Sunday, August 10, 2008

You win some, you win some...

As the Yankees spiral down into the abyss, I'll share an interesting scenario with you...

Background: I pretty much never bet against the Yankees. I'm not one of yer "bet with your head, not with your heart" kinda guys, you see. I've lost money in recent years making absurd NY-centric predictions (Mike Mussina winning the Cy Young, Robinson Cano winning a batting title (this year!), etc.), and I've lost face making spontaneous/drunken Yankee wagers (forced to grow mustache for 30 days, free homeworks for students, etc.). I just don't bet against my team-- ask anyone.

I happen to have tickets to the final regular season game at Yankee Stadium this year, which is any year (unless a tiebreaker is required, a weird make-up game is scheduled, etc.). These tickets suck-- they're two of the worst non-LF bleachers seats available in the park. But, they're mine.

Given the Yanks' sorry state of affairs at the moment, I find myself in a rare "win-win" situation with my team. Of course I hope we make the playoffs this year, believe me. If we do, the problem of predicting and purchasing the "last game" arises (this will be ugly). Personally, I'll go with "Game 2" of any series (whether it's 5 or 7 games, home or away team), which doesn't really have to be the second game of a series, of course. Still, that's a nasty call to have to make.

So, if we don't make the playoffs, I'm rewarded with the last Yankee game ever at the Stadium. I guess the worst scenario is making the playoffs, buying tickets to a game that isn't really the last one somehow, and getting knocked out of the postseason. Ouch.

Forgive me if my tone isn't suitably shitty these next couple of months... I'm just trying to stay positive.

Women's Road Cycling

It is absolutely pouring out there for the women's road cycling event. I just saw a nasty wipeout, resulting in a horrifying tangle of flesh, spandex and magnesium (?). It looks like one of our cyclists (Kristin Armstrong) is doing OK, but after the crash I just saw, I'll hold my breath until the end.

This seems insanely dangerous. They're flying around curves in the pouring rain on skinny little bikes with wobbly wheels.

Men's Water Polo

The NBC coverage was so boring that I switched to Telemundo,where I found Spain vs. Greece in men's basketball. Spain looks pretty good-- quite a year they're having.

Now NBC has USA vs. China in men's water polo. Another sport I've never had a feel for. It looks like a game a bunch of kids play in a pool. I'm waiting for Kevin's mom to come out and bring us all peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.

I had a roommate that played for his college water polo team. I went to a couple of his games-- mainly to catch a glimpse of his teammate with huge boobs as she emerged from the pool. It must've been a coed team (?).

Hey, how is that allowed?! One of their guys just tried to drown one of our guys. This is probably a much harder sport than I thought. Who knows what sort of foul play goes on under the waterline...

One of the Chinese athletes just threw the ball into our net... GOOALLL!!! I was sure he'd broken a major rule there, but apparently that's all you have to do. I figured you had to bounce or kick the ball into the net-- throwing it just seems so easy. I really must not have been paying attention at my old roommate's matches.

I just learned that you're not allowed to hold the ball under water. There goes my idea of hiding the ball down your swimming trunks and swimming past everybody. Also out is diving to the bottom of the pool with the ball, and then releasing the ball so it fires like a torpedo at the opponent's net.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Men's Beach Volleyball

I haven't watched much of this before. I guess I'm a little surprised that they're not playing on a beach. Maybe they don't have beaches in China. I mean, the sand looks great, but...

The U.S. is competing against Latvia right now. Wouldn't think we'd have too much of a problem here. The Latvians (Plavins/Samoilovs) are a handsome pair, although they probably have about 32 years of age between 'em. They were caught on camera horsing around on a bench right before the match.

Much hoopla before the Games about allowing the beach volleyball players to compete bare-chested. I was disappointed to learn that this only applied to men, of course. Anyway, I'm not sure the movement will have tremendous support on the merits of the American team-- the towering Phil Dalhausser looks too much like James Carville.

It appears that the U.S. lost the match, although I'm not sure if it's best-of-three or best-of-five. Doesn't look like they're coming back to the sand, so we must've lost. Pretty sure that's condsidered an upset.

Friday, August 8, 2008

The Greatest Show on Earth

I'll try to explain what I just saw: Chinese dancer/acrobats performing on a giant digital canvas as it unfurls across the stadium... dancer/acrobats then "paint" on canvas digitally with their hands... the beautiful result is then displayed to the crowd. Welcome to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

I think Yanni is performing at this point. Thousands of identically dressed and featured men just burst out of a series of undulating boxes in the center of the stadium. The announcer just explained what we're seeing, and I still don't understand it at all. This is gonna be a long night.

Looks like it's Bob Costas, Matt Lauer, and some guy named Joshua Cooper Ramo. "Josh" is an expert on Chinese culture, and is explaining the signifigance of everything we're seeing.

Cool, we're back to the giant digital canvas. An impossibly beautiful dancer is twirling stuff to and fro, while about a hundred guys (slaves?) carry the giant canvas around.

BC: Who are these guys? At least a thousand blue soldiers just "invaded" the stadium. They're armed with either giant oars or giant feathers. Either way, I think we're all safe.

Now there's an impossibly weird guy in the middle of the show, carrying an enormous wooden bowl and spoon. I'm not sure where he went. Cut to commercial.

JCR: Oh by the way, this culture invented printing and paper.


Now I understand... the guy who did House of Flying Daggers designed the show. That's either really cool or sort of disappointing. Now the Chinese Elton John is playing a piano duet with a small child. This is making Super Bowl halftime look like a high school talent show.

I'm not sure who these girls are on the right, but they're certainly capturing the Olympic spirit.

2008 Chinese guys in white outfits are arranged in perfect concentric circles across the stadium floor. Now they're sprinting across the floor in alternating rows. BC: One false move and we're talking about some smashed craniums here!

OK, I'm turning this off-- the performers are walking sideways and upside-down around a giant globe-lamp. I'll let you know when the sports start.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

PavanoWatch III

Another nice job by Carl "Idle" Pavano tonight. The $11,000,000 man pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and fanning four. Hopefully he'll be following Sir Hughes over to Scranton sometime soon... Phil allowed one run and three hits over 4 2/3 tonight against the dreaded PawSox.

Of course, the press was all over the Health Fair angle for Pavano's start tonight. Too bad I broke the story yesterday, punks!

"One World One Dream"

Be sure to check in often for top-notch Beijing Olympics coverage here at Lee's Steez. I might not have cable, but I still get NBC...

I'll be on location in Oklahoma City next week for a portion of the Olympiad. I was also out there for the World Cup a couple of years ago, and I watched three games a day. Something about OKC just makes you want to watch sports on TV. Lots of it.

Unfortunately, my plans to cover the Games from Beijing in person were dashed by Chinese bureaucracy. An ugly incident from my past involving SUNY Geneseo property reared its ugly head, and I was denied access. Probably for the best.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

PavanoWatch II

C.P.'s movin' up to the big leagues! He's scheduled to start for the AA Trenton Thunder against the Akron Aeros tomorrow night in, um, Trenton. In what could be the most appropriate promotion night of the year, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield will be conducting an on-site "Health Fair" during the game. I'm assuming Carl will be available for autographs (casts, 'scripts, etc.)

Pavano's second start for Charleston over the weekend wasn't too shabby: 3 IP, 1 ER, 0 BB. The RiverDogs had a funny promotion of their own a few nights prior to this game-- lucky fans (males) were offered a free prostate exam upon arrival at the stadium. I kid you not.

Speaking of not kidding, looks like Pavano and Hughes could be a lot more important than we thought. With Joba's recent injury, the Yanks are certain to give the gimpy gents a go. Hughes is pitching for AAA Scranton tomorrow night against the PawSox.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

A Team in Decline

[WCBS radio broadcast of Yankees @ Rangers, 8/5/08]

8:06 Suzyn Waldman is relaying the news about Joba's shoulder: he had an MRI today, and he's flying down to Alabama to see Dr. James Andrews tomorrow. Hmm... that's a bit like following up "Officer, what are the results of my breathalyzer test?" with "Sir, please put your hands behind your back."

8:10 Suzyn- "You'd love to shuffle around the rotation so we don't have two kids pitching back-to-back..." Good luck with that one. Next you can solve the Königsberg Bridge problem.

8:15 Sterling's already stammering away. He topped himself over the weekend with "It's an I.B.R. for Aybar!"

8:16 Give 'im credit-- he did call the Yankee loss last night immediately after Marte walked the leadoff guy. John's good like that.

8:20 Jeez, Hamilton just blasted one. Can somebody please test this guy's urine? Or can someone at least slip something illegal into it?

8:30 I love how Suzye's always saying, "Well, it's just like how so-and-so was telling me the other day..." where so-and-so is some major league player or coach. Isn't that part of her job? Does she have to make it sound like she just happened to be chatting with these guys?

8:33 Sterling- "You know Sexson... terrible numbers, a million strikeouts."

8:42 You can't really blame Cano for booting that one-- apparently the ball "serpentined" at him.

8:52 How many double plays can we possibly hit into tonight?

9:05 I guess we can hit into a few more...

9:14 Pettitte's thrown about 400 pitches already.

9:15 You know, listening to Sterling is almost like being at the game... if you have crappy right field upper deck seats. Every ball that's hit hard in the air might be a home run, and you can't tell until it's either caught or already gone.

9:18 Funny, when you listen to games you tend to picture the guys sucking even worse then they really are. A groundout to short becomes Cano lazily loping down to first base; a popup becomes A-Rod wildly lunging at the ball. Actually, these aren't so farfetched at all.

9:21 We just had the brilliant idea of taking sleeping pills and redecorating the living room. Hallelujah!

9:24 Not having a giant television in your living room allows for a frightening amount of creativity. It's like your 4th grade art teacher saying, "Draw a self portrait, but don't draw your head in between your shoulders."

9:28 The NYC Board of Ed budget cuts are really getting scary. Teachers just found out that their annual personal supply allowances have been cut nearly in half. The UFT presented this as a huge victory, like "coulda been a lot worse!" This is, of course, on top of the massive cuts to schools' budgets as a whole. Hopefully the effort to make all schoolwork electronic will take shape quickly, as schools will be unable to afford books, paper, pens, and possibly teachers.

9:38 Classic Sterling-- "It is high, it is far, it is... caught, no it's dropped!"

9:51 Wow, Ambien really makes you think you can move giant dressers all by yourself, or that your arm can actually reach 7 feet under the bed to switch plugs in a pesky outlet. If bursts of adrenaline give people in terrible disasters a burst of physical strength powerful enough to lift a truck off a child's crushed leg, then tabs of Ambien merely give you the belief that you can lift a bookshelf all by yourself, without any of the incredible strength necessary to do it. It's like decorating your home during a high profile mine disaster rescue effort-- hopefully my CD player won't disappear down a dark shaft in a cloudy explosion.

10:09 Amazing how Mizz M can see exactly what looks right in the room. She walks around, moves a few lamps, arranges a couple of knickknacks, and the room looks a lot better than it did an hour ago. Pieces have new functions, places have clear reasons, and some stupid crap of mine is politely shown the door. All in good taste.

10:23 Something's working here... I just reconnected the stereo in a new spot, and the new speaker positions are right on. "3000" from Dr. Octagon proved that point quite nicely.

10:27 Whoa! The Mizz is going out for a PinkBerry run! That leaves me alone to (1) take over decorating duties & ideas (2) keep fingers available for the report (3) keep an eye on LJ (4) Yankee game... Yankee Game!!!! I gotta get it together here!

10:33 OK, bases loaded with one out, down 3 runs. DOUBLE PLAY! Nothing's changed at all! I should go back to hanging pictures in the hallway.

10:40 If you really want to feel at ease, drop in on your child while he/she is fast asleep for the night. The mere sight makes every one of your problems that seem so complicated and crazy look as simple as pie. Nothing to it.

10:50 Whoa, just got sidetracked playing Scramble. I was collecting words at about one-third my normal speed, which is a very low speed.

10:52 I guess the Rangers scored a few runs while I was trying to spell "GNEIST" and "QUARZA" (not only was I trying to score these words, I was also desperately trying to spell them correctly.). It's now 8-2.

10:59 The MLB Gameday is actually pretty cool. I just watched a vector-driven rendering of A-Rod getting beaned by the Ranger picher. Kinda fun. If you use the 360 degree controls for the batters's box (which I always do), you can create some cool, although confusing, alternative views of the game. Or you can just listen to John and Suzyn.

11:05 My wife just got back with the goods! Delicious PinkBerry Yogurt with all sorts of toppings, like-- wait, Sexson just smashed a grand slam!!! We're only down by 2! Yep, still tastes real good.

11:36 Four double plays and three moved tables later, the Yankees finally lost. They're looking like a team that can't keep up with teams they're slightly better than, also known as a team in decline.

I'm glad it's not my job to fix all the shit that's wrong right now. It's enough of a job just to talk about it.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Angels with dirty faces

Wow, the Yanks are in the middle of a pretty sweet comeback. Good thing, 'cause our friends have lost 5 of their last 7 games.

John Sterling missed the perfect chance to debut a home run call for Xavier Nady in the seventh. He never prepared a zinger ahead of time? I thought of several before Nady even rounded the bases:

"X marks the spot!!!"
"Rated X for nudity and sexual situations!!!"
"Terminator X-- yellin' with his hands!!!"
"The X-Man demonstrates his special, freakish power!!!"

They gotta do something about Giambi. He's absolutely awful at first base-- he screws up a lot more than the boxscore will tell you. Missed scoops, bad throws, no range... always dangerous. Throw in the fact that he's batting .200 in his last 20 games, and it's time for a break.

Whoops!! Grand slam by Teixeira. There goes that amazing comeback.

Well, looks like Farnsworth is up to his old tricks in Detroit. Tampa Bay scores three in the 8th with two dongs off Kyle.