Sunday, August 26, 2007
I Just Lost a Buck...To Myself
Yeah, I haven't written in a while. Things have been so god-damned busy, I haven't even had a chance to think of witty stuff to write, let alone write it.
So, I'm going to plow through something here. Hope sense makes it.
-----
This Michael Vick thing.
This thing, as his dad calls it.
I'm not sure what the to think. But with a little luck, it will go the route of rampant steroid use among baseball players and take a fast departure from the headlines. But before that, TLBR will take a rather unorganized look at it:
Personally, I think dog fighting is horrible. I have a dog - a terrific Irish setter who likes to eat, sleep, poop, sleep, play in the backyard, and sleep. She wouldn't be much of a fighter, but I'd hate to think of some of the terrible things that these dog fighting trainers put their canines through.
Then again, most of the time, the dogs are pit bulls. And they're not real cuddly and fun to play with, unless you like teeth marks and gashes in your extremities.
And for the folks who will claim that the Vick case is being pursued because of racial, not quite. It's a felony in 48 states. And, as Howard Bryant pointed out this morning on ESPN's The Sports Reporters, Utah and Wyoming are the only two states in which it's not a felony...not states known for their ethnic diversity.
Other folks will try to explain that dog fighting is a Southern cultural thing. And even more folks will point out its connection to the hip-hop generation of professional athletes.
Not quite.
The animal activism lobby - PETA and the ASPCA - are strong, loud, and often a bit off-kilter. As many have written or expressed in various mediums - locally, Jim Donaldson in the Providence Journal - why can't people have the same element of charity and desire to help humans as they do animals? If there was a dog and a man and they both got hit by cars while trying to cross a busy road, there'd be fundraisers and outreach to help defray veteranary costs. The man? Who cares? He doesn't have fur.
And the cynic in me thinks that if it were Peyton Manning, and not Michael Vick, involved in dog fighting, it'd be sponsored by Sprint and Mastercard. ESPN would air "The World Series of Dog Fighting, sponsored by Petco." And at the end, KeySpan or National Grid would sponsor the "Big Buzz" at the end, when the losing dog gets electrocuted.
As for the "will Vick play again?" line of questioning, that again opens a Pandora's Box. It is only now - when his Q rating is lower than an axle buried in the ground - that people are viewing Vick for what he actually is: a shitty quarterback. Sure, he's a great athlete and rushed for 1,000 yards once, and the Falcons won 12 games once, and they went to the NFC Championship or something... But suffice to say, in 2005, when I heard that Vick was out and Matt Schaub in for the Atlanta/New England game, I knew the Pats were in for it. They'd face a team with a decent QB who'd play within the framework of the offense.
Jim Brown, the former Cleveland Brown great, answered the question of Vick's future with a question of his own: why are people focusing on his playing career, when they should be focusing on his incarceration and rehabilitation?
And then there's the NFL and Roger Goodell and the Atlanta Falcons and Arthur Blank. Goodell wants a pound of flesh (as opposed to fur). Blank would start Vick in the season opener if he were allowed to.
Whew, there it is in a nutshell. Onto more important sports issues.
-----
The magic number is at 25.
And the Red Sox/Yankee series coming up from Tuesday-Thursday should be a doozy. Dice-K and Pettitte on Tuesday. Josh Beckett vs. his idol, Roger Clemens on Wednesday. And then on Thursday, Curt Schilling and Chien Ming Wang (aka, the Taiwanese Kevin Brown) If the Yankees win tomorrow and sweep the series, they'll be four games out. The same distance they were a week ago. Spinning their wheels ain't gonna get it done.
If they were to lose tomorrow and the Sox sweep, it would mark an 11-game lead in the series - their largest lead over 2nd place in the AL East since June (approximately).
Anything in between, and it favors the Sox. The only thing that favors the Yanks is a sweep.
-----
Is there anything unfunnier than Carlos Mencia?
Ok, that's it.
Bed time. Hope to get to a point where I'm writing more.
yh&os,
So, I'm going to plow through something here. Hope sense makes it.
-----
This Michael Vick thing.
This thing, as his dad calls it.
I'm not sure what the to think. But with a little luck, it will go the route of rampant steroid use among baseball players and take a fast departure from the headlines. But before that, TLBR will take a rather unorganized look at it:
Personally, I think dog fighting is horrible. I have a dog - a terrific Irish setter who likes to eat, sleep, poop, sleep, play in the backyard, and sleep. She wouldn't be much of a fighter, but I'd hate to think of some of the terrible things that these dog fighting trainers put their canines through.
Then again, most of the time, the dogs are pit bulls. And they're not real cuddly and fun to play with, unless you like teeth marks and gashes in your extremities.
And for the folks who will claim that the Vick case is being pursued because of racial, not quite. It's a felony in 48 states. And, as Howard Bryant pointed out this morning on ESPN's The Sports Reporters, Utah and Wyoming are the only two states in which it's not a felony...not states known for their ethnic diversity.
Other folks will try to explain that dog fighting is a Southern cultural thing. And even more folks will point out its connection to the hip-hop generation of professional athletes.
Not quite.
The animal activism lobby - PETA and the ASPCA - are strong, loud, and often a bit off-kilter. As many have written or expressed in various mediums - locally, Jim Donaldson in the Providence Journal - why can't people have the same element of charity and desire to help humans as they do animals? If there was a dog and a man and they both got hit by cars while trying to cross a busy road, there'd be fundraisers and outreach to help defray veteranary costs. The man? Who cares? He doesn't have fur.
And the cynic in me thinks that if it were Peyton Manning, and not Michael Vick, involved in dog fighting, it'd be sponsored by Sprint and Mastercard. ESPN would air "The World Series of Dog Fighting, sponsored by Petco." And at the end, KeySpan or National Grid would sponsor the "Big Buzz" at the end, when the losing dog gets electrocuted.
As for the "will Vick play again?" line of questioning, that again opens a Pandora's Box. It is only now - when his Q rating is lower than an axle buried in the ground - that people are viewing Vick for what he actually is: a shitty quarterback. Sure, he's a great athlete and rushed for 1,000 yards once, and the Falcons won 12 games once, and they went to the NFC Championship or something... But suffice to say, in 2005, when I heard that Vick was out and Matt Schaub in for the Atlanta/New England game, I knew the Pats were in for it. They'd face a team with a decent QB who'd play within the framework of the offense.
Jim Brown, the former Cleveland Brown great, answered the question of Vick's future with a question of his own: why are people focusing on his playing career, when they should be focusing on his incarceration and rehabilitation?
And then there's the NFL and Roger Goodell and the Atlanta Falcons and Arthur Blank. Goodell wants a pound of flesh (as opposed to fur). Blank would start Vick in the season opener if he were allowed to.
Whew, there it is in a nutshell. Onto more important sports issues.
-----
The magic number is at 25.
And the Red Sox/Yankee series coming up from Tuesday-Thursday should be a doozy. Dice-K and Pettitte on Tuesday. Josh Beckett vs. his idol, Roger Clemens on Wednesday. And then on Thursday, Curt Schilling and Chien Ming Wang (aka, the Taiwanese Kevin Brown) If the Yankees win tomorrow and sweep the series, they'll be four games out. The same distance they were a week ago. Spinning their wheels ain't gonna get it done.
If they were to lose tomorrow and the Sox sweep, it would mark an 11-game lead in the series - their largest lead over 2nd place in the AL East since June (approximately).
Anything in between, and it favors the Sox. The only thing that favors the Yanks is a sweep.
-----
Is there anything unfunnier than Carlos Mencia?
Ok, that's it.
Bed time. Hope to get to a point where I'm writing more.
yh&os,
