Feel Good Movie of the Year

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

;-j

Pretty Girl 11.17.10 - Keri Lynn Pratt

I love 32 that can play 22.  Wish I could too. ;-j

Whistle Stops

Tonight the OSU basketballers looked superb in a 93-75 win at #9 Florida.  The Bucks completely dominated the 2nd half, erasing a 3 point half-time deficit.  I was particularly impressed with freshman point guard Aaron Craft (#4 above, 7 pts, 5 asts).  His decision-making, especially against the Gators' full court press, seemed beyond his age.  It would appear that the Buckeyes have a solid floor leader for, at least, a couple of seasons.  Jared  Sullinger (26 & 10, 13-17 fg) looks unstoppable.  Another freshman who plays like a junior, Jared is considered one of the top 3 freshmen nationwide.  All of this and a stellar game from 5th year senior David Lighty, who knocked down 9-of-11 from the floor and 6-of-7 at the line on his way to 26 points.  Lighty's mobility is back to 100% following a string of unfortunate injuries and he might finally be the offensive weapon he was touted as 5 years ago.  For a team transitioning in a new PG and a new primary big man, Ohio State plays like a team in late February rather than mid-November.  Winning big, early season games (last year only 12 of like 10,200 D1 match-ups featured 2 top 10 teams) is not OSU's forte, but they sure as hell showed up tonight.  It's not all peaches and ice cream.  Jon Diebler was abused by Florida SF Chandler Parsons, the team was out rebounded 26-17 (that's right, only 7 non-Sullinger boards) and Lighty was the only player to make a free throw.  Still, should the Bucks continue to develop throughout the season, I look forward to the steam-roller that this squad can become by the time March rolls around.

Jake Westbrook has re-signed with the Cardinals thus killing my dream for his return to the tepee.  The deal is 2-years $16.5mil with an $8.5mil mutual option for 2013.  Also included is a "blanket no-trade clause," which, I would guess, requires Jake's consent on any trade.

The Marlins have traded Dan Uggla, the only 2B in MLB history to have 4 30+ home run seasons, to the Atlanta Braves for "all-star" IF Omar Infante and LHP Mike Dunn.  Inter-divisional trading?  Here, Beckham, Beckham, Beckham...

Expect All-Star catcher John Buck to be a Marlin soon, on a 3-yr $18mil deal.

Doc Halladay is your unanimous NL Cy Young award winner.

After 356 yards passing on Sunday, Troy Smith has asserted himself as the 49ers starting QB ahead of not 1, but 2, former #1 overall picks.  Over 2 starts Troy has completed 61.7% of his passes for 552 yards and 2 scores without a pick.  That translates to a 116.6 rating, which is friggin' awesome.  Smith also has a rushing TD.  Troy Smith made be a believer in "The Greatest Game Ever" and, with the offensive skill players (Gore, Crabtree, Vernon Davis) available to him in San Fran, he should be able to parlay this opportunity into a full-time gig.

Congrats to my Bobcats who are mere minutes from completing an upset victory over Temple in Philly.  With 4 minutes to go the 'Cats lead 31-10 against an Owls team that had outscored its opponents 100-10 over its past 3 games.  The win would put OU at 6-1 in the MAC and only a win over Kent State away from the Eastern Division title and a trip to the championship game.  They control their own destiny, which rocks.  The Bobcats were impressive to watch this evening, particularly the ground game and pass defense. 'Twas a shade different from their play at the Shoe in September.

Cheers.

Juwanna Mann?

This is "Britney" Griner.  "She" plays for the Baylor women's basketball team.  "She" can dunk.  "She" got suspended last season for punching a chick in the face.  Some say "she" has a huge dong.  Fuzzy wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?  Time for me to go play field hockey.

Fielding Dreams

The new hardwood at Oregon.  Way to use that Nike money.

Wrigley Field laid out for Northwestern football.  Awesome.

Who Watches The Watchmen?

Granted, I do not internalize as much "hard news" as I should and the veritable triviality of sports sometimes shocks my system, but shouldn't beat writers still be impartial?  And if they're not shouldn't they be classified as PR men rather than journalists?  Directly, I'm referring to Anthony Castrovince, the "official" Indians blogger.  I hate to dog the kid, as he's a fellow Bobcat, but the man has totally lost touch with reality.  When I started reading Anthony's stuff over 2 years ago, he seemed insightful and witty, someone devoted to delivering Tribe news to Tribe fans.  As blogging became so prevalent in our society (see this page), I was hesitant to accept the facts and opinions therein as anything more than the quips of one lucky enough to be close to the team.  Yet, Anthony's work was more than that.  Castrovince provided a humor and perspective that made me feel like one of us had finally snuck inside the henhouse.  It was almost as if I had my ear to the door of the Indians front office or was lounging pre-game in the locker room.  I was grateful for it.

That began to change over this past season as Castrovince took on additional responsibilities from MLB.com, sliding into a more professional role.  He became more distant and his answers in the mailbag became more like press releases than an honest discourse.  The proverbial straw came in the form of a recent response to a question about Jared Goedert.  The reader asked Anthony's opinion on Goedert's chances of being added to the 40-man roster before the Rule 5 deadline.  In a reply that seemed eerily similar to a dozen others that I've read, Castrovince stated that the knock on Goedert was, and always has been, his defense at third.  Fine.  Whatever.  It was relayed as the reason Goedert never got a shot last summer.  This would all be cool... If I believed that Anthony Castrovince had spent any reasonable amount of time watching Jared Goedert man the hot corner.  As the "beat reporter" Anthony travels with the team, so, outside of a a few spring innings and a blue moon, Castrovince has not invested the time to qualify his answer.  I've watched Goedert play during a dozen games for Columbus and have absolutely nothing bad to say about his glove, especially compared to presumptive Tribe starter Jayson Nix. 

Castrovince is regurgitating rhetoric from the suits and it's worthless.  I don't begrudge Anthony the opportunity to further his career, but he could at least be familiar enough with the players to be able to write intelligently about them without betraying his obvious ignorance and driving me to such irritation.  Aaaaah!!!  He should be able to present something less vague, some tidbit more compelling than "uh... his de... fense is... uh... weak.  that's it.  yep, weak.  no more questions."  Yeah, yeah, I'm jealous of his job.  So what?  I'd do it better.

I do dig the shot of Goedert that I co-opted from the inbox page.

Cheers.

Pretty Girl 11.16.10 - Kat Dennings

More than a handful is certainly not a waste.

Damn Dirty Apes

Yes, there is idiocy everywhere. There is empty, hollow, meaningless life everywhere. Most people are little different from the squirrels, rabbits and deer you see everyday. They are surviving, living, procreating. They are not evil, or to be looked down upon. They are simply like all life that has been generated on this planet over billions of years.

Out of the millions of species that have evolved on Earth, only humans have differentiated from this mass of life that just lives and procreates. Only humans have genuine knowledge, creativity, abstract truth, pursuit of real meaning. I say only humans have this, but in reality only a small percentage of humans do. The rest are no different then the great biomass of genes that is just churning away, replicating, occasionally creating something better.

Only a small percentage of humans have pushed the species forward. Only a small percentage have invented, pursued truths, or created order out of chaos. If they were eliminated, the human species would be little different then other advanced mammals on the planet. Obviously E is a part of that small percentage. He would not have the rage at the masses if he were one of them.

And for those in this small percentage, it is necessary to make this distinction in your mind. Don’t look to the great human biomass out there to direct you, or respond to you or accept you. They can’t. Don’t expect them to think like you or act like you. They won’t. Ignore them. Study them. Avoid them. Lead them. But don’t react to them. Only your own nature should guide your thinking, not theirs.

LeChoke Nominated For Time Man of the Year

Just like Hitler!

While We Were Thinking...

Fun win for the Buckeyes hoops squad on Friday, 102-61 over NC A&T.  The Freshman class reigned as Deshaun Thomas led all scorers with 24 points and added 8 boards.  Blue-chip prospect Jared Sullinger contributed 19 and 14, while PG Aaron Craft scored 8 and dropped 9 dimes.  A real test comes tomorrow at 6p when OSU travels to Florida to play the #9 Gators.

I feel like a broken record when discussing the BcS, but 2-loss Alabama has jumped Michigan State and 3-loss South Carolina has jumped to #17 on the strength of a win over now 4-loss Florida.  Meanwhile, no one will suspend Cam Newton.  The sheer volume of disgust that I have for the SEC rivals my animosity for the Yankees.

I was sitting in the north stands at the Shoe on Saturday and Sanzenbacher's circus catch was even less believable in real time.

Despite the fact that the loss does not inspire me to sing the Browns' praises full-post style, I saw little regression against the Jets.  I noted that I would have bet money on the Browns winning and I am not a gambler (at least not at all an effective one).  In hindsight, it seems that I did not give enough credit to the talent gap between the two teams, especially after Josh Cribbs went down (4 sprained toes btw).  The last drive of regulation was a thing of beauty and the defense looked strong again.  Eric Wright simply has to go and the rash of injuries to the linebacking corps is unpleasant, but this team obviously believes in itself, its on the field leaders (McCoy, Hillis, Cribbs, Fujita), and the direction the coaching staff is taking them.  Again, I never expected this team to challenge for the playoffs, but they continue the reinforce the foundation of, what I hope to be, quality football for years to come.

MLB Notes:  (1) The Marlins traded CF Cameron Maybin (the centerpiece of the deal that sent Miguel Cabrera to MoTown) to the Padres for, among other(s), our old friend Ed Mujica.  (2) Buster Posey and Neftali Feliz are your rookies of the year.  No surprises there.

Cheers.