Danny, this review's for you...

 (Warning: May contain spoilers)

So I saw two movies this weekend.  That is kinda rare.  I usually try to limit myself to 1 movie a weekend.  However, I did miss the premiere weekend of Fast Five last week so I had to make up for it.

Fast Five

Let’s be honest, The Fast and the Furious (F&F) was about cars, women, and music.  There was very little plot involved. As new F&F movies appeared, a serious attempt was made to develop an actual plot.  I’d say they succeeded quite admirably.  F&F5 does a real good job on character development, compared to the last films.  It really isn’t about the cars this time around, especially when the ‘star’ car is a Dodge Charger.

All the actors/characters are just like you expect.  Tego and Don really steal the scenes they are in.  It helps if you know Spanish.  I’m still trying to understand how Han got back in this movie.  I thought he died in F&F3.  I know F&F4 took place around the same time as F&F3 but you can’t tell me F&F5 takes place around the same time.  The only I can think of is that he pulls a “Letty” (Stay after the credits to get my meaning).

Overall rating: Matinee Movie. Decent movie. However, you can wait for $1 theater or DVD rental.

Thor                                           

I was a little worried when I went to see Thor. I was worried that there was going to be a lot of Norse talk with the “thine”, “thou”, “whilst”, and other crazy word being thrown about by the Asgardians. Thankfully we are spared all that crazy talk.  What we do have is a really good comic book movie.  The Asgardians look like they were pulled from the comic book, yet they don’t look ridiculous.  My only beefs are Heimdall should have been… I don’t know… bigger? More imposing? And Volstagg definitely should have been bigger. But in a way I’m glad they didn’t do that ‘cause it would have required a lot of CGI and I do think that CGI is WAY over done nowadays.

The entire movie is a setup for The Avengers movie. S.H.I.E.L.D. is all over this movie, Barton makes an appearance, the Bruce Banner/Hulk reference…  If I didn’t know there was going to be an Avengers movie, there would be no doubt about it now.  Chris Hemsworth is awesome as Thor, but I absolutely loved Tom Hiddleston as Loki.  I really hope they use him in more movies.*

Anyway, I could go on and on about this movie but rather than that let me give you my…

Overall rating:  Full-Price Movie. It doesn’t disappoint and you have to see it on the big screen to really appreciate Asgard.

That’s all for…

That’s it?

Umm, yeah. I don’t have time for anything else right now.

You know, they could’ve gone anywhere for a movie review.

I know. I want to write more, but I don’t have time “write” now.  Get it? “Write” now?

Yeah, I got it, Not that funny.  I’m telling you, let me write something. I can…

No.

Lame.

Whatever.

*Well, if you stay for after the credits, I guess they will be using Loki in upcoming movies. Awesome.

And the conversation went something like this...

Hey, dude, what’s up?

Huh, what?

Seriously man, what’s up?

Who's that?

The voice in your head, duh!

Oh…

No man, don’t play that. You know I’m here.  Just because you try to deny me doesn’t mean I don’t exist.

I thought I got rid of you a long time ago.

Nah, I was chillin. Figured you had enough on your hands… or head… to deal with.

So, what are you doing back?

Well, I sat back and thought about the things we used to do. It meant a lot to me. You mean a lot to me.

Wait a minute, isn’t that a song.

It doesn’t mean it’s not true.

Whatever.  Seriously, what are you doing back?

Dude, you have blog.

So, I’ve had a blog for a long time.

Yeah, but this time people are actually reading it.

True.

And I want to get a piece of the action.

Um, you’re a voice in my head.

Yeah, that’s never stopped you before.

That was a long time ago. I went to therapy for years for that. 

Yeah, but they never did find the bodies, did they?

True.

Yeah, that was all me. Think about what I can bring to the people that read your blog.

Let me think… what would you bring?

Entertainment! Humor!

I already provide that.

No, you don’t. Not really.

Whatever.  Let me think about it.

Don’t think about it too long.  I still know where all the bodies are buried.

Whatever. Gotta go. We'll talk later.

Hah, you admit I exist.

Never said that. Just said we will talk... LATER.

Whatever.

The sky is falling... No, not really.

So, Mariano blew his second straight save opp.  Cries of "Is this the end of Mariano?" were heard all over.  Seriously people?  That makes it 51 blown saves in 17 seasons. That's 3 blown saves per season.  What's the big deal?  Trevor Hoffman averaged 4 blown saves per season. A total of 76 blown saves over his career.  Mariano has got a grand total of 51 blown saves up to now.  I think it's safe to say that Mariano is ok.

However, even if he has blown a few saves, the intimidation factor is still there.  You know that when you hear "Enter Sandman" the Yankees have a lead and Mo is coming in.  You know that Mo only has 2, maybe 3 pitches.  You know that you are going to see a few of his famous, or infamous if you are the batter, cut fastballs. You know that you are going to see a few busted bats.  And, in the end, you know that it is most likely the game is over.  When you know all this, it kinda takes the life outta you.  Intimidation.
-----
It looks like things are getting back to normal in the American League East. Yankees on top, BoSox and Rays fighting for second. Toronto and Baltimore fighting to stay of the cellar.
-----
Pop quiz, hotshot! You have bases loaded and no outs.  The batter hits one straight to third baseman. What do you do?  What do you do?!?!

Answer, you throw home and get the force out at home and then throw to first to get the second out.

This is basic baseball.  Anyone that plays should have gotten the answer to that.  Well, someone needs to tell those guys over at 2K Sports.  I can't tell you how many times that has happened to me while playing the latest baseball offering from 2K Sports, MLB 2K11.  There are so many stupid quirks with this game it is making it difficult to play.  About half the time, the middle infielder won't turn two on an easy double play ball.  I can't ever get the pitcher to leave the mound to cover first base.  Aaargh, it is so irritating.  At times like this I wish I had a PS3 so I can play MLB The Show. A much better game.

That's it. I'm done for a Monday.

Late
JV

21 = 42?

This past weekend, MLB celebrated Jackie Robinson.  Many players wore the number 42, officially retired in all of MLB, in honor of Jackie.  It was really cool seeing all the historical tidbits and “Letters from Jackie” interstitials.  However, I’m not here to talk about Jackie. That’s been done quite a bit by others who write better than me.  I’m here to talk about number 21, Roberto Clemente.

Someone (non-minority) asked me if I would support retiring the number 21 in all of MLB, ala Jackie Robinson.  I asked “why?”  They looked at me kinda dumbfounded.  “Well duh,” he said, “he was the first Latin player in baseball.  He broke the color barrier for you Spanish people.”  At this point I just shook my head and cried.  Not because this guy had a great idea and had respect for “my people”. No, I cried because this guy, a supposed baseball fan, had no idea what he was talking about.  Let’s set the story straight:

Roberto Clemente – First Latino baseball player… False. That would be Esteban Bellán. 1871, Troy Haymakers.

Wait, you say, the Troy Haymakers weren’t an MLB team.  *sigh* fine.

Roberto Clemente – First Latino baseball player… False. That would be Luis Castro. 1902, Philadelphia Athletics.  (Yes, the A,s were in Philly before making a pit stop in Kansas City and then moving to Oakland.)

Roberto Clemente – First Puerto Rican baseball player… False. That would be Hiram Bithorn. 1942, Chicago Cubs.

Roberto Clemente – First Latino All-Star… False. That award goes to Alfonso Carrasquel. 1951, Shortstop for the American League.

Rookie of the Year? Luis Aparicio, 1956. (Coincidentally, the year after Clemente made his major league debut).

No-hitter? Roberto did many things.  Pitching was not one of them.

First Latino in a World Series? Not Roberto. Adolfo Luque would be that person. 1919.

First Latino to win the MVP? Zoilo Versalles, 1965. (Coincidence #2, the year before Clemente won his.)

First Latino World Series MVP? Roberto Clemente, 1971. Seriously.

First Latino Hall of Famer? Roberto Clemente, 1973. First ballot, special election.

Ok, I think I’ve made my point.  Roberto, as a great player as he was, really wasn’t a first in many things.  If you are going to retire his number, the question is why?  Do you retire it because he was one of the greatest Latino players out there? If you do that, you start going down a slippery slope.  What defines great?  You will start to run out of uniform numbers pretty quick.  You would have to retire all the numbers of the players in the hall of fame. Why? Well, they are great players, aren’t they? If they weren’t great then they wouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame.  Then you have to retire all the players that have over 3000 hits. Roberto had 3000 so anything above that is considered great.   Anyone that has multiple awards, won an MVP, played in multiple World Series or All-Star games would have their number retired because that would be great by Roberto Clemente standards.  You retire all those numbers then what?   Then baseball will look like Futurama with players wearing numbers like 7/8 or 10/16. 

You can’t retire his number because he was neither the first Latino nor the first Puerto Rican.  Are you going to retire Ichiro’s number because he was the first Asian player? Oh wait…

Ichiro Suzuki – First Asian baseball player… False. That would be Masanori Murakami. 1964, San Francisco Giants.

Ichiro Suzuki – First Japanese baseball player… False. Masanori, again.

No, I don’t think MLB should retire his number.  Sharon Robinson, Jackie’s daughter, said, “When you start retiring numbers across the board, for all different groups, you're kind of diluting the original purpose.”*

Roberto has been honored in many different ways. Schools and stadiums are named after him.  Even a day is set aside for him.  The Pirates have retired his number. Let’s keep it that way.  Let’s not dilute what Jackie has done and let’s respect what Roberto has done.  Leave #42 retired and leave #21 for those that want to wear the number in respect of Roberto.  Besides, I don’t want to have to give up my Yankees #21 jersey. C’mon you really didn’t think I was that big of a Paul O’Neill fan, did you?

(This is just a repost of blog entry I wrote a few years ago.  I just thought it would be appropriate to post again… with some minor changes.)

*http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=2303977

*photo from SI

  

Barry Bonds*

Barry Bonds

The jury is still in deliberations. In fact, at the time of this writing, they are in day 3.  Why the fascination with Bonds? Is it because of the single-season homerun record (73)? The career homerun record (762)? The lies, cheating and deceit? No.  It’s because his head has gotten so BIG. Literally and figuratively!

Funny thing is, the 1987 Topps Baseball series is the first set of cards that I managed to get a complete set.  I didn’t set out to make a complete set. I was just trying to get all of the Mets cards, a Team Set if you will. The Mets had won the World Series and, since I was now living in Las Vegas, the baseball cards were my only connection to the game.

I digress…

So, when all this Baroid Bonds started up, I started digging thru my collection of cards.  I did find my Bonds rookie card. To tell the truth, I couldn’t believe it was the same person.  Seriously, 1987 Bonds doesn’t even remotely look like 2007 Bonds. 

I digress yet again…

The point of this is not to rehash and regurgitate what has been said before.  No, it’s to discuss his big head.  Barry has got an ego the size Burj Khalifa.  It’s this ego that won’t let him admit that he did drugs.  It’s his ego that won’t let this mess go away.  He’s not the only one. Roger Clemens and Rafael Palmeiro are two more. Let’s not forget the latest one to let his ego get in the way, Manny Ramirez. 

But these aren’t the only guys to get busted with steroids. Oh no. We also have Andy Pettitte, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, and Alex Rodriguez.  What do all these guys have in common, aside from the fact that they have all played for the Yankees*, that sets them apart from the previously mentioned bunch of  illegal drug users**?  One word:

Admitting.

Yeah, all four of those guys admitted (to a certain degree) to having done steroids at some point in their career.  Not going to go into detail, just Google them to get more info.  The thing is, how much more have you heard about these guys and the steroid allegations? Not a whole heck of a lot. Why? One word:

Forgiveness.

I think that, in general, we want to forgive people, especially larger-than-life figures. Nixon, Clinton, Steinbrenner have all been forgiven for their transgressions.  Baseball players fall into the same category.  For all their homeruns hit and strikeouts pitched, we want to believe they are human, just like us.  They can falter, just like us. They can admit mistakes, just like us.

I really think that if Barry would have admitted from day one that he had taken steroids and asked for forgiveness, we would have forgiven him.  If he would have said that he is no longer doing steroids, we would have believed him.  Fans outside of San Francisco would have cheered for him. Heck, I would have cheered for him.  Would he have broken Babe Ruth’s homerun record? Probably. Would he have broken Hammerin’ Hank’s  homerun record? Doubtful.  Would we look at his single season homerun record as legit? Not likely, but how is that any different from the way it is looked at now?

But Barry’s ego won’t let him even imagine that he did anything wrong.  In the end, it’s going to be Barry’s ego that’s going to leave his legacy tainted.

*Interesting isn’t it? But that’s a rant for another day.

** The fact that all PEDs are illegal should be enough to ban them from the game. Again, a rant for another day.