Anybody object...

to me referring to the basement in my house as a dungeon, please let me know. The term "basement" just doesn't say enough in my humble opinion. And if you saw the amount of light in where my computer is, you know why I use the term I choose to use.

Well, mom pulled off one of her rare "ding-dong!" moves today. At my house, we have three cars and only space for 2. So at night, 2 cars go in the garage and the third in the driveway behind another car. So she and Unger are headed to the doctor's office. They take the Jeep, which was in the driveway and not blocked. They take off to Maywood or somewhere near downtown Chicago leaving one car trapping another car in the garage. Guess which car was mine? 50-50 shot here...

Yeah, it was trapped. So my mom's car is keeping me from driving my car to work. All I could do was go into her car (which was unlocked) and start digging for keys. 30 seconds and I knew I wouldn't find them. Turns out she took her keys in her purse. In other words, I had no way of driving to work. So I had to sprint/walk for 35 minutes in 25 degree weather to work. Was I cold? Uh, that would be the case. Luckily, they're not too picky what time I arrive.

Fortunately, I realized they didn't mean to drive me crazy (at least not this time), so I stayed cool. OK, poor choice of words.

Thanksgiving Friday night feels like Saturday night

A number of thoughts coming from the dungeon tonight.

This is Friday night, but man, it feels like Saturday. I'm convinced that tomorrow, I have to set my alarm for 7 a.m., go to church, play 3 hours of volleyball, go to Rookie's, hopefully watch the Giants win, go to Ecclesia, hang out with everyone at Culver's, and collapse into bed around midnight. Nope, this is all later on.

But tomorrow, I've got "Walk the Line," 25 bucks off at Maggiano's, and Willow Creek, which I hear will be a farewell service of sorts, for Bill and Lynne Hybels. And that's not even including work that night at the newspaper! Hopefully before I leave the church I'll buy one of those phenomenal Sunshine cookies with the almonds, walnuts, pecans, raisins, cinnamon chips, and dried cranberries! And no chocolate!

My church procured 40 tickets to the premiere of "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." We actually have a chance to see it the day before it comes out, December 8. The last time we did this was when "The Passion" came out. Now I know almost nothing about this film, or any of the Narnia Chronicles. I only know CS Lewis, the author of the book. Hopefully, I'll be able to get one of those tickets by Sunday.

How did relief pitcher BJ Ryan get 5 years and 47 million dollars from anybody, let alone the Toronto Blue Jays. God knows Billy Wagner is going to ask for 11 million dollars per year and probably for 4 years. I was actually talking with a reporter at work about it over the phone and I told him the news. He just asked me "Who's BJ Ryan?" And this is coming from a White Sox fan, a team that plays the Orioles!

Carlos Delgado is a New York Met! For Mike Jacobs, Yusmeiro Petit, and a SIngle-A third baseman. That's a fine fine trade. I know this guy has baggage. Actually, it's oversized baggage. It's certainly bigger than the size you can carry on to an airplane. But we got the RBI guy that we were sorely lacking all last year. Now Carlos Beltran has got to hit second. Let's think about this lineup. Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, Wright, and Floyd is as good a 1-5 that you can find in the National League. I'm not too sure how to arrange 3-4-5 at this point. I do prefer to alternate the lefty and righty hitters, if possible. There are still need on this team though. They still need a catcher (Ramon Hernandez), a utility man (Tony Graffanino), and 2 arms in the bullpen, including a closer (Too many names to mention).

I've already mentioned my Ryan-Wagner concerns. If they wound up signing catcher Ramon Hernandez (though Benji Molina wouldn't be the worst in the world, though he will get far more money than he deserves), closer Trevor Hoffman, and another setup guy like a Joey Eischen (who would give them the lefty they sorely need), that would work for me. Add those two arms to Aaron Heilman, Juan Padilla, Roberto Hernandez (if he's resigned), and Heath Bell and throw in a returning Bartolome Fortunato, Orber Moreno, or Tyler Yates, and you've got something good.

To football. Running back Ron Dayne made his first big play of his sorry NFL career on Thanksgiving afternoon. And amazingly, he helped his old team, the Giants! He ran 55 yards in overtime to the Dallas Cowboy 5 to basically drop the Cowboys into the Texas Stadium turf. He never made a play that big when he was actually wearing the blue!

The Jets still stink.

Will the Bears finally get exposed this week?

There's almost nothing funnier on TV than watching outtakes from classic sitcoms.

The snow came down today. And there was ice. And there was wind. And there were bad driving conditions. Now if you're reading this and you're in the northeast and been enjoying your 55-65 degree days, just wait. You will get a big white blanket covering from the sky before you know it.

Quick football notes

Great win by the Giants over Philadelphia. David Tyree (GO SYRACUSE!!!) is a special teams ace! Maybe once football is over, he could sign with the New York Rangers and play the point on their power play! Linebackers Nick Greisen and Antonio Pierce were downright beasts on defense. Good clutch throws by Eli Manning. His pump fake before hitting Plaxico for the clinching TD pass was great. The only complaints I really had were the play of CB Curtis DeLoatch (who absolutely stinks) and Tom Coughlin choosing to run Brandon Jacobs up the middle three times from the 1-yard line and not getting in. At least, Coughlin went for it on 4th down and passed it. My big fear with the Giants is their pass defense, particularly the cornerbacks. This week, Seattle on the road. That's going to be a tough one. I can't realistically exepect a win.

The Jets offense has turned the ball over 9 times in their last 13 possessions. How is that possible? And they've been outscored in their last 2 games 57-3. AND in six games on the road, they've been outscored 151-44! Let's just think about the draft for them. Not the NFL draft. How about all the draft beers Jet fans are probably drinking to numb the pain right now. They should absolutely finish 2-14. And that's the best thing that could happen. With the first pick in the 2006 NFL draft, the New York Jets select... Reggie Bush out of USC, I pray. It's like I've said every time the Jets are supposed to be big, they tank. But right now, the way they are playing, they don't give a damn.

Will anyone watch the Jets-Saints next week? If I were in charge of ESPN programming, I'd put on the World Curling championships. At least there would be some suspense there!

The Bears are legit. Plain and simple. A Super Bowl team? That remains to be seen.

Rambling along

I'm in the process of reading "The Death of WCW." It's a long, in-depth look at how a company that was rising and flying high, and had the possibility to become the biggest company in its particular industry, made bad decision after stupid decision after idiotic decision and went out of business 3 years after seemingly standing on top of the heap. It's an excellent lesson in how to treat people, how to handle business, economics, learning from your mistakes, and how to handle success, or how not to handle success. The irony of this is the publisher of this book is called ECW Press! If you know anything about the owner of WCW and the owner of one of their former archrival companies, ECW, and their respective feelings for each other, that's downright hilarious.

Man, you could read that and not know I was discussing pro wrestling!

Anyway, it's 9:45 on Saturday night, I'm at work, and I have absolutely nothing to do. With all other options out, I figured I'd stop in here. Drank rum and Coke for the first time last night. I really don't drink hard liquor, but I was in a pub in Huntley (which has basically nothing but the outlet malls) and I know one of the waitresses there so I stopped in to see her. They had some piano music going but it was mostly the old standards. I like old music, but the only 2 songs I recognized over 2 hours were Autumn Leaves and Unforgettable! I should have asked him to play some Elton John and the guy would have looked at me like "Who?!"

Anyway, the liquor thing. It was sort of a little celebration for myself after getting hired by Houghton Mifflin in Thursday. Actually, it's a temporary position, but it is full time work for 4-5 weeks. From what I understand, it will be a lot of data entry. And now, coupled with my newspaper job, I will be working 60 hours a week. So forgive me if I'm not blogging all that often. Who knows, maybe someone there will give me a reason to blog. Nah, that's highly unlikely. Nonetheless, I feel good about the opportunity and I don't intend to waste it.

CMA Awards

All in all, not a bad show. The show was heavy on concert performances, which was good. But all the acceptance speeches were annoying in that the network started playing "Hurry-up music" after they had been talking for maybe a minute. I guess they wanted to make sure everyone had ample time to speak. But what really pissed me off was when Alabama was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Jeff Cook talked for a minute then let Mark Herndon speak. He rambles a little bit, probably because he was caught up in the moment. He's talking for a minute and they start playing the music. Mark stopped talking for 5 seconds and they cut to a commercial before Randy Owen or Teddy Gentry had a chance to speak. It ranks right up there to when CBS cut away from a Frank Sinatra acceptance speech at the Grammy's about 11 or 12 years ago.It was one of the most classless disrespectful things I had ever seen.

And Bon Jovi was performing. I know the show was in Madison Square Garden and Bon Jovi is from New Jersey. I have nothing against the band at all. But what are they doing performing on a country music show? They should have used that time to allow for some more speaking from the winners.

But there were some good performances. Gretchen Wilson, Alan Jackson (interesting song choice with Wonderful Tonight) and Garth Brooks from Times Square were real standouts. I would give the top marks to Brooks and Dunn with "Believe."

Good to see Keith Urban win Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist. I felt he had a good chance for both, and he deserves it. It'll be interesting to see in 10 years what kind of leegacy he leaves. Will he just have a nice string of commercial success or will he get bigger than country music, or will he fade away? With his ability, I think he will be around a while longer. Lee Ann Womack winning 4 awards really surprised me. "I May Hate Myself in the Morning" was a very good song, but it didn't hit the Top 5 and it won "Single of the Year." That's about all that really surprised me about the award winners. I expected Sara Evans to win Female Vocalist, as did most people, but Gretchen Wilson deserves it too.

Not too many memorable moments that people will remember for years to come, shall we say. Maybe Garth Brooks, but that's about it. What worries me most is Vince Gill actually has a decent New York accent...

X-Man, X-Met, Not too X-cited

The Mets have traded Mike Cameron to San Diego for Xavier Nady. On the surface, I don't get this trade. My guess is this is the first step to a big free agent signing or a trade for Manny Ramirez. If the move frees up the money to where the Mets could sign a Billy Wagner and Ramon Hernandez, fine. A platoon with Nady and Mike Jacobs at first base would be sufficient.

Nady had some great stretches last year in terms of hitting for power, but he was playing behind Ryan Klesko. The question remains how would he hold up playing 120-130 games. And now I'm starting to hope we don't get Ramirez, because with Cameron gone, to get him, we will HAVE to trade outfielding prospect Lastings Milledge, who's supposed to be excellent. Milledge should not be traded. And he would just be the first part of the trade. We'd probably have to include Aaron Heilman and or Yusmeiro Petit. I know how good Manny is, but I don't want to raid the farm system.

God Bless Eddie

WWE superstar Eddie Guerrero is dead at 38.

I can't believe it. I really can't believe it. I'm numb. Eddie was not only a talented performer in the ring, but really charismatic. He knew so well how to make fans feel, whether he was a heel or a babyface. And that's what wrestling is all about. Making the fans feel one way or another.

This may be more shocking to me that when Owen Hart died.

Apparently, when he didn't respond to a wake-up call on Sunday morning, hotel security at Minneapolis Marriott City Center and Guerrero's nephew and fellow WWE wrestler, Chavo Guerrero, forced their way into the room. There were no apparent signs of foul play or suicide, police said. An autopsy was planned at the Hennepin County medical examiner's office.

It's ironic. In 1997, Brian Pillman was also found dead in a Minneapolis hotel room on a Sunday morning of a WWE event.

Eddie, if you never watched him, was one of the finest North American wrestlers of the last 15 years. His rise to stardom was in Mexico. He started to really gain fame in the AAA promotion as one half of the famed heel tag team La Pareja del terror, the Pair of Terror, along with Art Barr. They were pro-American Hispanics wrestling in Mexico. These guys, from what I hear, were hated as hated could be. The Mexican version of the 4 Horsemen, if you will.

I should mention a thing about Art Barr. Now I never saw him wrestle. But from what I read, he was the epitomy of the word "heel." He had such heat, riots in the building were often common place. It was always a security risk whenever he wrestled. Sometimes he had to wait up to three hours after the event before he could leave the building safely. He was that over. This is straight from the Slam Wrestling website. "Art Barr was the top draw in Mexico and was generally regarded as the best heel in wrestling. His solid ring work, unmatched work ethic and ability to draw the audience into his matches made him an icon. He was a charismatic heel."

They had a tag match in 1992 at When Worlds Collide from Los Angeles (AAA's only pay-per-view), where they lost to their archrivals El Hijo del Santo and Octagon in a double mask vs. double hair match, forcing Eddie and Barr to have their heads shaved bald. The match, which was rated a 4 and a 1/2 star effort from the Wrestling Observer newsletter, thrust Guerrero and Barr in the spotlight, and they were established as the best tag team in the world. And as they were on the verge of exploding into superstardom, about 2 weeks after that match, Barr, who lived the fast lane, was found dead in his bedroom in Springfield, Oregon over Thanksgiving. After hearing the news, Eddie admitted to crying for three days straight. By the way, his frog splash is a tribute to Barr, who also used the move.

Eddie got his initial American notoriety in ECW when he engaged in a series of absolute classic matches against Dean Malenko. I first saw him when he debuted in WCW in late 1995. I didn't think too much of him initially, but I liked his frog splash finisher. He won several titles, including the US title and two cruiserweight titles. He feuded with guys like Dallas Page, Chris Jericho, and Chavo. He also founded the Latino World Order (LWO). The LWO was an answer to the nWo, since the Latino wrestlers were not getting a chance to succeed.

Later, in WWE, we really started to see some personality with his relationship with Chyna and later, it was the "Lying, Cheating, Stealing" and we knew he would be a star in the big pond, not just in WCW or ECW. As he emerged as the champion of SmackDown! more and more people seemed to at least recognize the name. More than that, he also sported the classic mullet at one time, too.

If you need an example of how good he was, go to May 19, 2005 in Iowa. He was in a feud with Rey Mysterio. Long story short, the external circumstances kind of dragged this feud on and hurt it a little. But Eddie came to the ring, with Rey's mask. He did not say one word. But with his mere presence, he had the crowd reacting so much that he fired them up. Five minutes of complete silence, but plenty of heat from the crowd. It was amazing to see. Without saying a single word, Eddie guided the crowd to react the way he wanted them to. Just with his body language and gestures.

More important was his life. He had 3 daughters and a wife. Eddie had been open about past drug and alcohol use but was sober for exactly 4 years. He was in a 1998 car crash (where he was thrown through a windshield). By 2001, Guerrero developed an addiction to pain medication stemming from his car accident, and in May 2001 he was sent to rehabilitation. On November 9, 2001 he was arrested for drunk driving, and was subsequently released three days later.

After rehab and a string of solid independent promotion matches, he was rehired by WWE in April. Three weeks, later he won the Intercontinental title from Rob Van Dam. He also had a few matches with the Rock, and their promos were hysterical. Who can forget when Rock alluding to Eddie's mullet and facial hair said "with a haircut like that and a face like that, it looks like Billy Ray Cyrus went and had sex with a retarded hyena." He won a few tag titles with Chavo as well. Around the summer of 2003, he started coming to the ring in a lowrider, now a Guerrero trademark. Then, in February 2004, he won the WWE title from Brock Lesnar at No Way Out in San Francisco. After holding the title for several months, he began the partnership and then feud with Rey. He was on the verge of possibly recapturing the title as he had already challenged Batista. Speaking of which, remember the Batista-Eddie promo where Eddie was sick, is getting treatment from a hot nurse, and then Batista introduces another "doctor," who looked like he was ready to do a number on him with a rubber glove. "Hello, Mr. Guerrero." As the camera zoomed in on his face, Eddy's squealing and grimacing were just priceless.

And now, somehow I feel I took him for granted a little. Or maybe I didn't appreciate him as soon as I should have.

And if that's not enough, the WWE was scheduled to release Eddie's bio around Christmas. It may have been an autobiography I don't know. It'll be interesting to see what happens with that as well.

I'm going to pop in the DVD of Chris Benoit. He has a few matches on there against Eddie. They also spent some time interviewing him as well.

Eddie, thanks. Your life and work will be remembered by me and millions of other wrestling fans.

The future of the business

Now I want to talk about the future of this company and wrestling in general.

Right now, Batista is out for 3 months with a back injury. Christian is gone. Chris Jericho is gone. Steve Austin is nowhere to be found. RVD is injured, but should be back soon. And Chris Benoit's contract expires in 2 weeks and there's no guarantee he is going to stay. And with the sudden loss of his close friend, I almost expect him to leave. And on Raw, John Cena is starting to get booed. Maybe Chavo will lose the stupid Kerwin White gimmick and just be Chavo again. God knows a lot of us want to see that now. Think of the Hispanic demographic that has lost their hero.

I just don't know. Guys like Chris Masters and Carlito are up and comers, but not ready to be main eventers.

Guerrero's last televised match was against newcomer Ken Kennedy. It was a very solid match and the credit goes to Guerrero for leading a youngster like Kennedy along. How mnay veterans are around that can bring out the positives in young, green workers like that? Not many.

Bottom line: WWE is in deep, deep trouble.

King of Pain!!!

Imagine "King of Pain" by the Police is playing as you read this. Cause I am that. Let me start off by saying I was supposed to play volleyball in my rec league. I would be making my season debut on Sunday afternoon. But the team that my team was playing against didn't have enough players so they forfeited. That left me the whole afternoon to watch football. That left me the opportunity to go through aggravation and ageda that I didn't think the New York Giants were capable of putting me through.

The game started eerily enough as Willie Ponder, who is one of the best kick returners in football, fumbles the opening kickoff. Fortunately, Minnesota would not score. The Giants defense allowed 6 yards of Minnesota offense in the first half. That's excellent, for those of you who don't know. Yet, they trailed 7-6 at halftime thanks to 2 Eli Manning interceptions (and I'll rip him a new one as this goes on) and Darren Sharper interception return for a touchdown. The Vikings also missed 2 field goals, one of which was blocked.

Oh, and Mr. Automatic, Jay Feely, the kicker who was starting to make everybody forget about Jan Stenerud, Matt Bahr, George Blanda, and Adam Vinatieri. Misses a 28-yard field goal at the end of the first half! We trail 7-6 going into the half. But I still felt fine. I knew the Giants were better. They had plenty of time to get hot.

Actually, it was me who got hot on the first play as Koren Robinson, who I thought was out of football, returns the opening kickoff 86 yards. Touchdown. 14-6.

But the Giants come back with a beautiful drive, covering 85 yards on 6 plays, including a TD pass to Well-Dressed Amani Toomer. Coughlin doesn't go for 2 points, he kicks, 14-13. Fine. Their offense hasn't done anything still. Actually, on the Vikings' next drive they scored a TD that was nullified by a penalty. They punted. Giants get the ball at their 23, and go 3 and out, including 2 horrible looking passes from Manning. Jeff Feagles punts to a guy I benched on my fantasy team this week, Mewelde Moore. What does Mewelde do? 71-yard return into the end zone. TD Minnesota.

Later the Giants recover a Minn fumble on the Minnesota 35. And here's when you knew the Giants were in a heap of trouble. First play, Manning fumbles and Minnesota recovers. It was challenged and correctly called an incomplete pass, but on the first play after your defense does something huge, you cannot put your own team in that kind of situation. So no turnover. Got away with that one. Next play, a 7-yard run by Tiki. HOLD ON! Holding on Luke Petigout, 10 yard penalty. 2nd and 20 now. Manning lobs the ball up, settles right into the hands of Brian Williams. Problem! He plays for the Vikings. Way to give them the ball right back!

Let's go to 4 minutes left in the 4th quarter. Facing 3rd and 10 Manning throws a great pass to Jeremy Shockey for 19 yards and a big first down at the Minn 11. Tiki then runs for 6 yards. Good job. Next play, a short pass to Tiki that he takes in to the end zone. But oh no! Chris Snee, an offensive guard, is an ineligible receiver downfield. Are you kidding! That moves the Giants back 5 yards and Manning completes the next pass to Darren Sharper. Who of course plays for Minnesota. He had Tiki Barber WIDE OPEN on the flat! Instead he throws to a guy who was ripping New York football in the media today, Mr. Sharper. I was so angry I drove home and watched the end of the game at home.

And again the Giant defense comes up enormous! They move Minnesota back 3 yards and they get the ball back with 3:17 to go. The offense has their second of 2 good drives, culminating with Tiki's TD and 2-point conversion. Tie game 21-21. And the fact that they converted the 2-pointer was shocking to me. But as always happens in this spot, how much time do you leave the other team to drive down the field and set up a game-winning field goal. In this case, following the 4-yard sack of William Joseph on Brad Johnson, the Giant defense stopped playing. That defense had dominated all day long. Were they even on the field for that last minute? It looked like the New York Knick basketball defense under Don Chaney! 21 yard pass, 11 yard pass, 11 yard pass, 3 yard pass and they're on the Giant 30.


And after missing two field goals earlier, you knew there was no way Paul Edinger was missing this time. Would the god of wind help us, No freakin' way. That kick would have been good from 60 yards and it was right down the middle. Game over. Absolutely a disgusting, hideous loss to a bunch of purple thugs. And even worse, God knows I'm going to be hearing their radio announcer, Paul Allen, call the field goal on Sports Center tomorrow. Oh, the pain!


Manning did a fine impression of Neil O'Donnell to Larry Brown in the Pittsburgh-Dallas Super Bowl from 1995! Great job, Eli, of finding the open defensive back. You were an embarrassment today. And as bad as the last drive was, I credit the Giant defense for playing so well for 59 minutes. But Mike Sweatman, the Giants special team coach, deserves to get dropped off in the rough section of Harlem naked and handcuffed. Let whatever will happen, happen. This was the worst special teams performance I have ever seen by an NFL football team. This was not exactly Dante Hall and Terrence McGee breaking tackles. It was Koren Robinson and Mewelde Moore scoring TD's? Give me a break already!

And Mike Tice, your team deserves to celebrate tonight. I hear New York has some marvelous boat cruises! Take the whole team! You bald, fat piece of crap.

The Giants have a lot of learning to do, especially Eli Manning. Just a shameful, gut-wrenching, make-you want-to-vomit loss to Minnesota. They had better learn from this.

The Jets are an afterthought. They're done. I'm not even going to go into them. Except this: they don't give a damn right now about playing football.

OK, back in the dungeon again

Back from 2 fine days in Madison, WI and I am ready to go. This is ward, as for once I'm typing when the sun is out. So let's see. What happened while I was away? Took a lot of time to reflect and sort a few personal things out. Got rejected from 2 more jobs, which I kind of expected. And Illinois could learn something from Wisconsin about tolls. I drove roughly the same amount of time in both states. I paid 4 tolls in Illinois and zero in the land of cheese!

I heard something about the baseball and steroid issue that I couldn't believe, which I have largely ignored. Congress is amazing to me, and not in a good way. The bill that Senator McCain (FROM! Arizona) came up with proposes a half a season suspension for a player's first offense, a full year for the second offense, and banishment for the third. And McCain and Senator Jim Bunning believe they can pass the bill within 2 weeks. But the catch is it may take a full year for the law to take effect! A full year! Give me a break. Congress is so much fluff on this type of thing. Don't talk all tough and then at the last minute say, "Oh, with all the loopholes and red tape, it'll take some time to pass." Come on now.

Great job by the Rangers knocking off a reeling Lightning squad. Moore with 2 goals. Marcel Hossa, Jason Ward, and Ville Niemenen (who by the way, has appeared in more Stanley Cup Finals games than any other current Ranger) scored as well. They only had 20 shots on goal and scored 5 times. Unfortunately, goaltender prospect Al Montoya is sidelined for 4-6 weeks due to a broken finger.

Now onto the Mets and their offseason. This is a hideous free agent market and I would look to trade. Maybe we could trade Matsui and Zambrano to Tampa Bay and get Kazmir back! And throw in B.J. Upton and Aubrey Huff too! They owe us! I would take B.J. Ryan or Billy Wagner in the bullpen in a minute, though they won't come cheap. I guess I would take any player named B.J. If Aaron Heilman (FROM! Notre Dame) isn't traded (and I think he will be, if the Mets make any kind of significant move), he should be the primary setup man. I like him, but I don't know if he's a full season closer, especially in a big spot. But I don't know if the Mets are in a position to throw the most money they'll spend this season at a close when their lineup is so incomplete.

So let's go to position players. I don't want Benji Molina. He's the only player in baseball who makes Jason Phillips look like Carl Lewis. I would go for Ramon Hernandez at catcher and try to get either Julio Lugo or Todd Walker to play second base. Or sign Tony Graffanino (which I'm hearing), and use him in a utility role. Rafael Furcal, as I've said before, is just using the Mets. There's no way he's playing second base. He's going to the Cubs.

Mike Jacobs should get a chance to play first base full time. And I know Omar "Mr. Full Autonomy" Minaya said in a published report that there is no way he will trade Mike Cameron unless something huge comes along. Hmm, Manny Ramirez? We'll see. I like Victor Diaz, but I think he makes too many bonehead plays. He's not reliable enough to be this team's starting right fielder. Then again, if he never plays for the Mets again, that 3-run homer he hit off Latroy Hawkins (who will not be on my fantasy baseball team this year!) in 2004 to knock the Cubs out of the playoffs will be good enough for me!

One more thing about baseball. They're doing this World Cup of Baseball with 16 nations next March. That sounds fine, for international marketing of baseball. Of course, wait until one pitcher blows his arm out and that'll be all she wrote. But from what I hear, Mike Piazza may play for Italy! What?! What's Piazza doing playing for Italy? He wasn't even born there. According to writer Tom Verducci, in this competition, "Each nation has its own set of rules." I just think that's funny. Anyway, I've got some pumpkin bars to cook for a Thanksgiving dinner tonight at the McElwee ranch. And I'm meeting with someone from Houghton Mifflin in human resources. I'm not too optimistic, but at least I have a meeting arranged. Later.

State of Mind

Well I'm going out of state for 2 days to Madison WI so I'll be back on Thursday night. Right now, off to the gym I go for a quick workout.

Singing the Blues...

The Big Blue, New York Football Giants that is. I actually didn't watch one moment of NY football on TV today. I was attending to some personal matters regarding volleyball and some steak tacos. We stomp all over the 49ers and next week it's Minnesota, who somehow won today. With this game in NY, I think the Giants will reach 7-2 before the schedule gets tougher as they play home against Philadelphia, go to Seattle, then host Dallas, and visit Philadelphia. Maybe TO will still be suspended for those two games...

My hope is over the next 5 games, they will go 3-2. That would put them at 9-4, and probably only one win away from at least a wild card berth. I think that's very realistic.

And the Broadway Blueshirt New York Hockey Rangers. The last time the Rangers beat the Devils three times in a season, I was a high school freshman at St. Joseph's in Metuchen, NJ. Now I'm 2 and a half years out of college. They're in first place in the Atlantic Division, 2 points up on Philly, but they've played 3 more games. To me the key is how many points do you have versus how many you could have. Not to get all Billy Beane Moneyball here, but don't be fooled. To quote an old song, "Enjoy the good times while we can."

And I got my Ranger-Blackhawk ticket for December 7. Section 329, on the corner, Second row of the upper deck. So as you're watching on TV (Actually that's only possible if you're in the New York metropolitan area since the Hawks don't televise their home games), I would be in the upper left corner. After 8 years in the Windy City, it's my first professional hockey game in the City of Broad shoulders. I can't wait.

The Jets played tough, but lost to San Diego, which was expected. Brooks Bollinger showed he is a capable QB. But he's not Tom F'N Brady for the record. Some bad news: WR Wayne Chrebet got another concussion on a third down pass that he caught for a first down. Kind of ironic that's going to be his final pass reception. Thank you #80.

Congratulations to Jets RB Curtis Martin on his 100th career TD. Anyone who says New York athletes become great because of the media hype need only look at him. Because he is the antithesis of that theory. As about as humble, giving, professional, and classy an athlete can be.

Oh, at Ecclesia tonight (www.ecclesiawheaton.com), we were talking about vacations. I got to tell the story of my trip to Cancun and the Mexican Screaming contest. If you want to read more, flip back to last November's archives.

And finally, we're getting the speedy DSL Internet connection at home tomorrow! Whooooooooooooooo!

If you don't like wrestling, don't read this, cause you won't get it.

The last time I attended a wrestling event was Wrestlemania 1997 at the All State Arena. Tonight, (actually, last night as it's 1:22) I attended Ring of Honor. The event started at 6:45 and went until about 11:15. To say I got my money's worth would be a gross understatement.

The event was at the Chicago Heights Park District, which is only a step or two down from your local elementary school gymnasium. I have seriously seen high school gyms bigger than this place. But that helped to add to the intimate feel of the place. That's cool because even in general admission seating, I was still sitting only about what would have been 15 rows away in a major arena. I would guesstimate the crowd was about 900 people in a small building.

Onto the action. After two warmup matches (a tag match and a woman's match), the show started at 7:30. It was a tag match and one of the guys, Ace Steel, who is from Chicago, definitely had the fans going for him. He teamed with this guy, Delirious, who looks like he's from Mexico. Got the mask and everything. He's absolutely nuts the way he bounces around like a headcase in the ring. They faced a guy named Chad Collyer and Nigel McGuinness, who's from England and the ROH Pure Wrestling champion. McGuinness did two headstands on turnbuckles that were quite impressive. Delirious made us laugh when he got Nigel in the corner and started delivering clotheslines to his chest. And boy, I mean clotheslines. He may have really delivered about 50 shots right in a row. At first we were like "Ok, that's enough." Then it was "Yeah, keep going!" Then, "This is hysterical!" and finally "Are you kidding me?" After he was done, Delirious favored his arm for the next few minutes. Gee, hard to imagine why. I then shouted out, "Hey you got a left arm too, you know?!" Anyway, Steel and Delirious won a fun to watch match.

Sal Rinauro (an Italian guy) took on Jimmy Jacobs with his manager, Lacey, who had wrestled in the women's match on the undercard. Here's all you need to know about Jacobs. For 10 minutes, I hear the crowd chanting "Huss! Huss!" And I'm wondering what is all that about. So I asked a guy sitting near me and he explained the whole thing. "His gimmick was he used to imitate the Berzerker until Lacey convinced him to not do it anymore." So every time Jacobs lands a punch on Sal, the crowd chants "Huss!" Jacobs won with a move called the Contra Code. I don't remember what it was.

Then out came the new commissioner of ROH, the king of the tennis racket, the manager of the legendary Midnight Express, Jim Cornette, who a few months ago was removed from his job at the WWE's Ohio Valley Wrestling territory in Louisville. He kind of alluded to it, prompting a few fans to start chanting "F*** Vince!" Cornette goes, "You said it, I didn't!" He then brought out Cowboy Bill Watts, the guest of the evening. Unfortunately, the speakers weren't working to well, so I couldn't make out most of their conversation. They talked about the old guys and mentioned some big names Watts had helped break through into stardom such as Ted DiBiase (which I gave the Million Dollar laugh afterwards!), Junkyard Dog, Dr. Death Steve Williams, Bobby Heenan, Hacksaw Jim Duggan (who seriously got a HUGE ovation!) A newcomer, Adam Pearce, came out and demanded a match. He got one later.

BJ Whitmer, the other half of Lacey's team, beat Claudio Castagnoli in about 17 minutes. Claudio is a pretty popular guy. Early on, the two were doing some armbars, hammerlocks, etc. Every time Claudio got the advantage, he'd go "Heyyyyyyyyy!" And we'd all do it with him. From what I'm reading on the net, a lot of people are bummed Claudio lost this one clean. Oh well...

Next came one of the biggest moments of the night. Samoa Joe against the Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels. If you know anything about independent wrestling, you know these are two of the best. Daniels has been a solid veteran on the independent scene for years and Samoa Joe is an absolute star in the making. He's 6'2, 290, big, agile, energetic, and very tough. The crowd was so back and forth. When Daniels came out, we all chanted hockey-style "Fallen Angel, clap, clap, clap-clap-clap." Then, when Joe came out, the place went nuts! So there was about 150 guys chanting "Fallen Angel!" And while they were clapping, everyone else chanted "Let's Go Joe!" Talk about a hot crowd.

Joe used his power, while Daniels (more the mat technician) focused on the left knee of Joe. This match went about 44 minutes and Joe won with his Island Driver finisher, which was devastating to watch. Some people didn't like the match, and I think it went a little long, but it was a pleasure watching them both compete. Not like I had much to compare this match to.

Then came a, how shall I say, memorable and forgettable moment. Homicide (a black thug type guy from Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn) faced Colt Cabana. Cabana is the only wrestler, I'm guessing ever, who uses Barry Manilow's Copacabana as his entrance music. I never thought I would hear Barry Manilow at a wrestling event. It happened. The match was a brawl and went to a no-contest. What happened afterwards was almost silly. Homicide put a beat down on Colt and duct taped his wrists to the turnbuckles. Duct tape. Apparently, the ROH Budget isn't big enough to afford a pair of handcuffs. Besides, there were 40 cops around. Couldn't one of them had given away their cuffs? Anyway, then he took at a fork and stabbed him. It was ugly and then Ace Steel reappeared and made the save.

Intermission time. Checked out the DVDs at the merchandise counter. Didn't buy anything though. They had so much variety I had no idea how to narrow it down. Besides you usually pay more for those types of things at the events anyway.

Mr. Pearce beat some guy in 6 minutes with a piledriver. He did come out to CCR's Run Through the Jungle. Not a bad choice.

Then, the World Championship match. The champion, the "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson defending against Roderick Strong. Let me say this. If these guys just had a match where they chopped each other for 30 minutes, that would have been better than most of the WWE matches on TV today. Strong has the absolute loudest chops I have ever heard. Forget Flair, forget Benoit, these chops were downright scary to hear. The echo just bounced off the ceiling. But anyhow, for about the first 10 minutes, they just wrestled. It was straight wrestling. Danielson emerged as the heel as he cursed a few fans out. But there were no foreign objects to speak of, no outside interference. These two went at it for 57 solid minutes. Almost an hour of wrestling. It was 10:50 p.m. when Danielson reversed a backbreaker into a chicken wing and began delivering repeated elbows to the side of Strong's head. The ref had to stop the match. A great, great match. AsStrong was helped to the back, most of us chanted, "Thank you, Roderick!"

Finally, the 8-man tag match. It was Generation Next: Austin Aries, Jack Evans, and Matt Sydal. Since Strong, normally a team member, was in the title match, they needed a new partner. Their tag team partner for the night: The Phenomenal A.J. Styles. They had two female managers as well, Jade Chung and Daizee Haze. They faced the Embassy: Jimmy Rave, Alex Shelley (who I have seen before), the monster Abyss (who I saw close up and is absolutely huge!), and Prince Nana (who is a Ghanan manager who always manages to avoid getting the crap beaten out of him.)

High flying, brawling, one table, AJ back suplexing Abyss through a table. Haze turned heel, joining the Embassy after low-blowing Aries and Sydal. Rave apparently had promised the crowd a great new finisher for this match. Turned out it was just a Pedigree and he used it and pinned Sydal to win the match. I stood by the entrance aisle as those guys walked out. They got a big ovation, at least Generation Next did. Actually as AJ and Jade were about to head back, one fan got in his face. I was about 5 yards away so I didn't really hear it. According to a fan on the ROH site, this was the exchange.

"The fan said something to AJ along the lines of "you suck" yada yada, and AJ in turn said something like, "That's good coming from an idiot with glasses you faggot," and the fan told AJ to go back to the locker room. AJ got in the fan's face and asked him "What happens if I don't?" Styles invited the fan over the rail where he'd slap the glasses of his face. The fan was dumb enough to climb over the rail, and the security guards began holding him back. Samoa Joe then ran out, and told him to "let him go!" because Joe was going to knock this guy out. The security guard took the fan to the back."

The event ended at 11:10 p.m. From start to finish, about 4 hours, 15 minutes. And even with all the Ticketmaster charges, I still only paid about 25 bucks.

And then the rain outside. It had been drizzling in the afternoon. As I'm heading towards the exit, and about to step outside, avoiding the guy handing out club flyers, I see a huge bolt of lightning. Then I see a guy with a blue baseball cap and it's totally drenched. I realize the rain has only picked up and I've got 5 minutes of running to get back to my car. I ran through rain that was falling as hard as I can remember. And then the long drive home. It was not easy reading highway signs, let alone lane dividers on the road. Four highways. 70 minutes, needed to stop for gas on the way. Quite a drive. But it's all good.

From the fans I've talked to, this was as good a wrestling show as they can remember seeing in a while. It almost makes me tired of watching what's in WWE compared to what you can find on the underground scene. By the way, ROH will be doing a show from the Inman Sports Club in Edison, NJ on December 17. What are the odds. My old stomping grounds!

The next time Ring of Honor comes to Chicago is two shows on March 30 and April 1, aka, Wrestlemania weekend, which I already have tickets for. We'll see what happens. But I must say Ring of Honor did a great job tonight.

More musings

How often do you really floss? For me, it used to be whenever I ate corn on the cob and got a kernel stuck in there somewhere. So after hearing dentist after dentist go on and on about flossing, I figured I would try to floss more. And let me tell you, it ain't working!

On a related note, I don't like cigarettes. To me, the smell of the smoke is brutal. But there must be something that some people find appealing about it. I don't want to know. Some people say to me, "You don't know how hard it is to quit smoking." Yeah, I do. It's as hard to quit smoking as it is to start flossing.

By the way, I'm watching the Best Damn Sports Show. And Michael Strahan (the All-World Giant with the David Letterman size gap in his teeth) is on. One of the hosts says "Michael, we got you some dental floss." And he pulls out this huge piece of rope. Too funny.

If the Cubs don't mange to get Rafael Furcal in free agency, the North Siders are the biggest screw ups in baseball.

The best thing about typing. You can say whatever you want, but you have the opportunity to edit before everyone else sees them. Even for me, it's hard to stick my foot in my mouth. Actually considering the post right below, that may not be the case yet....

Another Friday night

Once the clock hits 12:00 AM on Friday night, it seems really easy for me to think of something to type about. Whether it's the challenge of making a good coffee cake (Boring), Ring of Honor wrestling (What in the world is that that, Adam?) the Rangers beating the Devils (nah, I'm taking a break from sports here), recent fitness habits, grad school options (Who knows?), the "thing" I'm starting to get for a local volleyball coach ........................................... .......................................................................................................................
Oh, sorry, I spaced out there for a minute! Details are not necessary because there are really no details to give.

Can't beat the style

Well, I finally got back to a Mongolian BBQ. They just don't have enough of them. And thanks to a certain someone's dislike of Asian food, I hardly ever go.

But I went to one in downtown Naperville called BD's and it was quite quite good. There are about 10 locations are so throughout the midwest. What made them stand out was 2 things. One was the variety of meats and seafood. Most of the Mong. BBQ's I've been to have about 3 or 4 meats. This had chicken, duck, ny strip, ribeye, pork, lamb, andouille sausage, calamari, shrimp, scallops, and crab. Man that's hard to narrow down. In the end I took duck, chicken, strip, ribeye, and lamb. By the time I was eating it, I had no idea what was what anyway. Of course I added about 20 cloves of fresh gahhhhlic...

I also had Tazo iced tea. Now I've had tazo hot tea numerous times, usually when I'm fighting a cold or just freezing cold. I'm a big tea drinker. But this was fine tea. Just needed some saccharine/the pink stuff!

The only thing they were missing was the Mongolian bread. Now if you've known me for more than 10 minutes, you know I don't touch chocolate, but love bread. I had a 4 loaf-a-day habit. I had to go to Betty Ford and get straightened up. Anyhoo, this bread is a hot crispy flatbread with sesame seeds. It really helps round the meal out.

And for lunch, one bowl with the salad bar is 10 bucks. Not bad. Not too bad. All in all, I give a thumbs up for BD's.