Random Thoughts, Sights, and Sounds - A Potpourri of Knowledge

In posting 3-4 blog entries a week, it's a good feeling when I realize that people are taking the time to read what I'm writing. I was particularly excited regarding a response that I got about a recent post.

This past Tuesday, I posted a video of Ryan Rogers being the first baby to baptized at Fenway Park. At the end of the post I wrote, "I want to know the levels of conversation this guy had with his wife to come up from Florida to get his son baptized at Fenway Park."

Imagine my surprise when I got an answer to my (rhetorical) question. For those who missed it, Ryan's mom found the story of her son on my Blog and posted this comment.

"You wanted to know about the conversation this guy had with his wife. Well, this is his wife. It went something like this. I was bogged down during tax season (I am a CPA) so long story short, I left the baptism planning up to my husband. We are from New England and all of our family still live in Mass and RI, SO we would have gone up north either way, just a matter of location. Having planned everything else (wedding, showers, etc.), I thought it nice for my husband should have his dream of this Fenway Park baptism. He came into the kitchen and said honey, there has NEVER been a baptism at Fenway Park, I laughed and said yeah.. that's because MOST people have them in a church! he said well they have weddings, etc. in different places, I said true, but do they have drive by baptisms in Vegas? Anyhow, I continued to leave all of the planning up to him. he did a great job and when all is said and done, it was amazing. No I wasn't crazy about it at first, but it all worked out."

A Huge Chicks Dig McLovin thank you goes out to Mrs. Rogers for responding to my question, and going into detail about how her son's baptism at Fenway came about. She seems like a very cool lady. I'm glad all worked for her and family on such an important day.

The power of advertising. I finally broke down and purchased Coldplay's Viva la Vida from iTunes after seeing all of the iTunes commercials this past week, playing this song during the NBA playoffs.

Thoughts: It's a good song, a little different take from Coldplay as the song is not either piano or guitar driven (as most of their songs are) - it's heavier on the string (violins) section. Though listening to it, it reminds me of the NBA playoffs, and I have a feeling that future listens will continue to remind me of this year's NBA playoffs, much like the Smashing Pumpkins' Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, takes me back to the 2001 World Series and Tears for Fears' Everyone Wants to Rule the World instantly brings on images of Dennis Miller playing pool in the opening of his talk show on HBO.

80's Redux: Van Halen with David Lee Roth on tour, a new Indiana Jones movie, a New Kids Tour, makes you wonder when are the Z Cavaricci pants coming back.

Celtics-Lakers NBA finals has a nice ring to it and would continue the 80's theme. We'll see what happens.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Attractive Boyfriends/Girlfriends - Who Needs Em

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I have one word I'd like to use to start to describe the two pictures that will appear below.

WHY???

I will add on to that one word by saying this: If you are a famous Hollywood actress WHY would you ever consider dating a less-than-attractive person? I admit, as far as men go, I'm not the best looking, but isn't that the one of the perks of being famous, weeding out that whole less-than-desirable segment of the dating population?

Looks like Cynthia Nixon and Natalie Portman aren't currently taking advantage of that added benefit.

First up we have Nixon, co-star of Sex in the City, with her girlfriend Christine Marinoni. Seeing this picture for the first time, I have to be honest, I didn't know that Nixon was dating a woman - looks a little like a guy to me.


In the next photo the girl on the right, under the sunglasses is Natalie Portman, very attractive, very cute. To her left, under the sunglasses is ... hey, I didn't know Portman and Chewbacca hooked up while on the set of the Star Wars movies - cool.

I wonder if Han Solo knows that Chewie hooked up with his girlfriend's (Princess Leia) Mom. If so, I'm sure that was the center of a lot of long discussions while flying through the Galaxy in the Millenium Falcon, with Chewie telling Han, "If Leia is anything like her Mother was (at bedtime) - then you've got a keeper there." It's encouraging to know that even a Wookie can find love. This is the lost Star Wars movie that all of the Internet Star Wars geeks have been looking for: Star Wars - Even a Wookie needs love, Once You Go Wookie, You Never Go Back.

Will Someone Get the Curly-Headed Boyfriend a Tissue?

In going through the Boston Globe on Sunday, I came across this latest masterpiece from Dan "Shank" Shaughnessy titled, "We now have a bad connection."

The gist of Shaughnessy's piece was that sports writers no longer have the same personal connection to the athletes that they cover.

From Shaughnessy's piece:

"I love watching Kevin Garnett play basketball. Bet you do, too. But I feel like I don't know a thing about the guy. Never will. And neither will you. That's just the way it is now.

"Rajon Rondo has a publicist. Think about that for a second. I'm pretty sure Greg Kite never had a publicist. I know this because Kite was my neighbor when I covered the Celtics and we used to share rides to Logan. We both knew that Monday was trash day in West Newton.

"With me, it was Rick Robey," says colleague Bob Ryan. "Robey lived in Hingham and he'd pick up myself and Mike Fine [Patriot Ledger] on the way to the airport."

"We were able to tell you a lot about those Celtics because we traveled with them. On commercial aircraft. On buses. In hotel lobbies and hotel bars."

So now Shaughnessy is pining for the old days when he and Kite could share stories about their weekends while taking the out the trash. The days of sidewalk chats with his favorite Mormon big man are gone forever. Someone get Shank a tissue.

As we are apt to say here on the Chicks Dig McLovin (because he tastes like chicken) Blog: Boo Effing Hoo!!!!

The best is that Shaughnessy is trying mask his crying by saying it's the fans that are losing out because the writers aren't able to share these quality tidbits with their readers:

According to Shank, did you know that Chris Ford liked to be called "Doc". Reading that makes me wonder if he was a real Doctor?

We knew that Scott Wedman carried a half-gallon jug of spring water at all times. Really. Hey Shaughnessy if you knew that, could you also tell us how many times Wedman took a piss each day?

We knew that Rick Carlisle could play classical piano without sheet music? That's good to know - very insightful stuff, but was Carlisle a better piano player than Sonny from 'It's a Living' (which was a great '80's show - those waitresses were smokin). Carlisle's talents on the keyboard didn't translate to the court.

Shaughnessy, you want to know why athletes and coaches don't open up to you like they did in the past (where K.C. Jones and Jimmy Rodgers loved to argue about the best ribs in Kansas City), is because idiots like John Tomase write that the Patriots had a tape of the Rams Super Bowl walkthrough. That's why. The players and coaches don't trust the media anymore.

And honestly, the readers of your stories could care less if Chris Ford likes to be called Doc. It only made you feel better as a writer because it made you feel closer to the athletes you were covering and gave you a false sense that if you needed to get info for a story that no one else had, you could ask your friend "Doc" or meet up with Wedman in a Men's room somewhere and get the info you were looking for.

Hey, Shaughnessy here's a piece of (free) advice from me to you. It's not about you. It never was and it never will be. So stop your cryin.

I think it would be cool if an athlete to hung out with Shaughnessy and reported on their blog (Sounds like a job for Curt Schilling) that he likes to sleep with a night light on because he's afraid of the dark and that he likes to refer to his wife as 'Mommy'.

Now that would be something I would be interested in reading.

Great Idea

For today's edition of YouTube Tuesday on the Chicks Dig McLovin (cause he tastes like chicken) blog, it will be a video of something I wish I had thought of. After watching this video, it made me sit here and say, "Damn, why didn't I think of that?"

The video is a story of a boy whose baptism was recently held at Fenway Park, and was the first-ever baptism at the ballyard.

Why didn't I think of having my son's baptism at Fenway Park? Here's why - this is a pretty close re-enactment of how that conversation would have gone with my wife.

Me: I have a great idea of where Dylan's baptism should be.

Wife: It's going to be at St. Irene's, where I was baptized and where we were married.

Me: That is a great idea, but I'm thinking that we could think of somewhere different.

Wife (now starting to become agitated): Where's that?

Me: Fenway Park. It'll be great. It will be unique. How many people do you know were baptized at Fenway Park.

Then crickets - nothing, no response at all. Then finally.

Wife: None, because it's not a church.

Our conversation ends.

I want to know the levels of conversation this guy had with his wife to come up from Florida to get his son baptized at Fenway Park (the report starts at the 30 second mark).

Random Thoughts, Sights, and Sounds - A Potpourri of Knowledge

This is the Lightning Round edition of the Random Thoughts post.

• Yesterday, Thursday, May 22, was the 60th anniversary of the creation of The Jimmy Fund. Since that day in 1948, The Jimmy Fund has raised hundreds of millions and helped thousands of families in their battles against cancer. They are closing in on their goal of raising $500,000 in their latest fundrasing effort, Rally Against Cancer With Dustin Pedroia, but they still need your help. If you go to their website www.rallyagainstcancer.org, they are accepting contributions until June 15.
• Yes, the Boston Red Sox currently have the best record in baseball (31-19) and are on a seven-game winning streak, but the one thing about that team that scares the crap out of me and is a major area of concern is the bullpen. It's time for the Craig Hansen experiement to end. He's given up runs in five of his eight appearances and doesn't excude confidence when he enters a game. Mike Timlin isn't much better, allowing runs in 7 of his 15 appearances.
• Caught the last half of 'High Fidelity' on TV the other night and it still amazes me, even after the numerous times I've seen it, how much of that movie that I can point to and say 'I used to feel/think that way'. I'm talking specifically about relationships and what goes into making a great mix tape.
• Despite my best efforts over the past six weeks to screw it up, I found out today that my streak continues. Streak!!! - what streak you ask? Let's just say it has to do with Graduate School and a certain grade. Eight down and five to go.
• While surfing the web yesterday, I came across a rumor on the Internet, which I'm guessing to be 99.9% inaccurate, but I'll think of it every time I see these two people on the Fox 25 10 p.m. news. It has to do with Maria Stephanos and Kevin Lemanowicz spending some quality time together in a car behind a movie theater in Dedham. Let's just say Maria was spending some time at the (Lemanowicz') North Pole. Why can't they have flim of that at 11? Just the slight thought of that possibly being true brightened up my day.
• With Monday being Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, have a great holiday weekend everyone.

Answers

Below are answers to some questions that I've had over the past several days/weeks.

Q: Was I being too harsh in my criticism of John Tomase during last Friday's Random Thoughts Posting?

A: Uh, No. Actually, I wasn't critical enough. One of my biggest criticisms of Tomase was that his stupid, incoherent, woe-is-me, explanation of Spygate didn't contain an apology to the Patriots or the fans. That wasn't entirely accurate on my part.

Turns out Tomase did apologize to the Patriots, the Kraft family, Bill Belichick, the players and the fans. But it never appeared in a print version of the Boston Herald or in his original explanation/story. It appeared later on his blog (which isn't the easiest thing to find on the Herald website), only after hundreds of people left scathing comments regarding his piece of garbage article.

At that point, why bother? Who is going to see that, and why wouldn't you include it in either Saturday or Sunday's print editions of the Herald.

Both Tomase and the Herald are clowns, who have mishandled this whole situation from day 1. They deserve all of the negative fallout that has come with this story. Personally, I will never read another piece written by Tomase ever again, nor will I ever again read the Boston Herald.

Q: A couple of weeks back I said that this seven-year-old boy from Florida, who stole his mother's car and went for a ride, would eventually be in trouble with the cops again. Was I right?

A: Yes I was. Turns out that he, Latarian Milton , attacked his grandmother at a Florida Wal-Mart (of course, where else would something like this happen) because she wouldn't buy him a) a Wii, b) a Playstation 360, c) a PSP, or d) Chicken Wings.

The answer - d: Chicken Wings. He wanted chicken wings, she wouldn't buy them - he ordered them anyways. She asserted her authority and said no and for her troubles, Latarian started beating the crap out of her.

Q: Will the continued controversy regarding Spygate keep Bill Belichick hunkered down in a bunker, curled up in a corner in the fetal position, afraid to see the world?

A: Going by the picture of Belichick and his attractive lady friend at Tuesday night's Celtics game, I'm guessing the answer is no. I'm will now make two other assumptions regarding Belichick based on this picture. 1. I'm guessing that the woman he's sitting with is the same women he had a long-term affair with. 2. I'm also guessing that same women is an upgrade over the former Mrs. Belichick.

Way to go Bill - You're the man.

Too Funny

Last Friday, I used the weekly 'Random Thoughts, Sights and Sounds' post to blast people, organizations or stories that I had read or experienced over the prior few days.

John Tomase's still an a-hole, and he might be a bigger a-hole than he was last Friday, though this is supposed to be an upbeat post, so I'll leave the Tomase-bashing until Wednesday's post.

For today's theme of YouTube Tuesday, I'm going to post three videos that I've seen over the past couple of days that make me laugh uncontrollably every time I watch.

First, we have the story of man who is having some issues in a private area, while he is getting arrested for DUI.

I never knew that doing the itchy nuts dance would signify your refusal to take a breathalyzer test and that the dance is combative in nature.



Performing the action in the second video would scare the shit out of me, but it looks like a lot of fun. Listen to the guy in the background screaming, "YEAH".



And finally, we have a situation where you go to a urinal run and a horse race breaks out. I guess having beers thrown at you while running urinal tops is a tradition at the Preakness (check out the spill at the :22 second mark and the whiny girl beforehand - I can do a better job than that). No you can't, now sit down and shut up.

You have Mint Julips and Hats at the Kentucky Derby, The Urinal Run and beers at the Preakness. I can't even imagine what those whacky and silly horse racing aficionados have in store for the Belmont Stakes.

A Tradition Unlike Any Other (Urinal Roof Running)... The Preakness.

Random Thoughts, Sights and Sounds - A Potpourri of Knowledge

For today's Edition of Random Thoughts, I am in the mood to blast some people (and we have plenty of candidates to choose from). But first we'll start with the person who needs to be blasted the most.


That would be the Boston Herald's John Tomase. On Friday, Tomase presented, what can only be described as a half-hearted attempt at an explanation in writing the 'Matt Walsh videotaped the Rams walkthrough before Super Bowl 36' story on February 2nd.

I have read and re-read his account of putting together this non-story and found it to be disjointed and all over the place. There was no flow to his explanation. Some of lesser points Tomase made in his half-ass explanation:

A pit settled in my stomach. That pit would become my constant companion for the next three months.

No, jackass the pit in your stomach comes from years of eating press-box food. A little Pepto-Bismol will clear that right up. Or you'll need to have that Alien love child removed from your stomach.

Caught up in the moment, I was excited to break a big story.

Which you did based on rumors, friends of friends and second-hand sources, with the knowledge that no one that you talked with had ever seen this alleged tape. It's one thing not to see the tape yourself, but you needed to have talked with someone who had seen it.

I intend to continue covering the Patriots to the best of my abilities, and that means pursuing every storyline, good or bad.

I would like to see how that's going to work. How's Tomase going to be able to do that? Who in the Patriots organization is going to talk to him. If he attempts to print something that puts the Patriots in a bad light, people will naturally assume (right or wrong) that it's false.

The process of regaining your (the readers) trust will not be an easy one...Today I hope to begin the long road back.

Here's why Tomase will never regain the trust of the readers. At no point during his 1,400-plus word diatribe does Tomase apologize to the Patriots or the readers.

Hey, Tomase, the first point of getting forgiveness is asking for that forgiveness.

I also want to blast US Air and Delta for charging $658 to take the shuttle from Boston to New York (6 a.m. departure time, 7 p.m. return time), where JetBlue would charge $358 for the same flight, with the difference being that JetBlue flies into JFK airport while US Air and Delta both fly into LaGuardia. That's crazy - a $300 difference, plus on JetBlue I get leather seats, more leg room and 40 channels of Direct tv, while US Air and Delta have me bend over and say "Thank You Sir, May I have Another."

Finally, another blast regarding airlines, but this time the blast is directed to a certain group of travelers - couples who are involved in long-distance relationships.

In Friday's Boston Globe, there was a story reporting on the increased costs that people who fly around the country to see their boyfriend/girlfriend are incurring. Because of the additional costs, the surprise, drop-in, I miss you, so I need to see you trip, isn't happening anymore because it costs too much. This is straining relationships.

Boo-f*cking Hoo!!!! Wah, Wah, Wah. Quit your bitchin' and suck it up. Take the $400-$500 you're spending on airline flights and find some companionship in your own city. Guys, you can buy the ladies a lot of drinks with that amount of money.

Remember, beauty is only a light switch away.

Ah Crap(s)

From the 'How Do We Say 'Snake Eyes', 'Come on 7', 'Can You Blow on These for Luck' or 'Momma Needs a New Pair of Shoes' in Japanese file:

Instead of teaching Hideki Okajima the finer points and ins and outs of craps, maybe Jonathan Papelbon should share with Okie how not to give up game-blowing grand slams to crappy hitters like Jay Payton.

Topsy-Turvy World

..at least in the sporting world anyways.

As we sit here on May 14:

The Tampa Bay Rays are in first place in the AL east, roughly a quarter of the way through the season. They have the best winning percentage in the league and are tied for the second best winning percentage in all of baseball.

The Minnesota Twins, despite trading away their best pitcher in Johan Santana and losing their best position player, Torii Hunter, in free agency, are in first in the AL Central.

The Oakland A's, who after their season-opening series against the Boston Red Sox in which they lost three of four and looked like they were going to wage an epic battle with San Francisco for the title of "Worst Bay Area Baseball Team", are a half-a-game out of first in the AL West.

Topping all of those stories are the Florida Marlins, whose entire team payroll is $6.2 million less than Alex Rodriguez will make this season, are in first place by a game-and-a-half and have the same record (23-16) as the Rays.

Any prognosticator could say that Boston, Cleveland, the Angels and the Mets would be the top teams in their divisions. Name me the ones that picked Tampa, Minnesota, Oakland and Florida to be at the top of the standings 40 games into the season.

I'm guessing it will be a short list.

The craziness isn't limited to just baseball, but also basketball. Despite 21 fewer regular season wins, Cleveland is giving Boston all it can handle in the second round of the NBA playoffs. With LeBron James only shooting 25% in the series and averaging just 19 points in the four games against the Celtics, you would think the series would be over or Boston would be looking to close it out in Game 5. That certainly isn't the case with Cleveland winning the last two games at home.

My prediction for Game 5 - LeBron goes crazy and drops 40+ points on the Celtics and the Cavs win Game 5. Cleveland then closes out the the series on Friday night with a win in Game 6.

My prediction skills will probably be proven wrong again, but this is the bizarro world where anything can happen.

Channel Surfing on JetBlue

Though Tuesday was almost gone, I was able to sneak in 'YouTube Tuesday' on the Chicks Dig McLovin blog before the clock struck midnight.

The theme for this evening's installment of YouTube Tuesday is JetBlue, not specifically anything directly relating to the airlines, rather, several things I watched while sitting on the runway at JFK airport (for over an hour) and then finally heading back to Boston after spending the day in New York City on Monday.

Monday's trek to New York was my first on JetBlue and I was impressed with the selection of DirectTV channels and allowed me to be all over the map in terms of my viewing choices and made the wait on the runway extremly bearable.

Who cares if you can get me to my destination safely and in a reasonable timeframe, somewhat close to my scheduled arrival time, I only care about what channels your offering on DirectTV.

In addition to watching a couple of innings of the Red Sox loss to Minnesota, I flipped back and forth to Diners, Drive-ins and Dives hosted by Guy Fieri on the Food Network. In Monday's episode, Fieri got the low down on different types of hamburgers served across the US. One such place was at Blimpy Burger in Ann Arbor Michigan. Take Kevin Millar and cross him with Sammy Hagar and you get Guy Fieri.



I couldn't let the evening pass by without checking in to see how the Celtics were holding up in their Game 4 matchup with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. No one is safe from the rath of Lebron, not Paul Pierce, not KG, not even LeBron's mother.

Someone needed to tell KG to watch out for Mommy James.

"Sit your ass down."



Finally, I caught part of Bon Jovi's Unplugged performance from last summer on VH1 Classic. It was hairband night on The Classic as they followed up Bon Jovi's live performance with the VH1 original movie, the Def Leppard story, which looked and sounded as good as you can imagine :P.

Random Thoughts, Sights and Sounds - A Potpourri of Knowledge

SPYGATE - day 1,577.

Can't the US government find something better for Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter to focus his energies on?

If Patriots owner Robert Kraft gives President Bush a Super Bowl ring, would that be enough to sway Bush to send Specter on a fact finding to Burma and oversee the aid effort?

Maybe Specter can go to Canada to come up with an invasion plan of our friends to the north. The invasion will be spearheaded by Colonel Alex P. Keaton, (at 3:25 mark) an off-the-wall, random Family Ties reference, I apologize. Back to the blog.

With all media outlets reporting yesterday that Matt Walsh does not have a tape of the Rams walkthrough before the 2002 Super Bowl and that the tapes he sent in to the NFL are just more tapes of the Patriots taping opposing coaches signals, the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodwell appear ready to call this 'case closed' (through they will still meet with Walsh next Tuesday).

But Specter isn't ready to move on.

Time to move to other things Senator.

With Mother's Day this Sunday, this portion of the Random Thoughts, Sights and Sounds will now focus on Mother's Day. So Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out their, especially my wife. This announcement of well wishes applies to all, except my mom who is the biggest douche-bag on the face of the planet.

While that sounds pretty harsh, I can say that a) because it's true, b) because other's believe it to be true and c) because it's my blog.

On to the videos.

Here's a video, dedicated to a special group of Mom's that we all love.



Here's a video of two guys that only their Mom could love.

Oooops, my bad!

Let's just get this out of the way right from the get-go.

THERE HAVE BEEN PLENTY OF TIMES THAT I'VE SCREWED UP AT WORK!!!

So, I'm not going to take a holier-than-thou approach, but it looks like The Boston Herald's John Thomase has screwed up big time.

If you don't remember, it was Thomase who broke the story on February 2 (the day before the Super Bowl) informing the world that a source told him that former Patriots assistant Matt Walsh had tapes of the Patriots (specifically Walsh) filming the walkthrough of the St. Louis Rams, prior to Super Bowl 39.

It was believed all along that the source in question for the story was Walsh, but it turns out that's not the case.

Walsh's attorney Michael Levy told the New York Times on Wednesday,

“Mr. Walsh has never claimed to have a tape of the walk-through,” Levy told the Times in a telephone interview. “Mr. Walsh has never been the source of any of the media speculation about such a tape. Mr. Walsh was not the source for the Feb. 2 Boston Herald article.”

Also, of the eight tapes that Walsh turned over to the NFL commissioner Roger Goodwell there was not a tape of the Rams walkthrough prior to the Super Bowl. Levy told the Times that Walsh does not have a tape of the walkthrough.

Sort of shoots down the validity of Tomase's article - doesn't it? It's one thing if I screw up at work, not many people will know about it.

You come out with an exclusive article the day before the Patriots are attempting to put the finishing touches on an undefeated season with a victory in the Super Bowl, and it turns out that the basis for your entire piece (that the Patriots cheated before the 2002 Super Bowl) is false, you are in a world of shit.

If writing an article and having it appear (incorrectly) wasn't big enough of an issue, this is what has come about as a result of it.

A re-opening of the Spygate investigation by the NFL.

A separate investigation spearheaded by US Senator Arlen Spector.

Months of negotiations between Walsh and the NFL, resulting in Walsh turning over the eight tapes that he does have (of the Patriots videotaping opposing coaches signals, which is what they've admitted to in the past).

A perception by the public (at least outside of New England) that the New England Patriots needed to cheat to win the 2002 Super Bowl.

I'm guessing Tomase's a little gun shy in answering the phone today, doing a double take when looking at his caller ID, making sure it's not anyone from the offices of the Boston Herald calling. Not that Tomase's alone in all of this (how about the editor of the story and the Sports Editor of the Herald not raising a red flag), but it's his name on the article.

Delinquents

That's right, Delinquents - that will be the theme of YouTube Tuesday on the Chicks and McLovin hates Delinquents blog.

Here are two examples of some fine, upstanding citizens.

I have a feeling we're going to be hearing from Delinquent #1 multiple times in the future, as he's only seven years old. "I wanted to do it because it's fun, fun to do bad things."



Delinquent #2 shows what can happen when the whole "Yankees Suck-Red Sox suck" discussion goes way too far. This will give Red Sox fans pause before the next time they break into a "Yankees Suck" chant.

As for stupidity, this definitely beats the time that me and a buddy chanted "Yankees Suck" to a whole section of Yankees fans, at Yankee Stadium no less, during a Red Sox-Yankees game. At any moment that entire section looked as if they were going to hop out of their seats and give both of us the beating of our lives, but we escaped without incident. Not one of my smarter days.

Driving home from work Monday night, I saw a bumper stick that said "I do not brake for Yankees fans". I wonder if this woman had a "I do not break for Red Sox fans" on the back of her car.

Whose the Guy in the Box?

As someone who works in advertising, I get it. I understand it. I'm aware (especially on the web) that advertiser's messages are all around me. It's only going to get worse as the next big thing in the next two to three years will be advertisements placed on your mobile devices.

But there are times when advertisers and their messages and branding goes too far. Working for a publisher, I've seen it as clients try to push the envelope with how far they can go.

But this is over the edge. This is a picture of the May schedule for the Boston Red Sox, found on their website, RedSox.com. If I'm not mistaken there is an image of someone in the box for the May 22 game against Kansas City.


Who the hell is in the box - why it's Indiana Jones.

Indiana Jones??? WTF??

When I think of baseball, I think of the seventh inning stretch - Take Me out to the Ball Game, Sweet Caroline being played in the eighth inning at Fenway Park. The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the taste of a Fenway Frank and a watered-down $7 beer and Indiana Jones.

Go to mlb.com and check out the schedule for any major league team. Look at who is on the schedule (even for the teams that have an off day) for every major league team on May 22. Turns out Indy's new movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Though the original working title was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Depends Undergarments), opens that day and is a tie-in for this promotion from Major League Baseball.

Will the promotion stop there, will there be an Indiana Jones Fathead plastered on the Green Monster at Fenway (Sox are home that day against Kansas City). If the Indy Fathead on the Green Monster goes well, the Sox could put this one on the Monster when the Yankees are in town.

Since Roger Clemens like 15-year-old singers, I bet he has this Fathead above his bed. Best Roger Clemens joke I've heard the past week, "Roger Clemens is so stupid he wants to have a three-way with Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus."

Anyways, one last thing about this Living Legends of Baseball promotion that Indiana Jones is being tied into. On the Living Legends contest page, several baseball players are shown - Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Greg Maddux, Johan Santana, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez. Why are current players shown? They aren't living legends. When watching any of the aforementioned six players play I don't say to myself, "Look there's (fill-in blank), he's a living legend."

Here are some options of living legends who should instead be pictured: Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Frank Robinson, Cal Ripken, Sandy Koufax.

They are the true legends of the game.

Random Thoughts, Sights and Sounds - A Potpourri of Knowledge

I caught an episode of the HBO show 'Bob Costas Now' earlier this week and there was an interesting discussion regarding how the sports world is being covered in the Internet Age.

Author Buzz Bissinger vs. Deadspin editor Will Leitch. The old guard vs. the new guard in the world of sports coverage and the old guard is angry. Deadspin is the #1 rated internet sports blog.

Bissinger brought out the big guns from the word 'go' saying to Leitch, "I really think you're full of shit" Nice way of starting a discussion. This is from a Pulitzer Prize winning author. He continued, saying "Here's insight in blogging, because it really pisses the shit out of me."

Bissinger's attack on Leitch comes as the tip of the iceberg of a larger issue, the dying newspaper industry. The sports consuming public is relying less and less in getting their sports news and coverage from newspapers. Instead, they are turning to the Internet (news sites and blogs) for their sports news. Sports news isn't limited to what happens on the court, field, ice or diamond anymore and that's part of what's pissing Bissinger off.

You can watch the Bissinger-Leitch War of Words by clicking here.

Sports news moving from the newspapers to the Internet, and the dying newspaper industry is no different than the change the newspaper industry underwent fifty, sixty years ago. Newspapers used to publish two editions (morning and afternoon/evening) through the early part of the 20th century. But that died off with the advent of radio and TV. There was a big uproar then, as people couldn't imagine life without two editions a day of their favorite paper, but change happened and it happened for the better and now it's happening again.

The average age of a newspaper reader - 55 and up. Percentage of 19-34 year-olds that read newspapers on a daily basis - 19. No wonder the printed newspaper is a dying breed.

I grew up reading papers (read the Boston Globe and Herald everyday) and for the longest time all I wanted to be was a sports writer (which I was for seven years). I can't remember the last time I picked up a newspaper and read it, instead of reading it online. Though I read the Sunday Boston Globe pretty regularly until six months ago.

There's plenty of things that my three-year-old son won't experience that I did (and that's fine).

He probably won't sit down and go through a newspaper front to back, as I used to. If he does, it's only because I (because of my newspaper background) got him interested in it at early age, but eventually that will die off.

He'll never own cassette tapes or CD's (as I never owned 8-tracks or records) - he'll only know .mp3 files and iTunes. He's 3 and he already wants an iPod (because Mommy and Daddy each have one).

As Bob Dylan once said, "The Times They are a Changin'"

Bob Dylan had a concert at Northeastern when I was a freshman (and that my friends is what they call a transition).

Today, Friday May 2nd, is the 106th Commencement of Northeastern University's senior class (see how nicely I pulled that transition off). Walking around campus last evening, I was reminiscent of getting my undergrad degree at NU in 1995 (though it was six weeks later - June 17th). That 1995 class was the last graduating class (and final event) in the old Boston Garden, the building with no air conditioning, prompting this question on everyone's mind - 'How hot is it going to be in the Garden for graduation?'

My thoughts went back to the activities during Senior Week - Going to the Tent in Quincy, now known as Waterworks (and finally ending up at Uno's on Huntington Ave.). Nice idea to take a bunch of graduating college seniors to an outdoor bar overlooking Marina Bay. Spending a day/night at Shannon's parents house down the Cape. Having a formal dinner Senior night on the Spirit of Boston (and ultimately fake proposing to my now wife, which is a story left told for another time).

Then Govenor William Weld gave the commencement speech, which was significant in that he referenced a letter to the editor that my roomate wrote to the Boston Globe and appeared in the Globe earlier in the week.

Although it was 13 years ago, and doesn't seem like that long ago, a lot has changed since then. CD's were still the best way to get music, Napster, mp3's and iTunes hadn't arrived yet. Those who had a mobile phone - had a car phone (as I did). Mobile phones hadn't hit yet. Digital cameras and picture phones were years away from being developed. Their was no text-messaging or e-mail. The Internet was in it's infancy (ESPN.com started as ESPNet SportsZone on April 1, 1995). Dial-up through Netscape was the way to dial-up to the internet, where it took 45 minutes to download a 30-second audio file.

Finally, Quote of the Week comes from Will Leitch during his appearance on Bob Costas Now. Channeling his best Wesley Snipes impression (from White Men Can't Jump), Leitch said, "To get a consistent (blog) readership you have to be serious and you have to be consistent. It's hard god damn work to do a blog".

Amen, brother. It is hard god damn work to do a blog. Enjoy the weekend.