Meadowlands

I'm a lucky boy--I got to go to the Meadowlands in New Jersey on Sunday to see my beloved G-Men take on the Minnesota Vikings with my folks. The weather was absolutely fantastic--the temperature was in the 50's when we arrived for tailgating shortly before 10 AM, and although I didn't check, it had to be up to the 60's by game time. I tailgated into a T-shirt, didn't even bring my jacket into the stadium, and only put my sweatshirt on at halftime because I was worried it might get beer spilled on it under my seat. My mother put together a great tailgating spread--homemade chicken barbecue and sausage soup. And the seats were great--in the back corner of one of the end zones, 17 rows up. We had a great few of the action in that end, and we had binoculars for when the game was on the other side of the field, though we hardly needed them. I also got some neat pictures of some of the on-field action which are now up on my photo site.

Unfortunately, those were the highlights. The Giants themselves provided mostly lowlights, losing to the Vikings in heartbreaking fashion. The offense and special teams played terribly all day, with only the defense keeping the game at all interesting. The offense finally got their act together late in the 4th quarter, putting together a great drive and 2-point conversion to tie it up with just over a minute remaining--I was convinced that they were going to win it in overtime with the momentum in their favor. But the defense promptly took a nosedive, letting the Vikings far enough down the field to kick the winning field goal, although I can't really fault them for one bad series during the entire game. That's just the type of loss that makes me really worried about Sunday's game against the hated Eagles. A couple of other observations:

-Early in the year, a lot of Eli Manning's errant passes were overthrows. He got away with more than his share in part because of the height advantage of his primary downfield threats--Plaxico Burress and Jeremy Shockey are both 6'5, and Amani Toomer is the shortest of the trio at 6'3. Of the four interceptions Eli threw on Sunday, two were tipped passes, and it seems to me that the other two were underthrown. It seems like maybe he's trying to make an adjustment in his throws. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt at this point and have faith that he'll get it worked out soon.

-Plaxico Burress is getting a lot of press as the best free agent pickup in the league from this past offseason, but I think Antonio Pierce was at least as vital, if not moreso, to the Giants' success this year. He's a real playmaker, which shows on the television broadcasts, but more than that, he adds a lot of fire to the team, which is difficult to see if you're not there live. He pumps up his teammates and does a lot to fire up the crowd to give the defense that "12th man" advantage during home games.

Saints owner

Saints' owner Tom Benson will not return to Louisiana

This guy is, to put it plain and simple, a paranoid jerk. Really, what sort of reception did he expect from a state that he just kicked all over the place while it was down? To even talk about permanently moving the Saints now, in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, would be akin to Wellington Mara making plans to move the Giants to Philadelphia right after 9/11. The reflections of the Giants' owner following his death last week really show what a classless individual the Saints' current owner really is.

And now, on top of being a douchebag, Benson has proven that he's, to put it bluntly, a pussy. Remember the fat kid who'd run wheezing and crying home to his mother, claiming he was beaten up when the other kids started calling him names? This is pretty much the same thing on a larger scale. Does he really think that the police and stadium security are incapable of physically protecting him from the drunken rabble that attend most NFL games? (Note that drunken rabble is used here as a compliment.)

Do yourself a favor, Tom. Sell the team and get the hell out of New Orleans. If you really want to put a team in San Antonio, well, I've heard they wouldn't really care over there in Arizona.

Comments

My thanks to those of you who leave comments on my rantings and ramblings. I hate to make it tougher for everyone, but due to the comment spam I've been receiving lately, I've been forced to turn on word verification for the blog. From now on, when you post a comment, you'll be required to type a nonsensical phrase into a box before the comment will be shown, in order to prove that you're a human and not an automated program spewing shit into my space. Sorry about that, but that's the way it has to be until we're legally allowed to hunt spammers for sport.

Overdue

Well, I think I've left this blog alone long enough. Almost a whole month? I'm afraid so--but I don't suppose any of my six readers are surprised.

What have I been doing with myself during all that time? Funny you should ask...

-I watched every pitch of the World Series--the first time in years I've done that when the Yankees haven't been in it. That was perhaps the closest swept series ever. Every game could have gone either way--especially the 14-inning extravaganza (after about the 10th inning, I'd have given the edge to Houston given their performance in the 18-inning NLDS game). I was dog-ass tired at work the day after that one, but I wouldn't have traded seeing it for the extra couple hours of sleep.

-In some sort of new record, I haven't missed a New York Football Giants game yet this season, and that streak will continue through Week 9. They started out winning some close ones, losing a blowout to the Chargers and one to the Cowboys that wasn't a blowout only because they tried almost as hard as the Giants to blow it, and looking particulary weak on defense through most of the early games--then came last week against the Redskins. Somehow, some way, it all clicked for them. The offense looked great, the defense shut down the previously hot Mark Brunell, and the G-men dominated for sixty solid minutes. I don't know if this was just a one-shot performance for their recently departed owner against a team that had previously overachieved and thus achieved an overrated status, but if they can keep up this momentum, they'll go far this season and postseason. (I'm not going to jinx them by speculating just how far.)

-I've played lots of WoW. This game manages to keep me sucked in for two reasons: number one, I've got it installed on my iBook so I can play it at work, and number two, this is the one that my gaming friends are playing. I've got a character at level 60 (currently the highest attainable level) that can do the ultra-challenging runs with "the crew", and two lower-levels for that ever-important sense of accomplishment. (Please, no comments on how pathetic the life of a person who gets a sense of accomplishment from a computer game must be.) This game eats up my evenings, and with the news of an upcoming expansion pack, I think that trend is going to continue for a while longer yet.

-I've read a couple of very interesting books, which I'm trying to keep up with over in my Recent Events section over on the right. I've got to recommend the one that's over there right now, Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. This book is the basis for a sitcom currently on Fox (which I haven't watched), and it's a mix of darkly comical stories of life in the restaurant business and tips for would-be cooks (like yours truly) and for restaurant-goers everywhere. (My favorite: avoid the seafood specials on a Monday.) Bourdain really finds his voice in print, and it reads like he's telling you these stories over a couple of pints. Highly recommended reading.

My thanks for reading if you made it all the way through this--imagine how much more readable it could have been if I'd done small regular posts throughout the month. I'll try to do better next time.

Thuuuuh Yankees Lose

Yee-freakin'-haw--at least another week and a half of that idiotic Rally Monkey I was bitching about last week. As far as I'm concerned, the Yankees' elimination last night at the hands of the Angels just caps off one of the worst sports long weekends in recent memory. There was no Giants game, three out of my four fantasy football teams lost, and I finished second-to-last for the week in my NFL pick-em pool, further securing my stranglehold on last place. Even my hated Eagles losing couldn't redeem, since they lost to the even-more-hated Dallas Cowboys, who may very well end up challenging my Giants for a wild card spot if the Eagles end up winning the division.

What happened? How did baseball's best team on paper end up losing this series? Last night's game really summed up the series quite well. The Yankees didn't hit like they were capable of, leaving 11 men on base (5 in scoring position) against a young kid with no playoff experience who no one's ever heard of. And their fielding sucked--last night's microcosm of that fact was the collision between Bubba Crosby and Gary Sheffield.

The Blowhard has an interesting, if somewhat optimistic, postmortem of the season up. As for me, I'll still be watching some of the playoffs, but not with the enthusiasm I had during the first round.

Oh well--I can always cheer myself with the knowledge that there's another microbrew fest this weekend.

Why Anaheim Must Lose

We need to get the Angels out of the playoffs as quickly as possible.

And here's why.

A capuchin monkey jumping up and down to House of Pain's Jump Around...c'mon guys. 1995 called, and they want their gimmick back.

Photo manipulation

Still think there's no liberal bias in the media?

Think again.

This is a great article that depicts how lies of omission can be some of the biggest lies of all.

Hat tip to Nuts McCracken over at the August Knights Forums.

Separated at birth?

This was pointed out to me by my friend Mike B. while watching the Giants-Cardinals on Sunday.

Giants TE

AND

Your humble correspondent

Football time

Well, I got to see the Giants play on Sunday after all. I got a free weekend of DirecTV's Sunday Ticket package with a code from a Burger King Angus Burger. And what a treat that package is--combined with the stat tracker from my fantasy football leagues, I was able to see most of the scoring during the 1:00 games and the entire Giants victory at 4:00. Yep, my boys are in first place in their division--well, tied for it, at any rate. It's a bit early for Super Bowl dreams, but the line protected Eli pretty well, the defense made some plays, special teams finally looked more special and less special, and Brandon Jacobs is playing like Ron Dayne with talent.

Unfortunately, I only won one of my four fantasy games (largely because I forgot to pull the injured Jerome Bettis from two lineups) and finished near the bottom of my pick-em pool. Fortunately, the season is young for me as well as for the Browns.

Update: Spam blogs

Looks like Blogger.com (host of this useless site) is cracking down on spamblogs as per my complaining post from a couple of months ago. All the spamblogs I highlighted in that post are now four-oh-four'd, and Blogger's put up a new button in the toolbar that everyone can use to flag those spamblogs and get them ripped down as fast as they're put up. Kudos!

Update: For T.O.

Lil' Jeremy wrote a new letter to Terrell Owens. Not as long or as funny as the first, but still worth checking out. I just love watching Owens implode...now if it can just affect the team enough that the wheels come off on the field, I'll be happy.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

I got five hours of sleep last night, despite drinking five beers from 9:00 at night till nearly 2:00 in the morning. And yet I feel great this morning, because the reason for both is that I was watching the NFL season opener. I love football, and I love gambling on football--I'm in four fantasy leagues this year, one of which had an entry fee, as well as a pick 'em pool with some rather nice prizes--5th place gets their money back, and it goes up from there. The only bummer (for me) is that the Giants opener isn't going to be on TV in my area--they're showing the Cowboys-Chargers at 4:00. Oh well--I guess there's always the sports bar.

I've also picked up the PC version of Madden 06, and I'm fairly unimpressed. It's not a bad game, but the whole "vision" thing (you need to direct your QB's eyes to the receiver you're trying to hit before passing the ball) takes a lot of getting used to (fortunately, you can turn this "feature" off), and the new "Superstar" mode (create an NFL rookie and guide him through his career) adds very little excitement to the game for me. It feels like an attempt to put a stripped-down version of The Sims into the Madden series, and it just doesn't work, as far as I'm concerned. Other than that, Madden 06 features the same great graphics, gameplay, and useability (it runs terrific on my Athlon 2700 with all the details maxed out) as previous games in the series, and features the least repetitive commentary in any sports game from Al Michaels and the big guy himself. Recommended for purchase if you don't have last year's version--otherwise, save your money and go find yourself a user-created roster for this season. You won't be missing much.