Ouch. This has to be the biggest upset thus far in the short history of the WBC. Winning pitcher for the Netherlands? Fat Sid.
The other surprise in WBC action today is Japan's rout of South Korea. Team Japan winning was not that much of a surprise, but the final score was. The game ended in seven innings, due to the newly instituted mercy rule (15 runs after 5 and 10 runs after 7).
Pundits in Japan was questioning the strength of the Japanese team, as they only beat the fourth seeded team China by a score of 4-0. Coming into this tournament, fresh off of their gold medal in the Beijing Olympics, team Korea was actually the favorite.
Mercy rule loss. I think I owe Chinese Taipei an apology, they're not the most gutless team in this tournament. Oh wait, they lost to China last night. Never mind.
Speaking of Chinese Crap-Pei, their fans are not taking the failure at the WBC very well. A couple of the baseball web bulletin boards had to shut down today, due to the threats of violence and use profanity towards the national team. Words like "embarrassment" and "national shame" were being tossed around, and those were the ones they can print in the newspapers. People have called for the ouster of the president as well as the management of the national baseball team.
That sounds about right. Let's see, the mainlanders started playing baseball, what, 6 years ago? and Taiwan is the only team they have beaten (twice in a row now) in international competition.
Chinese Taipei's stay in the World Baseball Classic was 21 hours. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on if they were planning on using it as an excuse) they didn't have to travel across time zones; hell, they probably didn't even need a hotel - they could have just kept their luggage in one of those airport lockers.
In the latest news from Taiwan, there are several legislators calling for new special tax incentives for corporate sponsored baseball teams. Wow, I guess they really care about their baseball.
This chick looks pissed.
I am placing the blame for the losses completely on this chick with the overused palms out victory sign
Update: The People's baseball team used a combination of strong people's pitching and timely people's hitting, triumphed over the capitalist pigs of Taiwan, 4-1.
The shortstop for team China, Raymond Chang, is an American. Born in Kansas and is currently in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system.
Despite his questionable practice of looking like Julian Tavarez in his WBC profile picture, had himself a big day at the plate - 3 for 4 and 2 RBI's.
I am taking comfort in the fact that Team China has two farmhands from the Yankees, and Taipei has two from the Red Sox. So this is in effect win number one for the Yankees.
I will leave you all with the immortal words of Tom Tuttle from Tacoma, Washington.
"Olshansky would challenge Jason Hatcher and Stephen Bowen to replace Chris Canty at defensive end. He also fits the team's desire to sign more players from the former Soviet Union."
Wise ass.
Looking at Mr. Olshansky's profile, he is in fact from the former Soviet Union - more specifically, the Ukraine.
Of course, that calls for the obligatory Seinfeld reference.
Rid of team cancer. The less talented WR's on the team was picking up his shitty attitude, I'm looking at you Patrick Crayton.
Gives Tony Romo a chance to finally lead the team, with his pal Jason Witten.
Terrell Owens' production was way down last year. Age catching up to him? We'll find out.
Cons:
$12 Million signing bonus last year, for a $34 million dollar deal. I don't even want to think about the dead money on this cut.
Lack of a clear number one go to receiver. Roy Williams? Christ.
Honestly, given the cash tied into T.O.'s contract, I didn't think Jerry Jones would open the new Texas Stadium without him. I had thought that T.O. would be dumped at the end of the upcoming season, at least get one more year of service for that $12 million signing bonus.
My guess? Behind the scene meeting between Jones, Romo, and Garrett - somebody must have said it's either he goes or I go. Garrett went on an interview for the Ram's head coaching job, so it must have been Romo.
Update #1: Cowboys release Safety Roy Williams. This one was obvious, his salary numbers could not be justified by his production. Excellent run stopper, bad in coverage.
Not many guys have a NFL rule named after you. That in itself is quite an accomplishment. Coincidentally, the tackle that made the owners pursuit the rule in the off season was Roy Williams on T.O., funny how these two guys played for the same team in the subsequent years and are now out of work 12 hours apart.
Update #2: Now we know exactly what Jones meant by "Romo-friendly". Not sure how "friendly" the team is now, as there are a few players who believed T.O. was right. It would have been much better if Romo stood up to T.O. for himself, instead of having Jerry Jones cut him. Oh well, now there is a CB and a WR spot open for the winner of the Michael Irvin reality show.
Synopsis: Some kid named McKay Hatch and his No Cuss Club (apparently 20,000 members, yet not one of them can design a decent web page) got the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to issue a proclamation making the first week in March No Cussing Week.
Barstool has done a fine job pointing out how soft L.A. and the State of California is, despite having the Terminator as the governor.
When I read the article, the first thing that popped into my head was this scene from the movie Demolition Man:
Simon Phoenix: Look I don't need a history lesson! C'mon, HAL, where are the god damn guns? Moral Statute Machine: You are fined one credit for a violation of the Verbal Morality Statute. Simon Phoenix: What? Fuck you! Moral Statute Machine: Your repeated violation of the Verbal Morality Statute has caused me to notify the San Angeles Police Department. Please remain where you are for your reprimand. Simon Phoenix: Yeah, right. [police sirens approach] Simon Phoenix: Fuckers are fast too. Moral Statute Machine: You are fined one credit for a violation of the Verbal Morality Statute.
I am preparing myself to be cryogenically frozen and coming back in the year 2032 to kick the crap out of Laker fans, right after pointing out the fact that it has been 30 years and counting since the last Lakers championship.
This past Sunday evening, my family and I paid a visit to our favorite restaurant Minado in Natick, MA.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this little piece of heaven, Minado is a small chain of restaurants in the Northeast (and Pennsylvania) that offers "All You Can Eat Japanese Seafood Buffet".
For those of you people that know me and my affinity for Japanese food is not surprised that I would like a restaurant like Minado. But what most of you probably don't know is that I turn into a complete different person when I go to an "All You Can Eat" establishment. Let me explain.
When I am at a normal restaurant, I would sit down and order a meal - only ordering what I like and eating it at a normal pace. Enjoying each bite and appreciating the fine taste of the food. But when I go to an "All You Can Eat" joint, I am consumed by the drive of eating more food to justify the cost of such buffet. Often a lot more.
The guy on the right is not trying hard enough, no time for gang signs when stuffing sushi in ones mouth!
The drive to maximize my return on investment is not limited to Japanese all you can eat restaurants, it applies to any place where I pay a fix fee for unlimited quantities of food. It can be some $6.25 Chinese lunch buffet, a Mongolian Grill place like Fire and Ice, or the buffet at Bellagio, my goal is the same - eat more than the cost of entry.
Let me take you through my evening at Minado, to illustrate my techniques in "sticking it to the man" in the all you can eat buffet arena.
We arrive at the door around 5:00 PM. On this particular snowy Sunday, Minado is rather slow. They try to seat us near the front door, we request for and were given a table closer to the action. This is important, as you want to minimize the travel time to the food.
I get to the table, stay just long enough to put my stuff down and head straight for the food. My general strategy at the beginning of a buffet is always this - eat the most expensive food first and fast as possible. The reason behind it is simple, like a run 'n gun offense, I do not want to give my stomach a chance to feel full until I at least break even.
Minado offers both sushi and sashimi as well as all sorts of cooked Japanese / Chinese / Korean dishes. For dinner, they also offer King Crab legs and raw oysters. The novice here will go right for the King Crab and oyster first. This is not good, why? Because like a pretty girl, there will be many suitors for the crab legs and oysters. You'll end up spending more time waiting than eating.
I make a quick beeline to the sushi section. Normally I would encounter a line, where several people are slowing in front of each type to sushi to read the identification tags. The paradox here, as I have discovered, is that the fatter the person is - the longer it takes for them to read the tags. I get very very angry at these people. Come on, whatever you're getting here is going to have less fat content than the sticks of butter you generally shove down your pie hole, take one of each kind and move the fuck on!
Luckily for me, the snow has limited the number of slow porkers at the sushi/sashimi line. I was able to eat four plates within 30 minutes. The key here is to grab as much eel as possible - then work your way down to the other fishes. Stay way from California rolls, those are cheap to make and will shrivel up your testicles - and the next thing you know you'll wake up and you're cheering for the Lakers.
Satisfied now that I have eaten my money back, as well as stored up a healthy profit - I begin my next phase. I load up on cocktail shrimp, sip some cold beer (yes, I know that I have to pay extra for the beer. Hence, I need to pad the profits before drinking). As the food is slowly digesting, I begin my critique of others' buffet habits.
As it is true in any of these buffets, the big profit margins are with the starchy foods. Why else would most of these places stock up on a mind numbing variety of pasta and other breads? I take the next 30 minutes or so pointing out the rookie mistakes others make to members of my family. These errors at Minado generally consists of people grabbing buckets of rice (both fried and white), noodles/dumplings (fried or even worse - soupy), salads, and anything like crab rangoon that you can get easily at a buffet that is 1/3 of the price. I give them nicknames as I snicker to myself. My family ignores me as they are busy eating crab legs, I continue on amusing myself by mentally calculating the ROI of each person's plate as they walk by.
This may fly for a $7.99 Chinese buffet, but at Minado, you're a sucker.
Better, but they're not paying you for presentation.
Yes I know playing the buffet game my way seems like a lot of fun, but it is not without consequences. Nope, I am not talking about the discomfort from overeating, but rather the pesting of others when their buffet habits are not up to par.
Many years ago, I remembered a friend brought along a date to dinner at Fire and Ice in Cambridge. She ate one single plate consisting of maybe 3 shrimps and 2 pieces of meat, said she was full, and stopped.
After several rounds of questioning from me, in a manner I am certain that she would classify as "uncomfortable", she finally confessed that she ate a sub before she went out. I think I may have repeatedly mocked her for her lack of planning, and I think she may have gave me several dirty looks before they left early. I don't know, my memory is a bit fuzzy.
A few years after that, I visited an all you can eat restaurant in Taiwan. This restaurant not only have raw sushi/sashimi, but also have a Mongolian grill section with all sorts of raw meat that you can mix and grill. It was rather expensive by local standards, but I was confident that I can make it work. Until I discovered that the all you can eat included beer. Yes, all you can drink beer; and you don't have to order it from the killjoy wait staff - you pour your own. Growing up in Massachusetts where happy hour was outlawed many many years ago because the drunk wife of Governor Dukakis, of course I went batshit crazy with the free (well, felt like free) beer.
In order to keep people from drinking too much, the restaurant used tiny hotel bathroom sized cups for all the drinks; and to prevent people from bringing in their own large mugs, kept the beer tap low so you can only fit their tiny cups under it.
How did I beat the system? I took a big tray and filled up a beer pong rack of glasses each trip, and drank at least 3 glasses as I filled up the other glasses.
At this point, you probably think my downfall was that I drank too much and passed out on the food, or some other alcohol related outburst. Nope, not by a long shot.
Yes, I did drink rather fast, and was buzzed. But alcohol only played an indirect role in the disaster that took place the next day.
In my haste to quickly maximize my investment through both food and drink, and the fact the meat that was meant to be grilled and raw sushi/sashimi being next to each other; I may have ate some raw meat uncooked. This being August in Taiwan, the lows for each day is in the high 90's - I probably ate some "not so fresh" raw meat to boot. The net result of this debacle was an afternoon of projectile vomiting, and a trip to the hospital that evening with a case of mild food poisoning.
What was the lesson learned here? Don't multitask, grab ALL of the food first and separate them accordingly before you start with the beer.
I have since visited similar types of restaurants in Shanghai, where the sushi buffets were extremely cheap; but their profit center seemed to be beer - roughly $9 for a Bud. Damn commie bastards.
Someday I hope to return to that wonderful restaurant in Taipei, but for now, I'll settle for Minado.
The Dallas Cowboys sent starting CB Anthony Henry to Detroit for Jon Kitna. A starting corner back for a backup QB from a team that lost ALL of their games in 2006.
Aside from looking like a skinnier version of Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket, he's actually an upgrade from noodle arm Brad Johnson and probably the best option amongst all the available free agent QB's out in the market. Also, this is a cap friendly deal, the Cowboys freed $3.6 million off of their books for 2009.
Now that was the good part. The bad? Why would you give up a starting CB for someone who the Lion mostly would have cut in a few days anyways? If Kitna had hit the open market, it would be a huge stretch that a massive bidding war would ensue for a backup QB from a 0-16 team.
Who needs a backup when your I.Q. is 130? What? You don't think so? Who are YOU to argue with the Internet?!!
Now the Cowboys have fortified their backup QB spot (which most likely had cost them a playoff spot in 2008 - and the chance to lose again in the first round), they have seriously weaken their defensive backfield. Once again, veteran Terence Newman is the only proven commodity at the position. If he should miss games like he has in the last few years, the Cowboys are left with a bunch of second year players and possibly rookies or Pros vs. Joes Pacman Jones. In a related note, this opens the door for me when I win a spot in the Cowboys training camp; the probability of a 5'-6" Asian man with 5.63 40 speed playing corner back for the Cowboys has increased tenfold.
A trade that would have made more sense would be trading Safety Roy Williams for Kitna. The Cowboys are probably going to release him to gain cap space anyways, but then the Lions probably knew that too; and the prospect of being able to copy and paste names from their 2008 game program templates for the 2009 season was not enticing enough for them to pull the trigger.
Oh well, it could be worse. I have had a recurring nightmare in the last few weeks that Jerry Jones backed up the Brinks truck to lure Farve out of retirement to play for the Cowboys.
Mariotti is arguing that the trade is too one-sided, too much of a sweetheart deal for the Chiefs.
Now I am probably the biggest Beli-cheat hater in the New England area and completely agree with people who believe Belichick got off light for Spygate, even I have to say Mariotti is completely off base here.
Investigate what? The fact that Belichick is not his usual complete cheating asshole who would stab his own grandmother to improve his team? What league rule has he broken really? If making bad executive decisions is against NFL rules, Matt Millen would be serving a 100 game suspension right now, if not banned from football completely.
The fact that Belichick may or may not have play his hand to the fullest is not up to the NFL to investigate, it's between Kraft and the the Grey Hoodie. Who knows why Pioli got the sweetheart deal? Maybe he has pictures of Belichick drawing swastikas and penises on drunk college boys.
Team Netherlands upset the heavily favored Dominican Republic 3-2.
This chick looks pissed.
I am placing the blame for the losses completely on this chick with the overused palms out victory sign
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