Giants Lose to Undefeated Pats

I was really happy and proud of how the New York Giants played last night against the undefeated New England Patriots. They played as aggressive as I've seen them all season long. Eli was accurate, outplayed Tom Brady and didn't make a lot of mistakes - besides the one INT he had.

And if it wasn't for some poor calls and non calls by the referees, who let the Pats get away with murder on a number of occassions - Rodney Harrison is a dirty, dirty player - I think that the Giants could have won tonight. The refs were just absolutely atrocious from calling phantom holding penalties and personal fouls on the Giants to allowing the Patriots to get away with poking the Giants in the eye, hitting them out of bounds and a number of other poor calls. It was apparent that the NFL wanted the Pats to go undefeated. Many of the 15 people who were over our place last night - many who are not Giants fans - agreed with me.

Whatever the case may be, I think there were a lot of positives that came out of this moral victory and it will bode well for the G-Men in their playoff game next week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Go Giants!!

A Sad Day

I watched Jim Leyritz hit that big, big homerun - probably one of the biggest homeruns I've ever seen -- against the Atlanta Braves in game 4 of the 1996 World Series. The Yankees were trailing the series 2-1 and Leyritz's 3-run homerun pretty much resurrected the team, helping them win their first series since 1978. I've heard Leyritz speak about that moment since then and he definitely believes that was the defining moment of his career.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the defining moment of his life as today he was charged with DUI manslaughter after killing a woman while driving his car under the influence. My thoughts and praying go out to the family of the woman who was killed.

God sure is humbling.

Behind the Music: Kitty Terrorists

Bella Sparxx and Thunder Bolt came from humble roots. Both grew up in small suburban New Jersey communities with a love of music. Thunder started playing the electric guitar at the tender age of 3. Bella began her crooning as soon as she could speak recording such pop favorites as "Oops, I did it in my diaper again" and "Crawl"

Years later, the two future superstars met and fell in love at the University of Maryland. They soon began sharing their joint passion for music and started a band called Savage Animal. After graduating from college, the band had a few unsuccessful stints in small nightclubs around the country before a freak eel-related death of the band's lead singer, Sebastian Bonaparte, put the future of the band in jeopardy. After a year of deliberation, Bella and Thunder decided to continue to perform in Sebastian's memory going on to form the Kitty Terrorists.

The Kitty Terrorists began their tour of the country yesterday playing such hits as Weezer's Say it Ain't So and Nirvana's In Bloom to a sold out New York crowd. Time with tell if the band's instant success will lead to plenty of mind bending drugs, debauchery and sex with fish.

Note from The Paperboy: Yes, I received XBox 360's Rock Band, the newest rhythm-based game, for Christmas and my wife and I are already nuts over it.

Walk Out of the Movie Theater: The Dewey Cox Story

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. After we spent the day with our family, we went to the movies to see Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story...and it nearly ruined our nice Christmas.

It was quite possibly the worst movie I've ever seen before. I can't even explain how bad it was. There were a few laughs, and while the movie tried to be a Naked Gun type of movie it was just god awful in every way possible. We didn't leave early, but I definitely wanted to.

Giants Clinch 3rd Straight Playoff Appearance

As they have all season, the Giants used a strong running game and a great defensive effort to win a game. Today against the Buffalo Bills, the Giants won 38-21 despite fighting off the rain, snow, hurricane force winds and a another subpar effort by QB Eli Manning. How anyone could live in Buffalo is beyond me.

I don't even know what to say about Eli. He's shown flashes of being a great QB in many games in his 4 yard career, but he put up another horrible game today against the Bills, throwing for a little over 100 yards, 2 interceptions and 2 fumbles - one which wasn't his fault.

It seems like every game he fumbles at least once and it's definitely something that is disconcerting. It's obvious that around the 2nd quarter, the Giants coaches realized that Eli wasn't going to win the game for him so they went exclusively to the running game.

And it turned out to work for the G-Men as the Bills couldn't stop Brandon Jacobs or 7th round draft pick Ahmad Bradshaw - the second coming of Tiki Barber - at all. On the day, Jacobs racked up 145 yards including a 43 TD rumble. He was outdone by Bradshaw who ran for 151 yards, including an awesome 88 yard TD sprint.

Next week will be tough with the Giants going against the 15-0 New England Patriots. It'll be interesting to see if the team rest Plaxico Burress and the rest of their injured players. I think that they should.

After that it's off to face the Tampa Bay Bucaneers on January 5th in the first round of the playoffs. Anything's possible in that game, but Eli better shape up fast if the team has any chance at all at advancing deep into the playoffs.

Entertain Me ...with Juno

I don't remember the last time that I eagerly anticipated a movie as much as I anticipated Juno. Usually when I have high expectations for a movie - or anything these days for that matter - I end up being tremendously disappointed. I'm happy to say that last night, the wife and I saw Juno with Smelmooo and Tangent Woman and I thought that the movie was really great.

I'm a crazy person when it comes to liking films and usually end up feeling a lot of movies are just blah and tremendously overhyped. It's been awhile since I truly saw a movie that I truly loved. I must say that I loved Juno.

I thought that the script was both witty and emotional. The acting was excellent. The plot was interesting. And I thought that Ellen Page who played Juno MacGuff was tremendous.

I highly recommend Juno to anyone looking for a good flick. I honestly think it's the movie of the year.

Ruin Tony Romo!

I hate Tony Romo and everything that the little bastard stands for, so I wanted to pass this funny website on: http://www.ruinromo.com/.

I don't know what it is about him.

Maybe it's his stupid little smile or his unorthodox throwing style that has made him success in his first two years as the Cowboys QB.

Maybe it's the fact that I hate the Cowboys.

Maybe it's the fact that you just know he was the type of kid who had his chocolate milk stolen in kindergarten and was the type of kid that took many face plants into his locker in high school.

Or maybe it's just the fact that he makes milions of dollars a year and bangs any blond country singer that moves.

Simply put, I hate the little bastard. So, I implore you to join the campaign to ruin Tony Romo!

Is That Winstrol in Your Pocket ...

When I was growing up I watched Nails – Lenny Dykstra – patrol centerfield for the New York Mets. He was awesome to watch, but everyone knew he was on something.

I saw the A's Bash Brothers smash their steroid induced biceps into each other after each homerun.

When I was in college, like the rest of the country, I eagerly watched and rooted for Mark McGwire in his pursuit of the Maris homerun record.

I named countless fantasy baseball teams Roid Rage because I thought it was funny.

Everyone knew that steroids and other performance enhancing drugs were a part of baseball in the 1990s and early 2000s. And no one – who had the responsibility and ability to do so (like the Commissioner of Baseball) did anything about it. It's a simple fact and that's why I have no idea why it's such a big deal now.

Listen, I think that taking steroids and HGH is simply disgusting. But it’s a fact of life that when you have millions of dollars separating punch and judy hitters from big bashers, athletes are going to try to get that edge. ...Even if their balls shrink up as a result.

If athletes don’t care about their bodies, why the fuck should I care about them. My role as a fan isn’t to be the moral compass for athletes or to say that athletes are my idols and should make a good example for young kids. It's to root for my favorite team.

This Mitchell Report “scandal” is the latest in the “fake outrage news” that seems to be so prevalent these days where people cry “Why….why!!! when they should be worrying about things that make a real difference in our lives. ...like What’s going in Iraq lately? How are those poor people still doing in New Orleans? Does any of this matter anymore?

Yes, I know that Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and a number of former Yankees were named in the report and I’m not trying to bury that fact in this blog. What most people fail to realize is that while there were former Yankees in the report many of them weren’t even freaking Yankees when these alleged acts happened. And because of that performance enhancing drugs had little to no effect on the team’s dynasty in the late 90s.

On his NY Daily News blog (http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/yankees), Yankees writer Mark Feinsand made this point more concisely then I could so I’ll just quote what he said in his blog: “People will make up their own minds when it comes to these players. But what about the teams they played for? A look at the four Yankees title teams in the Joe Torre era show several players in this report on those rosters: 1996: Andy Pettitte; 1998: Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, Mike Stanton, Darren Holmes; 1999: Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, Roger Clemens, Mike Stanton, Jason Grimsley, Daniel Naulty; 2000: Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, Roger Clemens, Mike Stanton, Jason Grimsley, David Justice, Jose Canseco, Glenallen Hill, Denny Neagle. That looks pretty bad. But is it? According to the report, Knoblauch’s first purchase of HGH came in 2001. That would mean he was clean during the title years. Same with Justice, who reportedly didn’t meet Kirk Radomski until after the 2000 World Series. Pettitte’s usage was in 2002, according to the report, while Hill’s purchase from Radomski came in 2001, after he had left the Yankees.”

I couldn’t have said it better.

The Exciting Conclusion to My Poker Cliffhanger

Here's my conclusion to what loyal reader Chosen One calls a cliffhanger...

Before my friend went all-in, I looked at him and told him to think back to two years ago to try to figure out what I had. People laughed at my comment at the time. After my friend went all-in, the comment was thrown right back in my face and I was faced with a big decision to make. Part of me knew that my friend was an aggressive player and wasn't calling my $5 turn bet with just a K and a lower card.

I sat back for at least a minute to try to figure out what to do. There was a 7, 9, 10, Q and J on the board. There was no flush possibility. No full house possibility. The only card that could have hurt me was a King and any other card.

In the end, I honestly thought that he didn't have a King because of the way he played the hand. And even if he did have a King to beat me with a higher straight, I was happy that I had a great night with some old friends and could stand to lose only about $10 on the night. What's $10 to a millionaire anyway, right? ...kidding.

So, I called my friend's $14.50 bet making the pot more than $45. I immediately turned over my 6,8 offsuit and my friends reaction before he turned over his cards told me that my low straight was good.

Here were his two cards.

The cards gave him 2-pair Jacks over 9s and I took home a sizable pot to end the night!

Poker Scenario

I played poker with some old friends last Wednesday and ended up with an interesting hand at the end of the night. We played a range of games during the night including pot limit Hold Em, Screw Thy Neighbor, Queen and the Follow, Baseball, Omaha and Auction. Near the end of the night as people started to get loopy so we played a bunch of hands of pot-limit hold 'em....and that's where it really got interesting.

In what turned out to be the last hand of the night, I got 6, 8 offsuit on the button.

It's a hand that I normally never play, but with the 25 cent ante and only needing to call an extra 50 cent raise, I kept the hand. And it turned out to be the right move as I got a great flop:

With four cards to a straight, I decided to play aggressively and when it was checked around to me, I bet $1 into the $1.75 pot. Everyone called my and then I caught my straight!

Once again, everyone checked around to me. This time, I wasn't shy about betting and put $5 into a $6.75 pot. Everyone folded except one of my friends who I hadn't played poker with in two years. He thought about it for 1-2 minutes and then decided to call my $5 bet.

I was hoping that the last card wouldn't be close to the ones currently on the board as I was worried about getting beat by a higher straight, but alas my fears were realized.

My friend thought about it for another minute and then went all-in with $14.50 of his money to make the pot more than $31 dollars. I had $29 left in front of me and was basically up $9 on the night. What could my friend possibly have? Should I call his $14.50 all-in? Did that Jack improve his hand? Was he holding A,K or K,Q to give him a better straight than me? Or did he have me beat all along and was I just basically throwing my money away?

What would you do in my position? Tune in tomorrow for the mind bending conclusion to my tale.

Entertain Me With Mass Effect

When I first got Mass Effect for the Xbox 360, I wasn’t impressed at all with it.

The story was good. It was fun to pick certain responses to conversations and questions like you were playing an interactive Choose Your Own Adventure book from back in the 1980s. But I felt from the start that the game suffered from difficulty in aiming and shooting your weapons, various graphical glitches and some issues I had with the controller.

Then when I got 10 hours or so into the game, I fell in love with it and started talking to my friends about how it should take home the Game of the Year honors versus such critically lauded successes as BioShock and Halo 3. The story was still great, the weapons started to get better – almost too good as you didn’t even have to aim any longer – and I had forgotten about the graphical glitches. I felt like my decisions made a difference in how the story played out.

I finished the game this weekend and in the end, I felt less than excited about it. The game took 20 hours to complete, which is about double a normal game, but still wasn’t up to snuff with the length of other roleplaying games like Oblivion and Blue Dragon.

Over the course of the last few weeks I have been switching back and forth between playing Mass Effect and Blue Dragon. I’ll be back soon with a full review of Blue Dragon, but I can tell you now, I have enjoyed playing Blue Dragon more than I have enjoyed playing Mass Effect.

Mass Effect was a great game – don’t get me wrong – but I just felt completely unfulfilled at the end of the game. That shouldn’t happen with a Game of the Year. …Back in a few with a Blue Dragon review and at the end of the month with my Game of the Year blog.

Giants Break Wind Against Redskins

The Giants do not look like a team that is 9-5. And they are team that will do nothing in the playoffs, in the event that they actually do make the playoffs.

Eli was terrible, but so were the rest of the Giants. Last night, in a windy Meadowlands, the Giants did everything wrong. They could not catch the ball to save their lives. Eli threw 34 incomplete passes, half of which were bad throws, half that were knocked down by the wind and the other half that were just bad, bad drops by Toomer, Jacobs, Matthews and a slew of other Giants. How many halves is that?

And Shockey broke his leg and is out for the season....Could it get any worse?

Never fear Smelmooo....I'm sure you'll see a full 10 page blog comment from the Chosen One about the game. Does Blogspot have a limit to words you can write in the comment section. I hope so.

Our Annual Holiday Sojourn to NYC

The wife and I took our annual holiday sojourn into the City yesterday and saw the tree at Rockerfeller Center, the Bryant Park outdoor mall, FAO Schwartz and the Christmas windows for Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord and Taylor's. ...along with 2 billion other people.

We also had a star sighting at FAO Schwartz as we saw Hillary Swank picking out a toy with a little kid. My wife was star struck and for me it was pretty interesting to see a celebrity in person in a normal person place.

A Proposal for the Chosen One

Chosen One,

Since you so loyally read my blog on a daily basis, I'm going to offer you the chance of a lifetime. If the Redskins beat the Giants this weekend, I won't write a blog about the game. What I will do is give you the exclusive chance to hijack Deliveries from the Paperboy for one blog entry so you can write your thoughts on the game.

Of course, I need something in return if the Giants do end up beating the Redskins like they should. Any thoughts on my end of the bet and are you interested in this deal?

-Paperboy

Go Elf Yourself!

Merry Christmas to Everyone. Check out this funny link of me and Megan dancing like freaking elfs: www.elfyourself.com/?id=1366184503

Giants Sweep Season Series Vs. Eagles

While the Giants defense didn't rack up 12 sacks like they did last time against the Eagles, they did come up big once again in yesterday’s 16-13 win against the Philadelphia Eagles. The team got some luck when Brian Westbrook fumbled for the first time in 550+ attempts and a double dose of luck after David Akers clanged a 56 yard FG off the right post.

In the end though, I really think it was a game that the Giants should have blown out the Eagles. The problem though was that once the offense got within the Eagles 20 yard line, they failed to score on 3 out of 4 occasions.

Despite their ineptness in the Red Zone, tEli played well connecting with his favorite target Plaxico Burress. Burress, who has suffered a number of subpart games as of late due to a nagging ankle injury, came up big with 130+ receiving yards and 1 TD. If he was at full strength, he definitely could have taken home two more TDs.

I’m still not completely comfortable with this team, especially in the playoffs, but a win is a win and with a 9-4 record the Giants are one of the Top 10 teams in the league. Next week, we face the Todd Collins’-led – Todd Collins? – Redskins in a very winnable game.

Is it me or doesn’t Todd Collins look like Tim Couch? Hopefully, he plays better than Tim Couch next week.

Smelmooo's Guinea Pig Dinner

We went to Smelmooo and Tangent Woman's famous Guinea Pig dinner for the second straight year on Saturday night and really enjoyed ourselves.

Smelmooo and Tangent Woman host a Guinea Pig dinner every year with their closest of the mostest friends to be test subjects for their family XMAS party each year. This year, the menu featured Prime Rib, Mac and Cheese with Lobster, Shrimp and Crabmeat, Sausage Stuffing and various other things. For the appetizers there was dates filled with bread crumbs and goat cheese, shrimp cocktail and other various cheeses. The dates filled with bread crumbs and goat cheese appetizer was definitely one flavor that I had never experienced before.

And let me just tell you about the Mac and Cheese with Seafood. ... It might have been one of the best things I've ever eaten. It definitely made its way onto my final meal on Death Row menu along with Cluck U Chicken and Cherry Coke.

Hopefully this awesome review and my everlasting bond with Smelmooo will get us invited back to next year's Guinea Pig dinner.

In Response to the Chosen One

Chosen One,

As a world famous journalist - you can tell by the high number of traffic received on this blog - I usually do not respond directly to comments posted on my blog by web surfers, but I figured that I would respond to your comment.

I have posted 3 blogs about Giants losses before and was planning to post a blog after the terrible Giants loss to the Minnesota Vikings, but didn't feel up to it. I was royally pissed after Eli's 4 picks, 3 of which were returned for TDs as you surely saw. Eli has had some good games this year, he's had some average ones and he's had some bad ones. The game against the Vikings was a horrific one and he continued that horrific streak in the first 3 quarters against the Bears before he staged a tremendous comeback - the eighth comeback win in his 28 wins as the Giants QB.

Before it's all said and done, he'll be the best QB in Giants history. Mark it down.

I hope this answers your question.

-The 30 Year Old Paperboy

Don't Trade Phil Hughes

I know Johan Santana is one of the best pitchers in baseball, but I don't want to trade Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera and a third player for him. I'm tired for trading promising prospects for a pitcher that will give us a couple good years and then fall off. I'm just tired of it.

I hope the Yankees stick to their self imposed deadline and move on. I don't even care if the Red Sox get him. The Red Sox are just turning into the Yankees of 2000 by trying to compile a team of All Stars. Screw 'em and stick to your guns Yanks!

Eli Overcomes an UnBearable 3 Quarters

The Giants won a game today against the Chicago Bears that they had no business winning. For 3 quarters, Eli Manning played like absolute garbage. Derrick Ward coughed up the ball a bunch of times. It was a complete nightmare that I almost turned off. But through it all the Giants' solid defense keep the team's anemic offense in the game against the mediocre Bears.

Then in the fourth quarter, the Giants went to the no-huddle offense and like he did last year, Eli stepped it up. In the no-huddle offense - which during the past two seasons Eli has run with ease - Manning led the Giants on two late scoring drives to lead the team to a 21-16 win over the Bears.

Things would have been rough in New York this week on the team and definitely on Eli if they hadn't won. Hopefully the Giants coaching staff will lighten up and start running the no huddle offense in future weeks as for some reason it's something that Eli runs particularly well.

As I said at the beginning, this was absolutely positively a game that the Giants should have not won. And one that I was still planning to blog on if they had lost. ... But they didn't lose and at 8-4 the team finds itself with a 2 game lead in the Wild Card race.

Yes, It is My Birthday

As Eddie Murphy so adequately stated in Coming to America...."Yes, it is my birthday."

Well, my 20s are gone and my 30s are here. Unfortunately, I'm working today and going to a bunch of meetings when all I wanted to do today was play videogames and watch Season 2 of Entourage. You can see my maturity level has risen exponentially now that I'm in my 30s, huh?

I thought a lot about my 30 year old Birthday blog and while I really don't want to be completely self serving, I wanted to write a few lines about what I did in the first 30 years of my life. Hopefully this is only Chapter 1 of the 3 Chapters of my life. 30 down...and 60 to go...

In the first thirty years of my life...

• I wrote two short stories named The Heist and Freshmeat and never finished either of them.
  
• From the ageds of 15-25, I wrote over 500 poems to woo the ladies


• I met and interviewed Larry Bird, Teddy Atlas, Jim Harrick, Jalen Rose, Bill Rafferty, Gary Williams and a host of student athletes and college coaches.


• I graduated from the University of Maryland; the only college I ever wanted to go to.


• I've made great friends and I've lost great family members.


• I saw one of the greatest games in Yankees and maybe baseball postseason history when Aaron Boone hit a blast off Tim Wakefield in the bottom of the 11th inning of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS.


• I was alive for 6 Yankees World Championships and 2 Giants Superbowl Championships.


• I have worked at Davy's Hot Dogs, Bill Clinton's White House, the US Naval Academy, Ketchum PR, Weber McGinn PR, SheaHedges Group, Schoor DePalma, H&G Public Affairs and a score of summer temp jobs.

I've loved and lived a lot and I know that I still have a whole lot living to do. And I'm going to work hard as hell to make the next 30 years even better than the last 30.

Thanks to my wife, my family and my awesome friends for making the first 30 years of my life truly memorable.

Great Experience Today

I took an awesome Franklin Covey course today about setting priorities and really came out of it with a lot of helpful tips on how to prioritize and put importance on the people, tasks and other things in my personal and professional life.

My boss has been really stressing me out lately and after taking this class, I'm definitely going to use the lessons learned from this class to say to him the next time he pisses me off:

"Well, I locked the Sunshine Square deal yesterday, so now I have them helping with the arbitration, and I'd appreciate it if you let me handle my own team, and don't get on my ass every time I'm trying to do something."

Anyone get the movie reference there?

Entertain Me...With American Gangster.

I aided and abetted a criminal tonight.

My wife's friend brought over a bootleg copy of American Gangster tonight and we were totally excited to watch it as we were already planning on going to the movies this week to see the movie that everyone has been talking about. Guess, that is pretty good evidence of the effect that bootlegging and Bittorrent has on Hollywood.

Well..as you might expect, the movie wasn't everything we thought it would be. For the first hour or so, the movie was just okay. I really couldn't tell where it was going and everyone else seemed to be equally confused by the movie...then about an 1 1/2 hours into the movie, it completely stopped. I'm not sure what happened to it. I guess it wasn't worth it to watch a bootleg copy of American Gangster.

For the kids out there, it's wrong to steal. It's BAD!!!

Anyway, I might watch the second half of American Gangster when it comes out legally on DVD, but I totally wasn't enthralled with the first part of it tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving...a Day Later

Happy Birthday to Smelmooo

Happy Birthday to my boy Smelmooo. It's not every day that someone turns 50. Congrats buddy.

Giants Take Down God Led Lions

Why God! Why did you let Jon Kitna lose to the Giants! Especially when he clearly believes that the Lions are a better team than the Giants! Why have you forsaken Jon Kitna, God!

Some of you might know that Jon Kitna is a born again Christian and single handily turned 40+ of his teammates toward Christianity. So you have to be wondering what Kitna thought yesterday after he threw 3 interceptions, two of which were late in the game when the Lions had the chance to win.

Maybe he thought that the devil had something to do with it when he said after yesterday's 16-10 loss to the Giants: "That is not a better football team than us," Kitna said. "We gave them the football game today. We gave it away. We had mental errors. We beat ourselves.

As he came off the field after throwing his 3rd pick, you could clearly see him screaming "Why!"... Why God have you forsaken Jon Kitna!

Nice effort by the Giants defense yesterday, but the offense still had a long way to go. The Giants lost Kiwanuka for the year with a broken leg and lost Jacobs for the game with a pulled hamstring, but I'm hoping he's back next week against the Vikings.

A Birthday Party for the Ages

My wife threw me a 30th birthday party last night and it was an awesome time. About 30 people showed up and the night was full of big trays of Italian food, loud music, spontaneous dance parties, poker tournaments, Guitar Hero faceoffs and drunken games of Cranium. My wife did an amazing job planning the party and all of the credit goes to her for making it my best birthday of all time.

I Love Alex Rodriguez

Someone once said: "If you want something very, very badly, let it go free. If it comes back to you, it's yours forever. If it doesn't, it was never yours to begin with."

After Alex Rodriguez opted out of his Yankee contract a couple weeks ago, I was inconsolable. I couldn't believe it happened because I bought into what Alex said the whole season about wanting to be a Yankee. I bought into it when he was hitting clutch home runs during the regular season to keep the Yankees in contention. I bought into it when he hit his 500th homerun at Yankee Stadium and the crowd went nuts. I bought into it when it finally seemed like he was accepted by the New York fans; people who had booed him for three years whenever he made an out.

And when he opted out during the World Series, I promised I would never root for him again. I told anyone that listened that I hated Alex Rodriguez...I was in the verge of either setting my Alex Rodriguez T-Shirt on fire or cutting it up into 1,000 shreds.

..but I refrained from destroying the shirt because I held out hope...And sure enough, the prodigal son has returned with his Yankees hat in his hand and I love Alex Rodriguez again.

When I heard yesterday that Alex was meeting with the Steinbrenners and basically pleading to come back - if you can call getting a 10 year, $275 million contract begging and pleading - I was overjoyed. I read every single article I could find on the Internet, which was difficult as I was doing it from my Blackberry as I was waiting for my plane to leave Orlando.

Alex knew that his long-time agent and the devil's right hand man Scott Boras has made a mistake when he opted out. So he did the only thing that he had to do to get the Yankees to re-sign him by making a plea through third parties to get in touch with the Yankees. He told the Steinbrenners that he always wanted to be a Yankee and made a mistake. And now, Alex is on the verge of signing the biggest contract in sports history.

He's a Yankee for life and God am I happy about it.

I Hate Air Travel

For anyone who read my vacation blog back in July, you know that I hate air travel. Well, now I hate it more. ...

Apparently the TSA is now stereotyping guineas with slicked back hair, because as I was going through security at the Orlando airport last night, my bag was searched (Good thing I left my speedballs in Miami). The bald headed TSA security agent told me I couldn't take my full bottle of hair gel onto the airplane because it was over the allowable number of ounces. I guess that extra 1 oz makes a difference in building a bomb.

In only a way that I could do, I then made a joke and told the security agent that he didn't even need the hair gel because he didn't have any hair. He laughed, but he still took it from me.

By the time I got home, my awesome wife had already purchased a new bottle of hair gel. Rest assured that I'll surely be expensing the $2.79 in lost income and bill it to United States Department of Homeland Security.

It's all part of the bullshit, false sense of security against the TERRORISTS that is perpetrated by the pinheads in DC.

Interesting Article

Guys & their games…
By Margot Carmichael Lester

Here are the facts, ladies. Two-thirds of all men in television-owning households between the ages of 18 and 34 have videogame consoles, according to media research company, Nielsen. That means your chances of going with a gaming guy are pretty high. What can his choice of gaming system tell you about him? We convened a panel of experts to give you the scoop:

Carl Arinoldo, Long Island, NY-based psychologist
Ed Magnin, chairman, Game & Simulation Programming, DeVry University’s Dallas Metro campus
Ted Owen, CEO, GGL, an online gaming network in Santa Monica, CA
Shane Satterfield, editor-in-chief, Santa Monica-based GameTrailers.com, an online gaming site

Q: What does a PlayStation reveal about a dude?Arinoldo: The PlayStation 3 may indicate that the user is any “early-adopter,” someone who likes to be the first on the block to have things. Owning the PS3 may also send the message that the person may have deep pockets. Owen: This is your 21st-century individual who enjoys gaming and demands the best out of his experience—and probably his women. The PS3 guy enjoys life to its fullest. He is sophisticated, intelligent, enjoys competition and is willing to wait for a good thing. He is loyal as well. Satterfield: This guy is in the know. He knows the right people, goes to the best restaurants and doesn’t wait in line to get into the club. This guy will be difficult to keep up with, as he is always working. When he’s not, he uses videogames as a chance to unwind and relax.

Q. What does a Wii tell a gal about her potential date?Owen: That he is selfish about his passion, but he knows the Wii is acceptable because of its social interaction functionality. He is smart enough to find a way to continue to game and not scare his date away. Magnin: Wii says he’s a fun guy. The Wii-mote will force him to get up off the couch and actually get a little exercise while he’s playing. Of all of the consoles, the Wii is probably the best date machine, as a lot more of the games appeal to both sexes. Challenge him to a game of tennis or bowling. Satterfield: This guy is not the typical slack-jawed, bleary-eyed gamer who wants to sit on the couch staring blankly at the screen for hours on end. You can rest assured that this type of guy is smart with his money as the Wii is only $250 compared to $399 for the Xbox 360 and $599 for the PlayStation.

Q. And what does the Xbox divulge about its owner?Arinoldo: There is a wide variety of games available through the Xbox 360... so one may be better able to find games in common with a significant other who may not be an avid gamer. Preferring the Xbox 360 may say that the owner is willing to play cooperatively. Magnin: Xbox 360 says he’s probably into serious gaming. Take a look at his game stats. Ask him to show you how many hours he spent playing his favorite games. Many guys log 100 to 200 hours on their favorite games. Satterfield: These guys tend to like extremely violent, visceral games, as well as the social aspect of connecting with friends online. They may be living out an active and social life through games, because they are a bit on the shy side. Xbox 360 fans tend to make good money and like to spend it. These guys are passionate about gaming and that transfers into the bedroom as well.

Of course, these expert opinions won’t apply to all men who own these consoles, so don’t consider them absolutes. But they should help you gain some solid clues about that videogame-playing guy you’re seeing.

North Carolina-based freelancer Margot Carmichael Lester also contributes to Monster.com and The L.A. Business Journal.

Rough Loss to Cowboys

It was a rough 31-20 loss to the Cowboys yesterday and yet another game where the Giants couldn't play 2 good halfs back to back. They were great in the 1st half. Eli played well. Shockey was tearing it up and they were clearly outplaying the Cowboys. The defense had the most energy I've ever seen out of them in the first half.

There were a number of bad calls in the game like when Romo was CLEARLY past the line of scrimmage when he threw his first TD of the day. Like to the phantom holding call when Ahmad Bradshaw started the second half with a crazy 80+ yard romp. But that doesn't make up for the fact that the Giants played poorly in the second half. They killed a good drive in the 3rd quarter by stupid penalties. They made dumb mental errors all day. And Eli didn't play well at all in the 2nd half.

The Giants face playoff contender the Detroit Lions last week and we can get the ship righted with a convincing win against the Lions...even though God is clearly on Lions QB Jon Kitna's side (ESPN inside joke here.)

Entertain the Hell Out of Me...With Night Watch

My boy Smelmooo recommends movies to me on a daily basis. You could say he's my Roger Ebert ... with the same size belly. Usually though, he recommends crazy, indy movies that no one ever watches. I typically put his recommendations on my Netflix queue and in time forget why I put it on the list.

Well, last week he recommended Night Watch and told me it was a Russian action flick that I had to watch. I normally hate - with a passion - movies that have subtitles so I figured that I wouldn't watch it. When I was on Netflix last night though, I saw that I could watch it instantly on Netflix.com - probably one of the greatest inventions of all time - so I went ahead and started watching it.

To give you a little background on the movie: Night Watch -- or Nochnor Dozor if you're a Communist -- is the "first installment of the trilogy based on the best-selling science fiction novels by Russian writer Sergei Lukyanenko. [The movie] plays upon the tension between light and dark, pitting the superhuman Night Watch patrollers (known as the "Others") against the shadowed forces of the night. But the biggest fear of all stems from the lines of an ancient prophecy, which warns of a renegade Other whose betrayal could bring chaos to the land."

Sounds pretty far fetched huh? Well, just try to watch the movie and you'll quickly realize that it's like nothing - AND I MEAN NOTHING -- that you have ever seen before. Simply put, Night Watch is the most unique, emotional and mind bending movie I've ever seen in my life.

It is different in every single way from anything you've seen in the past...from the movie score that heats up during intense action scenes, to the wide array of camera angles in scenes to the crazy, mind defying vision of the film's director. After watching the movie, I can't explain any part of the story in a concise way, but I thought every single second was awesome.

Like I usually do, I want to try to compare it to other movies I've seen before -- like saying it was a cross between Blade and the Matrix and Ultraviolet -- but comparing it to yet another cookie cutter movie doesn't even do it half the justice of how awesome this movie was.

The movie was a friggin masterpiece and I can't wait to watch Day Watch - the 2nd film in the trilogy - as soon as I humanly can.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I'm in Shock Right Now....Part II

I'm in shock right now...well, not the shock I was in on October 18th, but still in shock with today's news that Joe Torre, Don Mattingly and Larry Bowa are moving from Biggie's coast to Tupac's coast to join the LA Dodgers....

What's next? A-Rod announcing that he signing a $350 million deal with the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy Softball team.

Entertain Me...With Thrillers, Comedy and Horror

Mr. Brooks - I watched Mr. Brooks last night and thought it was excellent....besides the fact that Dane Cook - who I detest - was one of the main characters in the movie. The movie surrounds a successful business man who is also a serial killer. It stars Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore and Cook among others. During the movie, William Hurt plays Kevin Costner alter-ego (or conscience) and throughout the movie Costner fights his addiction of killing people wiht Hurt playing the devil on his shoulder. I thought it was definitely a great psychological thriller. Dane Cook nearly ruined it with his horrible acting, but I recommend the movie to anyone who loves thrillers.

Curb Your Enthusiasm - I've watched new and repeat episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm the last month or so and think that it is one of the best and most underrated comedies on TV today.

When the show first came out a few years ago, I still was in the process of watching every Seinfeld episode for the 5th time in a row or so; so, I undoubtly compared the show to Seinfeld and ended up hating Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Since I started watching it recently though, I can't get enough of it. It's a laugh out loud riot. My wife, however, hates it with a passion because many of the jokes surround Larry David screaming at someone else. I'll admit, there is a ton of screaming and yelling in the show, but that doesn't stop it from being one of the funniest shows in awhile.

Saw IV - Smelmooo and I attended a viewing (I didn't want to say "saw Saw) of Saw IV last week and it was exactly what I thought it was going to be. Gore for gore sake ...and blood...and blood ...and more blood....and definitely a confusing ending that Smelmooo had to look up on the Internet afterward because we were both so confused.

Girardi Takes Number 27

I think it's awesome that Joe Girardi took Number 27 as his uniform number for the Yankees. As everyone knows, the Yankees have won 26 World Series. ...Under Girardi, hopefully they can win their 27th next October.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Joe Girardi Becomes Yankee Manager

I grew up with Don Mattingly as my idol. I own 813 single Don Mattingly cards. I'm a Mattingly fanatic; probably bordering on the stalker level.

But still, I think the hiring of Joe Girardi was the right choice for the Yankees. The team needs someone to shake them up. There's a bunch of young players who are going to be the core of the team this year and it needs someone to kick them in the ass. I'm not sure if Don Mattingly could do that.

I do think that Joe Girardi is the right person to lead the Yankees in 2008 and beyond. We'll see how it goes. It's been a weird off-season already in just a few short weeks and is only going to get much crazier.

A-Rod Opts Out

You have to question Alex Rodriguez's timing when he's announcing that he's opting out of his current contract with the Yankees on the same day that the Red Sox are sweeping the Rockies in Game 4 of the 2007 World Series. It's truly stunning timing.

Is he trying to rub salt in the wound? Does he not care about Yankees fans and did he not care about the ton of good will that he generated with Yankees fans this season?

Does he honestly believe that we believe his money grubbing agent Scott Boras when Boras says: ""Essentially Alex just didn't feel he could make any decision in the short period of time because he wanted to know the composition of the team," Boras said. "He wanted to know what Rivera and Posada and Andy Pettitte were going to do."

That's the biggest amount of bullshit I've ever heard.

If he did care about that, he would have let the Yankees select their manager (probably tomorrow) and then work to sign Posada and Rivera in the coming days. Instead, he didn't even sit down with the Yankees to discuss a contract extension. He just opted out hoping for another record contract.

In response, the new Boss Hank Steinbrenner said to the Daily News: "It's clear he didn't want to be a Yankee. He doesn't understand the privilege of being a Yankee on a team where the owners are willing to pay $200 million to put a winning product on the field. I don't want anybody on my team that doesn't want to be a Yankee."

Sounds like a gigantic line in the sand to me.

And it sounds like he certainly won't be back as a Yankee.

Congrats

I met my best friend in 1996 when we both attended the University of Maryland.

Despite the fact that I was a Yankees fan and he was a Red Sox fan, we became best friends and ended up living together for the next 7 years. ... And through those 7 years, he lived with me as the Yankees won 4 World Series.

In 1996, we lived in the same dorm room when the Yankees came back from a 2 game deficit against the Braves to win their first World Series in 15 years.

In 1998, we lived in a college suite when the 125 win Yankees swept the Braves.

Nothing changed in 1999 when the Yankees swept the Padres.

In 2000, we had graduated from college and moved onto an apartment in Arlington in time to watch the Yankees defeat their cross-town rival Mets in the World Series.

He lived through 14 straight Yankee World Series victories.

He lived through all of my gloating.

Even though we no longer live together, I had to live with it in 2004 and now I have to live with it again.

Congrats to the 2007 World Series Champion Red Sox.

Finally, the 26 Time World Series Champion Yankees have a worthy rival.

What the Hell?

I was flipping through the channels tonight and saw that there was a game between the Red Sox and Rockies being played. I didn't realize that baseball season was still going on... Weird, huh?

Entertain Me with....Twin Peaks

I always heard a lot about Twin Peaks, but never watched it.

Whenever there's a strange movie or show on TV, it's always compared to Twin Peaks, the penultimate of weird entertainment. Even though it's a show that's right in my wheelhouse - because I love shows and movies like Push Nevada, Memento, Mulholland Drive, etc - I never watched the show. Maybe it's because it was on in 1990 when I was 13 years old and my parents wouldn't allow me to watch it....there's definitely evidence in favor of this as I mentioned to my Dad the other day that I was watching Twin Peaks and he told me that it was a messed up weird show.

Anyway, Smelmooo let me borrow the 2 hour pilot of Twin Peaks and Seasons 1 and 2 a few weeks ago and I tore through the pilot and Season 1 like the murderer who tore through Laura Palmer. The wife had initially started watching the pilot with me and soon left the room as it was just a little too weird for her as well.

Despite moments that would appear to make more sense if you were stoned, I thoroughly enjoyed Season 1. While it became quickly apparent -- at least to me -- who the killer of Laura Palmer was, the producers did a wonderful job of peeling back the layers of all of the characters to reveal their true selfs and motives.

Season 1 was really great and Smelmooo tells me that the show gets progressingly more boring as Season 2 progresses, but I am still looking forward to starting Season 2. I throughly recommend Twin Peaks to anyone looking for a murder-mystery that is slightly out of the ordinary.

Brain Buster

I normally hate forwards, but I thought this was great and wanted to share. I didn't get one of these right. How did you do?

Your Yearly Dementia Test
It's that time of year to take our annual senior citizen test. Exercise of the brain is as important as exercise of the muscles. As we grow older, it's important to keep mentally alert. If you don't use it, you lose it! Below is a very private way to gauge your loss or non-loss of intelligence. Take the test presented here to determine if you're losing it or not. The spaces below are so you don't see the answers until you've made your answer. OK, relax, clear your mind and......


START......
1. What do you put in a toaster?



Answer: "bread." If you said "toast," give up now and do something else. Try not to hurt yourself.

If you said, bread, go to Question 2.

2. Say "silk" five times.
Now spell "silk."


What do cows drink?
Answer: Cows drink water.


If you said "milk," don't attempt the next question. Your brain is over-stressed and may even overheat. Content yourself with reading a more appropriate literature such as Auto World. However, if you said "water", proceed to question 3.

3. If a red house is made from red bricks and a blue house is made from blue bricks and a pink house is made from pink bricks and a black house is made from black bricks, what is a greenhouse made from?

Answer: Greenhouses are made from glass.

If you said "green bricks," why are you still reading these??? If you said "glass," go on to Question 4.


4. It's twenty years ago, and a plane is flying at 20,000 feet over Germany. (If you will recall, Germany at the time was politically divided into West Germany and East Germany.) Anyway, during the flight, two engines fail. The pilot, realizing that the last remaining engine is also failing, decides on a crash landing procedure. Unfortunately the engine fails before he can do so and the plane fatally crashes smack in the middle of "no man's land" between East Germany and West Germany. Where would you bury the survivors? East Germany,West Germany, or no man's land"?

Answer: You don't bury survivors. If you said ANYTHING else, you're a dunce and you must stop. If you said, "You don't bury survivors", proceed to the next question. 5. Without using a calculator -

You are driving a bus from London to Milford Haven in Wales.
In London, 17 people get on the bus. In Reading, six people get off the bus and nine people get on.
In Swindon, two people get off and four get on.
In Cardiff, 1 1 people get off and 16 people get on.
In Swansea, three people get off and five people get on.
In Carmathen, six people get off and three get on.
You then arrive at Milford Haven.
What was the name of the bus driver?


Answer: Oh, for crying out loud! Don't you remember your own name? It was YOU!! Now pass this along to all your friends and pray they do better than you.
PS: 95% of people fail most of the questions

Pumpkin Carving

Prior to yesterday's Giants game, the wife and I carved our Halloween pumpkins. I thought both turned out great!!

Big Blue Defense Rules Again in 33-15 Victory

It sure has been a different Giants defense since Week 2 of the NFL season.

Today against the San Francisco 49ers, the Giants defense gave up 15 points. They racked up another 6 sacks. And they terrorized backup QB Trent Dilfer all day long.

Early in the 3rd quarter, Osi Umeniyora made the play of the game forcing Niners QB Trent Dilfer to fumble. Osi then returned the ball 77 yards for a TD. At the time, the Niners were trailing by 12, but were putting together an early 2nd half scoring drive before Dilfer fumbled at the Giants 15 yard line. It was definitely the play the shored up the game for the Giants.

The Giants offense played well enough to stay ahead of the Niners inept offense the whole day. It all added up to a solid, convincing 33-15 win for the Giants against the Niners. All week long -- and probably for the last 2 weeks - the NYC media has talked about potential trap games prior to the Giants Week 9 bye.

Last week they talked about a possible loss to the Falcons in Atlanta. Didn't happen. ...

This week, the NYC media talked about how this was exactly the type of trap game that the Giants usually lose. Didn't happen this time either.

The team, lead by their stellar defense certainly has been a breath of fresh air. I've mentioned it before and I'll say it again. In the first two games, the defense gave up a ridiculous 80 points. During the Giants 5-game winning streak, the team defense has given up 53 points - not counting the 17 points the Giants gave up on special teams and blunders on offense. That's solid.

Next week, the Giants head to jolly old England to face the winless Miami Dolphins (0-7) at the new Wembley Stadium in London. Is this another potential trap game before the bye? We'll see.

I'm definitely excited about how this season is going so far for the Giants.

What I Think ...

I definitely think that the Yankees brass knew that Torre would reject the contract offer and they offered it to him to save face with Yankees fans and players so they could say that they tried to bring the manager back and Torre rejected their offer. Of course it's now backfiring on the Yankees in the eyes of the media, who are calling team officials a bunch of scumbags, but it is interesting how it turned out.

It's kinda like in High School, when you heard through the grapevine that your girlfriend was going to break up with you, so to save face you went ahead and broke up with her before she had the chance to break up with you...Not like that ever happened to me or anything ...

I'm in Shock Right Now

I am in an utter state of shock, right now. As I do on most days, I listened to WFAN in NYC all day in the hopes of hearing some news about the Joe Torre situation. Around 3 p.m., WFAN started reporting that The Newark Star Ledger was reporting that Torre was in Tampa ready to re-sign with the team. Mike and the Mad Dog talked about it for a full hour about how great it was that Torre was back. I too, was excited about it as I wanted Torre to re-sign with the team.

WFAN informed its listening audience that the Yankees had planned a conference call at 4 p.m. today and the station would play excerpts of the call after it happened. Figuing that it was a foregone conclusion, I started letting my friends, neighbors and Dad know that the Yankees were about the announce that Torre was returning.

Well, the Yankees shocked the world by announcing on the call that Torre had rejected the Yankees 1 year offer at a reduced salary. I'm sure taking a pay cut was a kick in the face for Torre and he decided to tell the Yankees to fuck off. In a way, I think it was the right move for him. The Yankees shouldn't have treated a manager that led them to 12 straight postseasons like that.

While I'm upset that he's not coming back as manager, I hope that this doesn't hurt Torre's relationship with the Yankees long term. I would really like to see them retire his No. 6 in Monument Park and have a Joe Torre Day at the Stadium, when the hubbub from this shocking announcement today dies down.

Maybe it was time for a change...but I surely wasn't ready for it.

What Yankee Brass Had for Dinner

I'm refreshing ESPN.com, NYPost.com, NYDailyNews.com every minute or so, while at the same time watching WFAN on the YES network...all while doing real work, mind you.... so I guess I'm partly to blame for the crazy coverage that this Joe Torre situation is getting the last couple days.

Member of the NY media are huddled outside the homes of Joe Torre and George Steinbrenner. They are camped out at Legends Field where internal Yankee meetings are being held to decide what the 2008 Yankees look like.

And since there hasn't been much news the last couple of days on the subject, media members have now resorted to reporting who they saw walk into the meetings, what the exact time was, who went to dinner with who the night before, what they might have discussed, what they might have worn to the dinner and if Anna Nicole Smith's ghost joined them for dessert....okay, I made that last one up.

Bottom line is that the coverage of the Torre situation this last week has been downright ridiculous. ...and no doubt due to the insatiable thirst for news on the Torre situation by millions of Yankees fans, including yours truly.

Four Years Since Boone's Historic Home Run

Four years ago today, Aaron Boone hit one of the biggest homeruns in Yankee history in Game 7 of the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox. I was at the game. And I remember that moment like it was yesterday.

I found out about going to the game the day before, took off early from work and paid $50 to attend the greatest game that I will ever attend in my life...I just didn't know it at the time.

I remember vividly that a pipe burst in NYC that day and caused tremendous backups on roads into the City. A trip that would usually have taken 1 1/2 hours tops, took 3 hours. Once we finally got into the Stadium, there was a ridiculous buzz in the air. Future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens was facing Future Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez in the game and we were sure that it was going to be a pitchers duel.

By the second inning though, Clemens was knocked out of the game - sound familiar? - and Mike Mussina came in to save the series for the Yankees.

Down by five early in the game, the Yankees started to come back led by two homeruns by Jason Giambi. The Yankees finally tied the game in the 8th inning off a bloop single by Jorge Posada and the Stadium was buzzing again.

The game didn't end until the bottom of the 11th inning when Boone took the first pitch from knuckleballer Tim Wakefield and blasted it into the night. As the pitch was leaving Wakefield's hand, I remember telling my friend Chris how much Boone sucked. The words had barely left my mouth before Boone connected with the pitch. What followed was complete and utter madness.

I have never before been in a brighter or louder place in my life. It was a truly ridiculous moment that I'll never forget. And I can't believe it's already been four years.