Giants Beat Vick-Less Falcons, 31-10

Nice 31-10 win by the Giants last night against the Michael Vick-less Falcons. It was a game thast we were supposed to win and we won it. Still though, it didn't leave a good taste in my mouth because the Giants didn't play a full 60 minutes again.

The defense played like ferocious pit bulls last night, giving up only 10 points, sacking Falcons QB Joey Harrington 4 times and pressuring him multiple times. After giving up 80 points in the first two games of the year, the defense has given up 54 points in the last four games.

On the offensive side of the ball though, the Giants offense didn't play a full 60 minutes. Eli was really great in the first half, throwing 12 consecutive completions. On the night, he threw 2 TDs and 300+ yards. He did though make 2 dumb interceptions and fumbled the ball once. For 75% of the game, he looked like his brother Peyton Manning. For the other 25%, he looked like Joey Harrington.

Plaxico had another great game scoring his league leading 8 TD on the season. Amani Toomer broke out last night with 7 catches for 89 yards and 1 TD. This though did not make me happy since my fantasy football opponent had Toomer on his roster this weekend. It's weird when I'm rooting against Giants players to score because I'm facing him in fantasy football that weekend.

You might notice that my blog is definitely is on the negative side this morning, because I'm pretty pissed after losing in fantasy this week. I was up by 31 points going into the Monday night's game with my opponent having Toomer and Norwood with me having Crumpler. Well, I ended up losing by 7 points.

I hate fantasy football. ... but at least the Giants have won 4 straight.

Question

Chosen One,

Since I know you respond to my blogs and not my emails, I figured I would post a blog to ask if you were planning to come up to my place on November 17th for my 30th Birthday celebration. Celebration starts at 6:30 p.m. and we'll be having a keg, catered food and lots of other types of drinks. Cocoa butter will be provided at the door for party attendees. (inside joke for those in the know)

Let me know this week.
-Paperboy (soon to be Paperman)

Keep A-Rod

I normally don't sign petitions, because, well, I don't really believe that they do anything. But I felt that I needed to sign an online petition today on KeepARod.com to encourage A-Rod to stay with the Yankees....again, this petition probably won't keep A-Rod from booking from the Yankees if he gets a $35 million/year contract from the Angels or Cubs, but I figured what the hell.

I encourage you to join the ranks and sign the Keep A-Rod petition at: http://www.keeparod.com/. Over 10,000 people have already signed it, so I'm not the only lame one out there.

iBOT Appears on ABC's Ugly Betty

First off, let me say that I normally do not watch ABC's Ugly Betty. I did last night though, as my client's product, the iBOT 4000 Mobility System was on the show.

While, I can't take credit for actually getting the placement, my firm did help execute on various items around this opportunity.

I've been in PR for 7 years and I can honestly say that I've never, ever before seen a placement that put my client is such a shining, gigantic nationwide light.

It was literally an hour long commercial on the iBOT. And that never, ever happens when you are in PR, unless you pay big bucks for it. How much was this opportunity? Zilch, zero, nada. But I guarantee that it will definitely help increase exposure and awareness of the iBOT.

If you don't know about it, the iBOT is a wheelchair that can climb stairs and curbs. It can raise up onto two wheels so the user can look into the eye of a standing person. It's available for people with spinal cord injury, MS, MD, CP and other various disabilities. I can surely say that working with the company that develops the iBOT and talking to the people with disabilities who use it has surely changed my life.

Hopefully, now that the iBOT has been on a big stage like ABC's Ugly Betty, more people will learn about just want it can do for people with disabilities.


If you want to see the iBOT in action on Ugly Betty, go to: http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing. Click on Ugly Betty and when the screen loads, click on the 10/11/07 episode. It's literally awesome.

Bring Back Joe Torre

Last year, I remember watching Mike’d Up with Mike Francesca, NYC's late Sunday night sports news show, and hearing that Joe Torre was set to be fired after the Yankees' embarrassment to the Detroit Tigers in the 2006 American League Division Series.

He was going to be replaced by Lou Pinella and at the time, I thought that while Pinella was the wrong choice for the Yankees, but that it might be time for Torre to go. While the Yankees had their struggles throughout the 2006 season, I thought that Torre hadn’t done a good job with the team’s pitching staff and had performed very poorly in the playoffs. Maybe after 11 seasons, I thought, it was time to go for the manager who brought the Yankees 4 World Championships in 5 years.

But to my surprise, the Yankees kept Torre around, re-signing him to a 1-year deal.

This time around after the Yankees first round exit to the Cleveland Indians in the 2007 ALDS, I don’t think that Torre should be fired. You all know that the Yankees were 21-29 at the end of May. They were in trouble. Torre’s job was in jeopardy. There were whispers at the time that he might be fired right there and then. But he gave a speech when the Yankees were in Toronto at the end of May and after that the Yankees went on to win .650 of their remaining games giving the team an amazing 94 wins on the season.

During Torre’s 12 year regime, the team has made the playoffs all 12 years, never won less than 92 games in a season, and finished in first place 10 of the 12 years. They’ve won 4 World Series and lost in two others in 2001 and 2003.

Joe Torre should not be fired. Change for change sake should not be made. The team needs to strengthen its pitching staff, give Hughes and Kennedy a chance to have spot in the starting rotation, get rid of Damon, Mussina and Farnsworth, keep Joba in the bullpen and re-sign A-Rod, Posada, Rivera and exercise the option on Abreu.

It’s not Joe Torre’s fault that the Yankees failed in the first round of the postseason. It’s the fault of the weak starting pitching and the lack of hitting by the team in the clutch.

For the past 12 seasons, the Yankees season have been judged with how they perform in October. What everyone seems to forget is the lean years between 1982 and 1994 when the Yankees wasn’t in the playoffs once. We've become shortsighted and cocky and ridiculous in thinking that the playoffs are a guarantee every year. The playoffs aren't a guarantee every year. And all Yankees fans need to realize that.

I'm a Sucker for Skylines

Maybe I'm a sucker for skylines and history, but it never gets old when I travel to New York or Washington, DC.

I drove to Jersey City today for a client meeting and when I saw the New York City skyline, it was like I was seeing it for the first time. I think I took my eyes off the road for 5 minutes just to stare at it. I don't know what it is about the skyline, but it always leaves me in awe at the true magnitude of all of the high rise buildings in the City.

I used to live in the Washington DC area and always felt the same awestruckness when I traveled up 395 North. Since many of the monuments are located in the same general area of the City, I always drove up 395 with one eye on the road and the other on starting at the Pentagon, the Capitol Dome, and the Jefferson Memorial. That too, never got old.

When I travel to Philadelphia or other cities throughout the country like Denver or Phoenix or Chicago, I always look at those skylines and instinctly try to compare them to NYC and Washington DC. There really is no comparison though.

Yankees Season Ends in 6-4 Loss to Tribe

I don't feel like writing.

I had considered just writing a profanity laced headline with no text, but I promised my loyal readers that if I was wrong I would own up to the bullshit predictions that I made at the beginning of the series. So, here I am.

First off, let me say that Alex Rodriguez didn't lose this series for the Yankees. The Yankees lost this series for a myriad of reasons, starting with the ineptness of their offense -- which A-Rod's 4 for 15 batting statistics was a part of -- to the fact that team leader Derek Jeter grounded into 3 double plays with men in scoring position to the fact that they couldn't get it done at all with runners in scoring positions to the fact that the Indians scored an amazing 15 runs with 2 outs and runners in scoring position to the fact that Chien Ming Wang didn't come up with good pitching performances like he did all season long. I know, that's a long sentence, but I don't feel like re-writing it or editing it. And if you ask me to, I'll block your access to this blog for the rest of eternity.

It's going to be a long offseason and I think an entirely different Yankees team when the team opens spring training next March.

Will Torre be back? I think he should be, but don't think that he will be.
Will A-Rod be back? He was a different player this season and I think he was really accepted by New York this year. Does he mean it when he says that he wants to win a World Championship here, or is he just bullshitting all of us?
Will Posada, Mo and Andy be back? I would hope so, but have no idea.
As far as the other free agents: I think Rocket's done. And I think Abreu's gone as well.

It sucks when you invest so much time into a team and a season. You live and die each day with how your team performed the previous night. You root for the players. You spend your money on games. And then it ends like this.

I guess life goes on though. ...