Atlas Shrugged

I don't know how fond many of you are to Fantasy Baseball but Tfil and I are both in the same league this season. I have to say thanks to him for completely ruining any chance of my team winning the league by refusing to trade me some SB's before the trade deadline. I had the only chance of catching the top dog and now it's impossible. Thanks Tfil. Sure you will lead the league in SB's but what good will it do you? None good, that's what.



With that off my chest it is Olympics time.

I was a huge Olympics hater before it began, I hated the time change, the complaints about the weather, hate, hate, hate, hate but now I am singing a different tune. I can't get enough of these games, I have been up every night until at least 2 AM watching everything from team handball and badminton to the more glamour sports of swimming and gymnastics. I have found myself watching other countries as well, with up to 4 channels showing the Games per day we are getting an unprecedented amount of coverage. Which for lack of a better word is totally awesome. (Side note: the Men's Hungarian water polo team is fucking sick, I suggest watching them.)

I feel comfortable enough in my manhood to let you know that last night in my living room I had a few of my buddies over and we watched the Women's All-Around Gymnastics competition. Not only that but when Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson stuck their routines multiple high fives were being thrown around like singles at a stag party. Subsequently I have been informed that high fives are no longer cool but last night I could have cared less. I was so pumped that these girls were nailing all their routines I thought about buying a leotard and prancing around.... maybe. And not in some creepy old man pedophile way, I watched because I cared about the outcome and results. Even with some bogus scores the US prevailed and for some strange reason that felt great.

Let me also add that I am changing my vote for the upcoming Presidential election to Bela Karolyi. That guy is the fucking man. He speaks the truth and I'm pretty sure I heard him say bullshit on live TV. Both huge factors when determining the leader of the free world. Costas had no way of filtering him and it made for great commentary. I think I would watch gymnastics every day as long as Karolyi was in studio.



Phelps is great too, but it's almost not exciting anymore. The 4x100 relay was tremendous to watch but only because the French were talking shit before the race, in every other race Phelps is usually unchallenged by the time it reaches the last 20 meters. I hope he breaks Spitz's record of 7 golds but at the same time I don't want his final two races to be cakewalks either. Someone step up and make it interesting please.

These Olympics are also key because it give the USA a chance to flex our collective basketball muscles once again. It is not quite "The Dream Team" but so what. I have had a close eye on "the Redeem Team" all week, and even back to the warm up games in Shanghai. So far, so good but I'm really waiting for the medal round to test their mettle. Did you like that? I did. D Wade is leading the tournament in scoring off the bench, that has to be considered good news but I can't help thinking that we might drop one when they count. This team is stacked though, and can create match up problems at every spot on the floor. I like them to bring the gold back along with about 25 million in revenue for the NBA in jersey sales. The NBA: Where globalization happens.



The only aspect of these games that seems out of reach is the medal title. I think the US will hold onto the total medal count but I don't think we can catch China in the gold medal race. We can chalk that L up to home court advantage and some potentially lopsided scoring. I thought I was making that last part up until I heard Teddy Atlas ripping apart the scoring of the boxing matches. Not only was he making fun of the judges but also the Chinese fighter who won, remarking that he did a great job holding his opponent but a terrible job actually boxing. Although this problem is being shown all over these games I do not believe that this is only an issue in Beijing. Sports such as boxing or gymnastics are permanently flawed due to their scoring systems. Do I have a solution? Fuck no, but I do know when something is broken, I just couldn't tell you how to fix it.

USA USA USA!!!

The Months That Were

It's been awhile since any activity has graced these pixels and I'm sorry, summer months mean outside time for this guy and TFil's excuse? He's just lazy. Anyway back to the Manny at Fenway. What? No more Manny? Fuck that. I'll get into that later, Celtics first.

Of courts (do you like that?) my Irish guilt wouldn't let me actually pick the C's to win the whole thing, (which TFil pointed out last time we spoke) but they won and for the first time ever I loved being wrong. To summarize the works of my favorite boxer ever: The team D was impregnable, P Double unstoppable, I'm going to eat your kids. Forget that last part, the Celtics did dominate, making it banner time in Boston again. And can I say that although recently Boston has dominated the sporting world people should remember how long fans have had to wait to see some chips brought back to The Bean.

Does anyone remember the Patriots pre Brady/Belicheck? Or pre-Parcells for that matter? They were terrible, 6 playoff appearances in 33 seasons? Sounds great. I don't even need to bring up the Red Sox drought before their recent success. True the Celtics have 17 championships but this was the first one in the past 21 years. So please before everyone jumps onto the hating Boston bandwagon let us enjoy ourselves at least for half a decade before the rotten tomatoes come raining down.

The Celtics went wire to wire and it was gorgeous, I wish I had the heart to pick them publicly and I will take the beating for being a coward, as long as that banner is still there I could care less. Now onto more recent news, Man-Ram.

Say it ain't so... Manny was easily my favorite player on the team and mainly because he didn't give a fuck. Not showing up for spring training, faking his Grandmother's death, selling his neighbor's grill on eBay? All reasons to love the guy. So he was a terrible fielder, that's not why he was signed. He was signed to hit the shit out of the ball and that he did. He was a Silver Slugger every year in a Boston uniform and put up at least 30 home runs and 100 RBIs as well (save 2007). All that being said, I understand why Manny had to go and I wish him well. Other players were not getting along with him and perhaps he was crushing the team dynamic, who knows. Everyone seems to be hitting well is his absence and the new guy is pretty good too. Bay has been killing it since he arrived and as long as he does so in the playoffs you won't hear shit from me. Although if the Dodgers kill it in the playoffs with Manny at the helm prepare for fire and brimstone. Curse of the Manbino perhaps?

I think even with the Olympics starting tomorrow all I keep hearing about is Brett Favre and what he is currently doing. I hope that these bi-minutely updates will cease now that he is on the J E T S, JETS JETS JETS. I wonder how Tfil feels about that? Are the G-Men even relevant in NY anymore? I think they may go down as the least talked about Super Bowl Champion in history. ( I want to point out, for clarifications sake, the last sentence was not a slight towards Giants fans but a mere observation from an observer, oh and sucks to be without Shockey huh?)

Favre to the Jets is easily the worst thing that could happen to me personally, mainly because all ESPN has been showing is highlights of him every day and constant updates of his whereabouts and goings on. We saw Brett flying in a plane, working out with high schoolers, going to meetings, leaving meetings, driving a pick up truck, taking a dump, eating tuna casserole and shooting crossbows all in a matter of a few hours. It was taking such a toll on me that I had to stop watching anything ESPN affiliated just to keep sane. And now that he is in the Mecca it's not going to stop, awesome.

So for now I leave you with those thoughts, hopefully Tfil will throw in some of his own as well. Until next time.