This gem must’ve been caught by the Staples Center kissing cam caught a few years back! I couldn’t resist putting it on the blog… I’ll let the picture speak for itself… Happy V-Day!
Monthly Archives: February 2010
Kobe and Cook Wish You A Happy Valentine’s Day!
Cuban is Doin Work
Playing host to the All-Star game in the city he owns, Mark Cuban, tried his hand in the celebrity game last night. He didn’t look to good on the court as the super slow white guy, but today he showed why he’s pretty good off the court in the front office. Early today it was reported that the Mavs will be sending two actual players Josh Howard and Drew Gooden, and two contracts Quinton Ross and James Singleton to Washington for Caron Butler, Deshawn Stevenson, and Brandan Haywood. We all knew the Wizards would do something, and it looks like they made their salary dumping choice. My first thought was, damn this is going to hurt Caron’s fantasy value, but then turned optimistic since he will be with Kidd in a faster paced offense putting up better numbers than Josh Smith did in the same role. Maybe going to a winning team will also inspire him to play a little better than he has so far this year.
I really like the move for Dallas. They get better at two positions, and Haywood is having a great year. I guess they didn’t want to do the Josh Howard for Caron straight up, so Washington threw Haywood in the mix and Cuban pulled the trigger. Josh Howard seems to regress more than improve, so Caron will be a huge upgrade. Haywood is one of the best defensive centers in the league this year, so I see him toughening up this soft Mavs team. Their main criticism over the years is being soft, and now with the addition of the three mentioned players it will also give them some attitude, which might actually make a few teams kind of scared of them come playoff time. I wouldn’t put them up there with the Lakers in the west, but it sure improves their chances!
The Big Hurt Will Be Missed!
Frank Thomas hung up the spikes today, after his VERY hall of fame worthy 19 year career. He was easily one of the most dominating hitters while I was growing up, and I’m sure I still have a few of his rookie cards laying around in some boxes. I’m not sure if his trade mark will be his large set figure or his big smile. Admittedly I wasn’t a White Sox fan, but always enjoyed watching Frank battle at the plate as he never took a pitch off, and was great at figuring out where pitchers were trying to attack him. He never said the word “retire” in his statement, but did say things like “life goes on”, and “I’m done.” He feels he can still play, but seeing friends like Jermaine Dye struggling to get a contract agreement, he felt his time was probably up.
He compiled some Hall of Fame worthy stats over his career; .301 batting average, .419 OBP, 521 home runs, and 1,704 RBI’s. He walked more than he struck out. He won back to back MVP’s in 1993 and 1994. He won a batting title in 1997 (.347). His numbers through the 90’s are reminiscent to what Pujols has been doing over the past decade. Big Frank is number one in twelve of the all-time categories for the White Sox, and will surely be wearing their cap when he is enshrined into the HOF.
He wasn’t on the A’s for long, but I’m grateful for him for single handedly helping the A’s get to the ALCS in 2006. He hit .270 with 39 HR’s, and 114 RBI’s that year, and it was his last year as a true star at 37 years young. He’s a guy with no ties to steroids, and it’s refreshing this day in age to assume a great player didn’t use PED’s especially since his double 0 decade was filled with injuries. It makes me that much more sure he didn’t use PED’s, because he never came back quickly from those injuries.
Sharing that smile and power with the A's made me even more of a fan of his!
Steve Nash IS: The Most Ridiculous Man in the World
I can’t say I was ever all that into the Dos Equis commercials. I get it, the guy is interesting, but seriously how do you earn the title the most interesting man in the world ! It’s like giving your dad a coffee cup with #1 dad written on it. It’s all subject to opinion! I’m much more into Nash being the most ridiculous man in the world! I guess he might not be the most ridiculous person in the world but he could be the most ridiculous man in the NBA!
Worst Dunk Contest of All-Time?
All-Star Saturday night is just 48 hours away now, and the Dunk Contest is always the make or break event of the weekend. It’s definitely had its share of ups and downs over the course of the last 20 years, even taking two years off, due to a lockout and a season in which the contest was shelved, before Vince Carter single-handedly brought it back. The Dunk Contest is like Christmas. Sometimes you get great presents, most of the time you get some good and some bad, and some years you walk away with nothing more than a stocking full of coal. That’s what the 1995 Contest was…. a stocking full of coal. First off, the list of competitors reads like a 1995 D-League all-star team, even though it didn’t exist back then. Sure, you had the two defending champions, Isaiah Rider and Harold Miner, but the average basketball fan would be lucky if they could remember more than one of the other guys. There was Antonio Harvey, who was actually an opening night starter for the Lakers in 1993, alongside other Laker legends like Trevor Wilson and Tony Smith. There was Tim Perry, who was traded to Philadelphia for Charles Barkley (along with a couple other guys of course). There was Tony Dumas, who believe it or not, was the second best Dumas in the league that year. And then there was Jamey Watson, who to be honest, I haven’t thought about probably since 1995, if not before. He’d be a great RFP of the Day, except he really WAS forgotten. Watson’s first dunk on this highlight reel pretty much sets the tone for the contest as a whole. It looks like a warmup dunk. Even Rider and Miner, two of the best dunkers of the decade, seemed to leave their ‘A’ game at home. I truly believe this contest was the one that got the wheels turning in the league office to think about canning the event. Here are the highlights. Enjoy….. if you can.
Lincy Wants More: E-Mail Thread
Tim Lincecum, the two time Cy Young Award winner, is going to be arbitration eligible for the first time in his career. He obviously deserves to get paid, and there really isn’t any reason for him NOT to demand boat loads of money. The Giants wanted to give him $8 million in his first year of arbitration eligibility, but Lincy’s camp wants around $13 million. We debated in an e-mail chain what the Giants should do. We had someone that isn’t a part of Doin Work crew, but is a huge fan Giants fan, and is under the name Lincy Lover.
Lincy Lover: They should give him $40 plus million, in essence buying out his arbitration, and move on.
Cali4Dre: I’m curious what the Linecum’s team countered with when they say over $40M…
Lincy Lover: It’s really a matter of what the 2 years after this one are worth, since he’s not getting a dime more than $13m this year, no matter how things shake out.
Cali4Dre: If Lincy wants 3yrs/40M, I think the G’s should offer $80M over 6 years and be done with it… Maybe that would meet his expectations, and they could sign him long-term all at once (at a discount in the latter years)
Lincy Lover: That’s less money than Felix and Verlander got, so it’d have to be more like 6 yrs. for $90m, but I like where you’re going with his contract…
Cali4Dre: I realize it’s less money than the other contracts, but the G’s need to at least be diligent in their pursuit of the best deal possible, which it seems they are doing by going to arbitration, otherwise they would have already made a better offer… and do we really think the Verlander/Felix contracts will have a huge say in the outcome of Lincy’s hearing? Tough to say…
Dyslecix: Would this already be done if Zito wasn’t on the books ($90M plus over 6 years)? I’m going to say yes, the Felix and Verlander contracts have a huge impact on Lincy’s deal.
Cali4Dre: Ah, Barry Zito’s contract… The gift that keeps on giving (headaches that is) Well, based on ML experience, both have been in the league longer than Lincy, so it’s not a perfect match for the situation. The thing that makes the difference is the CY’s (ie. multiple)
Lincy Lover: I’m guessing it would be more if Zito wasn’t in play, but yes, it becomes a no-brainer if Zito’s not in the mix. Zito’s deal is also a problem because his contract is heavily back-loaded, so as Timmy makes more, so does Barry. I don’t see it as huge for the hearing, but if those contracts (along with Zito) are a baseline for any long-term negotiations.
Dyslecix: I’ve been reading a lot more SI of late…and saw this last week… I think the main point is the market has been set by those two, and Lincy, with his two Cy Young Awards, has all of the leverage at the table. I see that being the biggest thing.
Cali4Dre: I think besides the two Cy Young Awards, maybe a major piece but not the only one, you would also have to look at years in ML (3 to 5-JV and 5-FH) and starting point of their first year. For JV and FH, according to your article, it was only $7M in year one… He’s in arbitration year one with the Giants offering $8M and Timmy asking for $13M.
Lincy Lover: The reasoning to lock him up now is to hopefully save money down the road, when he could hit the open market and be too expensive to keep, but you’re right, they don’t really have to do anything for 3 years.
Dyslecix: If they wait, his value will only increase….He’s a super star, and will only get better. Lock him up now at whatever the cost.
Cali4Dre: Wouldn’t they just keep going back to arbitration though, with Timmy probably winning it every year? Might as well have more certainty, and less ill will with your Star… What would it cost the Giants to just waive Zito? I assume a lot, but not all of the money is guaranteed obviously…
Dyslecix: Interesting…I thought all of Zito’s contract was straight up guaranteed. I heard them going on and on about this a while back when he was shitting on the mound every 5 days, and were discussing waiving him. It’s been forever since I heard that though…
Lincy Lover: Right. Any long term deal is basically buying out his arbitration and pushing back his free agency, but it seems like the Giants are going to be very careful with any hearings and stick to numbers and precedent, so not sure how much ill will can build up. All money in baseball is gauranteed, and zito’s due about $83m over the next 4 years, and i think there’s even an option for another year that the giants would buy out for $7m. f-me.
Sweet New Time Wasting Site!!!
I’m not in the time wasting business anymore, but I’ve clocked a lot of hours over at the FailBlog network. It started with Failblog, then I spiraled out of control, frequenting such ridiculous sites as Engrish, Graphjam, and even LolCatz. Today, a friend pointed me over to hackedirl.com, and I’m pretty sure it’s the best one yet. For me, at least. See, I’ve always been a fan of funny graffiti. Hacked IRL is all about it.
Instantly, it reminds me of some of my favorite funny graffiti sightings over the years….
- Circa 1998, I got off the freeway at Watt Ave, and someone had painted a T in front of Watt.
- Circa 2001, I was in a bathroom, and someone wrote CODY LAMBERT PISSED HERE. If you aren’t a dork like me, then you wouldn’t know that Cody Lambert is the surfer dude nephew on Step by Step.
- Circa 2004, in a porta-potty in the parking lot at the Oakland Coliseum, someone wrote on the case of toilet seat covers, FREE GIANTS HATS, and lastly….
- Circa 2007, on a garage in Portrero Hill in San Francisco, someone simply spraypainted, POOPDICK
Pebble Beach Stories Part II: Chi Chi Did It First
This is the second installment of the series. It was mainly inspired by the upcoming AT&T Pro-Am as well as the US Open both being held at Pebble Beach this year. I worked there for two plus years as a customer service rep while in college, and have some random stories that I thought I’d share as I remembered them. If you missed part I here it is.
One funnest parts of my job was seeing various pros come to driving range when I was given that shift. It’s cool to see different pros go through their routines, and what in particular they are working on. One of the funnier things to hear is when the caddies of the players are making bets on their guy to win during warm-ups, but that’s another story for another time. Not all players were friendly, but most would talk to you at least a little, especially if it was slow.
One summer day in 2004, Chi Chi Rodriguez came to the range after a practice round warming up for the First Tee Open. It’s one of Pebble’s Senior Tour events or I guess it’s now called the Champions Tour. Chi Chi was chatting it up near the tent where we gave out the range balls with a couple people including me and my boss. Somehow we ended up talking about Tiger’s Nike commercial with him bouncing a golf ball on the end of his club like soccer players juggle with their feet and bodies. The commercial was pretty new at the time, and caused a mini uproar of guys (including myself) practicing it during the many boring hours at the range. At one point I could pop the ball up and hit it about 30-40 yards, which I thought was pretty good.
Chi Chi’s eyes lit up when we were talking about whether it was real or fake or how many takes Tiger took to shoot the commercial. He grabbed his wedge and said “Tiger didn’t start that sh**. It’s been around forever guys!” He pulled a ball out of his pocket and started juggling it on his wedge while telling a joke. I wish I could remember the joke, but I was mesmerized by the fluidity of his between the legs and behind the back bounces and stalls on the clubface. He never once drop the ball to the ground showing that Tiger most likely did it in one take. After his joke was done, he snatched his ball out of the air, and said I know a trick that nobody I’ve met can duplicate. Of course, we all said, “Let’s see it!”
He once again started juggling the golf ball. This time before he stalled the ball, he flicked the end of the golf club putting some spin on the ball. He then caught it on the end of his wedge like a stall, but this time it wasn’t sitting still. The ball actually had so much spin on it, that it was moving in small circles on the face of his club. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes! Chi Chi is one cool guy, so if you ever happen to be at a senior tour event and run into him, ask him to do this trick! I think he got as much of a kick out from our reactions as we did seeing it! Thanks for the memory Chi Chi!
All-Star Weekend Moments of Yesteryear
I got to thinking today about how I get excited for different events during NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND each year. One year it’ll be the Dunk Contest, the next it’ll be the Three Point Contest, and the next it’ll be the Haier Shooting Stars. Okay okay, that last one is obviously false. I don’t think anyone with a frenulum preputii gets excited to watch a player shoot set shots with an old guy and a chick. Having said that, I’m on board with Team Sacramento this year. Tyreke Evans, Chris Webber, and Nicole Powell. They might as well just make it a 3-on-3 contest – it’d be so much better. Other things I’m excited to see are Stephen Curry in the 3pt Contest and Gerald Wallace out to avenge his disappointing scores from his first appearance earlier this decade. What takes the cake this year will be the Rookies taking on the Sophomores in the Schick Gatorade Rookie Allstate Sophomore E*Trade Challenge Presented By Ford. Nevermind that both teams are stacked, but just the thought of Tyreke Evans, Brandon Jennings, Stephen Curry, and Jonny Flynn running the floor together is enough to get the juices flowing. For anyone who actually cares about the outcome of the game, the real challenge will be whether the undersized freshmen can keep up on the boards with the likes of Marc Gasol, Brook Lopez, and Kevin Love. While the All-Star game has become an afterthought, the Rookie-Soph Game is the perfect blend of all-star freedom and competitive drive.
Here are a few of the Rookie Sophomore Challenge’s greatest moments….
Tough reminder that Jason Richardson, Troy Murphy, and Gilbert Arenas were all rookies on the Warriors.
One Sad Franchise, and One Sad Warriors Fan…
Usually my Warriors posts are on the bright spots with the team, but there’s so much negativity in the organization over the past few seasons, I can’t resist NOT talking about their shortcomings. Sadly, the Warriors are one of the worst run franchises of all time. They still don’t qualify on my list as a top 5 worst all time franchise, because they’ve had some success albeit mostly before I was born. The past 17 years have had as many bright spots as I can count on one hand. With a .374 winning percentage letting numerous stars go just to save a few bucks only to watch them do great elsewhere would have any fan fed up. It feels like over the past few seasons that most of Warriors nation has finally had enough. The most recent news of the Warriors inability to make a good choices was cutting Speedy Claxton’s $5.2 million expiring contract. I can’t even pretend to understand how this helps us, since there are teams drooling worse than Homer Simpson over doughnuts to get some expiring contracts for the 2010 free agent class, so why are we dumping the contracts that seem to have so much value going into the trade deadline? We probably could’ve gotten something of value for the expiring contract we got in the Crawford deal over the summer right? I don’t have an answer for either of those questions and I’m sure management doesn’t either, but it did inspire this great website which I urge all our readers to click the red button in support of the fans vs. Cohan! This move just sums up many years of bad decisions by the front office, and truly shows they don’t care about the team winning. If they tell you it’s to get the team better, they must be breaking into those Marijuana clubs in SF and eating all the cookies. There is no conceivable reason to do this before the trade deadline. If they waited for the deadline to come and go and then cut him, I’d understand. This post is dedicated to what went wrong, and the only real way to fix them is to have a new owner! Continue reading
Top 10 Reasons the Colts Lost
I don’t always like Dave or his top ten lists, but I found this one pretty comical. I just wish he threw one more on this list about Peyton leaving without shaking Brees and Shawn Payton’s hands! Maybe next time…
NFL HOF Induction is a Joke… For Some of the Players At least…
The day before the Super Bowl we were made aware of the players that were going to be enshrined into Football’s Hall of Fame. Obviously there were two of the best offensive players of all-time in Emmit and Jerry that were a lock to get in. It was pretty cool to see how choked up they got when they were named to the HOF! You could truly tell that they were genuinely honored by the induction from their interviews, and the anti-Jordan speech will surely come at the ceremony. I’m a huge fan of the professionalism that Emmit and Jerry showed on and off the field, getting it done without being pre-madonnas. I have to admit I didn’t like Jerry for much of his hayday in a Niners uniform. Mostly because I was surrounded by Niners fans, and was constantly reminded of how good he was. Not to say that I liked the Cowboys or Emmit, but since they did shut up the Niners fans up here and there, I didn’t mind them nearly as much! All that changed when Rice went to the Raiders and helped us get to the playoffs. Too bad his work ethic and love for the game didn’t rub of our young guys like Jerry Porter, but oh well.
The thing that gets me about the Football Hall of Fame, is the voting. I’m not sure exactly what the selection process is, but I feel like there’s a ton of guys on the ballot that are as deserved as the guys that got in. I understand if you don’t let a guy like Tim Brown in, because it’s his first year of eligibility, but if he doesn’t make it next year that’s NOT cool. If for some reason Chris Carter and Tim Brown don’t get in, I won’t feel the HOF is a valid achievement. They were easily top 10 recievers of all time, and if they didn’t play in the same era as Rice, they would be close to the top all time receiver. So here’s my list of guys that should have gotten in over Rickey Jackson who wasn’t even the best linebacker on those late 80’s Saints teams; Tim Brown, Chris Carter, Charles Haley, Eddie George, Shannon Sharpe, and Kevin Greene. I’d say one of the biggest snubs was Haley, since they seemed to pick out of a hat on who to let in. The guy was flat out dominant for the Niners and Cowboys and has five rings!?! He was an integral part of the defenses that won those Super Bowl’s, and I feel that he was better than John Randle that DID make it in. I’d say that Dick Labeau and Floyd Little shouldn’t have made it in, but I never really saw them play since their careers ended before I was born. Based solely on their numbers I wouldn’t have voted for them, if I had actually had a vote. I guess you could give Labeau some credit for his coaching career after playing, and built up the Steelers defense to the way it is today. I think the NFL needs to make an eligibility length like there is with baseball’s HOF, because if these guys haven’t made it in on their first 20 tries, they shouldn’t be elected in. Seems like a fair rule to me, especially because I made it up. Another thing that bugs me about the NFL enshrinement, is that they are required to elect 5-7 guys each year. Instead of just picking out of a hat, they should consider just allowing the best to get in no matter how few or many guys it happens to be. I feel like some of these inductions are rendered meaningless, since they weren’t even the cream of the crop in their era!
So You’re Tellin Me There’s a Chance!
One of my favorite players in the NBA is Brandon Roy, and I hope he rests through the break to completely heal from his injury. Not just because he’s one of the dominant fourth quarter scorers or because I happen to have him on my fantasy team, but for a new reason that came to light today. Roy is just one of those guys that wants to win, and will take a lesser role to enable his team to succeed when they are healthy. He does step it up when they are injury riddled, like they have been the past two years, and shows why he is such a good player. The recent news out of Portland is that he’s had set backs with that hammy that’s been bothering him. For some strange reason he still isn’t IR eligible in fantasy (screw you ESPN!). Anyways, they are saying that if he doesn’t play in a regular team game before the All-Star exhibition game, he will rest, opposed to possibly injuring the hammy further in the All-Star game. This will open the door for the first Warriors player since 1997 to get into the mid-season classic. Monta Ellis was the runner up to Chauncey Billups to replace CP3 in the game, so if Roy is held out of the game, Ellis should be the guy to get in there. Granted to most people this is about as exciting as me watching Lakers games hoping for them to lose, but to Warriors fans it might be the one bright spot in a horrific year, filled with injuries and dysfunction. That is, unless, Curry somehow takes the ROY award away from Tyreke or the team gets sold to Larry Ellison. If the Warriors ended up getting sold to Ellison, that would be the best thing to happen to the franchise in over two decades. For now, the possibility of Monta being named to the All-Star game would be the only highlight to our season thus far!
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