Deals and Steals

• What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
• No huge surprises in baseball today -- Santana dominated, the O's stunk, the Cubs can't hit.
• I will throw some props to the Nats. They're pretty fun to watch. And who knew that Nick Johnson was even alive still?
• Watched three episodes of Deal Or No Deal tonight. The best was one where a woman knew she had the million, got down to her case and one other, her fiancee convinced her to take the deal (which was awful since they wanted her to gamble), and she had the million. She was extraordinarily bitter.
• Also catching up on Countdown from while I was on vacation. The tone of the media is turning against Clinton more and more.
• Random Thoughts/Links:
• Not much interesting -- just getting back to work.
• I'm not sure who I like in the NL -- either Colorado, the Mets, or the Phillies.
• I'm fairly sure that super prospect Ashley Hogan actually started in left for the Cardinals today.
• Daily Rant:
• There was a caller to the Junkies this morning who got kicked out of the Nats opening game because he fought with someone who wouldn't cheer for the President. I understand that you have to respect the position and you should be excited for the start of the season, but I just don't think I'd be able to cheer for the guy. Even if I didn't boo, cheering is out of the question. When asked if he would cheer for Hillary if she won, the guy responded that he "would never vote for a woman or a colored guy for President." He was dead serious. As serious as he was about cheering for his President. With friends like those...

Erev Yom P'tichah

This is it -- the night where anything is possible, where everyone except Royals and Orioles fans have hope. Tomorrow games will begin, weak #1s will get shelled, someone we'll never hear of again will hit three homers. We'll look at the starting outfield of St. Louis and wonder what happened. We'll get way overly excited about the Reds. We'll fondly remember the Mets' collapse last year (well, some of us will). And then we'll move on to Saturday night and what has to be the best Final Four ever. It's Opening Day, baby.

Here are my picks:

• Best Team: Boston. I don't see any reason they won't easily repeat. I don't buy the pitching depth in Detroit or Anaheim.
• Team Most Likely To Win Other Than Boston: Cleveland.
• Biggest Player Bounceback: Travis "Pronk" Hafner -- see above.
• Non-Pitcher Of The Year: Alex Rodriguez. Tough choice.
• Pitcher Of The Year: Johan Santana. Tougher choice. You mean the best pitcher in the AL is going to the weak-hitting NL?
• Most Valuable Hitter: Matt Holliday -- he's the difference in a very competitive NL West.
• Most Valuable Pitcher: Santana.
• Fantasy Player I'm Most Happy I Got: Hunter Pence.
• Talented Royal: Alex Gordon, Mark Teahen, Billy Butler. Not much there.
• Player I Least Care About: Albert Pujols.
• Most Underrated Team: Tampa -- their running game should be great.
• Most Overrated Team: Do I have to answer? They play in the Bronx, they haven't won a championship since three years before Florida won their last, they screwed over their great manager. Here's hoping the Baseball Gods get some sweet revenge.

Take me out to the Ballgame

Here is my baseball preview from the worst teams to the best teams.

Teams that have no chance of winning the World Series

30) San Francisco – They lost to their own AAA team this week with their ace, Barry Zito, on the mound. As Cartman would say “That is helli-lame”.
29) Florida – Rumor has it that they may be calling up an unknown, five tool talent named Ashley Hogan. He’s not gonna help.
28) Oakland – The A’s are obviously in rebuilding mode after dumping Dan Haren and Nick Swisher. However, as of this posting on Sunday afternoon, they are tied for the lead in the major leagues in victories. Maybe they should be higher on this list.
27) Baltimore – The O’s are going nowhere this year. In theory they are playing for the future. In reality, that future is four, long years away.
26) Kansas City – Speaking of teams rebuilding, this team hasn’t contended in at least a decade. As I write this, I am struggling to name anyone good on this team.
25) Texas – The Rangers made no moves to get significantly better in the offseason. I could say something else about the team but I am still trying to think of someone good on the Royals.
24) Washington – Luckily fans will be coming to see the new stadium cause the team just stinks.
23) St. Louis – Memo to the Cardinals management: Shut down Pujols for the year so he can have his surgery. Your team is not going anywhere.
22) Pittsburgh – Keep on moving…Nothing to see or write about here.
21) Minnesota – The Twinkies gave up Johan Santana for far too little. It’s a young team (and I don’t just mean Delmon).

Teams that could go either be great or totally stink
20) Cincinnati – I have heard a lot this offseason about the Reds rebuilding with youth. However, Ken Griffey Jr. is almost 50 years old. That is not youth.
19) Tampa – These are not your father’s Devil Rays (or Rays or D-Rays).
18) White Sox – Nick Swisher will fit in very well in ChiTown. Time is running out on older players like Paul Konerko and Jim Thome..
17) Toronto – The Blue Jays will always have younger brother complex in the AL East. They’ll never compete with the Yanks and Sox.
16) Houston – Houston, we have a problem. I can’t think of a reason why you will be good.
15) Atlanta – The Braves would have the best pitching staff in baseball (Glavine, Smoltz and Mike Hampton) if this was 1995.
14) San Diego – They are good every year but I don’t know why. Other than Peavy, they don’t have many stud players.
13) California Angels - (I can’t call them the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim ‘cause I am old school) – The Halos have great pitching from top to bottom but injuries have already taken a toll.
12) Colorado – Could this year’s Colorado be this year’s Colorado?
11) Arizona – Great acquisition in Dan Haren but should have found a big bat for the lineup instead. The lineup just might be worse than Kansas City’s. (I still can’t think of a good Royal).

Teams that could legitimately win it all
10) Philadelphia - The Phillies are a bit short on pitching but have a deep lineup in a small ballpark.
9) Milwaukee – Prince Fielder leads a group of young, hungry hitters like Ricky Weeks and Ryan Braun. The addition of one more stud pitcher and the Brew-Crew can make it back to the playoffs for the first time in a long-time.
8) Los Angeles Dodgers – Someone has to win it in the west. In Joe Torre we trust.
7) Boston – Too much Japanese food will cause the Sox to get off to a slow start.
6) Seattle – A good, but not great, lineup should help a GREAT pitching rotation.
5) New York Mets – Many players on this team are getting close to qualifying to be a member of AARP. Instead of the 7th inning stretch, it might be the 7th inning nap at Shea Stadium.
4) New York Yankees – Any team with A-Rod can easily get to October. The end of October is a different story, however.
3) Detroit – This team can just mash the ball. If the pitching can give up 6 runs or less, they should win a lot of games.
2) Cleveland – Should have won it last year if not for a few baserunning blunders. CC Sabathia will once again win the Rich Garces Award for heaviest pitcher in baseball.

The team that will win it all
1) Chicago Cubs – This is the year!!! Then again, Cub fans have only been saying this for the past century or so.

By the way, is George Brett still on the Royals? Mike Sweeney? Brett Saberhagen? Help.

Quickie

I got little sleep last night and it was a travel day, so I'm beat. Plus, have to go to work for a little bit tomorrow morning. Some very quick notes:

• UCLA looked dominant. That was a very good Xavier team (I think better than Louisville).
• I'm excited to see UNC play on a neutral court. Especially against Kansas, who's as athletic as Louisville, but much more talented.
• At one point, Danny Green got fouled. On the replay, Dick Enberg said that he was "raped". He seriously said that, I watched four or five times on the DVR. I don't think this is the last you'll hear about that.

Enemy Combatants

• What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
• Last day of vacation, driving back tomorrow. It'll be a Waffle House and Sweet Tomatoes day, pretty awesome.
• I lost my first Final Four team with Stanford going out. I knew Lopez could dominate, I just didn't know that he'd be the only player on the team to show up.
• Stephen Curry is playing out of this world at this point. That layup from behind the basket was just absurd. However, they're playing with the big boys now -- Kansas is going to murder them.
• Random Thoughts/Links:
• I birdied my first hole ever today. It was on a par 3 course. I hit the tee shot to just behind the green on the fringe. I made my read on a sharp turn right and putted. As I saw it break just as I had read, I started running to follow it, jumping, and screaming. My wife said I leapt like a little girl.
• If I have a Wii, why do I spend so much time playing the stupid on-line NES emulator on Facebook
• Daily Rant:
• We went to a flea market today. They apparently love three things down here in the Palmetto State. One is Jesus, who I have no problem with. The other two things are a little sketchier -- the Confederate flag and making animals fight. If you don't believe me, check out this link -- we saw a bunch of t-shirts to this effect. There were no dog fighting shirts, though were a bunch with similar design to the cock fighting ones that had pitbulls or rottweilers on them. The animal fighting is horrible enough, no doubt. It's very illegal (which is why I'm surprised they advertise it on a shirt) and even more immoral. But I can't get past the Confederate flag. All of these people would proclaim themselves patriots for the U.S. and I have no reason to doubt that. Put aside (because we can't forget) the racial issues with that flag. How can you possibly like the U.S. and fly the Confederate flag? Confederate soldiers killed American soldiers. It's actually that simple. It's hard to believe that people celebrate that.

Delayed Post-Mortem On The Oscars

• What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
• Didn't get a chance to see the results show tonight, but I downloaded it so I'll watch it as soon as I can. Don't totally have a good read on who's going.
• I finished the latest Stephen King, Duma Key, this morning. It's quite reminiscent of Salem's Lot (which, if you're a King fan, you know is a tremendous compliment) in how it ends and how it's truly horrifying and not just scary. His last two, this one and Lisey's Story, have been really, really, really good.
• Saw Atonement tonight. Since I've now seen all of last year's nominees, more on that in a bit.
• Random Thoughts/Links:
• We're going on a casino cruise tomorrow (it sails into international waters and then you can gamble). They may have a sportsbook, not sure. Probably a good thing we're going during the day so I can't get pissed off from losing on tomorrow night's tourney games.
• Basically, yesterday we went on this thing where we see a timeshare, get a sales presentation, and then we get a gift. At the end, they trot out the closer, who berates you about why you need to buy at their property. The place was really nice, but I kept saying "no" in various ways because I already have one, I'm trying to be fiscally conservative while looking for a house, and so on. The guy kept hammering me and hammering me as I got angrier and angrier. By the end, my leg was bouncing to use up the energy that I was going to draw upon to scream at the guy to tell him to just stop and let us go. He had earlier said that if we said, "no," we'd get a handshake and a smile. After at least fifteen "nos," I got a handshake and a bunch of sarcastic remarks as he walked away. Good guy. By the way, this was Festiva Resorts -- you have to wonder how valuable their product really is if he reduced it to $5,200 from $30,000 in ten minutes or so. Festiva Resorts, the closer's name was Jack. Dick.
• Your List Sucks! -- Ranking The Best Picture Nominees:
• 5. There Will Be Blood -- I really liked all of this year's movies, so no shame in being fifth. Well, I really liked them, but I only really really liked four. Daniel Day Lewis turned in an all-time great performance, but it was just a bit too boring in the middle.
• 4. Michael Clayton -- Not your typical Best Picture kind of movie. Fast-paced, exciting, great twists; it's very enjoyable and highly recommended.
• 3. Atonement -- If I had seen this before the Oscars, there's no doubt I would have picked which would win Best Score. Whereas in There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men the scenery is a character, the music is the standout here. The way that the score is integrated (in ways I can't even begin to explain) with the story is phenomenal and something I've never seen before. There's also The Shot -- a 5-1/2 minute tracking shot through a hellish army camp that I thought had to be CGI because of the intricacy, but was, in fact, not. The acting is very good and I thought the controversial ending actually worked pretty well. Most of all, this is definitely not a chick flick.
• 2. Juno -- It's so earnest and funny and touching. I think I put this barely over Atonement and I'm having second thoughts about it (though of course, I just watched that one). It has the largest re-watch potential, by far, of any of these films.
• 1. No Country For Old Men -- Like I said, the best movie I've seen in a number of years. It's head and shoulders above the rest. It's out on DVD now, so freaking see it already!

The Next Level

Being on vacation and all, I actually wasn't going to write today. Nothing much happened except that I got in a fight with a timeshare salesperson, but I suppose I'll save that, if I even recount the nastiness. So I was going to skip a day, but then I watched "American Idol" so I figured I'd put out a few notes:

• I was watching it on my laptop, so maybe I was a little disoriented from normal, because I disagreed with Simon and Randy a bunch and that never happens (not being sarcastic there).
• For instance, I despised Michael Johns' "We Will Rock You" bit and that made me hate his whole performance. On review, I guess the second part was a lot better.
• I also really like Carly's performance, maybe for the first time all season. Once I heard she was doing the Bonnie Turner song, I knew she would do well. I bet Mr. Tony raves about her tomorrow morning.
• What can you say about Kristy Lee Cook's song choice? She won't get voted out because of the whole USA thing. Simon sort of hinted at that. I HATE HATE HATE the song -- it's played before every Ravens game and people treat it like it's the National Anthem, standing up and taking their hats off. To me, it's the musical equivalent of having to wear a flag pin to show you love the country. If the only way I can be "patriotic" is to like that song, count me out.
• That leaves David Cook, who may be the best contestant in "Idol" history at making a song his own. On this one, I totally agree with Simon -- he took a huge risk and it could have been horrible or brilliant. Brilliant may be even a little weak in describing that performance. He's the one person I look forward to every Tuesday and the one whose performance I most want to watch a second time every week.