The NFL is back. Kinda.
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Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…
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Jon
Between the throwback AFL unis and the anticipated quality of play tonight, isn’t it closer to say “the USFL is back”?
MBSS
you know you are really desperate for some pigskin action when you are watching the hall of fame game.
Linkmeister
Isn’t the whole point of watching this game to see the interviews with the new inductees? It surely can’t be because you expect quality football.
dave
Yes, I’m desperate. It beats that crap I’ve been watching for 4.5 months called, um, Baseball I think…
Common Sense
As a Houstonian, I steadfastly refuse to watch any game featuring Vince Young in an Oilers uniform, particularly when the Houston Oilers are playing the Bills. Cruel and unusual punishment if you ask me.
MBSS
i’m not a baseball guy. when NBA ends i usually take a sports sabbatical, or watch a lil golf or futbol. sometimes i watch pro surfing.
Max
Go Bills! I don’t care what any of you elites say. Football is football. And with that interception, the Bills are true to form. It’s very hard to be a Bills fan.
It was nice to see Bruce Smith and Mr. Wilson get inducted.
Buffalopundit
Bills. That is all.
MBSS
i still think those jim kelly bills team should have won one. they had to go against some tough 9er and redskin teams, if my memory serves.
Common Sense
@MBSS:
Jimmy Johnson put a decent squad together in Dallas around that time if I recall.
dave
Yes, my SO states that if the Bills ever win a SB, she will cry. She never cries. Ever. EVER. On top of that, she can’t stand TO, and has promised that if he takes them to won and they win it, she’ll be buying his jersey and wearing it proudly.
Max
Can I just say how much I hate that every friggin year they replay the Music City Miracle game. Um. Forward pass.
Common Sense
I still maintain that TO and Randy Moss will never win a Super Bowl. Karma bitches.
MBSS
oh yeah, that was the Cowboy Era.
the 9ers won two consectutive before the Bills got to their first 90’s superbowls.
Max
@MBSS: We should have won the first one… Wide right against the Giants.
MBSS
im watching the “Watchmen” for the 2nd time around. great themes, which are certainly topical, for a comic book adaption.
MBSS
don bebe kicked ass for buffalo. remember when he got flipped and landed directly on his noggin?
JK
John,
Why so quick to throw dirt on baseball? Football is a great sport, but baseball is an even greater sport, except for the fact that the goddamn MLB players union won’t agree to the establishment of a salary cap.
Common Sense
@JK:
How would it help baseball if the owners were even richer? It’s not like a salary cap has made the NFL or NBA more competitive than they used to be. What’s the benefit of a cap?
Demo Woman
What happened to Vince Young and Matt Leinart? Such a waste of talent.
MBSS
the parity in the NBA is not too bad. that salary cap model seems to be pretty effective. when you go over the cap you pay a dollar for every dollar you over. that has restrained teams like the Lakers from achieving perpetual dominance.
JK
Best of luck to all the NFL teams and may this year’s playoffs be as exciting as last year’s playoffs.
And, oh yeah, Fuck the New York Yankees.
Max
Listening to Cris Collingsworth makes me realize how much I am going to miss Madden this year.
Common Sense
@MBSS:
Agreed. It’s not like the Lakers, Celtics, and Spurs are trading titles every single year or anything.
The NBA is a total free for all. No one knows what could happen any given year. My money is on the Clippers next season.
JK
@Common Sense:
How does it help baseball that the New York Yankees were the only team able to afford the top 3 free agents – C.C. Sabathia, Mark Texiera, and A.J. Burnett?
Baseball needs a salary cap ASAP to break the OUTRAGEOUS STRANGLEHOLD which the NY Yankees currently have that gives them the ability to ALWAYS OUTBID any other MLB team for any player they want.
Andy K
@Max:
Why do I only hear that from Bills players and fans? And why don’t I ever hear any of you chipping in and paying me my $250 that I should have won if the refs would have flagged Frank Reich for an illegal forward pass on the last play of the third quarter of Super Bowl XXVII? Reich was five yards beyond the line of scrimmage. FIVE YARDS!
Common Sense
@JK:
Right. Without a salary cap it’s a guarantee that the Yankees will win every World Series.
Oh wait….
You are aware that since the salary cap MLB has had more diversity of champions than any other sport? You know, parity.
Max
@Andy K: Because we’re Bills fans and we lost 4 goddamn Super Bowls in a row and we don’t apologize, but reserve the right to harbor resentment when we are wronged.
Linkmeister
@Common Sense:
Huh? I think you mean “Even without a salary cap . . .”
HRA
Go Bills!
Yes, the first Super Bowl should have been ours. Still it was a heartwarming sight to see the Bills fans gather to greet Scottie in front of city hall after they came home.
The one flashback I have about Don Beebee is when he knocked the ball out of Leon’s hand (Dallas cowboy) as he was hotdogging it to the end zone. Was his name Lett?
I have a video of the Houston game. We did not get it on TV here. Unbelieveable!
I do not even want to write the name of who TO reminds me of.
Good luck to all the teams in the NFL.
Common Sense
@Linkmeister:
No I mean that since the salary cap was instituted in all sports, MLB has more diversity among their championship squads than the sports with a cap. The NBA has been dominated by a select few franchises for decades. The NFL is no better. Since the cap you’ve had a succession of dominant teams (New England, Dallas, Pittsburgh) and very little variety in Super Bowl Champs.
The salary cap is a sham. Owners want it because they make ungodly amounts of money by colluding to hold payroll below a certain level. It does absolutely nothing for competitive balance. Both the NBA and NFL were more competitive before they instituted a cap.
Common Sense
Vince Young is playing his way out of the NFL right before my eyes.
Svensker
@Common Sense:
Sad, sad, sad.
God, I love football.
Linkmeister
@Common Sense: But MLB doesn’t have a salary cap. It does have a luxury tax, but only four teams (Per Wikipedia, so take that for what it’s worth) have ever been tagged with it. The other major sports (if hockey’s a major sport) do have salary caps, and I don’t follow them enough to be authoritative on whether there have been more and different champs since the cap’s institution.
Baseball has had a different WS champ every year but 2007 (Red Sox repeated) since 2000 when the tax was introduced. So one could argue it’s been effective, except I don’t think there’s a causal relationship.
MBSS
@common sense
to a certain extent that is true, but their is quite a bit of fluctuation. look at denver this past year.
and the NFL has even more pairty. surprise teams every year. baseball is the worst of all. boston and NY every year.
and for the lakers the salary cap has forced them to dump lamar and they’ve lost ariza as well.
i would say that the NFL is the best example of parity with the NBA in second and baseball last, if we are just ranking the big name sports.
Common Sense
@Linkmeister:
I know it doesn’t. That’s my point. A salary cap does not affect competitive balance. I’m not going to go so far as to say that it alone makes a sport less competitive — I believe that excessive expansion combined with a “good old boy” mentality that is afraid to adopt unorthodox management techniques contributes far more to imbalance in recent years. I’m just saying that instituting a salary cap will not make baseball more competitive, no matter what Bud Selig (who oh so coincidentally stands to make millions more every year as an owner if they institute a cap) or his blue ribbon panel of stooges say. There is concrete evidence that it failed to do anything in the sports that introduced one, other than make rich owners even richer.
Linkmeister
@MBSS:
Au Contraire! Per MLB.com, World
Series champs since 2000:
2008 Philadelphia 4, Tampa Bay 1
2007 Boston 4, Colorado 0
2006 St. Louis 4, Detroit 1
2005 Chi. White Sox 4, Houston 0
2004 Boston 4, St. Louis 0
2003 Florida 4, NY Yankees 2
2002 Anaheim 4, San Francisco 3
2001 Arizona 4, NY Yankees 3
2000 NY Yankees 4, NY Mets 1
JK
@Common Sense:
Sheer luck has prevented the Yankees from winning a World Series since 2000. The Yanks have come close several times since 2000. At some point, the best team money can buy will win.
As long as there is no salary cap in baseball, the NY Yankees will always have first crack at every top free agent.
Common Sense
@MBSS:
The Tampa Bay Rays, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox, Anaheim Angels, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, and Florida Marlins all beg to differ with your assertion that only a select few teams have a chance in MLB. You might note that within the last eleven years the NL has had a different champion every year, save the Cards who went twice. A majority of the teams in the NL have been to the World Series within the last decade. Can the Western or Eastern Conferences, NFC, or AFC claim that?
Common Sense
Oops, I forgot the Tigers, Indians, Padres, and Diamondbacks, who also might quibble with the statement they have had no shot at a WS the past few years.
Linkmeister
@Common Sense: Then I misunderstood your statement in #31 above:
I don’t think a cap is required for MLB either; the results have shown that the Yankees have managed to lose in the division or league series while having the highest payroll in all of MLB for the past eight years.
Common Sense
@JK:
No. Wasting money on players like Carl Pavano, Javier Vasquez, and Jason Giambi have prevented the Yankees from winning a series since 2000. Not sheer luck. Bad signings.
It doesn’t matter if the Yanks have first crack when they keep signing bad players for too much money.
It’s not the money, it’s the management.
Common Sense
@Linkmeister:
Poorly worded. i apologize. I meant that since the salary cap was instituted in American sport, MLB has been more competitive than the sports with a cap.
MBSS
i concede your points on the facts.
i’m not a true baseball fan, so that’s just how i perceive the situation. it just seems like baseball teams amass superpower teams with huge player salaries and the small maket clubs are at a fraction of their payroll. and i think that it is true.
i would argue that some percentage of baseball parity can be attributed to the game of baseball itself. teams with small payrolls but great team chemistry can go far and upset those powerhouse NY and boston teams.
but you have to admit on paper the disparity is overwhelming in baseball and the NFL and NBA have been able to keep payroll parity, if not championship parity.
MBSS
if an NBA team could amass a squad with triple the payroll of other squads i bet they would crush everyone, whereas in baseball, underdog teams can still win.
Common Sense
@MBSS:
I don’t argue that the NBA and NFL jhave been able to keep payroll in line. I just don’t think it’s much of an accomplishment to reduce payroll by colluding with everyone providing employment in a given industry to reduce their pay. It’s not like it’s made basketball or football any cheaper for me to attend.
MBSS
there are fundamental differences between the sports.
part of the reason teams in the NBA can repeat is because one single player can dominate and win games on his own.
this is not possible in baseball. even with an incredible pitcher.
two greats like shaq and kobe and you have a few championships right there, regardless of team payrolls.
Linkmeister
@Common Sense: Gotcha. I think that, contra conventional wisdom, baseball teams are usually not “just one player away” from winning it all (unless it’s a truly dominant pitcher). It’s a team game. I think that’s also true in football; how many teams have had great QBs and never gotten to the Super Bowl? I remember Air Coryell in SD with Fouts.
I don’t think that holds true for pro basketball; where was Cleveland before LeBron James, and now look at them.
gwangung
This is wrong.
Teams with small payroll AND GREAT TALENT can go far and beat the crap out of the mismananged powerhouses in the Yankees.
Chemistry NEVER beats talent. Talent beats talent–except the media never recognizes what great talent there is in non New York/Boston markets until the teams there start talking about aquiring said talent.
JK
@Common Sense:
The Yankees are the only baseball team that can easily absorb $40 – 50 million worth of bad signings one year and bounce back fully competitive next season.
Barring a major injury between now and the end of this season, the Yankees are poised to win another World Series title.
Common Sense
The other thing that bugs me about a salary cap is that it is not a salary cap. No one is limiting the maximum amount an individual player can earn, nor should they IMO.
It is a payroll cap. This does not affect the elites in a sport, who will always earn astronomical money — it’s not like LeBron James, Shaq, Eli or Brady are underpaid after all. The players hurt are the average benchwarmers, as teams are forced to drop them for young, unproven, cheap talent from a nearly limitless pool for the league minimum.
Linkmeister
@Common Sense: Grins. You’re about to get me started on my baseball HOF rant: Marvin Miller belongs in there, and should have been there long ago. For those clowns to vote Bowie Kuhn in and leave Miller out is criminal.
gwangung
They are by no means the odds-on favorite. I wouldn’t be surprised if they won, but it would be no great upset if they didn’t.
Common Sense
@JK:
I honestly don’t think NY has a chance this year. I’m aware the Sox are in a funk at the moment, but I’d still bet money they beat the Yanks in the playoffs. Better depth and better pitching in a short series will out.
The next-to-last samurai
I don’t know anything about football, but since this topic is open, I wanted to briefly check in on our ailing & pregnant comrades. How is everyone? As the idiocracy rises in power, at some point it is possible that the sane portion of the population may become an Underground Railroad of sanity. I know that is not the best metaphor; i’m really tired, sorry. But bad metaphor or no, we should stick together.
MBSS
my opinion would be that baseball would be improved with some form of salary cap. if the NBA and NFL are not models then something even better can be imagined.
it doesn’t seem fundamentally fair to me.
and common sense, i understand your grievances with the caps for football and basketball, but i think just because they are not structured perfectly to do what they are meant to do, doesn’t mean the general concept should be abandoned entirely.
MBSS
@ common sense.
also you snarked me with a clipper joke way back.
the clippers were close to having some real deal teams in the past decade. they were playoff teams for sure. the irony is that the reason they never performed is because the owner, Donald Sterling, wouldn’t shell out the bucks to keep his players. That problem lies with him. they hand brand and miles and a whole list of guys.
lately he has opened up the wallet, but it’s too late.
JK
@gwangung: @Common Sense:
Which AL team is best positioned to beat the Yankees in the AL Championship Series? Which NL team is best positioned to beat the Yankees in the World Series? I don’t see one.
As far as the Red Sox are concerned, I have serious doubts about their chances of even making the playoffs. They look like dead men walking. They look like they don’t have a fucking clue how to even play the game anymore.
The Yankees are firing on all cylinders right now – pitching, hitting, and fielding. I don’t see any other team matching up well against them at all.
Common Sense
I think MLB would be much better served by borrowing the NFL’s financing strategy rather than their salary cap. That will, of course, never happen, since the owners are much more likely to collude and screw their employees than they are to screw each other. Even though such a strategy would benefit the major market teams in the long run, they will never give up their TV revenue in the interest of helping teams like the Pirates stay competitive.
Baseball is also much less likely than other sports to have turnaround teams because of their draft system. Baseball drafts and then develops their talent, meaning it takes years for a player to progress. Basketball and football let another league develop their talent before drafting them — thus a draft pick has a much more immediate impact.
A salary cap does nothing to help this system, as teams like Kansas City will still be unable to afford their top tier talent when they develop into bona fide MLB stars. The same thing happening today will continue to happen. Teams with more TV revenue will be able to afford the top talent. Teams like KC and Pit will be essentially farm teams, drafting first every year and developing future stars for other teams. Putting a maximum payroll cap in won’t help when these teams are spending less than half of what any cap is likely to be.
Linkmeister
@JK: Up until two or three days ago the Yankees didn’t have the best record in baseball, the Dodgers did. Assuming they get out of the slump they’ve been in for two weeks, I like their chances.
Common Sense
@MBSS:
Exactly. Bad owners will ruin a franchise, salary cap or no. Does anyone honestly believe that if MLB told the Pirate’s ownership they are allowed to spend up to $60 million they will double their payroll to get there?
MBSS
btw guangung.
of course you need talent and team chemistry.
i’m assuming that everyone recognized that talent is an obvious prerequisite for any winner.
MBSS
well didn’t baseball have in the works some sort of profit sharing mechanism where the large market teams would share with the smaller market teams?
MBSS
btw, i agree with you about the farm system.
it’s an entirely different process.
Common Sense
@JK:
I would say Boston and Anaheim both stand excellent shots of winning the AL. I think both teams are overall better than NY, with Anaheim having a slightly better offense than the Yanks and Boston a much better pitching staff.. In the NL I would put Philly and LA right up there and think either one would beat NY in a 7 game series. I also think that if Seattle can make it in they could be very dangerous. Look no further than Arizona with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling to see what havoc a top notch pitching staff can wreak in the playoffs.
MBSS
i say dodgers.
ethier goes on a late season streak, and they win the NL.
Frank McCourt is over the moon.
Common Sense
@MBSS:
It’s been discussed, although I seem to recall that it was much less popular among the ownership than a cap would be. Still, this won’t make cheap owners spend money. It may even be a greater disencintive. If you own the Royals and know full well that you could field a team of nothing but 19 year olds, win 40 games, draw 5,000 fans a game and STILL turn a multimillion dollar profit, why wouldn’t you?
Linkmeister
@MBSS: Yes. Here’s a decent discussion of it.
gwangung
EVERY team has stretches where they look unbeatable. If they’re lucky, those stretches coincide with the post season. See the St. Louis Cardinals of 2007. (And it works in reverse; there are stretches where world champions look like chumps).
You’re getting fooled by the everyday noise. It’s very unlikely that the Yankees can sustain this level of performance through the post season (two months from now). They might fall a little bit and then ratchet it back up in two months time—but so can other teams.
MBSS
im for baseball socialism and communism coz im a librul fascist.
i think baseball is bullshit like america and too much power is consolidated in too few hands.
spread the wealth.
all the teams, even the small market ones make the league what it is, and the large market teams owe it to them to share profits for the good of the overall league.
it will improve parity even more which will make the game more exciting and bring in more money and win, win, win.
you can do that in the other sports as well.
gwangung
This is by no means universal. *sigh* Among the media and beat writers, people constantly prattle about team chemistry, when they really can’t define it (and when they REALLY mean “i had no clue that these guys were that good”), can’t measure it and can’t manipulate team rosters to create it.
MBSS
oops, am i awaiting moderation because of a curse word? sorry.
Steeplejack
Key word: kinda. I hate preseason football.
MBSS
@ gwangung
of course it ephemeral, unmeasurable. but don’t deny it’s a factor.
when the pistons crushed the lakers a few years back in the finals that was a blatant display of team chemistry over talent.
gary payton and karl malone were on that laker team. twilight years yes, but talent galore. they had terrible chemistry.
gwangung
And a salary cap for baseball is just a license to make even more money for owners. They already have a way to depress salaries, and smart management makes use of the farm system and the six years of CHEAP player control to build teams. That’s how the Marlins won two World Series–used a productive farm system to generate enough talent on the cheap to win two championships (and actually, that’s how the Yankees won their championships in the 90s; their core were all home grown talent).
JK
@gwangung: @Common Sense:
I hope you’re both correct. As a lifelong Yankee hater who lives in Long Island, I’m in the belly of the beast and nothing is more depressing or nauseating than the prospect of another World Series title for the NY Yankees.
MBSS
(same comment but curse word free)
im for baseball socialism and communism coz im a librul fascist.
i think baseball is b.s. like america and too much power is consolidated in too few hands.
spread the wealth.
all the teams, even the small market ones make the league what it is, and the large market teams owe it to them to share profits for the good of the overall league.
it will improve parity even more which will make the game more exciting and bring in more money and win, win, win.
you can do that in the other sports as well.
Gus
@Max:
Tell that to Orioles fans.
gwangung
I’m pretty much a disbeliever in baseball. In football and basketball, there are interaction effects between players (offensive line and ball carrier, QB and receivers) where I can see chemistry coming in.
But baseball? It’s very much more of a one-on-one sport (batter vs. pitcher) with little room for chemistry or interaction effects. And if you can’t define it, if you can’t measure it, it’s not something I’m concerned about.
robertdsc
Actually, we “swapped” Ariza for Ron Artest and kept Lamar.
Common Sense
@MBSS:
You were not in moderation for the word “bullshit.” It was another word you used (the “s” word) that got you on “the list.”
Stop thinking like a Commie. Use all American words like “capitalist” and “free market.” If you really riled up you can even use the word “fascist.” Just don’t say the “s” word.
gwangung
Oh, I believe THAT wholeheartedly. You can’t have a game with just the Yankees. You need another team.
And a lot of folks think the on-field competition is the same as the economic competition. It isn’t. There’s some overlap, but as I said, you need both teams on the field to generate that income, so they’re pretty much of a shared system already.
MBSS
lamar resigned?
wow, they must be way over the cap.
you guys are right basketball is rigged. lakers win again next year.
yay for unfair andvantages. i like it when i benefits me. lol
Laura W
@Steeplejack: I can not BELIEVE you referenced this song in association with Laura Nyro’s “December’s Boudoir” upon further reflection the morning after. The backstory will have to keep, since you’re late to the thread and I’m all out of energy and words again, being the light weight that I am.
But let me just say, you’re sort of spooky with your intuitive vibe there, Steep:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tBU2bteha8
(Do you think this is OT for a football thread? Me neither.)
MBSS
this thread is now about:
Laura Nyro’s “December’s Boudoir”
MBSS
i love Laura Nyro’s “December’s Boudoir”
JK
Craziest Reaction I’ve Heard to the Idea of a Salary Cap in Baseball
A few weeks ago, Sports Illustrated writer Jon Heyman was on WFAN AM in NY. He was asked for his opinion about a salary cap in baseball.
Even though Heyman was on radio, I could practically see the foam gushing out of his mouth and the veins popping out of his neck.
Heyman yelled “You can’t have a salary cap in baseball. That’s COMMUNISM.”
MBSS
which word is more scary?
1. necrophilia
2. communism
MikeJ
Soçialist? Soçialism?
Oh, fuck Johnny Damon. Now we’ve got 73 more innings.
MikeJ
No we don’t. Rats.
JK
OT
Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIytTS1FXUc&feature=related
Chelsea Morning – Joni Mitchell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5DYLYHlKvk
One Foundation – Peter Tosh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQqP9hXW8k4
No Woman No Cry – Bob Marley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dteHoydD8es
RIP Peter Tosh and Bob Marley. You both left us far too soon.
MBSS
sorry guys for my annoying presence.
i got booted from icanhazcheezburger.com and i’ve got no where to hang, and this is the only layout and font online i can read.
Common Sense
@JK:
Actually I adore this argument. It’s such fun to pull it out on Texas wingnuts — asking them why they support a Socialist endeavor like the NFL. From each team according to their ability to earn, to each team according to their need for revenue. Fuck, football even handicaps the schedule just to make sure no one plays teams that are out of their league, even if they play in the same sports league.
gwangung
Very mixed feelings. A Boston loss puts Seattle 4.5 games back, but, still…it’s the YANKEES.
(THough, I got to admit….after losing 101 games last year, being able to say we’re 4-5 games back in the wild card in early August just tickles me pink, even if the team fades badly the rest of the year….)
MBSS
man, john cole was bustin out the pink floyd last night. pretty cool.
Common Sense
@MBSS:
What, did you use proper spelling?
Laura W
@MBSS: OK, but where do you stand on Monkey Time?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxRUOYMwG0A
Laura W
@JK: DID JONI MITCHELL DIE AND NO ONE TOLD ME?
MBSS
@ common sense.
the tragedy of my lack of proper grammar is that it’s due sloth as opposed to ignorance.
it only makes me feel that much worse about myself. i need to subscribe to neoliberal, randian philosophy, and become rich enough to hire a comment editor. someone who intervenes as i take my cool ranch interludes.
JK
@gwangung:
Nothing is as SWEET as a NY Yankees DEFEAT
MBSS
@ laura w
i was being flip. but hey, i’ve never heard of laura nyro, thanks for the introduction. she can really sing. good stuff, no snark.
JK
@Laura W:
Absolutely not. Perish the thought.
I just dreamed up a setlist of mellow, peaceful, soothing songs and these were the first titles that popped into my head.
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
Well, it is the “Hall of Fame Game Open Thread.” Key word: open. And, believe me, there is absolutely nothing going on in that game that would require you to keep the blog line clear. I have switched over to watch the Yankees apparently adminster the coup de grace to the hapless Red Sox.
I guess I was trying to think of a song that approached, from the male side, the emotional openness of Nyro’s song. “Lady of the Island” was era-appropriate, too.
Thanks for the link. I am ashamed to say that I currently do not own either Crosby, Stills & Nash or Déjà Vu. Must rectify that.
MikeJ
Fuck fuck fuckity fuck.
JK
@Steeplejack:
FUCK the NY YANKEES, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachman, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, Glenn “Instadouchebag” Reynolds, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Rudy Giuliani, Lou Dobbs, Alex Jones, Mark Levin, Michael Savage, Ross Douthat, Megan McArdle, Peggy Noonan, Mark Halperin, Howard Kurtz, Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, Meghan McCain, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Mitch McConnell – not necessarily in that order.
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
Being old-school, I stand with Major Lance.
“Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um.” Also.
P.S. When you said, “I cannot believe you referenced this song in association with Laura Nyro’s ‘December’s Boudoir,'” I thought for a minute you were yelling at me again. Whew.
Steeplejack
@JK:
Hey, I’m a Yankee hater too. I can’t remember who said this, but rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for gravity. Where’s the honor? Where’s the courage?
They’ve got more money than God, they can buy any player they want, and still they manage not to win everything every year. For me that proves the existence of the FSM (blessed be Her noodly appendages [h/t to Corner Stone]).
Laura W
@Steeplejack:
I was so logging off and going to bed but this can not be left unattended to.
Why would I be yelling at you, “again”? Do I ever yell at you? Have I set a precedent on this site of yelling at you? (Please say “no”, even if you’re lying.)
I need to take some “How to soften your online voice so men don’t think yer yellin’ at them courses”, clearly.
What I meant to say was: “It was very amazing to me, and quite moving and synchronistic, that you somehow tied L. Nyro’s “Dec.’s B.” to Lady of the Island.” Both were very important songs in my young life, tied to the same time period and the very same person, and the fact that you somehow reached in and brought forth the “male equivalent” to “Boudoir” with the choice that you selected just blew my mind. I mean, it’s like you read my mind and my past, is what I should’ve said.
I forget how one dimensional words on screens are sometimes, and how they totally fuck with the deeper intentions behind our communications.
Point was: your offering was awesome and it was the most interesting and serendipitous thing in my day!
Feel better now?
Night night.
JK
@Steeplejack:
Pete Hamill – “Rooting for the NY Yankees is like rooting for US Steel.”
Underrated, overlooked songs worth a listen IMHO
I Got a Name – Jim Croce
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9x15O3QYPA
Father and Son – Cat Stevens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jek6iP6AuAQ
Questions 67 & 68 – Chicago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3NMszrfjio
geg6
I must say I’m appalled at this thread. A thread dedicated to a great and noble sport and it’s filled with the most ridiculous assertions about the worst sport ever. It’s like asserting that curling is MUCH better than hockey and that it’s not really true that the house has the advantage. Whatever. Rod Woodson, bitchez.
Steeplejack
Got to noodling around on the YouTubes, like you do, something jogged my memory, and I looked up one of my favorite old songs from the ’70s, Les Dudek’s “Old Judge Jones.” If you like the Allman Brothers and Little Feat, you should check it out. There is a posted version on YouTube of the original album version, which is a lot cleaner, but I thought I would go with the live version.
Anyway, something about this song soothed my discontent over all the birther/teabagger nonsense this last week.
This is what they want. And somehow, seeing it nailed in a song, makes me feel like it is less likely to happen.
And he rocks that ax, yo (as the yoots would say).
You can’t hate a man for what he must do
But if his cause ain’t just and his word untrue
That man in the robe’s a devil in disguise
The bailiff’s books are filled with lies
Election time, and Jones’ll never lose
With a gun at your back in the voting booth
You can’t do what you think is right
Sad as it is . . . there’s a hanging tonight
JK
@Steeplejack: Love the Allman Brothers Band and Little Feat. Don’t know Les Dudek.
Common Sense
@geg6:
Based on the fact that you consider the only two sports worth a damn to be hockey and football, I’m going to hazard a guess and say that you are from Pittsburgh. Yes or no?
Steeplejack
@JK:
Hope you check out either version of the song.
Dudek was amazingly talented, and you can still pick up his best album, Say No More (which contains “Old Judge Jones”), but he never seemed to catch that one big break. So he remained a talented sideman and supporting presence. He actually played with the Allman Brothers at one point (in the studio), co-wrote “Jessica” with Dickey Betts and allegedly did the lead guitar solo on “Ramblin’ Man.” He also played with Boz Scaggs and the Steve Miller Band. And, oh, yeah, he dated Cher for three or four years, before she completely turned to plastic. Not a bad career, all in all.
Linkmeister
@Steeplejack: Wow. Too bad, since last week Amazon had the first album in mp3 format for $2.99.
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
Laura, darling, sorry if I pressed a nerve. Please forgive me. My comment was good-natured and meant in fun. You have never yelled at me. There were a couple of times when you joke-yelled at me, and I was referencing that. One time I made the mistake of sending you a jazz song with no lyrics. And more recently I thought you unfairly criticized me as an “amateur” song-linker. That one was not even joke-yelling, but my (no doubt fragile male) ego was pinked. Harrumph. (I’m not sure if you ever saw my eloquent response to that one.)
Anyway, with that in mind, for a few seconds after I read “I cannot believe you referenced this song in association with Laura Nyro’s ‘December’s Boudoir,” I thought, “Uh-oh, my spooky intuitive vibe missed it this time,” which occasionally–very rare occasions, to be sure–it does. But I quickly got the gist of your message and understood it completely. No need to explain further or think that I didn’t get “the deeper intentions behind [your] communications.” Got it.
Let’s don’t let a good thing die
When, honey, you know I’ve never lied to you
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Damn, I knew the formatting would get screwed up at the end.
Steeplejack
@Linkmeister:
D’oh!
But, honestly, I gots to get the CD for the WAV format. Those albums are both serious keepers.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
And I knew I would end up in moderation (too many links). Damn it all to hell.
MBSS
for all you baseball fans
http://www.totalprosports.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/hat-fail.jpg
Steeplejack
@MBSS:
Hilarious! Took me a minute to get it, but hilarious.
geg6
Common Sense: Why, yes! I am a proud Pittsburgher. However did you guess? ;-). Though you are not quite correct that football and hockey are the only sports worth a damn. College basketball is also a noble endeavor. And an old swimmer never passes on a swim meet that is televised. Golf is sometimes entertaining to watch. In fact, there are few sporting events I will pass by while channel surfing. There are two, however, that will surely make me surf on by. The first is NASCAR because who seriously can watch people makingf left turns for hours on end? And the second is baseball. That is for several reasons, just a few of which include the fact that it is as excitement-free as golf but with worse fashion sense, it’s season is as endless as hockey’s but without the cute nubile youngsters who consider it a mark of honor to lose a few teeth in battle, and it is as filled with performance enhancing drugs as horse racing but with no player one can imagine herself riding in a lovely meadow. Add the fact that there is no way that any team can compete for the top on a regular basis unless those teams are the Sox and the Yankees and you have the worst sport ever.
Bob In Pacifica
After the first quarter it was mostly people who won’t be around in September. Still, I turned down the sound and had a drink and watched the blur of action on the screen. Only a month until the real deal.
burnspbesq
@MBSS:
I bow to no person in my hatred for the stinking Dodgers (my grandfather was a Giants fan), but a Dodger win would be worth it just to see Bill Plaschke’s head explode.
ChrisB
Late to this thread but I’ll use it to note that Carl Petersen gave a very moving speech Saturday night on the late Derrick Thomas’s induction into the Football Hall of Fame. Marty Schottenheimer and many others were crying their eyes out.
Linkmeister
@burnspbesq: As a Dodgers fan of forty years who still bitterly remembers the 1962 playoffs, it pains me to agree with a Giants fan, but yes. Seeing Manny Ramirez on a winning WS team would cause Plaschke to foam at the mouth and chew the carpet.
(He’s an old, old, old-school newspaper columnist for the LA Times who’s been fulminating that the fans just don’t get it; Manny should be shunned, they shouldn’t go to games until he’s drawn and quartered and thrown out of baseball, etc., etc.)