets kicker Jay Feely's missed field goal with three seconds left.

On his second attempt, Feely made good on the 52-yarder, sending the contest into extra time.
It looked like another sad ending for the Raiders, as Favre had led the Jets at their own 5-yard line with just 1:24 left and no timeouts with New York down 13-10.

Two long passes later (31, 18) put the ball at the Oakland 34, before Feely was given his shot to tie the game.

Of course, knowing the media, they'll no doubt marvel at Favre's latest comeback in guiding the Jets on that final drive in regulation.

"Ohhh, that's classic Favre, on their own 5 with no timeouts left... Yeah Favre!" the Favre lovers would argue.

They'll overlook the fact that their hero was brutal and only led the Jets to two first downs on their three possessions in OT.

But for me, it was great to see Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski nailing that 57-yarder to end the game and make Favre a loser on Sunday.

All in all, a great day of sports action...

Random Thoughts VI

2008-10-18T21:12:00.001-07:00

Raycroft wins 2nd straight:

The Dallas Stars faced the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon, in a game that wasn't televised in my area, but I'd found out Avalanche head coach Tony Granato was starting Andrew Raycroft...for the second straight game!!

For Maple Leaf and Bruins fans, you all know about Raycroft. The guy has been on the decline since his 2004 rookie season... yikes. Yet, when he's in goal for the Avalanche, they can't lose.

Raycroft is now 2-0-0, while Peter Budaj is 0-3-0. Well, it's still early for a goaltending controversy, and for all we know, Raycroft could go 0-10-0 in his next appearances.

I recall in the New York Rangers' 1994 championship season, No. 1 goalie Mike Richter started the year 0-4-0 and backup Glenn Healy was 4-0-0. So what? Richter was the main man during the season and Stanley Cup playoff run.

And we all know about Raycroft's 2-0 start in the 2004 playoffs. Nope, the Bruins didn't win that series.

I admit I was a bit excited when I saw the score on The NHL Network ticker: Colorado 5, Dallas 5, third period. I'd known that the Avalanche had taken a 5-2 lead after two periods, and that meant Raycroft had surrendered three goals in the third. Just like his meltdowns in Toronto last season, when he would allow last-minute or very-late goals to lose games for the Leafs.

But nope... the score reverted to Colorado 5, Dallas 4 later on that ticker, and I couldn't believe it. Nope, The NHL Network didn't have a glitch the way TBS did later in the evening (not showing Game Six of the ALCS for the opening 20 minutes), but it turned out the Stars' tying goal was disallowed.

So, Raycroft hung on, and is perfect this season.

Well, it's early. I'm sure the Raycroft of the last couple seasons will show his true form soon enough.

Wayne Gretzky ad:

That TV commercial showing Wayne Gretzky and Maurice "The Rocket" Richard advertising how the best investment firms working together bring awesome results... just plain dumb. I can't stand that commercial.

There's one poll on Bleacher bio here when every writer can weigh in: Orr or Gretzky? Nope, I've never seen Orr play live, but I've seen enough documentaries and game films, and stories and interviews from the Scotty Bowmans, the Bobby Clarkes, and other Hall of Famers, to determine Orr was greater than The Great One. Sorry, but #4 > #99.

And haha! Checking my own poll question from earlier this week, it appears no one is giving Gretzky any respect either. In my unofficial poll, all five respondents have picked Wayne Gretzky thus far (as "sucking" more as a head coach than the recently fired Denis Savard)...

That's a perfect 100%!! Yes, a small sample size, but you can't argue with 100%! (Yup. I know. Some people will see this and start voting the other way... but for now, 100%!!)

Boston Red Sox vs. Tampa Bay Rays:

HAHA! Going to Game 7! As I said in my article, THAT wasn't supposed to be an obituary... and the Kings of Comebacks!

But truth be told, I was pretty upset about that Aaron Boone thing and was devastated when they let Kevin Brown off the hook in Game 3 in 2004 (and lost 19-8 despite hanging in there early, tied 6-6 at one point)... but honestly this year, I couldn't care less.

Hmm.. maybe I will blame the TBS coverage for this lack of interest. Brutal coverage.

Blackhawks & Quenneville...

2008-10-17T00:11:00.000-07:00

I bashed Wayne Gretzky in this one... why would people say Denis Savard deserved to be axed in Chicago and not say the same for #99 in Phoenix?

Oddly enough, this came just hours after I'd mocked the people featured on Rick Jessup's overanything.com link from Thursday. Not that I care about the Blackhawks anymore... but I didn't see the need to laugh at Savard. He was a great player. As a coach? It's really too early to tell.

Here's the link - my thoughts on Joel Quenneville in Chicago.

Seriously though, Quenneville has won NOTHING in the NHL as a head coach. (Yes, he won as an assistant coach before, but that's different). In fact, eight early playoff exits in eleven years (10, if you count the fact he was fired mid-season one year).

That's better than Savard, eh?

And ooohh... .Rick or Trout will love this one: I bashed Wayne Gretzky.... so are the Coyotes going to win the Cup this year?

Red Sox Thoughts

2008-10-15T00:17:00.000-07:00

The Boston Red Sox that I'd rooted for in my youth was a completely different team.

They had one superstar pitcher (until he became a traitor) and some decent hitters. They had guys like Joe Hesketh, Greg Harris, Danny Darwin making up the rest of the rotation, and Jeff Reardon --once baseball's all-time saves king--closing things out. I rooted for Tom Brunansky, Jody Reed, Ellis Burks and Mike Greenwell. Reed and Wade Boggs would double off the Green Monster to set the table for the Brunanskys, Burkses, and Greenwells.

Well, so in a sense, the Red Sox had one great pitcher, "and a bunch of other guys."

The Red Sox, however, fell short every year, but still, they were my team. Even when they grew into the habit of picking up former league and playoff MVPs (Canseco, Mitchell, Avery, Eckersley), ex- 18-game winners (Portugal, Schourek), and one-time no-hit pitchers (Ramon Martinez, Mercker), I still cheered them on. (Oddly enough, Tim Wakefield was almost a playoff MVP with the Pirates in 1992, but his Bucs fell to the Braves in that famous Francisco Cabrera game, depriving the knuckleballer of the hardware.)

Eventually though, the Red Sox became the little Evil Empire. Red Sox management might deny this, but come on. The Sox were at their best in the mid-2000s, battling the Yankees to try and get the biggest names. Getting Schilling. Getting A-Rod, until the players' association got involved and vetoed the deal. Winning the bidding war for Dice-K. Giving J.D. Drew a $70 million contract. And on and on.

The Red Sox were no longer the "underdog", the team that I grew to love. They were starting to be the big spenders like the Yankees. Sure, Boston had overpaid for guys like Darwin and Matt Young and Jack Clark, et al, in the 1990s, and later Steve Avery and so on, but at least--in my view--the team was loveable. Of course, others didn't view the BoSox as loveable losers like the Cubs, but as choke artists. But still, they were my team.

Before this year's league championship series started, I was on my friend's website, OA.com, making my predictions. I picked the Phillies to win in five, and the Rays to triumph in the same number of games. There was no way I wanted to see the soap opera of this "Manny goes back to Fenway in the World Series" nonsense. That's what the media would want. It's all about storylines and such that everyone wanted. But come on, do people seriously want to see villains like No. 99 come out victorious?

Nope, I'd rather see the underdogs win. (Philadelphia is kind of a dog because it seems Ramirez's Dodgers had been getting much more attention.) The Red Sox? Been there, done that. When the same team keeps winning, it gets old. Of course, with both the Dodgers and Red Sox down three games to one, I could very well be perfect in my picks.

Or, to steal a line from Yogi Berra: "It ain't over till it's over," and one or both L.A. and Boston could very well rally. But unlikely. I could see one team make it, but not both. (On a side note, in my my baseball novel "Replacement Pitcher", which comes out June 2009, I'd written--the manuscript was completed in August 2008--the Red Sox and Dodgers would square off in the Fall Classic... it's just not the matchup I want to see, though, in real life.)

So both L.A. and Boston could see their seasons potentially end in Game Five of their respective LCS. If I had to pick one of those two that would be most likely to pull off a miracle, I'd have to give the nod to the Red Sox. So nope, this article isn't meant to be an obituary. After all, the Red Sox have proven themselves with their 2004 and 2007 ALCS comebacks, and sure, you could argue, have gotten the Rays where they want them this year. Sorry to say though, for Dodgers fans, there's no way the Phillies will choke their 3-1 series lead. Not this year.

Last year, I told people I wasn't worried the Red Sox were down 3-1 against Cleveland, especially when Josh Beckett would pitch Game Five and then they'd go back home for the last two. Just as in 2004, after they beat the Yankees in Game Four, they had Pedro and Schilling going in the next two, and if they could pull it out, anything could happen in a seventh game.

Last year, I wasn't worried.

This year, I couldn't care less.

But nope. This year, wouldn't count the BoSox out. After all, they are the Kings of Comebacks. Yes, the 2004 ALCS when they overcame that 3-0 series deficit. Last year, when they blew out the Indians 30-5 in the final three games.

Indeed, the Red Sox have become the Kings of Comebacks in the last 20-plus years. Before 2004 though, no one really cared because they didn't have a World Series... while upstarts like the Mets (2), Blue Jays (2), Marlins (2), D-Backs (1), and Royals (1) had won it before. In Florida's case, TWO championships in its first 11 years of existence? Holy smokes. (That makes the Marlins' accomplishment much more impressive than the Braves' lone title in 14 consecutive trips to the postsesaon.)

Still, you couldn't deny the Red Sox and their propensity to come back when you least expected it. 1986, when they were rescued by Dave Henderson's homer while down to their last strike and trailing 3-1 in the ALCS against California. 1988, when they rode new manager Joe Morgan and a long winning streak at Fenway to win the division. 1991, when they trailed the Blue Jays by 11 1/2 games before being down just just a half-game with two weeks left in the season (before ultimately slumping at the end). 1993, when both Roger Clemens and Frank Viola were struggling, they rode the arms of Darwin and Aaron Seleto a first-place tie in July (but again ultimately fading). 1995, when they won the AL East over the Yankees, Orioles, and Blue Jays, all of whom were expected to be far superior. Yes, all those were great, but then the real comebacks began.

1999, down 0-2 to the mighty Indians in the Division Series, rallying to win three straight, including Game Five at Jacobs Field thanks to Pedro in relief and Troy O'Leary's home runs. 2003, down 0-2 to the Athletics in the ALDS (and having lost 10 straight to them in postseason play) before ultimately winning Game Five in Oakland.

Then 2004 and 2007. So, sure, perhaps another comeback is in the cards.

Even if they don't, that's fine. I think most Red Sox fans said before 2004, they'd want to see Boston win a World Series in their lifetimes. One. Fait accompli. But of course, people are naturally greedy. So I would guess they want that second one, and then a dynasty.

I'd much rather see a true underdog win this year than the new, second version of the Yankees.

Random Thoughts V

2008-10-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

So, I'm trailing House and Rick big time in the Sports Net Hockey Pool... but I'm on par in both LCS picks!!

I'd said on OA.com that the Phillies would win in five, and the Rays too in five. I do not want a Dodgers-Red Sox World Series... and after Monday's action (in which the Rays pounded the Sox 9-1 and the Phils rallied past the Dodgers 7-5) both series could finish 4-1!!!

(There's been a lot of negative feedback about Chip Caray and the TBS coverage of the ALCS... I can't remember who it was, whether it was Caray or Joe Buck way back in 1996, but I'm going to steal a line from whoever said this during that year's division series against the Braves... Let's "wave bye-bye to the Dodgers." HAHA!!)

By the way, Philadelphia's big four-run eighth was capped by (ex-Jay) Matt Stairs' two-run, game-winning, pinch homer. Welcome back to the spotlight, Stairs!

Speaking of ex-Jays... welcome back to the Majors.... (see link below)

Today (and this past week)'s KP Links:
Canucks' magic #: 10
Penguins outshot 49-15
Dodgers NLCS thoughts

Today's Random Links
New jerseys with retired players' names: Good or bad idea?
John Gibbons is back in the bigs!

New Facebook Group

2008-10-07T00:21:00.001-07:00

I created a new Facebook group today hoping to get people on my bandwagon. The group is called "Support a new Canadian author":

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=30542102735&ref=ts

KP Wee is a new Canadian author with his first novel, "Showing Their Scales", which is available on Amazon.ca. If you're Canadian or live in the Pacific Northwest, help support this local author by requesting your local library to pick up a copy so that his work may be available to the public!

**And when I say "request your library to pick up a copy", I mean you can do this online on your library's homepage. You just need to leave your name & library card number. It will take you just five minutes. You don't need to go there in person!

**KEY WORDS: "LOCAL" author, "CANADIAN" author

Well, libraries are always, I think, looking to support local talent and writers, so perhaps if many people request they carry "Showing Their Scales", then maybe they would!

So, show your support by contacting your library today!

Who cares...?

2008-10-05T00:17:00.001-07:00

Okay, I was wrong about Joe Torre. Wrong about the Cubs. You could argue that Lou Piniella should have gotten his Mariners past the Yankees in 2000 and definitely in 2001.

Torre's Yankees won both.

Now in 2008, there is no excuse for Piniella's Cubs losing. Torre's Dodgers would have been fifth in the NL Central with that mediocre record, for crying out loud...

Today's KP Links:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/65317-did-the-nhl-season-really-start-today

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/65306-joe-torres-october-magic-continues

Curse the Internet!

2008-10-04T17:01:00.001-07:00

Curses! The Internet is causing people to lose their jobs! Perhaps some occupations will become obsolete much like typewriters, encyclopedias, VCRs to an extent, and so on.

It's funny too, one of the companies I work for recently started using new software to help make our lives easier. The thing is, people will still be needed to interpret the data gathered by the software, so the staff will be safe... :-) Being the team leader, I had to personally reassure one of the staff not to worry. Haha!

Today's Random Links
They got fired... thanks to the Internet
More laptops - no surprise
A humbling experience to go through?

Go Cubs go!

2008-10-04T16:19:00.001-07:00

Rick and Trout mocked me for not understanding the difference between "like" and "cheer for" in terms of picking teams to win.

Cliff picked the Dodgers to oust the Cubs in four, and that prediction is looking pretty good right now, with L.A. up 2-0.

But I really don't want to see the Dodgers win, especially since they were a mediocre team during the season and because of the Joe Torre/Manny Ramirez/Nomar Garciaparra factor. They're all annoying. Hope to see the Cubs pull it out... Go Lou Piniella and the Cubbies!

I mean, you just don't forget how to win suddenly, right? The Cubs were the best in the NL the entire regular season, after all... (ahem, the 2008 L.A. Angels, the Ottawa Senators of recent years... cough cough...)

KP Wee Author Reading - Vancouver

2008-10-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

If there is enough interest, perhaps I will schedule a KP Wee author reading.

I believe CK and GG probably will be interested, but we'll see if anyone else is.

Should anybody who views this site would like to partake in this reading and is in the Vancouver area, feel free to shoot me an email at:

kpwee1@yahoo.com or crc.pan@gmail.com

Don't you want to know about "Chasing Rainbow Trout"?

Cheers!

Shame on the AL Central

2008-10-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

Some of my random thoughts on the White Sox-Twins rivalry... Interesting quote from Jim Thome--which I bashed.

Enjoy!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/63746-chicago-white-sox-minnesota-twins-random-thoughts

"Mission at the J."

2008-09-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

After putting it off for a couple weeks and re-writing and editing my manuscript, I've finally decided to submit my title "Mission at the J(essop)." It's a story not unlike "Fess Up, Jessup."

My goal for this is to have both stories put together in one book, since the two of them have strikingly similar titles (because I'd done that on purpose).

Time to keep my fingers crossed!

Why all the hate for Colesy?

2008-09-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

All that debate on OA.com recently by Rick, House, and myself, followed by Jared Smith's Bleacher Report article, has made me post this article.

The gist of it is I just can't understand why people insist on bashing a Canadian icon. A legend.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/61939-whats-with-all-the-hate-for-bob-cole

Hope no postseason for The Kid

2008-09-26T23:01:00.001-07:00

People are going to bash me for this but I'll say it anyway.

I don't want to see the White Sox make the postseason for the simple fact I don't like Ken Griffey Jr. At the time when they picked him up, they didn't really need him, and honestly, Griffey is washed up and yet is liked by the media. I say it's better they miss the playoffs.

(Don't remind me of the Ray Bourque-to-Colorado fiasco; I could go on and on about that silly deal.)

Glad to see the White Sox getting swept in Minnesota this week as the Twins have now moved past Chicago in the AL Central race.

Wow - the Red Sox lost 19-8 at Fenway tonight to the Yankees, and Boston's defeat meant Tampa Bay won the AL East. Yes, 19-8. The same score as Game Three of the 2004 ALCS...

Today's Random Sports Links:
Jared Smith's take on the Twins and White Sox
Thigpen 1st HR & Richmond 1st victory as Jays win
Denver + Oakland = Love!

Today's Random Links:
Canada's fertility rate
Grandpa told he's pregnant! LOL
Stop people from spying on your company e-mail!

Just for House: NYY praising

2008-09-26T00:02:00.000-07:00

More love for the Bombers, just for resident Zonker (and leader) House; enjoy!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/61655-celebrate-the-braves-and-yankees-success

What does failure mean?

2008-09-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

I received correspondence from one of the kids' magazines I'd submitted to, notifying me the 700-word story "Saving Trout" will not be published. (Trout was right!!)

I wasn't at all disappointed about it; after all, if I'm getting my manuscript "Replacement Pitcher" published by a book publisher, why would I fret about a short story not being accepted by a children's magazine?

But what constitutes a failure? Surely the fact the article didn't get accepted doesn't mean that.

I mean, think about it. I've had students before who have gotten perfect scores on one of my weekly tests, and yet at the end of the program hadn't done well enough to receive a diploma. Some have scored very low marks on tests but have gotten that piece of paper.

So, one bad performance doesn't mean anything. One good one doesn't either.

Virgil Trucks threw two 1-0 no-hitters in the same season once, but went 5-19 that year.

Ron Tugnutt once made 70 saves in a single game at Boston Garden, but was 17 games under .500 that year. For his career, the Tugger was 53 games on the negative side.

Brian Boucher made modern-day history with five straight shutouts but faded later in the year.

The Blue Jays' Chris Michalak started the 2001 season 3-0 with two victories against the powerful Yankees, but didn't even finish the season with Toronto.

I wouldn't call Trucks or Tugnutt's careers failures by any stretch of the imagination, despite some struggles along the way. Others made not see it that way. Whatever.

I'd say one could have his or her moment of glory, but it doesn't necessarily mean it would last. On the other hand, one failure doesn't mean that person is doomed for life.

Either way, doesn't matter. I have "Replacement Pitcher"; that's all I care about right now. :-)

Vindication!

2008-09-24T22:50:00.001-07:00

Trout will no doubt slam me for this, but I say it's vindication time.

Yesterday I came across a link in which the second anonymous poster shared some crummy experience with some well-known bookstores (see Random Thoughts IV).

To me, that story was a classic, only because it shows that someone out there counted his or her chickens before they were hatched.

Reading that just made my day, as last year, I was criticized by many on Bleacher Report because I wrote negative things about people's favourite (and generally overrated/overpaid) athletes or teams. People called me names, wrote offensive comments, and generally called me a failure and a loser/wannabe, and whatever derogatory things you could imagine.

I could look up those articles again and post those dumb comments on here, but I couldn't be bothered to do that.

In the end, I'm not any of those things that I was labelled. I've now, with "Replacement Pitcher", had several books published. How can that be a failure?

You could call the second anon poster one, but certainly not me. :-) It cracks me up every single time I think about that person's plight. I certainly feel vindicated. I purposely chose a small publisher--because I want to get published. Others will feel those big, traditional ones are the true big leagues, in which case, I'll point to that aforementioned link again. HAHA!

I mean, I've come across many many negative people throughout my life, and all I can say is, whatever. I could care less what they think. You don't pay my bills, I don't care what you think.

So, this upcoming NHL season and the current NFL campaign, if I want to write any bashing articles on overpaid athletes, I really could care less about negative feedback from any reader.

The only regret I have? I was not able to find a photo of Dennis Eckersley and his finger-pointing/fist-pumping gestures, and had to settle for the Nelson "HAHA" picture above.

Vindication!

Random (Baseball & Book) Thoughts IV

2008-09-23T22:34:00.000-07:00

A bad night in baseball...

-Cliff Lee lost, dropping his record to 22-3 as the Indians fell to Boston 5-4, clinching the Red Sox's second straight postseason berth. (Had Lee not lost another ballgame, he would have surpassed Greg Maddux's record for highest winning percentage. Maddux was 19-2 in 1995--for a .905 WPct.)

-The Yankees, who were eliminated thanks to the Red Sox's win, gave Mike Mussina his 19th win of the season. The Moose still has a shot at No. 20... this weekend in Boston.

-The Dodgers won again, 10-1 against San Diego, while Arizona lost to the Cardinals (haha - odd saying that if you're an NFL fan). L.A. is almost guaranteed to win the NL West.

Anyway, just googling tonight for bookstore info, and, HAHA! it looks like I'm not that bad when it comes to my books. Even though I'm not with a big, traditional book publisher, I'm not in that bad of a situation. Read the first link below, in the random links section. HAHA! :-) And actually, a bigger HAHA in the second link too, with one of the posters in the comments section. :-) Some people actually set themselves up for big disappointments!

(And to be honest, and I've said this from day one, when it comes to publishing books, I'm like a home run hitter like Bonds or Ramirez. I want to see--read: admire--my name in print. That's more important than anything else. Just like how those sluggers want to just stand at home plate and admire their moon shots with a big smile on their faces and not run out of the box. That's me when it comes to seeing my name.)

Today's Random Links
It doesn't always pay to publish with traditional companies! :-)
Where's my book? :-)

Today was certainly a good day too. I did get that Costco membership card, bring my class to the warehouse store, and got no hassles (unlike at Superstore two months ago, an experience which I'd posted about before but now too lazy to look it up and link it here). Go Costco!!

Update: "Replacement Pitcher" accepted for publication!

2008-09-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

Hooray! "The Replacement Pitcher" has been accepted by Cacoethes Publishing House for publication, scheduled to be released June 2009.

That's a long ways away, but nonetheless, a day of celebration to be sure! Not as big as Sunday night's celebration for the closing of Yankee Stadium, but a great personal achievement for yours truly.

Celebrate!

Today's Random Link:

Blue Jays: The Little Things Do Matter

Thoughts on Al Leiter?

2008-09-21T23:00:00.001-07:00

Well, all this talk of Mike Mussina and 1993, and seeing "Deja Blue" on ESPN Classic (Canada) this weekend (the network re-aired the '93 Fall Classic again), I can't help but talk about Al Leiter again.

Leiter won Game One in relief, a game in which Curt Schilling couldn't hold on to three leads the Phillies had given him.

But I'm curious as to how House, Rick, Cliff, and the Trouts think about Leiter.

After all, the Blue Jays carried him for years while he was battling his blister problems. The lefty earned two World Series rings. And when he became a free agent at the conclusion of the 1995 season, Leiter bolted for the Florida Marlins.

Yes, so did Devon White.

Yes, losing Robbie Alomar to division rival Baltimore was bad, too.

Leiter's case, however, was different.

There was no hard feelings in White's signing with Florida (he wanted to be closer to his father, who lived in Jamaica, and Miami would be a shorter trip), while Alomar left the Blue Jays on bad terms and was unhappy during the latter half of the '95 season.

With the relatively young Leiter (who was finally coming off a good season), the Jays were looking to rebuild, and looked at the lefty as the key in their rotation. They felt Leiter owed them, for not giving up on him throughout his injuries.

Leiter, however, had other ideas, and left.

There was certainly a lot of bitterness from the Blue Jays. Paul Beeston, President and CEO of the Jays, wanted Leiter to lose every game in a Marlins uniform.

Leiter did win another World Series ring with the '97 Marlins, and pitched in the postseason for the Mets in 1999 and 2000.

Leiter, however, would never win a postseason start in his career, and wouldn't win a game in playoff action again (aside from his aforementioned '93 relief win) until his final appearance, in the 2005 ALDS vs. the Angels while a member of the New York Yankees.

So, House, Rick, Cliff, and the others: how does Al Leiter rank in your books? Traitor? Winner? Legend? Please comment.

Stop the Moose

2008-09-21T22:39:00.001-07:00

The Blue Jays were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention thanks to Sunday's 3-0 loss to Boston.

(How about that Scott Richmond, now 0-3 in four starts, with the Jays losing all of them?)

Now, the attention turns to stopping Mike Mussina from getting 20 wins. The Moose has 18 so far, and will look for No. 19 on Tuesday at Rogers Centre.

If you remember what happened in the 1993 All-Star Game in Baltimore and how Cito Gaston was booed, you'd probably not want to see Mussina get his first ever 20-win campaign.

More Pictures for Rick... (re the baseball post for today)

2008-09-18T00:17:00.000-07:00

More pics for Rick! These are pictures for the "history" post from earlier today...

What History?

2008-09-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, the Yankees are not going to the playoffs, and they still want to make news this week.

Even resident Zonker John House :-) is on the bandwagon, appearing at Yankee Stadium this past week to soak in on the "final homestand ever" at the House that Ruth Built.

The Yankees celebrated Derek Jeter breaking Lou Gehrig's all-time record for career hits in that very ballpark. Mariano Rivera moved into second place on baseball's all-time saves list, surpassing (ex-Yankee, albeit it for just a month in 1993) Lee Smith. Even A-Rod joined in Wednesday, becoming the first ever with 35 HRs and 100 RBIs in 12 seasons, surpassing the Babe himself. (And that "historic" home run was another meaningless blast, a solo shot in the 8th with New York up 4-1.)

Never mind the Yankees' "historic" week.

Here's some real history, courtesy Nationalpastime.com.

September 16th:

-Joe DiMaggio hits home run No. 300 in 1948, becoming only the eighth player ever to achieve the mark.

-The 30-30 club (30 HRs, 30 SBs) has a new member in Cleveland's Joe Carter, the ninth player to do so, in 1987.

-In 1988, Tom Browning of the Cincinnati Reds pitches a perfect game against the Dodgers, winning 1-0. (The Dodgers still won the NL West. Ironically, they were victims of Dennis Martinez's perfecto in 1991 but lost the West in the final week of the season.)

-A pair of Twins, Dave Winfield (1993) and Paul Molitor (1996), join the 3,000-hit club. Molitor is the first ever to get No. 3,000 on a triple.

-Curt Schilling joins the 300-K club, twice, doing so in 1997 and again in 2002.

September 17th:

-Casey Stengel (1912), Stan "The Man" Musial (1941), and Ernie Banks (1953) make their ML debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cardinals, and Cubs, respectively. Stengel gets four hits, drives home two runs, and steals two bases. Musial collects two safeties with two runs batted in. Banks goes hitless in three at-bats.

-In 1983, Johnny Bench hit a two-run home run on Johnny Bench Night at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Alas, the Reds lose 4-3 to Houston.

-In 1996, Hideo Nomo does the unthinkable, tossing a no-no at Coors Field, as the Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-0.

-In 2004, Barry Bonds hits home run No. 700 off the Padres' Jake Peavy.

September 18th:

-In 1960, Milwaukee Braves pitcher Lew Burdette (the MVP of the 1957 World Series) no-hits the Philadelphia Phillies, winning 1-0. It is one of the 203 lifetime wins he picks up over his 18-year big-league career.

-In 1963, the final game ever is played in the Polo Grounds, which is best known for being the home of the New York Giants (1911-57) but is the Mets' home ballpark during their first two ML seasons (1962-63). The Polo Grounds is also the site of the most famous catch in World Series history, "The Catch" made by Willie Mays in the 1954 Classic.

-In 1976, Cleveland Indians skipper Frank Robinson hits a pinch-single versus one of his ex-teams, the Baltimore Orioles, in his final ML at-bat.

-In 1999, Sammy Sosa becomes the first man in ML history to slug 60 dingers twice, doing so in back-to-back seasons.

Now, all that is history!

Pictures for Rick... (re the baseball post for today)

2008-09-17T00:34:00.001-07:00

Pictures... for Rick!

House Bashing II: Person, Woody, Rocket, Morris, Candy...

2008-09-17T00:28:00.000-07:00

Robert Person made his ML debut September 18, 1995, for the woeful New York Mets.

A year later (December 20, 1996), he was traded to the Blue Jays for John Olerud, whom Toronto thought was on the decline.

Person made three straight solid starts in the opening month of the 1997 season, but was just 0-1 with a 2.25 ERA in 20 innings. He had 15 K's and allowed just 5 walks.

By the end of the year, Person was 5-10 in 22 starts with a 5.61 ERA.

Teammate Woody Williams went 9-14 with a 4.35 ERA in 31 starts, his first ML season as a full-time starter (after spending his first few years pitching out of the pen).

Roger Clemens, in his first season with the Blue Jays, went 21-7 wioth a 2.05 ERA, capturing the Cy Young over Seattle's Randy Johnson (20-4, 2.28). (Oddly, Clemens didn't win the award unanimously despite achieving the pitching "Triple Crown", as Johnson and future teammate Randy Myers got three of those votes.)

The reason I'm bringing this up is I remember seeing a Globe & Mail article (I used to read that paper every day because its baseball coverage was great) in which Person was suggesting the Jays were scoring more runs when Clemens was pitching. Thus, Person and Williams had losing records while the Rocket was unbeatable. Williams brushed it off and said he didn't pay attention to such things.

Person's point was perhaps the batters felt more pumped up to see the Rocket on the mound, and added he himself would be too, were he a hitter.

Maybe resident Zonker John House subscribes to Person's theory.

Haha! Perhaps House thinks a pitcher like Clemens would make guys like Joe Carter and Ed Sprague get more hits and bash more home runs. (Better than PEDs!!)

The reason I bring up House is the fact he thinks Jack Morris ('92-93) was great, and Tom Candiotti ('91) was brutal.

Consider these stats from the ALCS:
(GS= games started)
Pitcher A: 2 GS, 7 2/3 IP, 17 H, 7 ER, 2 BB, 5 K's, 8.22 ERA
Pitcher B: 2 GS, 12 1/3 IP, 11 H, 9 ER, 9 BB, 6 K's, 6.57 ERA

So, both pitchers sucked. You can make a case that Pitcher B was marginally better, but not by much, other than eating a few more innings.

Yes, A is Candiotti, and B is Morris, in the 1991 and '92 ALCS, respectively.

The big difference is the Jays lost the ALCS with Candiotti being the Game One starter one year, and won the ALCS with Morris holding that role the year after.

Or how about this?

1992
Pitcher X: 34 GS, 240 2/3 IP, 222 H, 18 HR, 80 BB, 132 K's, 4.04 ERA
Pitcher Y: 30 GS, 203 2/3 IP, 177 H, 13 HR, 63 BB, 152 K's, 3.00 ERA

Of course, X was Morris, who went 21-6 with the Blue Jays. Y was Candiotti, who was just 11-15 with the NL's worst team, the Dodgers. (Imagine a knuckleball pitcher getting more K's, and more K's per 9 innings, than Morris!!)

Pitcher Z: 34 GS, 238 IP, 202 H, 12 HR, 73 BB, 167 K's, 2.65 ERA

Pitcher Z was Candiotti's 1991 regular season, which he split between Toronto and Cleveland. Very comparable to Morris' '92 campaign with the Blue Birds (other than the ERA, where Candiotti owned him!!). But Candiotti was 13-13 with those numbers, 6-7 with the Jays.

Supposedly Morris made Robbie Alomar, Carter, Pat Borders, et al. get more clutch hits and homers. Candiotti? Makes everyone go in a slump.

Consider how the Jays batters fared in the AL playoffs each year.

1991 ALCS (vs. Minnesota): Blue Jays hit 1 HR, batted .249, scored 19 runs in 5 games, and won just once.
1992 ALCS (vs. Oakland): Blue Jays hit 10 HR, batted .281, scored 31 runs in 6 games.

Toronto won games 7-5, 7-6, and 9-2 against the A's, while never scored more than 5 in any single game versus the Twins a year earlier.

Hmm. Hard to argue that the Twins' pitching was that much better than the A's. Minnesota had Morris (gasp!), Kevin Tapani, Scott Erickson, closer Rick Aguilera, and a bunch of no-name relievers. Oakland had Dave Stewart (future Jay), Mike Moore, Ron Darling (who almost no-hit Toronto at SkyDome earlier in '92, a game in which Cliff attended!), Bob Welch, Jeff Russell, and AL MVP and Cy Young winner Dennis Eckersley.

(Well, as it turned out, Moore, Darling, Russell, and Eck were ineffective in the series. When all of them struggled, the A's just didn't have a chance.)

Anyway, Carter was the only Jay to homer in 1991. In the '92 ALCS, Alomar, Dave Winfield, and Candy Maldonado each hit 2, while Carter, Olerud, Kelly Gruber, and Borders each hit 1.

Other than newcomer Winfield, each of those Blue Jays had played in the 1991 ALCS.

Winfield was clearly a big addition, as he drove in 100 runs during the regular season as the full-time DH, taking over from the ineffective trio of Mookie Wilson (whom I think Cliff doesn't like), Pat Tabler (who's a career .300 hitter with the bases loaded but not a legit DH), and Rance Mulliniks.

Still, getting to my original question: did Jack Morris make guys like Gruber, Maldonado, Borders, Olerud, et al. get more of those clutch hits?

I wonder what House has to say about that.

After all, his contention is that Morris was gold. Candiotti a bum.

And I don't even want to mention '93... Morris 7-12, 6.19. Candiotti 8-10, 3.12.

Serves the Candy Man right, perhaps. For signing with the Dodgers. And not the Jays. Or even the Bronx Bombers.

On a different topic now, the Yankees wanted to sign Candiotti after the '91 season. He declined. (Greg Maddux and Barry Bonds turned down the Yanks after the '92 season too...)

Jimmy Key, who played with both Candiotti and Morris, wisely signed with the Yankees after '92 (New York's consolation prize after Maddux and Bonds got away), and became a LEGEND in pinstripes, being hailed as a World Series hero (1996) and being a perennial Cy Young contender (18-6 in 1993, 17-4 in 1994).

Well, too bad to Candiotti and Bonds for never winning a World Series. Maddux for winning just one (and losing to the Yanks in 1996 and 1999--ha!!).

They all shouldn't have snubbed New York.

(There, House. I snickered at Bonds. Happy now?)

BJs: Trip down memory lane

2008-09-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

ESPN Classic (Canada) re-aired "Where were you in '92?" this past weekend, showing back-to-back-to-back-to-back broadcasts of the 1992 World Series between the Blue Jays and Braves.

This coming weekend, the network will replay "De ja Blue", showing the 1993 Fall Classic featuring the Jays and Phillies.

Now, ESPN Classic (Canada) has shown every postseason game involving the Jays in 1993, but only the World Series in 1992.

What happened to the A's-Jays ALCS in Toronto's first championship season?

Last year, I'd corresponded with someone at the network about the possibility of airing the Oakland-Toronto championship series. The reply I received stated that they were looking into getting those games and might air them later in the year.

Unfortunately, the network still hasn't shown any of the 1992 ALCS games to date.

I still say the A's should have beaten the Blue Jays in that series.

Oakland was up 6-1 in Game Four and on the verge of tying the series, with ace Dave Stewart, who'd never lost in LCS play, scheduled to start Game Five. Yet AL MVP Dennis Eckersley couldn't protect a 6-2 lead upon entering the 8th inning, giving up a couple of RBI-hits to make the score 6-4, before Roberto Alomar ultimately tied things up in the 9th.

Still, a great run by the Toronto team that found ways to rally against league MVPs (Eckersley), all-time saves leaders (Jeff Reardon in the '92 WS), and mediocre closers (Mitch Wild Thing Williams, twice, in '93 WS), and beat up on Cy Young Award winners (Jack McDowell, twice, in '93 ALCS) and future postseason heroes (Curt Schilling, Game One, '93 WS).

Had Eck shut the door in Game Four though, the run would never have happened... The Athletics had Henderson, McGwire, Stewart, Eckersley, Baines, and even added Sierra and Russell late in the year. Tony LaRussa was supposed to be a genius, while Cito Gaston not.

Too bad.

Of course, resident friend John House would undoubtedly say if Candiotti had pitched well in 1991, the Jays might well have won 3 WS in a row.

But I say if Timlin wasn't brought in to pitch the 10th inning in Game Three, he wouldn't have given up the back-breaking home run to the Twins. Where was Duane Ward in that situation? Why wasn't Ward brought in?

Why didn't Pat Borders hit homers and drive in runs against the Twins the way he would in his WS MVP performance the following fall vs. the Braves?

Why didn't Borders tag Shane Mack with the ball on a critical play in Game Five with Toronto up 5-2? That was the play where Kelly Gruber threw home to try and cut down Mack, but Borders tagged him with his EMPTY bare hand!! (Mack scored on the play and the next batter hit a double to drive home two more runs and tie the score.)

Why didn't Joe Carter homer off David West in the 7th inning of a tie game with Alomar on first base? Why did West pitch so effectively against Toronto? (The Jays would batter West, later a Phillie, in the '93 WS.) Why didn't Alomar steal second and third (like how he swiped third vs. the Angels in the division-clinching game) a la Henderson and Lofton?

(The Jays left Alomar stranded on first base, despite Robbie getting on base to lead off that inning. Alas, Greg Gagne got on base to lead off the next half-inning off Ward, and the Twins tallied three runs to win the ballgame, 8-5.)

Why did Toronto hit ONE homer--that by Carter--in the entire series (unlike the '92 and '93 postseasons)?

Why did Toronto let Minnesota win THREE games at SkyDome to clinch the series? (First time in LCS history that the feat was achieved.) Why didn't the Jays score an earned run against the Twins bullpen? (First time in LCS history it happened.)

Why did all those bloopers off Candiotti drop in for hits? Why didn't White or Maldonado dive or make sliding catches on those bloop hits (the way Dave Winfield did in Atlanta in Game Six of the '92 WS off Ron Gant)?

I wonder what House has to say to all that.

What I can say is the Candiotti thing just depends on who's scoring at home. In their books, Stephen Brunt and former politician Larry Grossman both slammed Candiotti. The CBS announcers though, praised Candiotti for coming through with a clutch performance, as he handed the ball to the bullpen with a three-run lead upon departing in the finale.

(Haha - I do remember reading a Toronto article in the aftermath, where Candiotti himself was quoted as saying he "redeemed" himself in Game Five! LOL)

I mean, we can all sit here all day and say "what-if" a hundred times, but I suppose the facts are, the Jays won back-to-back titles. Boo.

Transit complaints

2008-09-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

(above picture courtsey Wikipedia)

Haha! Someone wrote in to the local paper and ripped the local transit system... Here I quote an extract from the writer:

...try riding the sardine-packed morning SkyTrain. Or perhaps minor items like buses which never show up... drivers who act like they got their licence from a Cracker Jack box [ie. there are drivers who do the following:] slamming brakes, snarling replies to questions, talking on cellphones, showing complete indifference when you ask why a previous bus never shows up... Top marks [for our transit system]? I'd hate to see a badly run urban transit system!

What I'd heard from an acquaintance recently too, is that Translink has decided to send their SkyTrain cops to busy Broadway Station to make sure people line up when boarding the train, check on fares, and basically to ensure no chaos during the morning commute. This supposedly happened last Monday, as the fall/school season has started.

Good on them, for finally doing something like this! Translink has never really checked fares during the rush hour, and I'll bet perhaps more than 15% of the commuters don't bother buying a ticket to get on. And people just push each other when attempting to get aboard as well. Well, hope this cop system continues for a while.

I'd asked my acquaintance to report back on Tuesday to let me know how it went... but alas, she said one of the coppers had a few words with her (haha! she got yelled at! * yes, I laughed in her face too!) on Monday and ended up more than 20 minutes late for work, so she decided to take a different route the rest of the week. Boo!

Boo hoo Seattle!

2008-09-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

To say it's been a dreadful sports year in Seattle is a big understatement.

The NBA Sonics are no longer in town, having relocated to Oklahoma City. And oh, the Sonics didn't exactly have a banner final season in the Emerald City, going a woeful 20-62, the worst record in the entire Western Conference.

Okay. The Sonics are gone, so there's no point in talking about them. But what about the Mariners? After all, this was a team expected to challenge the L.A. Angels for supremacy in the AL West.

Things, however, hasn't worked out.

The Mariners, the worst team in the American League this season--by far, are still on pace to become the first team ever to lose 100 games despite having a $100-million-plus payroll. Getting swept in Anaheim in a four-game series over the weekend certainly didn't help Seattle (57-91) in its attempt to avoid the century-mark in losses.

Well, at least there's still the Seahawks, right? After all, the 'Hawks have won four straight NFC West titles, and given the mediocrity of the entire division, look to make it five in a row.

Okay, a Week One rout in Buffalo was a write-off. In Week Two, the Seahawks would be playing the San Francisco 49ers at Quest Field, where Seattle has gone a remarkable 18-4 in divisional games.

The 'Hawks, however, turned the ball over three times, blew 14-0 and 30-27 leads, ultimately losing in overtime to the 'Niners, in their home opener.

Ouch. 0-2 for the 'Hawks.

Thankfully, Seattle gets to play the pathetic St. Louis Rams, a team that has yet to enter the red zone in eight quarters this season, at Quest Field this coming Sunday.

So, Kevin Cacabelos, Mosang Miles, and other Seattle fans on Bleacher, what should the Mariners do this off-season to at least get back to respectability in 2009? Is it too early to panic about the Seahawks after just two games? What should the 'Hawks do to get on the winning track?

Would love to hear you guys' two cents on these...

Warner Rules!

2008-09-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

I found it amusing that a fan wrote online that we really shouldn't be too excited about Kurt Warner's 3-TD performance yesterday, because it came against the Miami Dolphins, a team that went 1-15 last year.

Really? Seriously?

Geez... Brett Favre didn't throw 3 TDs in Week One vs. the same Dolphins (granted, Favre's Jets played in Miami last week, while the Fish played in Arizona yesterday, but still...)

I say vindication; I wrote this last January, and I will repost it here for my own enjoyment. Haha!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/8062-kurt-warner-mr-underappreciated

And I'm loving the fact that despite all the comebacks in Week Two, not one of them involved Favre and the Jets! Hahah!

I've even included a photo of Favre getting sacked in the New England game! (from Bleacher Report)

Today's Link:

Kurt Warner: Under-appreciated! (I wrote this eight months ago)

Great action Sunday...

2008-09-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

I love it every time the experts get it wrong.

Sunday, the New England Patriots were supposed to be dead in New York facing Brett Favre and the Jets. After all, reigning MVP Tom Brady was gone for the season. The Pats had no running game, the media (such as ESPN) would have you believe, and backup Matt Cassel hadn't started a game since high school. Blah blah blah.

And yet, it was the Pats who came up with a 19-10 victory at the Meadowlands.

Injured Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who ripped New York fans earlier this week, basically guaranteed the Pats would beat the Jets. And Schilling proved to be right: New England head coach Bill Belichick does know what he's doing in handing Cassel the starting job.

An article on FOX Sports which tried to discredit Schilling's comments stated the New York Mets are in fact, in first place, even if the Yankees, in the pitcher's words, "suck this year."

Well, as you saw this weekend, the Mets couldn't even close out a pair of late-inning leads against the Atlanta Braves.

And no, these are not the 1999 Braves. These Braves are not that good.

Perhaps sadly though, the Mets' bullpen are that bad.

Much has been made this season that the Mets' relievers have a tendency to implode, and it happened for the 26th and 27th times (or however many it is) this weekend.

Saturday, in a doubleheader opener, Johan Santana departed in the eighth with a 2-0 lead after allowing back-to-back singles to begin the frame. The Braves put together a three-spot, and New York fell, 3-2.

Sunday, the Mets had a 4-2 lead entering the ninth and handed the ball over to Luis Ayala. Greg Norton(!), however, hit a three-run, pinch-homer, and the Mets gave up two more in the inning, ultimately falling 7-4.

Ouch. What could have been a sweep ended up being a series loss. Disheartening, especially when starters Santana (well, he didn't exactly dominate but still...) and Oliver Perez pitched well enough to win.

Meanwhile, for those bashing Green Bay Packers management and Aaron Rodgers, they're doing just fine, thank you.

The Pack, led by Rodgers' three first-half TD passes, jumped out in front 21-0, only to see the Detroit Lions stunt Green Bay with the go-ahead score with under 8 minutes left.

Down 25-24, the Packers rallied for 24 unanswered points for a 48-25 win for a 2-0 start.

More Random Thoughts: Love, Jays, etc...

2008-09-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, I was giving my class examples of "win-lose negotiations", and tried using students' names in my illustrations. I started by saying "Blah" and "Blah-blah" are married, and... Right when I said that, everyone started laughing. Reason? "Blah-blah" and "Mwah", who are both in the class, have been a couple for six years, something I didn't know. Thus, the class was laughing at "Mwah", who probably felt weird hearing his girlfriend, "Blah-blah", was married to someone else in my little example. Oops.

Last night, I had drinks with two female acquaintances, who talked about past relationships. I just don't get it. Why do men, who are already married, try to pick women up? They would say they're "taking a break from (their) relationship", but act as though they're not married. And this has happened to both of these women, on multiple times. Yikes. I ask, why? Why do men do that? Fun times, hearing their wild, entertaining stories. However, I've already promised not to use these tales in any upcoming books...

What happens early on doesn't necessarily tell you how things will end.

For example, look at the doubleheader between the Blue Jays and Red Sox at Fenway:

Game One
In the 4th inning, the Blue Jays had two runners (Vernon Wells on a blooper to left, Adam Lind on his own drive off the Green Monster) thrown out at third base within moments of each other. Toronto scored just a run to go up 2-0, even though it could have had more.

Jays won, 8-1.

Game Two
The Jays scored five runs to take a 5-2 lead in the second inning.

Red Sox rallied and won, 7-5.

Today's Random Links:
"Love in marriage can never die..."
Can passion every night improve a marriage?
Roy will finally have number retired
Wild one in Edmonton as Eskies rally past Ti-Cats
Landline vs. Cell Phone?

Today's KP Links:
KP's Recap for Blue Jays-Red Sox, on Bleacher
Same as above, on MVN

More Random Thoughts...

2008-09-12T00:20:00.001-07:00

I don't like Patrick Roy, but there's one thing about him that's similar to me: When I get challenged, I'm at my best.

Just like when Steve was co-teaching Business with me, I was motivated to be as great or better than him.

So, when Rick started bashing me for not posting, I've taken it upon myself to do so on a regular basis--even if it's crap (that's subjective, though).

Thus, here's yet another post.

I've talked to my editor at the publisher. She's been very supportive and says she'll surely mention "Replacement Pitcher" at their editorial meetings, which has neither been accepted or rejected as of today. However, if it were accepted, the earliest it could be released would be next April, as they're booked up through March for releases.

In the meantime, life goes on, and I've done with "Fess up Jessup" and will likely submit it soon, seeing future titles might get pushed further back.

Tonight, I've been thinking about why I've been on Overanything.com. I just clicked on a logo one day last year and got onto OA by accident. It's just a simple site run by the aforementioned Rick, and there's a lot of discussion and in-jokes on there that I enjoy going on there. And I've been on there regularly. Guys like House and Cliff and Rick, and Trout, BBJ, and others, are all very funny and entertaining. Glad to get the chance to rap with these guys.

Today's (well, yesterday's) Sports Links:
*Curt Schilling trashes New Yorkers (yes, I know this came at the heels of the Brady injury, but odd about the timing since it came a couple days before 9/11--in fact, didn't Brady make his debut that week in 2001?)
*Same topic, on FOXSports
*Sully Baseball's take on whether or not WS-winning managers should make the HoF

What if the Jays...

2008-09-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

Someone wrote in with the subject line If Jays finish 17- 2 they make the playoffs 9 out of 10 times. The writer provided me with this link here (which is updated daily) stating the Blue Jays' case.

In any case, Toronto lost, and the 10-game streak is over. Boston also lost, despite loading the bases with none out in the last of the 14th in a game that lasted just over five hours.

The Jays are faced with the same scenario as the 2007 Phillies: now 7 games out with 17 left.

Today's Random Links:
Credit Card Tips
Top Young Entrepreneurs
Teacher Runs into Bear!

Speaking of teachers, yup - once again there was this bullcrap moment in the staff room. I stepped in there to use the computer for five minutes, and there was Catherine in her "I'm-more-superior-than-Asians" rant, and she and Claxton then were criticizing a Korean for not knowing how to pronounce "Jorge." I was there for only five minutes and those people were talking that kind of nonsense. Wonder how much of that crap actually gets said when I'm not around.

No Charles, no House, no NY-Bashing...

2008-09-10T00:02:00.001-07:00

Sorry to disappoint you, Rick.

There's been no sign of Charles in the last 24 hours. I think he'll show up only if I start bashing A-Rod, and maybe even the Yankees.

But, as you know, both you (ie. Rick) and House have banned me from the New York-bashing. Thus, I had to resort to praising the Bombers just to please House. (See one of Tuesday's posts.)

Today's KP links:
I say Blue Jays have no chance on Bleacher
I say BJs have no chance on MVN

Bell cares about the environment? Give me a break!

2008-09-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

Not sure how many of you readers out there are Bell customers, but I was just going through my bills and found this idiotic comment on the back of the telecommunications company envelope.

Trying to explain why it still had the old Bell logo, it read:
" 'Hey, didn't Bell change its logo?' You're right, we did. But since part of making today better means not wasting paper, we're using up the old stationery first. (Help save even more trees: sign up for paperless billing at bell.ca/mybell) "

That's laughable. Hogwash. Are you kidding me? The reason I say this? Just as I suspected, in the envelope with my statement, was a junk newsletter--which I have no issue with even though I never read that stuff; companies want to advertise their products; fine, no prob. However, also included in the envelope was a return envelope.

Now, I've been a customer for years, and I've never used the return envelope since I've always paid by telephone or online banking. Yet every single month, I receive this return envelope without fail. Why Bell does not keep track of how customers pay bills is beyond me. Why keep sending me these envelopes when my past history shows I've never had to use one?

In fact, why not be the leader of the pack by not sending this stuff to customers, period? Granted, there are still many who prefer snail mail, but in this day and age, if those people still want to do that, make them sign up for paper billing. After all, since they are in a way not helping to "save even more trees", make it inconvenient for them. Just assume everyone will go the paperless route instead, and don't send it anymore! Isn't that going to encourage more people not to use paper?

Geez--even Bell can't get it right. Whenever you hear companies say they care about the environment and stuff, I just say 'hogwash.'

Today's random links:
Soccer team offers cemetery to devotees!
Despite Cliff Lee's 21-2 record, Cleveland's still cursed

This one's for House!

2008-09-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well, House has requested I write something positive about the Yankees. I don't normally take requests, but this time I will. This site is called "KP's HOUSE", after all.

So, New York lost 12-1 to the LA Angels last night, but there were some positives.
* Carl Pavano pitched into the 6th, and at least kept things close for a while
* Pudge Rodriguez showed a lot of fight and emotion in being involved in a scuffle with good friend Torii Hunter -- it meant he cared (and on a side note, Hunter did NOT score despite stealing both second and third off I-Rod)

Though the Angels are great, there won't be another 11-run defeat for the Bombers.
*****
On another note, Rick owned me in last spring's playoff pool, and beat me in the new BBP last night. Hey, at least I'm #2!

And when I last checked, #83,000-something in Amazon.ca's sales ranking... not bad for a hobby!

Charles Strikes Again!

2008-09-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

Holy cow. Charles just wrote a long passage criticizing me on grammar, and ripped me about my A-Rod comments. I have no comeback to his rants on grammar. None at all. I'm having a headache just looking at it.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/54119-a-rod-continues-homer-binge-in-meaningless-situations
by charles
Uh, yeah, I haven't a doubt you teach grammar DO. I know the "rules" and was actually poking fun at myself for offering corrections in my initial post, by citing a more traditionally correct yet less often employed grammatical construction.
Below is what some "expert" wrote:
Than I versus Than Me.
Than, as used in comparatives, has traditionally been considered a conjunction; as such, if you're comparing subjects, the pronouns after than should take the "subjective case." In other words, "He's taller than I," not "He's taller than me"; "She's smarter than he," not "She's smarter than him." If, on the other hand, you're comparing direct or indirect objects, the pronouns should be objective: "I've never worked with a more difficult client than him."
There are some advantages to this traditional state of affairs. If you observe this distinction, you can be more precise in some comparisons. Consider these two sentences:
* He has more friends than I. (His total number of friends is higher than my total number of friends.) * He has more friends than me. (I'm not his only friend; he has others.)
The problem, though, is that in all but the most formal contexts, "than I" sounds stuffy, even unidiomatic. Most people, in most contexts, treat than as a preposition, and put all following pronouns in the objective case, whether the things being compared are subjects or objects. "He's taller than me" sounds more natural to most native English speakers.
This isn't a recent development: people have been treating than as a preposition for centuries. Consider the following from big-name English and American writers:
* Matthew Prior, Better Answer: "For thou art a girl as much brighter than her,/ As he was a poet sublimer than me." * Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, 1.10.58, "I am fitter for this world than you, you for the next than me." * Lord Byron's letter of 2 November 1804, "Lord Delawarr is considerably younger than me." * Robert Southey, Well of St. Keyne, 51: "She had been wiser than me,/ For she took a bottle to Church." * William Faulkner's Reivers, 4.82: "Let Lucius get out . . . He's younger than me and stouter too for his size."
So what should you do? I don't have a good answer, other than the most general advice possible: try to size up your audience, and figure out whether they're likely to be happier with the traditional or the familiar usage. [Entry added 3 Jan. 2005.]

Today's KP links:
Tim Wakefield's career
A-Rod 0 for 10 (with bashing from "Charles")

A-Rod 0-for-10 in Seattle...

2008-09-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

Alright! Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees has juuuuust grounded out to end the top of the 8th inning at Safeco Field, and with New York down 4-2 to the Mariners, A-Rod might not get another AB the rest of the game.

A-Rod is now 0-for-10 in the three-game series in Seattle. Nice!

Hitless in Seattle.... and if the Mariners do hang on (stopper J.J. Putz will be sent out to close things out in the 9th), the Yanks will have dropped two of three versus the last-place M's!

Check that - Seattle second baseman Jose Lopez just homered for the second time in the game, and New York is now down 5-2.

Another bonus is Mike Mussina won't be getting his 18th win today. Beautiful!

I wonder what "Charles" will have to say now... (See post below)

Today's random thoughts

2008-09-07T11:00:00.001-07:00

I've just realized I've been quite the hypocrite on blogspot here.

A few days ago, I was ranting about how TSN2's lineup was weak, and thought both TSN and TSN2 could probably show the same events, programming, whatever.

But that's exactly what I was doing here, on this blog and on my "author blog." There were times I've posted the same material on both. Shame on me.

I'm not going to say "Tomorrow I'll be Perfect" a la Dave Stieb, but I'll "try."

Speaking of book titles, "Fess up, Jessup" is coming along very well. I'm up to 18,000 words, and it's almost finished. However, I am going to try and add a few more scenes and run up the word count. Reason? I want "Fess up, Jessup" to be a print book on its own rather than just an e-book, and it'll need to be longer than that. (See "Sweet Voice of Innocence", "False Ex-Pectations", and "Rainbow Trout", which were all just e-books.)

In regards to the A-Rod link below... you know, I appreciated "Charles'" feedback the first time, but if this dude is just picking on every word I'm saying, I'm not going to be kind in my responses. Not when it appears he's trying to be a smart-ass.

Today's KP links:
Marcum's gem vs. Rays
Tim Lincecum vs. Brandon Webb
A-Rod's "meaningless" jacks (with a reader correcting me on my grammar!)
Blue Jays win 9-0 and go 9-0 vs. Twins

Ryan ruins Marcum's gem...

2008-09-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

Shaun Marcum did his job on Saturday afternoon. B.J. Ryan didn't. And because of that, Marcum had nothing to show for his fine efforts.

Marcum, making his first start since being recalled from Triple-A, pitched shutout ball against the first-place Tampa Bay Rays, displaying the form he'd exhibited last summer and earlier this season, when he was among the AL's ERA leaders.

Lyle Overbay hit two homers (!!) and Alex Rios added an RBI double (after homering twice himself on Friday night), and the Jays carried that 3-0 lead into the ninth inning.

The ninth turned out to be disastrous, as Ryan hit a batter before giving up a home run. A walk followed, as well as a stolen base, before pinch-runner Fernando Perez, appearing in only his second big-league game, scored on second baseman Joe Inglett's error.

For Marcum, it was another fine outing versus the AL East-leading Rays. Prior to Saturday, he'd gone 2-0 with a 1.06 ERA in two starts and one relief outing against T-Bay.

Words of wisdom from the four-letter network

2008-09-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

In my area, they used to air Fox Sports Radio programming on the All-Sports Radio some years back, and there was this guy (not sure if he's still on now, since I don't get FSR anymore) from Cleveland -- a host -- who referred to ESPN as "the four-letter network" with disdain.

Well, I guess I will refer to this station as the four-letter network too, since a lot of the things they've said on air recently I just can't agree with at all.

For instance, a few nights ago, this host (let's call her A.L., since I won't name drop this time) made some ridiculous comments.

1. She wondered out loud when Matt Leinhart will finally get the starting QB job in Arizona, as he's supposed to be the quarterback of the future, but the Cards had announced veteran Kurt Warner would be the starter. Odd - especially since she's a Brett Favre lover and crucified the Packers for going with Aaron Rodgers. Huh? So it's "right" for Green Bay to start Favre and delay the progress of A-Rod, but "wrong" in Arizona?

It's a moot point now anyway since Favre is a Jet, and A-Rod will start in Green Bay. But c'mon, she's contradicting herself in a big way. Warner is a two-time MVP and former Super Bowl MVP. Why no love for Kurt? Naturally, in the same segment, she went on to express her excitement over being able to watch Favre play for the J-E-T-S this season.

2. She said now that Manny Ramirez is heating up and hitting well, the rest of the Dodgers are doing the same--this happening in the midst of L.A.'s recent winning streak. WRONG. During their eight-game losing streak, Ramirez was hitting home runs and getting multi-hit games too, but the Dodgers still couldn't score enough runs, or their pitching let them down. Do your homework first before speaking, A.L.!

Amazon.ca Link

2008-09-01T13:20:00.001-07:00

I promised some of you to update you on the Amazon.ca link regarding my first print novel when it becomes available.

Click here for the link; thanks for the support!

Go "Showing Their Scales"! P.S. "Scales" here was used because that's on fish. Those of you who frequent the "Zonk on OA" will know what that's about.

Excerpt: Replacement Pitcher

2008-08-31T23:30:00.000-07:00

I'm obviously putting the cart in front of the horse, but here's a preview of "Replacement Pitcher." Ooooh, John House is famous!

Replacement Pitcher by KP Wee
Chapter 20

Henderson didn’t speak to the media following his epic performance, and chose not to deal with them again in the subsequent days. He didn’t even bother to do any interviews with FAN 590, despite the fact his newfound fan, John House, called in to apologize about his earlier comments. Henderson just didn’t care; he needed a few days off for himself. His cell phone rang often but he never bothered to pick it up; messages piled up in his voicemail until it became full, but again he never once checked them. He simply needed some days off, away from everybody.

The Blue Jays bats took a day off too in Game Five, losing 4-0, before rebounding to win the sixth contest. The city of Toronto was abuzz as the Blue Jays and Red Sox prepared to play Game Seven at the Rogers Centre. Torontonians had the series won. Everyone was talking about the World Series already, and with the American League assured of home-field advantage, nobody in Toronto thought the Red Sox or the Los Angeles Dodgers—the National League champion—was going to claim baseball’s championship trophy in 2008.

It was certainly a sharp contrast to the afternoon of the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday, when no one in Toronto had given the Blue Jays a shot as Henderson was scheduled to pitch at Fenway Park. But in baseball, as in life, things could change in a short amount of time. Now every Torontonian was back on the bandwagon. Everywhere in downtown Toronto, everyone was talking about the Blue Jays. Cars proudly displayed Blue Jays mini pennants throughout the city.

Game Seven. It was the first such contest in Blue Jays history. Never before had the franchise, since its inception in 1977, played a seventh game. Thus, it was going to be a historic night in Toronto regardless of the outcome.

Again it was up to Henderson to be the savior. There was no other choice. Rich Ambrozic, the starting pitcher who was bumped from the rotation in the postseason, was no longer on the team. Upset he was bypassed time after time, Ambrozic had left the Blue Jays while the they were still in Boston, to go back home to Mississippi. The generally happy team had fallen apart, and there was tension in the clubhouse for the first time all year long.

Even the normally upbeat Tony Johnson didn’t know what to do.

"Well, guys," Johnson addressed the reporters and journalists gathered around the Blue Jays clubhouse. "You know the Blue Jays are a close bunch. We all pull for each other. But you know, every team has to deal with adversity at one time or another. So, we’ll have to believe in ourselves and get the job done. I have a lot of faith in Shawn Henderson—"

"If you guys don’t make it to the World Series, in your estimation, will this season be a failure, given how well you guys started?" a reporter from TSN asked.

"Well, we’re going to try our best to make sure we don’t use, but I won’t say this season will be a failure—"

"Damn right we won’t lose," interrupted a familiar voice which hadn’t spoken much for days.

Everyone turned to look at the door. Henderson had emerged, and his voice was full of conviction. "Yeah, we’ll win tonight," he promised.

It was the first time since Monday that Henderson had so much as acknowledged a teammate or the media, and Johnson was ecstatic.

"Well, you all heard the man. We’re going to win tonight!" Johnson echoed.

Meanwhile, the players in the Red Sox clubhouse somehow seemed to have the series won for the Blue Jays also. Several Boston players were bummed out and thought they blew their opportunity already. Of course, Aaron Buckley would have none of it.

"Mark my words. We’re going to destroy the building tonight," he told the reporters gathered around his locker. "We’re going to hit so many balls to the outfield that the walls are all going to dented."

Projects on the go & random thoughts

2008-08-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

* Darn, Manny Ramirez homered twice and collected 4 hits for the second straight game (4-for-5 after going 4-for-4 a night earlier) and the Dodgers ended their 8-game losing streak, beating Dan Haren and the Diamondbacks. Ramirez is hitting a cool .419 in the NL after being acquired one month ago. I was hoping the Dodgers would never win another game this year, however unlikely that would be. (I recall a quote from Paul Beeston in one of Stephen Brunt's book where the former Blue Jays executive hoped Al Leiter lost every game he pitched for the Marlins in 1996. So, one could hope... And of course, this stemmed from the fact the Jays basically carried Leiter during his injury-plagued seasons, gave him a couple of WS rings and cheques, and he bolted after becoming a free agent.)

* Seeing the Tampa Bay Rays' success and the New York Yankees' collapse this year just reminds us all that the AL East is not just about Boston and New York. It could have been Toronto, couldn't it? Had they kept Frank Thomas, if Scott Rolen knew how to hit, if they didn't blow all those bases-loaded opportunities, the Jays might well be a wild card contender this year. Great pitching in the first half this year, but no offense. Completely the opposite in 2000, when the Jays had a shot with all that offense like Delgardo, Batista, Cruz, Mondesi, Fullmer, and Fletcher, but future Cy Young winners Roy Halladay and Chris Carpenter faltered. In fact, Halladay was sent to the minors and had the worst ever ERA by a starter over a whole season (over 10.00). What if Halladay and Carpenter pitched well then? What if the Jays had sluggers like those in 2008?

* TSN finally launched TSN2 yesterday, which surprised me, because they are a decade behind ESPN2. I was just looking at the TSN2 schedule over the next week, and it's just tennis, golf, SportsCentre, Off The Record, and other programming similar to TSN. Yawn. Yes, I know the purpose is so they could show different live events simultaneously, but still, the opening week lineup looked weak.

* "Showing Their Scales" by KP Wee is finally on Amazon.com, so what's next for me? Well, I don't intend to retire, which no doubt irritates Trout ( :P ) and others, but anyway, life goes on, and writing goes on. And I'm doing all this without ever taking a break from my busy work schedule. Next on the agenda:
-Wait for the status of "Replacement Pitcher", a sports novel about a Canadian pitcher trying to make it to the big league. (Yes, I know, odd that it took me my fourth novel before I finally penned a fiction on sports.) In this novel, I have the Toronto Blue Jays winning the AL East. Not sure if the story will be accepted, but I'd give it a 70-30 chance.
-Continue working on "Fess Up, Jessup", a story on Jesse Jessup (a fictional character) who is obsessed with a girl who only says "Oh my God." If you've seen my previous work, well, it's a series I'm working on, with 'lies, lust, and deception' as the theme. This time, no mention of Trout. And I even included a fictional pub called "House & Wings" as one of the secondary settings (no, not "House of Wings"--never been there).
-Start working on a book outline for a children's novel. Idea so far: Trout.

Haha to Dodgers, Torre, and ex-Sox

2008-08-29T23:26:00.000-07:00

In the off-season, I mentioned when the Los Angeles Dodgers hired Joe Torre, they would lose 90 games. Well, it looks like they won't, but I doubt they'll make the playoffs.

Thanks to yet another loss on Friday night, 9-3 in Arizona, the Dodgers have lost eight straight and now trail the NL West-leading Diamondbacks 4 1/2 games in the division.

So, now Torre isn't a genius anymore, is he?

After all, the Dodgers were picked to run away with the division one month ago. They supposedly had better pitching than the D-Backs. They'd just added slugger Manny Ramirez and third baseman Casey Blake. Greg Maddux was added in August.

And yet they've now lost eight in a row.

Okay, losing four straight in Philadelphia was bad. After all, they were blown out in two of those losses, gave away another one with a one-run lead in the ninth, and were shut out in the finale.

But getting swept in Washington? The Nationals (49-85) are the worst team in baseball, for crying out loud. Two one-run losses followed by an 11-2 defeat to complete the sweep.

And Friday night, the Dodgers had to win. They were facing the D-Backs, the team they're chasing.

Ahead 2-1 in the fifth, the Diamondbacks capitalized when Nomar Garciaparra, back at shortstop, committed an error, an inning in which Arizona scored three times.

When Los Angeles rallied in two innings later to close the deficit to within 4-3, their bullpen--led by Chan Ho Park and Joe Beimel--imploded by immediately surrendering five runs to blow the game wide open.

Not that Ramirez isn't doing his job. In fact, he went 4-for-4 on Friday night after homering in Washington the day before to give the Dodgers an early lead.

Still, it's a tough road for the Dodgers, as they'll have to face the D-Backs' top two hurlers, Dan Haren (14-6, 3.10) and Brandon Webb (19-5, 2.96), in the next two games.

It's certainly great to see L.A. struggle, especially when you look at the Dodgers and you see Torre, Maddux, and ex-Sox like Ramirez, Garciaparra, and Derek Lowe.

The Week is over!

2008-08-23T23:46:00.000-07:00

Well, a long week has finally ended.

There were some of you asking about the status of "Showing Their Scales", which is scheduled to come out this month. However, thanks to the fact I'd had an extremely busy week, I didn't get a chance to have any correspondence with the publisher. Bad timing.

What happened was,
a) a teacher (let's call him G.R.) went on vacation--thankfully only for a week,
b) I was asked to sub for his classes--why? I'm not even going to bother to get into it, but suffice it to say, it was not my decision and it made very little sense--but the lesson plans he left behind were, let's just say, crappy.
c) and, I was also responsible for my normal market research duties.

So, I didn't even have time to do much of my own stuff, and didn't even post on the OA zonk board for the bulk of the week. Just no time.

And, at this point, I'd like to add that I was able to do my writing the last few months despite the fact I was:
a) employed full-time as a teacher without any vacations, breaks, and what-not other than the statutory holidays,
b) and doing my market research stuff.
So, I didn't pull any of this Catherine nonsense--she's a fellow co-worker who likes to brag she's a writer, and she takes a lot of time off work and only worked part-time for quite a while. So, I didn't pull any of this crap.

And what's with people who strive to be late? Someone responded to my ad about teaching me Chinese, and the first session, he was late 20 minutes. Okay, fine, no problem, he called at EXACTLY the meeting time to notify me.

The second meeting, he didn't even show up, and I had to call him to find out where he was, only to hear he wasn't coming.

Three hours before the third meeting the very next day, he called to cancel. I didn't pick up because I was still at work, but I didn't call him back either, since it wasn't really a priority for me by then.

But I didn't expect him to call me EIGHT TIMES starting at the scheduled meeting time. 4:31, 4:41, 4:44, 4:57, 5:07, 5:47, 6:12, 6:18. He left several messages wanting to know if I'd received the previous ones. And if that wasn't bad enough, he texted me once in between all those calls.

Enough is enough. You know what, he's fired. And I don't really need to learn it anyway; not life or death.

And today, I was supposed to meet up another person for lunch. 40 minutes late. And that person acted nonchalently as though nothing was amiss. Yikes.

For the last three weeks, I'd been meeting up with a writing buddy as well so we can both sit down and type away, hoping our presence could inspire each other and not cause the other to slack off. All three times, the buddy was late. The last two times, I had to make a call to find out if the person was even going to show up. (Well, let's cut the writing buddy some slack; this is all very informal, so I don't even sweat it... but it's just another example about lateness...)

But like I said, I don't need a writing buddy. I'd just started this this month. Before that, I was doing just fine--and without that Catherine nonsense either.

Two companies change their logos - but why?

2008-08-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

In the last couple weeks, Bell Canada and British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) changed their logos.

But is this for the better? On the left side, you see the original logos, and on the right the new and improved (?!) ones.

As you can see, the new Bell logo is very simple.

As for the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, they have gone the KFC route by shortening their name to simply "BCLC." That's fine. Shorter brand names are supposed to be cooler and appealing to the youth.

But the lottery corporation isn't for kids; it's for adults. And looking at the new logo (which will be implemented in September), it looks like even a child could have done it. Isn't that the serif font with some circles?

Geez.

Pathetic NL West...

2008-08-09T22:30:00.001-07:00

The Minnesota Twins did their job on Saturday. The Los Angeles Dodgers didn't.

Minnesota, thanks to Delmon Young's two-run homer and Francisco Liriano's second win since being recalled from the minors, beat the Kansas City Royals 7-3 for their third straight victory.

The Twins' victory, couple with the Chicago White Sox's 6-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox, moved Minnesota back into first place. The Twins (65-51) are a half game up on the White Sox (64-51).

Meanwhile, the Dodgers could have moved past the Arizona Diamondbacks had they hung on to their lead against the lowly San Francisco Giants.

Of course, these were their long-time arch-rival Giants, who'd hurt them so many times in seasons past. (Yes, it is only August, but still...)

In fact, the Dodgers had two one-run leads, but couldn't hang on.

Manny Ramirez was in the middle of the action again, going 3-for-5 to up his NL batting average to .485 (16-for-33 with the Dodgers), and scored the first run of the night on pitcher Hiroki Kuroda's single.

Jeff Kent added a home run to lead off the 10th, leaving Los Angeles just three outs away from victory.

But the Giants put together a two-run rally, capped by Aaron Rowan's game-winning single, denying the Dodgers first place.

The first-place Diamondbacks have lost four straight, and have allowed 11 runs to the mediocre Atlanta Braves in back-to-back contests.

In Saturday's loss, Arizona also lost second baseman Orlando Hudson, who broke his left wrist trying to Brian McCann in the sixth inning.

Word is Hudson could be gone for the rest of the season, though he will be re-evaluated on Sunday.

And so much for Arizona starter Dan Haren (12-6), who was raked for 10 hits and six runs before being knocked out in Atlanta's 7-run sixth.

This came immediately after the D-Backs had given Haren a 3-2 lead in the last of the fifth, as the starter wasn't able to have a shut-down inning.

So much for the so-called "jungle karma", as Haren was a guest on The Jim Rome Show (aka "The Jungle") a couple days earlier, with Rome proclaiming the fact Haren and Brandon Webb would battle for the NL Cy Young Award.

The NL West surely is the biggest joke in baseball, as neither the D-Backs (59-58) nor Dodgers (58-58) want to take charge.

Either one of these teams will make the postseason, which would be a shame, if both continue to hover around the .500 mark.

But again, no sympathy here for the Dodgers' lack of run production (despite Ramirez). No sympathy for the D-Backs in losing Hudson, possibly for a while.

Either one of these teams could have gone out and picked up Barry Bonds, who is still unemployed and was, by the way, at the Dodgers-Giants game in San Francisco as part of the Jints' 50th anniversary celebration in the Bay Area.

In fact, Bonds, who signed autographs and was cheered on with a standing ovation by the crowd at AT&T Park, acknowledged first-year Dodger manager Joe Torre during his speech in the pre-game ceremony.

"I want to thank the Giants for inviting all these great guys," Bonds said during the ceremony, pointing to the Los Angeles dugout. "It's weird for me not to be in uniform with the Dodgers right there. You heard me Torre, I beat you before and I can beat you again. I haven't retired. Thank you."

Torre was seen tipping his cap at Bonds' comment.

Bonds later appeared in the broadcast booth for a couple innings and referred to Rowand as "Scott Rowand."

By the end of the game though, Rowand had the last laugh, thanks to his walk-off hit.

The Dodgers and D-Backs though, did not, as both suffered crushing defeats.

But no sympathy here.

(Source of Bonds' quote: The Associated Press - "Barry Bonds Joins Giants' Outfield Reunion")

Why must he wear 99?

2008-08-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

This is NOT good at all - Manny Ramirez has decided to wear No. 99 in Los Angeles.

Well, I'd already sent in my manuscript for my latest book, and in the story, the antagonist wears No. 99 for the Seattle Mariners.

Urrgh! It will look like I am portraying Ramirez but I'm NOT! And besides, I'd prepared that manuscript months ago.

Another thing that upset me was this Richmond kid--that's his name, and oh, he's from Vancouver--who debuted for the Blue Jays about a week ago.

Again, in my story, I have a Canadian pitcher trying to get on the Blue Jays. Damn!

If only I'd had this published a year ago... I'd look like a prophet! Urrghh!!!

Regardless, if all goes well, then the plot includes minor characters like:

-John House (Blue Jays fair-weathered fan) LOL
-Rick Coleclough (washed-up Mariners pitcher)
-John Jessup (injured Mariners pitcher)
-Cliff Houser (injured Mariners pitcher)
-Rich Ambrozic (upset Blue Jays pitcher)
-Kip Wee (Saints coach)

I will call it "The Replacement Pitcher: Independence, Rookie, Savior."

Hahah - if House sees this, he might hunt me down. ;-)

Cliff, how did you like today's game...?

2008-07-30T22:44:00.000-07:00

Cliff supposedly went to this game; I'll be expecting some picture evidence soon!

Anyway, here's the game recap. Runners on third in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings, and Toronto couldn't score? Wow...

http://mvn.com/mlb-bluejays/2008/07/31/blue-jays-lose-two-of-three-to-rays/

This week's featured book on Cacoethes

2008-07-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

Alright, Young Chasing Rainbow Trout has been featured on the main page of Cacoethes Publishing House as the book of the week!

Please check it out!

http://www.cacoethespublishing.net/

Also, I will be hosting an author chat on the Cacoethes Publishing website in the upcoming weeks! This session is for readers and fans alike, so hope to see some of you out there! Should be an interesting session with me leading the discussion.

Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to participate or if you have any questions!

Curse, Jinx, Reversal in fortunes?

2008-07-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

Wow. I checked and discovered that since I bashed the Yankees' Jason Giambi, he went on a tear in his next fifty games: .317, 15 HRs - which meant he was on pace for a 47-home run season had he kept that up.

And ever since I criticized Randy Johnson on July 1st, he has gone 4-0 in four starts. A 1.71 ERA. Back-to-back scoreless gems.

Yes, Jesse Litsch went 1-6 with an ERA over 6.00 after I praised him. Yes, I know. And he got sent down to the minors.

I think House now wants me to bash the Leafs and Blue Jays for luck.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/42582-mlb-talk-johnson-owings-litsch-giambi-and-maddux

I've been proven wrong. Again.

Nothing new, but I do acknowledge it when I get it wrong.

Ever since I bashed Arizona's Randy Johnson, he has gone undefeated. In fact, since his July 1st defeat against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Big Unit has gone a perfect 4-0 in his four starts.

His stats during the streak: 1.71 ERA, 19 strikeouts in 26.1 innings pitched.

Not a high number of K's, but Johnson does have a 10-strikeout game mixed in there. And he hasn't allowed a run in back-to-back starts.

I will say it's mind-boggling though; at the time I criticized Johnson, he was 4-7 with a 5.46 ERA and had just lost his sixth straight start. I argued he should have been taken out of the rotation because he was costing the Diamondbacks victories as the Los Angeles Dodgers were making a huge dent into Arizona's once-insurmountable lead in the NL West.

Meanwhile, Micah Owings has lost his job in the D-Backs' rotation. In fact, he'd been relegated to the bullpen since losing his fifth straight decision in late June.

At that time, Owings was 6-7 with a 5.18 ERA. Keep in mind he'd started the year 4-0. Thus, Owings' 2-7 mark in a dozen starts since then (with a 6.27 ERA) was a huge cause for concern.

My question is: at that time, why wouldn't you put Johnson in the pen and keep Owings in the rotation?

After all, Johnson is a lefty, and I'd think opposing batters would still fear the Big Unit. Imagine Johnson coming out of the pen for an inning or two and intimidating the other hitters. It would have given the D-Backs another option with an extra lefty in the pen. (Owings is right-handed.)

Also, Owings is only 25 and in his sophomore year. Johnson is 44. Wouldn't you want to keep sending a youngster out there every fifth day so he could build on his confidence? What good would sending out a forty-plus year-old pitcher every time out when (at the time) it looked like he was done?

And, Owings is a good hitter too. He smacked four dingers and batted .333 in his rookie year in 2007. This season Owings has already homered once and has 15 hits in 52 at-bats (.288 average). The righty can certainly help his own cause at the plate, meaning the D-Backs wouldn't have an automatic out in the ninth spot of the lineup.

Anyway, the D-Backs sure look brilliant now; Johnson is thriving again and Arizona is still in first place.

I guess the difference was Johnson's multiple Cy Young Awards and proven track record. Having a future Hall-of-Famer starting was surely a safer bet.

Speaking of Cy Young, I sure look dumb now when I suggested the Blue Jays' Jesse Litsch, Toronto's fifth starter at the time, was a sure All-Star and a potential Cy Young candidate when he started out 7-1 with a 3.18 ERA.

I also applauded Litsch for being a team guy by offering to pitch in relief in a blowout game in Philadelphia in May.

Since then, the wheels have fallen off. Litsch went 1-6 with a 6.12 ERA before earning a trip to the minors.

Ouch.

And I bashed Jason Giambi when he started out hitting .109.

In the 50 games since my criticisms, Giambi went on a tear, bashing out 15 homers in 161 at-bats and hitting .317. Wow. (If you do the math, that works out to be 47 home runs in 500 at-bats.)

Some in the media were writing that Giambi deserved a shot in the All-Star Game (which I totally disagreed with).

Well, from June 24th up to today, the Giambino has slumped again, hitting .215 in the last 26 games. But oh, more importantly, his New York Yankees (59-48) are back in the race, just four out in the AL East and 1 1/2 games back in the Wild Card race.

Oh yeah, New York has added I-Rod too, to play with A-Rod. The Yankees, who have lost catcher Jorge Posada for the rest of the season, picked up Ivan Rodriguez from the Detroit Tigers earlier today.

And back to Johnson and the D-Backs before I wrap up: Steve Henson from Yahoo! Sports has written that Arizona probably isn't going to acquire 351-game winner Greg Maddux. The Mad Dog reportedly has included the D-Backs and the L.A. teams as among the clubs he'd be willing to be traded to.

Arizona, however, apparently isn't interested in Maddux, which would be a shame. If Maddux does head to the desert, the D-Backs could have two 300-game winners--Johnson is eight wins away from the 300 club--in the same rotation.

Misadventure at Superstore

2008-07-28T22:02:00.001-07:00

So, Monday morning was the school's field trip/business project, and two classes were supposed to meet at Superstore at 9:30 to get started.

Of course, Sunday night I got this email from the other teacher saying he had an emergency and couldn't make it; would I be able to handle both classes on my own?

Well, honestly, what was I going to say in that situation?

Actually, no problem, I could do it anyways. I'm not one who wimps out to begin with.

My class arrived at the meeting place at 9:30, while only half his class was there. Not wanting to waste time, I got started and explained the rules and objectives to my class and asked them to enter the store and begin.

After 10 minutes and the rest of his class still hadn't arrived, I assigned teams and team captains to the students who were there and re-explained everything, and told them to wait for their mates to arrive.

Not a big deal... until later.

Since I divided each class into two groups, there were four groups in total I had to shadow and monitor--double my normal workload.

Actually, it was all fine at the beginning. I was with one group at the toothpaste aisle, and a very friendly stocker chitchatted with some of my students and helped them out by pointing out a sale item. Very pleasant. Genuine.

I took the first group to the cashier's to pay. One problem--well, actually a few.

The cashier was not friendly; no smile, no enthusiasm, and it was only 10:20!!! It's not like it's the end of the shift; the store just opened not too long ago! I mean, c'mon, if you're in customer service and you don't like it, why are you there in the first place?

No, the cashier, who was certainly the anti-toothpaste-aisle-man, wasn't the big problem. The equipment was. I tried to use the pin pad, and the green "OK" button was missing--like a key missing on a keyboard. Whatever, I just pushed that vacated spot and moved on. But when I was to press the "Chequing" button, there were lots of problems.

I kept pressing it and nothing happened. The cashier was impatient, so I explained it didn't work. Thus, I was asked to re-do it. And to no avail. I finally showed the cashier what I was talking about, and was told to wait while the supervisor came to fix their problem.

Yes, yes, I was told that pad was working earlier today. Really though, I was fine with it; I didn't need any excuses.

The next thing I knew, a woman started yelling at my students because they were in the way. Yes, it was their fault they were crowding around and blocking people, but was it necessary to shout like that?

I talked back, and said there was no reason to be that rude, only to get more verbal trashing from her. So the two of us started arguing there on the spot. Was I out of line? Yes. So was she for yelling at my students, and I didn't see why she should get away with it. I do not stand for that kind of intimidation, and I let her know it.

The supervisor came, I got to pay for the bill using another pin pad, and then I had to go back in and check on the other three groups.

So, what lessons did I learn from this? (I take everything as a learning experience; what can I do better in the future?)

Time to get a Costco card... save more money and don't have to deal with all this attitude we were getting. Well, the stocker was great... but the rest of the trip was not.

Mental note to self: do not schedule two classes going at the same time. You never know when someone's going to pull the "emergency" stuff. Yes, I understand, sometimes things happen that you can't control. However, to avoid this from happening, I'm just going to schedule these trips separately.

-------------------
And this is the type of nonsense that goes on. Every week, if not every day, I see people do the following, and they don't get scolded:

* someone would get onto the SkyTrain and just stop inside the door/entrance... despite the fact he/she is the first one to get on at a busy station. There would be others behind waiting to get on too, and this person would just stop there suddenly even though there's room elsewhere on the train. Why not go all the way in and not block the others that are trying to get on?
* someone would press the button on the crosswalk repeatedly trying to get the light to change. (Uhm- note to all: contrary to what you all believe, the light does NOT change because you hit that button a million times!!) I wish the device would automatically reset every time someone hits that button just so he/she would stand there waiting forever. There is absolutely NO reason to continue pressing it... some people.
* someone would walk down the stairs and suddenly stop in the middle for no reason, even though there are people walking behind trying to get down too.
* someone would stand in the middle of the street and block everyone else just so he/she could check something on the phone or blackberry or whatever.
* someone would change lanes without signalling.

And on and on... go pick on them too!

Yankees praising

2008-07-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

First posted on Bleacher Report a couple hours earlier...

House, I have once again praised the Yankees per your request; twice in two days... what's my prize ?

Perhaps the best thing for the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night is rain.

The start of the Red Sox-Yankees game has been delayed by rain, with New York looking to sweep the Bosox in three straight at Fenway Park.

New York has won eight straight and was supposed to have Sidney Ponson start Sunday night against Jon Lester.

Another Boston loss would mean the Yanks and Red Sox would be tied for second in the division, with New York percentage points ahead by virtue of having played fewer games. (Looking at it the "glass half-full" way though, the first-place Tampa Bay Rays have already lost earlier in the day, meaning a Boston win moves the Sox within a game of top spot.)

Given the way things have gone since the All-Star break, the Red Sox should just pray for the game to be postponed.

Boston is only 3-5 since the mid-summer classic, while New York is 8-0.

While it hasn't exactly been the Boston Massacre in the first two games of the series, the Red Sox have shown again they can't seem to beat the Yankees, not coming up with clutch hits or getting big outs in losing 1-0 and 10-3 thus far.

Though Sunday's scheduled starter Ponson is only 3-11 with a 6.61 ERA lifetime against Boston, the right-hander has done all right this season after being picked up by the pinstripers--and the fact remains New York has been hot since the All-Star break while Boston has not.

The Yanks have gone 4-0 in Ponson's four starts.

Meanwhile, on ESPN Radio, the eighth inning of the seventh game of the 2003 ALCS--yes, the one in which Grady Little left a tiring Pedro Martinez in to allow New York to score three runs--is being replayed as the network is waiting out the rain delay.

Why the network has chosen to re-air this particular clip is beyond me--given the fact the 2004 Red Sox triumph over the Yanks was more significant and magical.

Nonetheless, another reminder the Red Sox had been owned by the Bombers.

Well, guess what? Boston has won two of the last four World Series, while New York hasn't had reason to celebrate since 2000.

And, the Associated Press has reported that Manny Ramirez was quoted as saying he didn't mind if he was traded.

The 2004 World Series MVP supposedly said on Sunday, "I'm tired of them (the Red Sox). They're tired of me."

Four more days to go before the July 31st trading deadline ... will the Red Sox deal Man-ram? You'd at least expect Boston to go out and make some moves to try and defend its AL East title.

Anyway, Boston should just pray for more rain. That way the Yanks can leave town--New York heads home to host Baltimore on Monday--without both teams being tied.

And oh... that would be the last-place Orioles the Yankees would be facing, while the Red Sox will entertain baseball's best team, the L.A. Angels, starting Monday.

In case you are wondering, yes, it was the Angels who swept the Bosox last weekend after the All-Star break.

Not fun times coming up for the Boston Red Sox.

Time to pray for more rain...

A post just for Trout

2008-07-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

Well, Trout, I'd given up on my "50-posts-in-50-days" mission (a la "50-goals-in-50-games") a while back, but I think I'll definitely try to post a bit more often.

This is my second post in one day--aren't you proud of me or what?!

Anyway, here are this week's musings from the Net and other sources:

1) http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/oddity_bizarre_names
Personally, I like the part about "Number 16 Bus Shelter", especially since I'd joked about this particular name myself, years ago, about filling out a store membership card application form using that as a fake address, just so that we wouldn't get junk mail or have identities stolen.

2) These were from the Westender:
Someone wrote in saying that a hotdog vendor was peeing into the bushes at a local beach before going back to his stand selling dogs. The poster noted there were no public washrooms in the area. Lesson? Be careful where you buy your food! Heck, better yet, prepare it yourself...

Another person wrote in saying he was ridiculed by some people on the street because he was in a cast and on crutches. It is indeed sad to hear that in this day and age, insensitive jerks are still picking on those who are less fortunate. Heck, I even work with certain people (at my school) who are racists and make inappropriate comments publicly, so it's not a surprise. But you know what, I don't have time for those kinds of people, and perhaps if something unfortunate were to happen to them down the road, I'd say no sympathy here at all.

3) Apparently, some grad students at the U. of A. have designed some kind of a poker-playing robot who could learn from past mistakes and rally to win their matches. Those of you who play online poker or do online gambling better watch out! Experts have suggested that these kinds of robots will soon rule the world of online gambling, meaning people will almost never win...

4) In a report I read, 82% of all working Canadians--according to StatsCan--make an annual salary of $50,000 or less. Meanwhile, only 16% make $50-100K. The other 2% make over $100K.

Thus, it's logical to suggest that if you make in the $60K range and higher, you're in the top 10% of income earners in Canada.

Congratulations! You guys are rich! Yay!

New York beats Boston again

2008-07-26T20:44:00.001-07:00

The New York Yankees have come all the way back, winners of eight straight, and are now just one game back of the Boston Red Sox.

Boston (60-45) is two games behind first-place Tampa Bay (61-42), which won 5-3 in Kansas City on Saturday night.

New York (58-45) has not lost since the All-Star break, and have won the first two of their weekend series against their long-time nemesis at Fenway Park.

On Friday night, it was Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera shutting down the Bosox 1-0.

Saturday afternoon, it was a 10-3 romp as Robinson Cano (3 hits, HR, 3 RBIs) and Andy Pettitte (6 IP, 1 ER, 7 K's) proved to be the difference.

Bobby Abreu added a key two-run double in a four-run sixth which broke open a tense 3-2 contest.

The Yankees suddenly find themselves one game behind Boston for second in the AL East and also for the wild card lead, continuing their tradition of being a second-half team.

Last season, New York was horrendous in the first half but rallied to take the AL wild card over Seattle and Detroit, and even gave Boston a scare by getting back into the divisional race.

The Yanks have already made a move this weekend, acquiring outfielder Xavier Nady and reliever Damaso Marte from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Both saw action on Saturday afternoon; Nady was in the starting lineup and went 0-for-3 with a walk, while Marte struck out Red Sox slugger David Ortiz in relief.

Will the Red Sox make a move before the July 31st non-waiver trading deadline?

Is it time yet for Sean Crowe and the Red Sox nation to panic?

Despite the fact I dislike the Yankees, I have to applaud them for making it all the way back the way things went in the first half: The Chien-Ming Wang injury and the problems in the rotation, the controversy about how to best use Chamberlain, Giambi's slump early on, the losses of Jorge Posada, Johnny Damon, and Hideki Matsui, and on and on.

I'll say this: if one team finishes a game or two out, be it the first-place Tampa Bay Rays, the Red Sox, or the Yankees, I'll have no sympathy.

Any one of those teams could have picked up Barry Bonds, but have chosen not to. So, whoever doesn't make the postseason, that's their problem.

Boston, we have a problem !

2008-07-20T00:42:00.000-07:00

So, suddenly Boston has lost two straight, while Tampa and New York have each gone 2-0. Should be panic time in Beantown for many die-hard Bosox fans... Wonder what Rick and Cliff think about it...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/39298-boston-we-have-a-problem