What kind of Blog Junkie am I? West Coast Edition

Sorry for the hiatus, but there this weekend was a busy one...really, I was hungover on Sunday morning, and I wasn't intending on posting on Saturday (due to two events unfolding on Sunday, the U.S. Open, and Mets-Yankees)...this weekend was a classic sports weekend, one of the best, and even included an appearance from our boy, Pacman...

So...where do I start? It's gotta be Mets-Yankees, and yes I am a huge Met fan (i had baseballs autographed by Kelvin Torve, Pat Howell, Shawn Hare, and Chris Donnells, even though I lost 'em, by playing with 'em)...i hate the Yankees, but there is no franchise, in the world, that compares, and I want my franchise to be just like the Yankees (I love the history of baseball, it fills up probably half of my head, which means that a quarter of my brain has Yankee history in it)...going into game 1, I realized that there is a good chance that the Mets could be humbled this weekend...the first game was a beauty with Roger Clemens locking up with Oliver Perez in a good pitchers duel...a decent amount of baserunners, and action, with the game ending up 2-0 Mets...the second game was a mess with the Yankees winning 11 to 8, and they won on Sunday night as well 8 to 2...I don't want harp on these games, because they were predictable... a hot team ran into a cold team and took two outta three, just like their first series...but there are a couple of things the Mets must do:

(1) Get rid of Heilman

For an eighth-inning setup man...he doesn't miss as many bats as I would like...he has a good sinker that gets ground balls, as long as he keeps it down, and has a good change..but these aren't working on a regular basis, which means he is a good seventh-inning guy...Rick Peterson has done a good job with him, but before Rick Peterson, he was absolutely meat...trade him now while his stock is high enough to get something of value...

(2) Do Not Trade Carlos Gomez

So Peter Gammons comes on ESPN and says that there are talks about the Mets trading for Mark Buherle, or Brad Lidge (to steal a line from one of my favorite radio personalities, Joe Beningo: "By the way, when has Peter Gammons ever been right.") ... the thing is, as a big market team, we shouldn't have to trade to get guys like these two...we can get them in free agency, when we need to...i would like to get guys like this, but not a the cost of a guy who looks like he's gonna be 20-45 for years to come...

(3) Mets fans, don't panic

We've been here before, and this team is too good to finish second...we can be spoiled by last year's cake walk...a little adversity will tell us what we have for the long haul, and Omar will have a better idea how to make his melting pot better...




U.S. Open

The other great watch of the weekend was Tiger Woods, and the U.S. Open...i enjoyed this event not only because we had a chance to see Tiger come from behind, and win for the first time ever, but I was so hung over, and there is nothing more relaxing than watching (listening) to golf, on a beanbag chair...the only thing I will say is that the courses in the U.S. Open shouldn't play so rigid (that 17 was brutal), and congrats to the guy who won....whatever his name was....

The Stephen Jackson Awards UPDATE!!!!!

Stephen Jackson pleaded guilty to whatever he did last...he's avoiding one year of jail, if the judge accepts the plea bargain...which means that (1) its good to have a good lawyer, and (2) he's going to need the lawyer again, soon...

Pacman is going to steal the show this summer, as he was involved with another shooting at a strip club...and again, he wasn't the trigger man, etc...it seems somebody from his crew fired shots at somebody else and the cops are looking for him to ask him some questions...some scenario it seems from last time... but if he gets himself banned for life from the NFL, we are going to name this award after him, kind of a lifetime achievement award...Good Luck, Pacman!!!

It's kind of a sad story, but J.R. Smith, of the New Orleans Hornets, might have lock up the SJA based on the fact that he may be tried for vehicular homicide in the accident that claimed the life of his best friend, in N.J.... Both were thrown out of Smith's Yukon after Smith ran a stop sign...I'm not going to make light of this situation but let me call in Andrew Bogut, of the Milwaukee Bucks, to tell you how it is in the N.B.A., and why the league still has a bunch of knuckle heads in it:

"The public's image of NBA players is true," he says. "A lot of them get caught up in the hype and do video clips with rappers and all that crap. They want bling bling all over themselves and drive fast cars. But that's just the way the culture is in America - if you've got it flaunt it and if you don't, you can't."

There are guys who drop a hundred grand for a chain. The public's got it right - a lot of NBA stars are arrogant and like to spend lots of money and have lots of girlfriends and all that.(Sydney Morning Herald)

Bogut is quickly becoming one of my favorite (favourite) players...he seems to get it, and is a rugged center who doesn't get much press...he does everything asked of him, and will be a problem for a lot of teams in the future...I'll assign points for J.R. Smith's mishap in the next update, which if you ask Bogut, will probably be tomorrow...