LONG OVERDUE GARBAGE CAN

Felt it was time to do this again...it's been a while, between the Grizzlies getting things started and a few other things. Some random thoughts tonight:

-Guess I'll pick up again where I left off. Here's this week's SI Pop Culture Grid with my responses:

My advice to Wall Street is... - Get your shit together
Favorite thing to drink at night - Haha, nice. Probably a bottle of water
--- just cracks me up - The randomness that spews from the desk next to mine
Favorite piece of clothing - My friends would probably say my Colts sweatshirt and blue sweatpants, but the thing(s) I probably wear most are still my #22 Evan's Angels jerseys
Three people I'd love to have over for dinner - Ooh, tough one. Probably Jesus, Bill Simmons and David Wright (I hope the man upstairs follows sports, or else this could get awkward)

- Went to go see "W" with the boys tonight. Wasn't really sure what to think of it going in. I'll be the first to admit that I don't do politics in depth. I know what's generally going on on the surface, but I wouldn't be good in a deep discussion on happenings in the capital. On the whole, I saw the movie and still really don't know what to make of it. I think it's odd, despite the fact that Bush has been controversial to say the least, to see a movie on a president who is sitting in office currently. In all honesty, I thought they did a good job. I expected it to be one big Democratic propaganda piece, but I found Oliver Stone and Co. presented things fairly. Of course, there's no way to dance around the images of the Iraq War, but they didn't nearly crucify W as much as I was expecting. It was also interesting to see the human side...George's struggles with booze and his daddy issues early. Though it's not my area, I'm glad I saw it. If nothing else, watch Richard Dreyfuss play Dick Cheney...he's spot on

- Further reasons why my mother is awesome: I get home tonight, and she calls me to tell me that she was listening to a cover band at a restaurant by our house in the Phretta, they played "Clumsy" and she thought of me. I dunno, for some reason that made me just want to drive around and listen to Our Lady Peace, leading to a trip to Wal-Mart I probably could have made tomorrow but I was caught in the moment. I've always found driving to be very therapeutic when your mind is racing, so maybe that was needed.

- I think I agreed to do a 5K in November today. Granted, that's only 3 miles or so from what I've been told, and I have started running since I've been up here like twice a week or so. Maybe it's a bad omen that after hitting the treadmill today, I have a searing pain on the inside of my left ankle. Time to start drinking raw eggs and hauling shit through the snow like Rocky?

- I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the baseball craziness of last night. I've made it no secret that I've been an under-the-radar Rays fan for a few years now. It started out as a "someone's gotta pull for them" sidebar (I think I compared them to that possum that gets hit by a car...you know it has no chance, but you kinda hope it makes it), but during their run this year I wore my old-school green-era shirts with more pride. I think I might have cursed them last night though when I sent out my "How crazy is it that the Rays are going to the World Series" text messages around 7-0 early in the 7th. And somewhere during my marathon check-in with House the rally took over. Leave it to Legend of Flushing Dan Wheeler to cough that one up. I still think the Rays will win this thing in one of these next two in Tampa, but we've seen in the past that if you don't step on Boston's neck, anything is possible. But come on, you need to just get 9 outs before they get 7 runs...how hard is that? (Wait, as a Mets fan, I shouldn't be asking that question)

- Most awkward moment of the week had to come during the radio broadcast feed during our home preseason game Wednesday night. At the end of the second quarter, our radio analyst turns to the play-by-play guy and says, "You smell really good right now". My staff will tell you I about lost it. Definitely up there with the "What's Britney doing with her life?" routine.

I think I'll pause there. Gotta get up to watch the Dawgs tomorrow...that's 11:30 local. Maybe I won't be cheering as loudly as in prior games.
That's all for now. Be nice

JC

DIAMOND NOTES...AND LYRICS

So I was, um, busy at work today and stumbled upon a cool feature on the ESPN Magazine section of the network's Web site. Evidently, some people with a lot of free time on their hands tried to track as many MLB players' entrance songs as possible and listed them, also providing links to hear segments of the tunes (which I'll admit I haven't tried yet, but probably will at some point).
For some reason, things like this really intrigue me...probably because it's a combination of sports and music, my two biggest vices. I guess it's also a cool way to view players differently, see who's into what, who likes to rotate songs, see some that make you go, "Yeah, that's a good one", etc.
The most noted trends I could find from the 20 or so teams I scanned through:
- It's a decent mix of rap and rock, of course. Godsmack, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne and "Black Betty" tend to be favorites
- I was amazed by how many guys used some form of Justin Timberlake. I just never would have guessed such a "tough guy" sport would pump out the JT to get going, but whatever works for you
- Ditto for Nickelback popping up frequently...although I guess in a lot of ways MLB is a sport of sellouts
- The Cubs don't use anything other than organ music, while the A's don't use specific songs for players. Maybe that helps explain the World Series futility for one and poor attendance for the other.

Feel free to check it out for yourself if you have some down time: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3608544

Oh, and of course, my choices....I always love answering this question:
- If I was a batter, I would probably choose a rotation of "Plowed" by Sponge, "Shoot Frank" by Cage and either "Way Away" by Yellowcard or "Deliverance" by Bubba Sparxxx (or at least those were the ones I no joke used to hum in my head when stepping up during softball)
- If I was a pitcher (and those of you who really know me already know I want to come back in my next life as a Chad Bradford/Brad Ziegler style submarine reliever), it's definitely "Where the Streets Have No Name" by U2...no doubts about it

JC