That’s just cold

May 3rd, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

{via Bunch}

Case of the Mondays: I love interleague play

May 21st, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

(Before he begins, PostmanE would like to apologize for being so late to the punch today. He went for a brief swim in the backyard pool with a cinderblock tied to his ankle, and has since been dealing with his disappointed father. Back now, though.)

Ah, yes, Monday morning. The morning after a three-day stint of drinking and watching baseball and taunting friends. That is what interleague play is all about: Cubs and Sox fans packed into a Wrigleyville bar shoulder to shoulder, alternating chants, downing expensive Old Styles and stumbling home in the middle of the day. (And then napping and then getting back out there, of course.)

Sorry, but I can’t get with the purists who decry interleague play as a violation of tradition. It is, above all things, fun. I know it’s fun for the fans, I get the impression it is fun for the managers, and even the players, or most of them, seem to enjoy it. Without interleague play, who gets bragging rights? Who gets to call himself the best manager in the city? (This weekend in Chicago, with his sneaky little Derrek Lee pinch-hit, that was clearly Lou Piniella.) Without interleague play, how can you switch from radio station to radio station, just to see the different ways the team’s announcers are calling the game? It’s fun, damnit. Isn’t that baseball’s oldest, and finest, tradition?

NBA: Sorry, but with the travel and the weekend-long focus on baseball, the NBA went quietly by. That might have to do with the fact that the Spurs had such a quick turnaround from the series with the Suns, but all the same, they had no problem dispensing with the Jazz in typically efficient fashion. If Deron Williams is going to be the Jazz’ leading scorer all series, that will no go well for the Fightin’ Mormons. Also, the return of Big Shot Rob and his evil calm feels like some sort of Darth Vader re-entrance. (”They complained … like I can get in their heads and play Nintendo with their minds and bodies and get them to walk out onto the court,” Horry said [of Stoudamire and Diaw’s suspensions].) Poor Jazz.

Preakness: Some horse other than Street Sense won, which continues to prove just how hard it is to win a Triple Crown. It also proves how hard it is to win money at horse-racing. Stupid off-track betting; I could have had ten more Old Styles!

Case of the Mondays: Farewell, sweet Warriors

May 14th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

On Friday night, in the midst of the Warriors’ dunk-fest blowout win over Utah, I got this exact text message from commenter PMK:

Dear ESPN … We know it’s loud in Oakland. Put away the stupid decibel meter … NOW! Love, PMK

At the time, I wholeheartedly agreed with him. Leave it to ESPN to bring us an annoying, overdone feature trying to hype up a team and a venue that didn’t need any hyping. This isn’t ARCO Arena; everyone knows how loud it is in Oakland! Can’t we just watch the game and appreciate the crowd organically?

Perhaps I spoke too soon. Because if the Warriors lose to Utah at Utah, and we see this run come to an end, I’ll realize the bad karma I’ve created. Here’s my pledge, Golden State: if you keep winning, I’ll keep tolerating the decibel meter. Screw it: I’ll let them run the decibel meter all the time if it means you guys will pull this off in seven. Do we have a deal? OK — don’t let me down.

As for the actual basketball on the court, the Jazz proved a lot by winning in Golden State last night, and have sealed themselves as winners of this series. Decibel meter or not, that crowd is no joke, and Golden State seemed like a different team there Friday night. For Utah to take the punches and keep coming back out — led by incredible performances from Carlos Boozer, who is suddenly a Top-15 player — is really impressive stuff. You never know: maybe the Jazz can take the winner of Phoenix-San Antonio. Crazier things have happened, even within the past two weeks.

Speaking of the Suns-Spurs, I’m ready to agree with MJD: there’s no reason this series shouldn’t be better than Warriors-Jazz in the long run. The teams are better, they seem to genuinely hate each other (fuck Bruce Bowen), and, thanks to aging stars, both should be playing with a certain level of desperation. Duncan and Nash aren’t exactly retiring next year, but the window is closing quickly for both. No reason this shouldn’t go seven games, and be totally worth it the whole way. But the Suns have to find their balls first.

Finally, one more note about Warriors-Jazz. Huge cheers to TNT for televising the conversations between Jason Richardson, Mehmet Okur, and Derek Fisher after Richardson’s hard foul on Okur in garbage time last night. If you didn’t see it, with about a minute left and the game sealed, Okur drove the ball hard to the glass and rose up for a big, both-arms-extended dunk. It would have been the sort of “Screw you” slam that is basically just for show, and Richardson was having none of it. He fouled Okur hard, got a flagrant-2, and was ejected, but before he left TNT zoomed in just enough to see him yelling at an incensed Okur: “Stop being a pussy, that’s a hard foul! Stop being a pussy! It’s a hard foul, stop being a pussy!”

I nearly fell off the couch laughing. These are the kinds of things that make me smile about competitive basketball — despite huge chasms in skill, you can hear the same banter in the NBA Playoffs as you can at your collegiate rec gym, and everyone understands it on the same level. Fantastic.

Weekend Fun: Refocusing on high quality

May 11th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

After last night’s debacle — which even prompted a Glass Joe comparison from currently blacklisted FanHouse friend Matt Watson at Detroit Bad Boys — I’ve come to a new and resolute conclusion: I’m not going to lament this loss at all. Sure, I was furious for a little bit last night, but now it’s time to face facts. The Bulls are simply not that good yet. As encouraging as the Miami series was, this Pistons team is the class of the conference, and Chicago simply doesn’t have the horses. They have a good team, a solid team, a team that will probably only get better … but they’re not there yet. And I’m OK with that.

The reason it’ll be easy to get over that is because despite what Bomani Jones tells you, this is an effin’ great playoffs so far. The Warriors-Mavs series is something that any basketball fan should treasure forever, and right now the Suns and Spurs are locked in a Finals-worthy contest. Not only that, but that series is getting overlooked thanks to the continued insanity of the Warriors, who are now getting overlooked thanks to Jazz. Everyone out West is one-upping each other, and it’s made for a conference without a single playoff dud so far. OK, so the East has flopped, but we should have seen that coming. What are we complaining about again?

So that’s why I’m choosing to forget about the Bulls. I’ll watch the game Sunday, and if they win, I’ll watch the next day … but it’s time to change the focus from geographic loyalty back to where the real entertainment lies, and that is not in the Eastern conference.

With that, we’ll see you around this weekend. Since we neglect the sport so much (we don’t even have category on the sidebar there), I’m going to try and learn about hockey and write a post at some point in the near future about what I’ve learned. If it doesn’t show up, that’ll show you how much the topic has enthralled me.

UPDATE: Just noticed I titled this “Case of the Mondays” instead of the appropriate title, Weekend Fun. I’m sure you were shocked at the oversight. We’re back up to speed now, though.

Case of the Mondays: Touch ‘Em All

May 7th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

Now that that’s over (I would use a tear emoticon here if that weren’t so emasculating), we can take a look at the weekend that was. I didn’t actually see some of these things thanks to the alcohol and family and friends and really basically just the alochol, but I heard they happened, which means we should talk about them. On we go:

The Bulls got it handed to them: Talk about a different beast. I thought Chicago would have a chance to outpace the Pistons in a manner similar to their demolition of the Heat, and boy was I wrong. I’ll let Matt from Blog a Bull take it the rest of the way here:

It’s tough to believe this Bulls team has a ton of weapons and can survive off nights from some of them. Maybe they can against some squads but not against a team like the Pistons. If Ben Gordon puts in a few more stinkers they’re toast… Nocioni was aggressively awful. In three and a half minutes he had 2 turnovers and 2 missed shots (one was a joke of an attempt that got thrown back into his face by ’sheed), and during that time the Bulls also managed to give up 3 offensive rebounds. Duhon was predictably bad, and the rookies played as such. But while this may just be bias towards the lure of potential, I’d rather see Tyrus and Thabo make rookie mistakes than Noc and Duhon just looking too undersized to do much at all…

Um, not good. Glad I was at dinner during that, and more than happy to delete it from the DVR queue without watching it. I think the best thing to do is just pretend it didn’t happen, and be utterly confused when the Pistons end the series after only three wins.

Dirk Nowitzki Had a Really Bad Day: Speaking of convincing victories, how about the Warriors not just upsetting the Mavericks … but doing it by 25 points? That third quarter absolutely sank the Mavs, cemented the series as the upset of the year, ruined Dirk’s MVP justifiability, and scheduled both Mark Cuban and Avery Johnson for about three years of psychiatry after they wake up every night seeing Nellie in their dreams. Is that on the company insurance, Mark?

The Rockets Got the Early Boot: A shame, because for some reason I can’t really stand the Jazz and I love Yao Ming. (A Sports Illustrated story from a while back - which, of course, I can’t find now - settled it for me.) Also, it’s unfortunate to see Tracy McGrady mired in the “can’t win in the playoffs” muck. Here’s hoping the Rockets go and get some help and McGrady shakes off that title next May.

Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya Struck Each Other Repeatedly: I saw the last two rounds of this fight at the bar Saturday night, so I can’t really comment, but everyone I talked to that watched the whole thing through said these two things: 1) Mayweather, without a doubt, should have had a unanimous decision, and 2) No wonder boxing is totally lacking in relevancy; the fights usually disappoint. Anyone want to add to that critique?

Fury, But No Sound: Right in the middle of the Kentucky Derby - which Street Sense came from way behind to win - the sound on NBC totally cut out. They didn’t figure this out until after the race, so no one I was with had any idea who won for a decent while after the race was already over. Talk about a sport that absolutely needs sound; for the casual viewer, every horse looks exactly alike. Here’s betting some engineering intern at NBC took a ripping from his superior Saturday.

Best Graduation Gift: Well, besides a very nice new wallet from the girlfriend and money and such from the parents, my roommate can through in the clutch with two incredible selections: The Best American Sports Writing 2006, and To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever, which I’ve been sort of thinking about reading for quite some time now. Here’s to graduation presents, the best thing about the entire process. Well, that, and future earning potential. I suppose that’s OK too.