Not to my surprise, right below the link I found there was this story:

” Man Beaten, Dies At Jacksonville Waffle House”

All of this came up just right after a Twitter-er made a crack about the chain’s “3am drama” on the new ESPN show SportsNation. Like Ron Artest or Manny Ramirez, this food chain has its share of crazy moments. No way in hell I would turn down an offer to buy a Waffle House. The food is the shit, I don’t care how hick I sound saying it.

Congratulations Phil. Even if you don’t get ownership, bravo for trying. I miss that place so much.

“How exactly does Gammons decide on 20%?”

This was a reply by B3NG4L to the report by Gammons of the chance that Roy Halladay will be dealt to another team. Hilarious number.

Why the fuck would anyone call themselves Chi-Chi? I can see the resemblance, but not much.

“He came into the (Mets) visiting clubhouse, spied the throng of media awaiting him, spread his arms wide and proclaimed with a grin, “Most wanted!”

-Newday

I ranted on Wallace Matthews of Newsday’s column saying Manny lives “outside the rules”. You would think Manny has the ability to call his own strikes and balls at the plate, or that he can punch the pope, based on the title. But his only ammunition to support his claim is that people like Ramirez!

That is it? Because he is lovable? He lives outside the rules because his personality is so great? When the hell did having a goofy personality became illegal after steroid use? Well, here is what I wrote to reply to his poppycock prose:

“There’s a difference between fans liking Manny and living outside of the rules.

What rules? Who says when you are suspended and you apologize that there is a rule that you have to be vilified upon your return? Was this rule put in place by the owners? What the hell are you talking about?

The reason Manny is liked is because HE IS LIKEABLE. Unlike Bonds, he didn’t run through tearing up homeruns DENYING he cheated ( for two plus years ).

He is liked by his teammates. A lot of things he does on the field are great, but his antics are always funny. Watching Manny is like watching a cartoon character, and I have met very few characters that I have ever loathed.

You need to relax. You remind of all the hypocritical Red Sox fans who couldn’t stand Manny on the team but they sure as hell love their Randy Moss, Corey Dillon’s and Starbury.

Look at your team. You think David Wright is a winner since he never raises is his voice or has become a leader in that clubhouse? Talk shit about the timid golden boy who’s lack of balls will keep your team struggling against a Marlins minor-league team that might make it to the world series again.

(The Marlins)Backed by 1,000 fans, I remind you. When you go home and tell your wife how your day was, let her know I bombasted you for being a complete **** because a baseball player is liked.

The reason people didn’t like formers cheater is NOT because they cheated, but because they LIED. How many times did Pettitte get booed? Giambi? JC Romero?

They don’t, because they took their licks, and they came back. Manny did the same, and he’s hilarious. It is fun to watch him, and if you can’t stand him, keep your boring golden boy and float around .500. Because that is so much better than watching Ramirez act goofy and insane.

Entertainment. It pays your bills. Good luck with your boring Mets.”

Wallace Matthews, I understand you are upset because you see someone who cheats, and everyone crowds around Manny like his fucking kid died. But the reason for it is because his personality has always been positive, and his antics were rarely dictated by sports professionalism.

In a way that could be seen as blaspheme to some die-hards, Manny doesn’t care about how to act in the game of baseball. This is the same guy that said it wasn’t the end of the world if the Red Sox lost when they were down two games to the Indians in the 2007 ALCS. This is the same guy who put up the Brett Favre for Manny trade sign during the infamous Summer meltdown of 2008.

Even yesterday, with his passive aggressive shenanigans on a not-very close pitch ( don’t worry, QuesTec will decide the ump’s salary ), it shows that Manny’s personality has a bad-boy streak that rarely manifests itself in a game. When have you ever seen Manny question balls and strikes TWICE in a game? Think about it.

That was entertaining. I thought Vince McMahon was going to ask Manny to join “The Corporation” after that tirade, it was so goddamn surreal and exciting. It sometimes bothers me that he never had that spark in his eight years with the Red Sox ( sigh ).

But Manny hasn’t really changed. He has always been like this: unpredictable. Like a reality TV show, we always want to see what greatness or zaniness he will do next. To say that this is unlawful in the game of baseball to love the personality of unpredictability, is shameful.

In the game, where much exciting Sportcenter fodder usually comes from Atlanta minor league managers and random animals on the field, Manny always shows me how much excited one could have watching one player just play the goddamn game like its supposed to be played: for fun.

Ps:  (Video link above)The End of the Golden Age of the WWF. The video puts a tear to your eyes for all you 90’s diehards.

I was hanging out at a bar and had seen the beautiful Kim Kardashian on ESPN with Reggie Bush. There was no audio, but the captions and the graphics gave way that the feature was whether Bush’s future wife, or his teammate Bobby Mccray.

I was upset only because these media outlets are moving so much to combining content ( especially content that is “advertising” for their networks and/or media partnerships ), that it is permeating through true sports content.

Yes, Reggie Bush plays for the team that was playing on Monday Night. Yes, the network probably had this feature in the works before the injury, and was going to use this as a supplement to their analysis.

But, MNF pre-game, although very hard to extend the attention span of sports viewers for an hour of analysis these days, should be no prime ground for these celebrity features.

The sad part is, I contradicted my own argument when I had an argument with a friend over why Maxim’s content scheme works. These media outlets are losing money all over the place. The advertising coin is drying up on paper and on the internet. The business models, new and old, aren’t squeezing out the revenue.

Many content networks are hitting the lowest-common denominator with showcasing celebrities, beautiful women, mainstream music and movies, and reality TV reviews. These are the types of things that creates an audience on the internet.

If you don’t believe me, write an article on the zone blitz and how the Pittsburg Steelers will be less/more successful from it, then write an article on Kim Kardashian. What article did you read when you first came to my site. I know which one you did. I rest my case.

At the same time, you can’t gave that type of content interfering in what I believe is a very important piece of sports entertainment: the MNF pre-game show. Maybe I’m wrong, but I was hoping to see more on Brees chances to win MVP, and not a game on whether Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush bond better than his teammates.

Can’t knock the video. Great feature, I’m a sucker for sports-celebrity realtionships ( Toni Braxton-Curtis-Martin anyone?), and Kim is great to look at.

Speaking of eye candy, where is Bonnie Bernstein?

U n t i l   N e x t   T i m e   O l d   F r i e n d . . .

It was to come to pass. Coco Crisp, having the gold glove talent with two slow-pokes on each side of a big outfield, having the pesky bat to get key base hits and a little bit of pop, having the speed to keep the pitcher’s left eye occupied, needs to be a starter.

He made incredible plays in the outfield, he handled the bat and the bags well when healthy, and he put his best out for the Red Sox Nation. He asked that for his accolades, he should be the primary center fielder. And the Red Sox couldn’t do it, with their young stud Jacoby Ellsbury in the wings.

And so another great piece of the Red Sox dynasty moves on to different pastures, freeing the spot for ( hopefully ) a greater piece to get us back to the promise land. Along with Manny Ramirez, Alan Embree, Julian Tavarez, Bartolo Colon, and Dave Roberts, Crisp is the last of the remnants of the dominant late-90’s early 21st century Cleveland Indian teams. Those were the days…

Covelli Loyce Crisp, have fun in Kansas City, and make Red Sox Nation proud. Get healthy, and get some more pop in your bat. Make us feel sorry that we let you go. Because many of us Red Sox fans are going to bed tonight with a little bit of something in our eyes. Many of us will go to sleep knowing that there will be something missing when spring trainings begins anew. It won’t be Manny Ramirez, although his departure has been highly detailed by the media.

Many of us Red Sox fans will be rooting for you. Our eyes and minds will deceive us as we go into a confused daze seeing you on an opposing team. We will give you a standing ovation when you return to Fenway Park. You will smile, and probably gesture to the crowd. We will forget, just for a few seconds, that you are no longer hitting the homeruns for the Nation, and dream that your timely hit will start-up our sluggish offense.

As we sit back down from the frenzied welcome, we will remember where the lines are drawn, and we will hope that you don’t beat us with a slice in the left-center gap. Okay, maybe just one. But we have the Yankees, The Rays, and The Blue Jays to confront in the coming weeks. Try not to be hard on us on your heroic return to Landsdowne St.

Red Sox fans tonight will dream of the past, and the future will come soon enough. Baseball always seems to come around early. So let us celebrate now in the cold dark Massachusetts winter, and give tribute to one hell of a baseball player. Coco, we wish you the best. The morning of November 20th, 2008, I give this time for you. Paz.

I’m going to call it right now: AL Cy Young 2009!

Barring that no other pitcher wins 23 games with a 2.30 ERA ( That goes for you Cliff Lee! ).

His growth over the last six weeks has been mystifying. Many people are in awe of how well he has done, but I don’t believe there are many people who notice how much he is coming into his own as a pitcher. His style, his mechanics, his stuff, and his poise, all have risen dramatically during this Red Sox run, and I just had to rant about what I am seeing before my innocent brown eyes.

His Location: I can remember last season where it was very damning on my patience to watch this kid throw. He never got the inside location down, would constantly throw the curve as his out pitch, and kept so many pitches either around the plate or way off of it that he accumulated so many walks. On top of that, because Lester’s stuff was so good, hitters would just protect and constantly foul off his pitches, wearing down his arm. He relied too much on his “out” pitch ( which was an above-average curve ), instead of going after hitters and forcing the ball to be put in play.

Lester’s location NOW is completely off the charts. He spots his fastball well, he throws enough strikes to force hitters to protect and jam-up on his cut, he uses his cutter to backdoor on righties, jam righties, and put the ball in play, and he rarely ( and I mean Rarely ) misses Varitek’s target.

In the at-bat against Mark Texeira in game four late in the game, his location not only made him unhittable against the most sought-after hitter in the American League, but Lester made Texeira’s entire at-bat futile. It culminated to when the umpire didn’t give him the strike three call on a pitch barely off the outside edge. The fans were irate, Lester skipped in dismay off the mound, simultaneously in excitement of the expectation of a call, and exasperation that his strike-zone against the All-Star hitter was shrunken.

Didn’t matter, for he threw a cut-fastball that snipped just an inch closer than the last pitch, and Texeira goes down in shock. In shock because it seemed outside, and maybe moreso because he was helpless against a pitcher who was at his peak for nearly the entire game.

His Cut-Fastball: A lot of pitchers are becoming more dangerous as they utilize the cut-fastball to its full potential: to jam the hitter, keep the ball from going deep, keep the hitter from moving over the plate.

Lester has not only used his cut to deplete the right-handers ability to hit the outside fastball, but he has been making come-backers to the mound almost a predictable action in every game he has pitched. Not only are hitters overmatched by the pitch, but it almost seems impossible to even hit this pitch out of the infield.

He has honed this pitch into a dangerous weapon, and his command of his straighter fastball keeps hitters honest and from guessing a strike on the inside corner. His inside dominance keeps the outside corner innocent, therefore making him almost impossible to stand in the box comfortably.

His Peak Consistency: What had killed Lester early in his career was not only his problems locating his pitches, but having problems getting into grooves and holding them. There would be glimpses of dominance, and then a recession as he loses control, gives up a pitch over the plate, or tosses too many pitches to one batter without getting him out.

Over the last couple of months, whether it be because of confidence or a better game plan between the Lester/Varitek battery, he has been able to consistently keep his stuff, and control it for pretty much the whole game.  In the entire of month of September, he had one, just one, bad inning. And in that game, against the Toronto Blue Jays, he still pitched seven innings.

What is truly amazing about his growth is how harder he is throwing now, then he had in his entire career.

In the two starts against the Angels ( especially in his last start ), he was hitting the corners exquisitely pumping out 93-95, and peaking at 97-98. That, my friend, is something I have never saw come from Lester’s arm, and I am amazed at how commanding he can be throwing that fast. This can be a stretch, but he has that Randy Johnson style where he can locate such a fast pitch. The difference is his pitch-count efficiency is better since he tries to get the ball in play on changing-up his fastball and cutting the fastball down-and-in. But in the fashion by which he dominated the Angels, am I wrong to make a little bit of a comparison?

It may be that he saved his best for the stretch run in the playoffs. Or it could be that he is becoming stronger, more dominant, more poised to be the new ace for the Sox in 2009. If the Lester we have been seeing over the last month, then we will have a superstar on our hands not which has been seen since the dominant Pedro era.

Will the real John Lester please stand up? We have some future Cy Young awards we would like to give you.

A story that had died down, now seems to be resurfacing with damning evidence as A-Rod and Madonna have been romantically spotted eating a classy restaurant in New York.

I can’t really fault A-rod at this moment. He had a very unbelievable year, especially considering he missed 20+ games and he struggled coming back off the injury. At the same time, they’re paying him to be hitting balls in October, not over-the-hill pop stars.

A-Rod, you could’ve done better in both situations. You’re losing millions for this?

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

I guess the answer to this madness was given here.