July, We Hardly Knew Ye..

  I don't care what the calendar says, July is the new February -- i.e. the new shortest month of the year. That's not a fact or anything it's just how I've come to feel after seeing one too many sweltering summer days disappear into crisp, chilly autumn eves. Time in general just seems to always be slipping away faster each year. I guess that since spring and summer are the most enjoyable seasons, it only makes sense that they fly by the quickest. July, falling smack in the middle of summer has become annoyingly fast.

  It's gotten so that everyone gets excited about the Fourth of July and then, like that, it's August. What the hell? Now I'm one of the first to admit that I prefer the crisp air of fall or spring to the mid-summer humidity...particularly the insane hellacious heatwaves we endured earlier this month. But once we get to fall it means that the leaves start falling, the air gets even colder and before you know it it's winter!

  What does all this mean? I guess that I should stop contemplating the endless march of time and enjoy the summer while its still here.

Week in Review #2 (Embrace the Superfriends...or Else!)

  The other reason why this has been a strange week is that a professional athlete made a decision on where he would play next season, and there has been an uproar over his choice. Obviously I'm talking about LeBron James. If you're reading this, you may be surprised that I'm writing about this now as opposed to a few days ago when all the hoopla went down. Well I was kinda busy/burnt out from the heat this week and much of the discussion I had on this subject took place on my friends' facebook walls (funny how that passes for discussion these days). Also I've had some time to collect my thoughts after the 'decision' was made and I'll try to coherently share some of those thoughts with you here.

  First: I don't get the outpouring of negativity this decision has received. I'll say this much as a post-preface to that last sentence: I grew up as a die-hard Knicks fan and ever since the team collapsed under Isaiah Thomas I've been looking for a reason to cheer for them again. When Amare Stoudamire signed, I thought maybe we could get LeBron; but it didn't happen and that's that. Why didn't James come to the play in the greatest city in the world? Because he wants to win and win right now, he said as much when Jim Gray asked him what was the main factor in making his choice. When LeBron said that, I knew the Knicks were out of the running. LBJ was courted by several teams in this process. Only three ever really had a shot, I believe; but only two could really help him win sooon. The Chicago Bulls who have the most complete team right now and would've probably made the most sense. That brings us to the Miami Heat who had enough money to re-sign their perennial all-star Dwayne Wade as well as pursue LBJ and big man Chris Bosh. James is good friends with both those guys. Miami landed Bosh, the prospect of playing with both him and Wade was too much to turn down for LBJ and the decision was made. And, honestly, when I forget my tri-state area bias I can't imagine going anywhere else than Miami. I do feel bad for the folks in Cleveland who must feel as though they've had their hearts torn out again. But LeBron made them a relevant sports town again. He gave them seven amazing years and carried them to the NBA Finals on his back. There's no need to burn his freaking jersey. They need to ask Cavs' managment how they weren't able to give James a better supporting cast before they get mad at LeBron.

  In addition to his former fans turning on him, virtually every one I know is using their facebook wall to slur James and call him a coward (to put it mildly). I just don't get it. Some are saying that he's taking the easy way out, refusing to stand on his own feet. I say, so what? Winning is not an individual achievement (unless you're playing tennis or golf). A 'ring' represents a team achievement. No great player has ever won a championship by himself. Jordan always had a great team and the 96 Bulls won 72 games en route to the title, a record that still stands. He also had Phil Jackson coaching those teams. Magic had the Showtime Lakers which featured Kareem Abdul-Jabar and a little-known coach by the name of Pat Riley. Kobe had Shaq for his three-peat, last year he had a veritable all-star team and Phil Jackson has been his coach for all five championships.

  Second, is the fact that during the post-announcement interview with Mike Wilbon I actually felt sorry for LeBron. He seemed emotional throughout the broadcast but especially so when Wilbon showed him footage of Cleveland fans burning.his old jersey. It must have broke his heart to leave his home state. It seemed to me like he would have stayed with the Cavs, but when Chris Bosh and Wade signed with Miami it forced his hand to join them. Yes the team is far from complete. But three all-stars is a hell of a start, especially when each of them has even more motivation to win now.

Week in Review #1 (Hot in Hurr)

  It's been a strange week in this part of the country (tri-state area). In North Jersey we endured a stretch of days where the high temperatures looked like an honor's students test scores. According to weather.com, Sunday we reached 96 degrees farenheit, Monday 97, Tuesday101 and 99 on Wednesday. Although in my mom's car the thermometer read as high as 105 on both Tuesday and Wednesday for whatever that's worth. In NYC and Newark, NJ temperatures hit 103 on Tuesday, records for both cities.

  Now on Wednesdays and Thursdays I receive deliveries at the store where I work. Which means I need to be at work (not awake or just getting up, at work) by 6:30. Usually it's no problem. Just hit the hay a little earlier. This week it was a problem and, as you can probably guess, the heat had something to do with it. In my house we have one air conditioner unit - the house was built long before central air. The a/c is on the main floor and we have fans in the bedroooms which usually do a good job to keep everyone cool. But on Tuesday evening the fans were no match for the oppressive heat. With my fan blowing full blast, it felt like it was blowing warm air on me, I couldn't get to sleep. I spent most of the night reading and watching Youtube vids on my iPod. Didn't fall asleep until a little after 3:15 (at least that's the last time I remember seeing). I woke up the next morning and had one of those 'that's the last straw damnit!' attitudes. I purchased a (relatively) cheap a/c later that afternoon and haven't looked back since.

To be or not to be a Soccer Fan

 So there's this thing going on called the World Cup, the so-called greatest sporting event in the world. If you're like me, an ambivalent semi-fan of soccer, then you NEED to check out this video from Tosh.0. It seriosuly puts the game in its place. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching exciting soccer highlights (it's not possible to watch an entire 90+ minute match. And every four years I am a die-hard Team USA fan. But so much of the sport is foreign to me. The best players and leagues are all in Europe and try though I might, it's nearly impossible for me follow the international premier leagues. 
 So as we all collectively try to beat the 'World Cup blues' let's remember that this might be the world's game, just not exactly ours. If that even makes sense. Whatever, I speak American...and it's baseball season.

Pratfalls and Problems of the Page to Screen Transition

Disclaimer: If you aren't a fan of the Harry Potter series of books/movies, chances are you won't get anything in this. You've been warned.
 Here's the trailer for the new Harry Potter movie.
 I'm cautiously optimistic. The past few years when I've seen a trailer for a Harry Potter movie, I've been all psyched and can't wait to see the movie. Then I see it and it's like 'meh'. From films four to six there have been so many crucial details left out that it has been infurating. I was really spoiled with the care and reverance that Peter Jackson and his crew put into the Lord of the Rings films. Yes they differed from the books in a few ways but any true fan knew that it would be impossible to completely take the text from the page and put it up on the screen.
 It's different with the Harry Potter films for me though. Because they have changed so much from the books that some parts are irrecognizable. The last 100 pages of book five, for instance, feature some of the best written, intense action set pieces I have ever read. When you see the sequence play out on film it's WTF-inducing. "Why aren't they dueling? That's not dueling. They're just like flying around. They can't do that."
 Book four, The Goblet of Fire, was a major shift for the series. It takes the main characters into seriously mature territory and someone actually dies, something that would become a hallmark of the series from that point on. The book weighs in at over 700 pages...so of course some parts would end up on the cutting room floor. Two important characters and one whole storyline (Hermione and Dobby and the House Elf Liberation Movement) get completely scrapped.

 The slicing and dicing is fine I guess considering that most of the people going to see these films in the theatre have the attention span of a squirrel. But what about the die-hard fans? Why not take a page out of the Lord of the Rings playbook and release a set of extended editions DVDs/BluRays. The Order of the Phoenix (the longest in the series) is 860+ pages! The Half Blood Prince is over 600. Each of these books is filled with a treasure trove of detail and complex characters with their own stories. Fans who opted not to read the books have missed out on a LOT. Finally, with one last book left to adapt to the screen with its own set of intricacies, the producers decided to make the film in two parts. Hopefully this move will present the story in the way JK Rowling intended it.

Here's an old LOTR trailer. This is a great example of how to take a beloved series from page to screen.

Yup

If anyone is actually reading this, I want to let you know that despite my previous two posts, this blog is not only about baseball and will eventually cover a broad range of topics. I just felt the need to state that as the last two posts were long extrapolations on an a baseball dialog I had been having with some people.

Follow Up

Here's a quick follow-up on my last post. Joe Buck, the lead baseball announcer on Fox just echoed some of the things I said in my previous blog and in fact expanded on many of them. Buck, while using a podium infinitely higher than I have here, credited Torre with much of the success the Yankees have achieved the past 15 years. Think about it. Torre oversaw four world titles which led to the creation of the so-called 'Evil Empire.' The cable network Yes, the new Yankee Stadium and the fact that the franchise can spend gobs of money to field an all-star team each season.

I hate to harp on this point as I have no posted two consecutive times on the same subject. While I am a proud Yankee fan, I am still disgusted with the way the organizations 'brain trust' ran Torre out of town. Michael Kay, the lead announcer on Yes, makes light of the event saying that with the Yanks winning another title last year and Torre firmly entrenched with the Dodgers the incident is int he past and everyone has moved on. Maybe this is true for Kay who is on the Yankee payroll and in addition to announcing games hosts his own talk show on the Yes network. But for fans like myself who grew up watching and playing baseball in the 90s, you get an emotional attachment to the players and managers that you see on so many lazy Sunday afternoons. This is especially true of a guy like Joe Torre.

Torre certainly does not need Buck or myself to come rushing to his defense - he can handle himself and never backs out of questions from detractors. But it's always nice to someone like Buck call out an organization on an incident that they try to pretend is long past.

For the full story on what went down between Torre and the Yanks, check out the Torre and Tom Verducci co-authored The Yankee Years. Yes it's got a bitter tone and is a little biased but nnot so much that it blurs truth from fiction. It is the story of the rise and fall of the Yanks under Torre and is a great read for any baseball fan.