Broken Branch

"Former Patriots WR Deion Branch spoke about his most recent performance, which included four dropped passes in the Seahawks' 20-17 loss to the Chargers on Sunday. Branch's comments are detailed in this Associated Press piece.
"I feel I let everybody down. My teammates. Friends. Family," Branch said. "I never want to have that feeling again."
Branch has played in 13 games for the Seahawks this season, and has totaled 50 catches and four touchdowns."

Listen, I love Deion Branch. I named a mix CD after him at one point because of his contributions. But can we please start to acknowledge that he isn't Jerry Rice? For one quick second? He's got 50 catches. For comparison, Reche Caldwell has 57. Granted, it would be nice to have Branch and Caldwell in the same WR corps (in my mind, Caldwell is definitely as good as David Givens. Both were elevated by Thomas Brady). But in the end, another team valued Deion Branch as a carry-the-team #1 WR....and he's not.

It looked ugly early as Brady struggled with timing and learning about each particular talent. It takes time to figure out that Doug Gabriel can't handle Patriot Life and Caldwell is a good listener and has worked his way to learn what Brady wants. But don't you think Belichick knew that his team could compete well enough for the first 8 weeks during this stretch? This team is about to win 12 games. 12-4! We were juicy for excitement in 1996 when the Bledsoe/Parcells Pats stole the 11th win at Giants Stadium in the last week of the season. How things change....now the Pats run up a ho-hum 12-win division title and the Bruins and Celts would set off warning alarms by even suiting up for a Game 7 playoff tilt at the TD...try selling that to someone in 1983.

You Got Far Enough

Just heard 'Summer of '69' blaring through Duane Reade's drug store-quality sound system...this caught my ears:

"Me and some guys from school

Had a Band and we tried real hard

Jimmy quit and Jody got married

I shoulda known we'd never get far

Oh when I lock back now

That summer seemed to last forever

And if I had the choice

Ya - I'd always wanna be there

Those were the best days of my life"

Maybe, Bryan, those were in fact the best days of your life. However, I'm willing to bet Jimmy and Jody wished they had stuck it out at least through '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You', you know, for the cash flow.

The 3 Spot

So the NFL has moved the Dolphins at Colts to 4:15 pm. Nice. So now, the Pats need to win at 1 PM and derail the Vince Young Express and pray the Fins can topple the wayward Colts to get that 3 seed, which may be super valuable this year in the AFC. As for Wild Card implications, whether its the Jets, Broncos, Bengals, Titans or Jags, it doesn't really matter, they've faced them all and they'll need to gut out that first home game. Then, the 3 seed would draw the Ravens the following week. Frankly, I can't imagine the Pats losing that game....as well as the Ravens have played, I'm not convinced they can beat Brady. As for the AFC Championship Game, could the Colts somehow derail MartyBall in the second round? In that case, you could possibly have Colts in town for the AFC Championship game in Foxboro, where they have won two in a row. Funny, I'd rather head to sunny San Diego to see Schottenheimer try to take down Belichick.

Can the Fins beat the Colts in Indy? I don't know, but I do know the Texans team the Pats demolished two weeks ago and I can't believe they beat the Colts. Next weekend is going to be wild....

One Night

How many times do you think you've heard U2's 'One'?

Have a Merry Christmas. Thanks for visiting our site.

Christmas Lists

Here is a quick list of some Christmas greats in a number of genres:

Music:
-Jingle Bell Rock - Bruce Springsteen, Asbury Park, Dec. 2001. Hadley can weigh in more on this topic because he was at the show, but it is pretty amazing.

Movie:
-National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
-A Charlie Brown Christmas

Beer:
-Brooklyn Winter Ale. I would also recommend: Rogue's Santa's Private Reserve, Alesmith's Speedway Stout, Heavyweight Perkuno Hammer Imperial Porter

Food:
-For our family, it's always Chowder, Haddock, and Lobster on Christmas Eve. We have added a cheese plate the past few years that has become a staple. The cheese plate stepped in with a VORP somewhere between Travis Hafner and Ryan Howard.

Television:
-The Office: The Christmas Party & A Benihanna Christmas

Candy:-Andes Mints. Not sure why, I just always associate it with Christmas... and they sort of taste like what I imagine Christmas to taste like.

Activity:
-Trivial Pursuit. We always paired up and went at it while we waited for Midnight Mass to commence. Every year while we played I would vow to engage in the board game world more often, which of course never happened.

Dessert:
-Our favorite Italian Pastry Dessert... the Cannoli. It doesn't hurt when it's dipped in chocolate.

Santa's Gifts:
-We are firm believers that Santa's gifts are unwrapped, left on the couch, so when you come down stairs you are just completely overwhelmed. As you got older and learned to keep your head on a swivel, it became easier... but those first few years you loose yourself in the excitement. Also, wrapping presents is what us humans do... Santa and his elves have enough work to get done, never mind to individually wrap millions of presents. Furthermore, that has to take care of, at least, 3 rain forests.

Book:
-A Christmas Carol: Dickens. I know, but name a better one.

NBA:
-The Knicks have played a game on Christmas 44 times. The also have the most wins and the most losses
-Pistons have the worst record on Christmas at 10-22
-Most Points in a single Game: Bernard King. King put up 60 in 1984 in a 120-114 loss to the Nets
-Phil Jackson gets the “My Family Hates Me” Award for coaching a game every year on Christmas since 1990 with two exceptions, 1995 and 2004.


Lastly, Here is MSNBC's year in pictures. I have always been a sucker for this type of thing. Some of them are nice, some are not so nice... but, in the end, they keep you balanced.


Thanks for stopping by and Merry Christmas.

New Jersey Headache

Not too long ago, I explained my disdain for the humdrum monotony of uniforms in sports today. After sifting through pictures of the Finnish Hockey League, I will take the current state of jersey's over what they are sporting every day of the week.



It gives me a headache to look at. Each player looks like a Nascar vehicle.

By the way, the picture is of Bruins goalie prospect Tuukka Rask. Rask is playing out of his skin in the Finnish league and will make a great addition to Providence shortly. I can't believe we were able to land Rask for Raycroft, which we may look back upon with disbelief in a few years (if you don't already). Here is a write up on Rask from Hockey's Future:

"For over ten years, goaltending has been the strongest position for Finland at U20 level. A returning WJC all-star in Tuukka Rask (BOS) erases any doubt that it will be the case this year as well. One of the quickest butterfly goalies in the world, he had 53 saves in a 1-0 overtime victory against Sweden in last year's quarterfinals. Rask has been in a challenging situation heading into each of his WJC tournaments. This fall he had as many starts as he could handle behind the grossly inconsistent Ilves team in the Finnish league, also preparing for international duties while taking care of military service, too. Despite this, Rask hasn't struggled much yet, and he has made progress on his weaknesses: consistency and rebound control."

You can catch Rask and other great NHL Prospects in the World Junior Championship, which starts on the 26th and can be watched on TSN.com.



-Sorry about the multiple Bruins post as of late, but we haven't felt this good about the squad in quite some time.

History Beckons

We stopped watching wrestling a long time ago here in Freeze Pop Land but, every now and then, you have to pay homage to one of the greats. Here are two clips from a master of his craft...

Bowling for the Gutter

It's a bit delayed, but it needs to be addressed. One Patriot makes the Pro Bowl when they have 10 wins in 14 weeks? Child, please. You're telling me not one or two out of Vrabel, Brady, Samuel, Mankins, Wilfork, Colvin and Warren should fly Oceanic to Honolulu? The whole process is dumb. Don Banks at SI.com gives us some insight to the voting, which seems to have less thought put behind it than any Who's Hotter vote currently on every gossip site in America.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/don_banks/12/19/pro.bowl/index.html

Toy Story

Times Square is absolutely insane right now...4 days before Christmas, tourists shopping, workers carring Yankee Swap (we call it Nasty Christmas) bags and food trays for holiday parties, construction seemingly on every block....just a complete mess. Strolling through this morning, I saw a party of five of out-of-towners: mommy, daddy, overweight 9 year old boy and his two slightly younger sisters....mommy had them parked on the northwest corner of 44th and Broadway, giving them a wayward lesson on early morning television:

Mom: "Guys, this is where they have the Today Show! You know the show where they have signs...and they stand outside and people wave! You know, the one we watch at home....come on, with Al Roker? We watch it all the time! Let's look in the windows and see if we see anyone famous!"(editor's note: there is clearly nobody in the building. No cameras, no other fans, no humans of any sort)

Meanwhile, the 9 year old boy is screeching "Toys R Us! Toys R Us! Toys R Us!" at the top of his lungs. Hey mom, first of all, you are standing in front of ABC's Good Morning America set. Matt Lauer doesn't work here. Second, you've got your three lovelies mesmerized by the largest Toys R Us on the planet directly across the street. You could be introducing them to Jesus Christ Himself and it wouldn't alter their stupor. This is their big moment; it's like there two outs in the 10th and Gary Carter is coming to the plate. Let them in the freaking store.

(Sorry I couldn't type the backwards "R". My keyboard doesn't have that....)

Speaking of Ex-Bruins

In case you were wondering how things are going for Hal Gill up in Toronto...

http://mirtle.blogspot.com/2006/12/gill-ty-as-charged.html

Perception vs Reality

The Bruins took a beating for trading the Hart Trophy winner, Joe Thornton. Oh, did they ever...scores of people who hadn't watched a hockey game in 10 years were lamenting the loss of the great, unique, amazing Thornton who had led the Bruins to such great heights. What would they do without Joe? The franchise is doomed! I'll never watch them again! They are dead to me!

These people, for the most part, couldn't tell you three specific things about Thornton's game...and many conveniently forgot that he certainly had some serious flaws. I'll be the first to admit that he's an excellent passer, that he's nearly impossible to move from the back of the net, that he has a tremendous power-play pedigree. I will also remind you that he doesn't shoot the puck, that he takes dumb penalties and that his game is remarkably easy to shadow with an aggressive checking line in a playoff series. I also know this: that this was the Bruins' Scott Kazmir moment...but less destructive.

Hardcore Mets fans are convinced, for better or worse, that the Kazmir trade was necessary. It woke up the Wilpons from a string of terrible decisions and opened their eyes. They brought in Omar Minaya and expected better baseball decisions...and they were rewarded with countless smart, aggressive baseball decisions ever since. They are now in a position to have extended success for the foreseeable future. All because they botched a trade so bad that it made everyone's head spin.

The Bruins situation is eerily similar, albeit not quite as bad for two reasons: 1) Sturm, Stuart and Primeau are actually servicable hockey players and b) most importantly (I've been harping on this since the trade actually happened), there is a hard cap in the NHL. The Thornton trade, like the Kazmir trade, woke up the Jacobs family, finally forced Harry Sinden and his Brigade out of the front office and brought in a regime, through Peter Chiarelli, that is setting out to make calculated, aggressive hockey decisions. Sounds obvious, but I'm conviced Mike O'Connell ran his team by searching Google for online forums like "We Love Enforcers Who Can't Skate Well", "The Draft Isn't That Important" and "If NHL '94 Doesn't Need More Than One Scoring Line, Than Neither Do We".

In the Mets case, they could have afforded Kazmir forever, so the only benefit was that it shook things up...but in the case of the Bruins, they received the Kazmir-induced shake-up, the booty from the Thornton trade (three servicable players)...and tons of cap room. Luckily, Chiarelli, with help from Jeff Gorton et al, delivered, producing two studs: Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard. Chara is certainly a freak of nature who is a very solid defensemen (with flaws, I may add, but still very good) but Savard...he's the reason I write this song....he's virtually Joe Thornton without the pedigree, attention and reputation. Check this out:

2006-2007 - Regular Season - Points - TOTAL POINTS

11 MARC SAVARD C BOS 31 games 11 G 30 A 41 P
15 JOE THORNTON C SJS 34 games 9 G 30 A 39 P

20 PATRICE BERGERON C BOS 31 games 10 G 27 A 37 P

Interesting...first of all the franchise-killing decision has, in 12 short months, been somewhat resolved. Second, the Bruins have two centers in the Top 20 in scoring. They are very much in the mix for the playoffs. They've been very competitive since everything settled down in October. All the panic and doomsday scenarios, when you take a step back, were a tad overplayed. Briefly, the Phil Kessel testicular cancer thing seems to be, thankfully, a managable situation. If he's okay physically and mentally, he's going to be amazing...he has top notch hands and wheels, but cancer is obviously unpredictable.

All in all, I'm enjoying the Bruins. For those who swore them off, just want to let you know that there's actually been a regime change...not sure if you noticed. Yes, the crowds at the TD are currently pathetic and it's going to take a little while to fix that, but in the end there is in fact a hockey team in Boston and we could be watching some late spring hockey very soon.

Incidental Milk

I bought a box of Junior Mints this afternoon during my lunch break and, while riding the elevator back to my office, happened to read the warning on the side of the box...

Warnings

• Allergen Information
  • Manufactured on shared equipment with milk-containing products
  • Incidental milk may be present

"Incidental milk?" I'm sorry. Did you say "incidental milk" may be present? Yikes. Now there's a two word phrase I never expected to hear. And, to be perfectly frank, I hope I never hear it again. Incidental milk? No thanks.

5 bad recommendations

1. Got some free time this week? Feel a little stressed out? Well jump in your car and head over to your mall. Make sure to wear a jacket, because nothing beats sweating through four layers of clothing while eating samples in the food court.

2. Hungry? Hurry up and get over to BK and chow down on their Triple Whopper with Cheese . In fact, your better off just grabbing one while you are in the food court at the mall.

3. Go rent "Car 54: Where Are You?".

4. Purchase a Huge Picture of an athlete and throw it up on your living room wall. Nothing will add that welcoming touch you're looking for during the holidays like a Carmelo Cut Out next to your tree. Can we get it with him slapping some Knicks in the face as well? Seriously, who is buying these things. I understand for a child’s bedroom, but their commercials are aimed at middle aged white men. I don't know, maybe I am just not hip anymore.

5. Go catch a Hornets game. I advocate going to see as many sporting events as you can, but if I lived in New Orleans and was given tickets I would not go. Stern thinks they will turn it around, but until that point... I'd rather watch water boil.

The Zoo

"3. Keep an eye on the Umass football team. They only lost to Navy by a point and beat Colgate and Villanova. The Minutemen are returning back to McGuirk Staduim to face Stoney Brook(0-3) and Machon predicts a blow out. Minutemen vs. The Seawolves " Machon, posted September 22.

They have not lost since. They are 13-1 going into the National Championship Game in Chattanooga tonight against Appalachian State (13-1). Appalachian state took home the title last year and Umass is returning for their first time since 1998, when they beat Georgia Southern under the "soon to be" head coach of the Boston College Eagles, Mark Whipple. Umass is lead by running back Steve Baylark, who is just shy of 2,000 rushing yards this year. He has rushed for at least 1,000 for each of his four seasons. Umass is strong on both sides of the ball and Appalachian State reminds me a lot of UNH, speedy QB who can hurt you both in the air and on the carpet. All that said, I take Umass 35-21.

Post Game Edit: I greatly underestimated the talent of Kevin Richardson. He strapped the Mountaineers on his back tonight and put the game away in the fourth quarter. The final two drives: 27 plays with 25 of them on the ground. Umass gave up too many yards on first down and Richardson had no problem gaining getting the rest of the yards. Good game, but Appalachian State clearly out played Umass.

15 Hits & 2 Errors From A Benihana Christmas

Tremendous Office last night. I'm not sure exactly where it ranks yet but that has to be somewhere in the top ten I think. Kudos to Harold Ramis and everyone involved. Below are 15 of my favorite moments from last night plus 2 (minor) complaints...

The Highlights

1) Three words...Goodbye My Lover. For my money, the absolute best scene of the night. If that doesn't sum up Michael Scott I don't know what does.

2) The re-introduction of Oscar. Brilliantly done.

3) Michael and Andy's handshake.

4) Michael's "bros before hoes" speech, presented below....


5) Creed stealing from the toy drive.

6) Kevin doing Alanis. Michael and Andy doing Mayer. Kelly doing We Belong. Darrell on the synth.

7) "The Asian Hooters." Especially enjoyed Andy's beverage of choice. "One part egg nog and three parts sake..."

8) Michael marking the arm.

9) Taking holidays away from Stanley...


10) Angela's shirt

11) Angela's "Hello Kitty" line. Very underrated.

12) The Karen/Pam friendship dynamic. Interesting twist from the writers. I liked it.

13) "And circle gets the square..." Good line from Dwight in the opening goose scene. Toby killed me in that scene too. I love the deadpanned lines from him. "We've been over this..."

14) Karen and Pam's party pitch to Meredith. "We've got vodka!"

15) Ski-son's Greetings...


The Quick Complaints

1) Most of the karaoke scenes were outstanding but having Dwight sing Lady for Angela was a poor choice in my opinion. You might not feel that way if you never watched Freaks and Geeks (and shame on you if you haven't...it's one of my top 5 shows of all-time.) but there's a scene in Freaks (see below), involving Lady, that's one of the absolute seminal moments of that show's history. And I feel like there's enough crossover/respect between the writers/producers/actors of Office and Freaks that they should've gone with something else.

Here's the scene from Freaks...


2) No Todd Packer. Because it's always better with Packer....

A Day In The Life...

... of Natalie Portman

Another Tale From The Office

Just had this conversation with a co-worker...

Her: All right, well, I'm gonna run out to CVS quickly.

Me: Cool. I've got to stop there at some point today myself.

Her: It's so addicting isn't it? I swear I can't go in there without spending at least $30. That's like the minimum, isn't it?

Me (not wanting to prolong the conversation) : Uhh...yeah

Me: (in my head) : I couldn't disagree with that more. I don't find CVS to be even remotely addictive. And I almost never spend $30 in there. It's the kind of place I buy a greeting card or shampoo. I'd be surprised to learn that 5% of my receipts from CVS, over the course of my entire life, have been $30 or higher. The fact that you take hour and half lunches on a regular basis is starting to make more and more sense to me.

Throw Back

While I get annoyed with the throwback jersey craze, I guess I understand it. However, what I really think would be great is a throw back company for all sorts of things. If jerseys are such good sellers, lets get some other categories in the mix:

Drink: Boku. Machon and Hadley use to get Boku by the bulk load. I am not sure if they were that good, but I certainly drank a lot of them.
Fast Food: Chicken little's. I don't eat fast food, but if they brought these bad boys back I may consider it again.
Candy: Candy Ciggerettes. Nothing says USA like a 8 year old buying a pack of Lucky's at their local candy store.
Pants: Skids/Vanessa. You had to have these didn't you. Looking back, was it really a great idea to name a pant company Skidz? I guess so because I owned at least 6 pair
Jewerly: Snap Braclets. A Great idea, straight from the production line at Mainway Toys.
Video Game: Leisure Suit Larry. Brought to us by Sierra, we navigated around as Larry trying to take home the bacon, if you know what I mean. The parental control has changed a bit since 1988, in LSL you had to answer three questions. These were pop culture questions usually about the Beatles and Bo Derrick. Needless to say, not your Fort Knox level of security.

Brasky

"Hey, do you fellas know a.. a guy by the name Bill Brasky?!!"


A poster at SoSH reminded me of the force that is Bill Brasky. For those of you that have no clue who he is, leave.

Bill Brasky

Some Highlights:

-The last digit of pi is Brasky.
-He hated Mexicans! And he was half-Mexican! ...And he hated irony!
-Brasky's not allowed to attend the Olympic games because his very aroma is considered a performance enhancing drug!
-We once had a bachelor party for Brasky. He ate the entire cake before we could tell him there was a stripper in it.
-Bill Brasky stares at the sun every day until it goes blind. This point in time is called night.
-way....Brasky once wrote a book on how to court a woman. Which was actually just a collection of all his restraining orders.
-The story of Johnny Appleseed is based on Brasky... except for the part about planting apple trees... and not raping men
-Brasky ranked 18th.. in the AP College Football Poll..

It could go on for days.

"..To Bill Brasky"



One of the Brasky SNL transcripts

Morning Decisions

Pancakes or Eggs? Sausage or Bacon? Home fries or Hashbrowns? Toast or Bagel? OJ or Chocolate Milk? Grits or ... no Grits? Breakfast unlike any other meal can be a very binomial process, unless you go the Lumberjack route and take them all, which I highly endorse. Hadley and I were talking about breakfast the other day and wondering how it adopted its time slot. You don't see pancakes and eggs on dinner menus and if you want to enjoy them at night someone will make sure you know that it is complete anarchy. I am for breakfast at anytime for a few reasons. For one, it is very cheap. The lack of breakfast on dinner menus may be a conspiracy theory from the top. You can only mark up the price of a "farmers daughter" special so much. The supermarket near me recently had a deal where you could buy one carton of eggs and get THREE free. Some people may say there is nothing romantic about breakfast, but that is just absurd. Nothing spells out true romance like two eggs, over easy with a side of hash browns. (Say that in the Gob Bluth voice). Secondly, while there are less options for breakfast overall... I urge someone to find a more verstile food than the egg. Sunny side, over easy, over medium, fried, poached, scrambled, basted, omelettes, fritattas, egg salad, scotch eggs, custard, eggs benedict, shirred eggs, soufffle, baked eggs, french toast*, boiled eggs, quiche and so on. It is the kid chameleon of food for cryin out loud.

So how do you all go through the process of choosing your breakfast? Is it a tough thought process? Are you a lumberjack kind of gal? Do you have a "go to" every time? Here is Machon's selection method:

1. As aforementioned, it is a binomial process for me starting with the heart of the plate; the egg family vs the pancakes/french toast/waffle family.
2. From there I go to sides. Bacon or Sausage. Depending on the place I switch it up. Good sausage can't be beat, but often it is that rubbery mini sausage from the frozen section of Cosco.
3. Home fries with cheese, always. Not a big hashbrown guy
4. Toast w/ Bagel and cream cheese on the side
5. Coffee, OJ, Choc. Milk all see an equal share of playing time

-No other meal offers such a full customization structure as breakfast. I am having pancakes for breakfast today, but more importantly, I am going to have eggs for dinner. Free Breakfast!


*Egg is a crucial part of french toast, and while it may be a reach, I am putting it on the list.

Hanging Red Sox

It is officially Christmas time. So while families everywhere are buying gifts, decorating their house and setting up their trees, we are thinking about those red sox. Not the ones hanging from the mantle stuffed with baseball cards, obnoxious amounts of gum, tic-tacs, Pez, deodorant, gift cards, golf balls and what ever else one may find in their stocking. We are thinking about the Red Sox that just two years ago were untouchable. The Red Sox that everyone gave a 5 year grace period. The Red Sox that would never buy a drink again in this town. The Red Sox that inspired more books than one could read. Remember that? Now people are saying that Theo won with Dukes team (Ortiz, Schilling, Mueller, Roberts, and Foulke say hello) and he has to produce this year or else. Now people are livid about not offering Damon more. I want to talk about those Sox.

Within the last 12 hours Drew and Lugo are officially part of the Club, Jon Lester is returning to Fort Myers cancer free, and Manny is most likely sticking around. That would potentially give the Sox a line up that looks something like:

(numbers from last season/career)

Name OBP OPS+
1. Youks .381/.379 108/107
2. Drew .393/.393 123/133
3. Papi .431/.374 164/135 *increased in both categories every year since 2001
4. Manny .439/.411 168/157 *MVP caliber season last year
5. Lowell .339/.339 106/109
6. Tek .325/.348 85/105 *Teks drop comes right at that age one would expect
7. Lugo .341/.340 94/92 *Could be high up, but a nice OBP at the bottom of the order
8. Pedroia (tiny sample size
9. Coco .317/.329 80/97

-If Wily Mo Pena is in the lineup, you put his .900+ OPS 5th. In that case you sit either Lowell or Coco. I love having a high OBP guy in the two spot and a Youks/Drew combo at the top would give the two headed monster that is Manny/Papi a lot of ducks to drive in. That being said, I bet Tito goes with a Youks, Lugo, Papi, Manny, Drew lineup. Last note on the lineup, a poster over at SoSH makes a point that Manny should bat second. He says this because "very piece of optimal lineup research I've seen suggests that you should bat your best hitter 2nd."

A rotation of:

Schilling

Beckett

(Matsuzka?)

Paps

Clement/Lester

Bullpen:

Wakefield

Timlin

Tavarez

Hansen

Delcarmen

Okajima

Bench

Hinske

Cora

*Paying 2.7M of Renteria's contract as well

The Cost

Without Matsuzaka the Sox have $137M tied up in payroll for next year. If he does sign for 10 per year, they would be $1 million under the cap and going into arbitration with Foulke. They also would be short a back up catcher and another bench player. I am guessing they are going to move someone soon to get back under the tax threshold.

So what contracts do the Sox no longer want to pay?

-Clement at 9.5

-Lowell at 9

-Manny at 18 (looks like he is staying)

-Coco or Wily Mo both at 3.5 (3.5 mill is a lot for 4th man out there)

Machon's Thoughts

-I am excited about the possibility of having the top four batters in the line up crack the .400 OBP mark. It would be very tough, but is not outside the realm of possibility. Lester battled his way through cancer in record time and will be reporting to camp. In my opinion, this is the best news of the off season. Trading Manny would have been nice if they saw a Peavy like player coming back, but only 10 people tops can give you what Manny does at the plate and if Drew has a year like 2004, he is one of them. Now I just hope they get the Matsuzaka deal done.

Things You Might Enjoy

Once again, I apologize for the relative lack of activity here lately. Things should pick up after the holidays but, for the immediate time being, there are some pressing matters which are going to limit our ability to post.

In any event, to fill the void today, here are three things you might enjoy...

1) Glaceau Vitamin Water: A co-worker of mine turned me on to this stuff a few months ago and I've been addicted to it ever since. There's a wide range of flavors so you'll have to tinker with what works for you. My suggestion? Try Forumla 50. That's their grape flavor and it's absolutely top notch. The best way I can describe it (and Machon came up with this...not me) is that it tastes (quite appropriately given the name of our blog) like the liquid part at the end of a grape freeze pop. I love it. Other flavors I endorse include Revive (fruit punch) and Essential (orange...which also tastes like the end of a freeze pop).

2) Papermate Flexgrip Elite Ballpoint Pens: A simple thing, perhaps, but a product that I'm happy to endorse none the less. Why? Well, it works well. I mean, how much can you really say about a pen? It just...it works well. It doesn't make a mess. It has good longevity. I've gone through my fair share of pens and most of them sucked but this one doesn't. If you're unhappy with your current writing impliments give the Flexgrip Elite a shot. I think you'll like it.

3) Ben Folds Video for "Learn To Live With What You Are": Featuring full pirate garb and bike theft....

Boom

Sometimes, going into the weekend, you just need to pass it to the man....

Airborne

Go out and rent it now. This movie is off the "unintentional humor" charts. It came out in 1993 and is full of Cool Blades, Plaid Shirts, and an unknown Jack Black. Legendary material like; deciding in the middle of a hockey game that the first one to three wins, organized skating battles down the "devil's backbone" against the prepies (I'm not entirely sure if that is the name of the school, or the actual social class), and grade A hazing from dirt in the locker to stealing clothes while someone is in the shower. Just classically cheesy stuff.


Nikki: So, if you could have lunch with any three people in the entire world - alive, dead, fictitious, I don't care. Who would it be?
Mitchell Goosen: What kind of question is that?
Nikki: A fun one, c'mon.
Mitchell Goosen: Well, I'd have to say Tom Curren; greatest surfer in the world, now that would be cool. And, um, maybe Ghandi. Not for lunch though, he wouldn't eat lunch.
Nikki: And the third one?
Mitchell Goosen: I'd have to say you.
Nikki: Me? You can have lunch with anyone in the world, and you would choose me.
Mitchell Goosen: You're not just anyone. You're special.

Write that one down fella's, it's gold.