Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Three Winners And A Choke -- by J.O.B.

1) I was reminded again over the last couple of days as to why I want to move to Cali so bad - to fight fires! No, actually I had a great time. Truly a business/pleasure trip. Went to Disneyland, worked on some music and got hooked up with the Assistant to the President of Warner Bros., as well as Romany Malco (aka the Black guy in 40-Year Old Virgin.) I just love southern California. Saw a couple other stars (Lisa Kudrow, Patricia Clarkson) but I'm not really a star-crazy kind of person. I just like the lifestyle. Enough to deal with a little wild fire action ...

2) Cedric Benson still sucks. Normally I am the guy that gives his team a break after a victory, unlike most Chicago sports fans, but jeez-o-pete does this guy suck. It's not the line's fault because they were able to protect for Griese just fine and everyone knows that run blocking is simpler than pass blocking. Benson blew chunks and Griese was forced to throw more than 35 passes yet again. Fortunately the Eagles offense was so inept that they only put up 16 points. Ya' think Rex could've gone 97 yards in 1:34? Nah, I didn't think so.

3) I don't buy a lot of movies on DVD. I just don't have a tendency to long for even some of the best movies I've seen. Don't get me wrong, I've got some of my favorites (Fight Club, Usual Suspects, Blade Runner,) but I almost never go running out to get the latest DVD release when I know it will be in the "4 for $20" bin at Blockbuster in 2 months. Well, I actually purchased my second 2-disc special edition DVD of the year on Friday, adding Transformers to my purchase of 300 earlier this year. Unless We Own The Night or American Gangster comes out on DVD before the end of the year, I think this might be it for me in this territory before 2008.

4) I need Brown Buddy to come tell me some more about how great his Indians are ...

15 comments:

Mark said...

Is it really choking if the better team won? I realize that modern day sports culture can only operate in absolutes, but the Indians lost because they couldn't get one decent game from one of their two aces, and the Red Sox...well, they have Josh Beckett. Their bullpen ended up being a little better as well, and in the end, those two things were probably the difference.

But again, its modern sports culture, so if you don't win, you suck, or you choked. And heaven forbid if you do win...well, either it was expected and there is no sense enjoying it, or you're an upstart that came out of nowhere and you don't deserve to be there in the first place!

Awesome! So lets go on Around the Horn and yell at each other for the next 30 minues!

AngryWhiteMan said...

Are the Cubs still in the playoffs? I hear that they have a chance this year.

Skurny said...

MARIOTTI!!!

J.ust O.ver B.roke said...

First of: AWM, did you team even make the playoffs? Alright, continue seeking out gay housing in Oak Park while the hetero's talk for a minute.

Second: BB, you missed your true calling. You should have been in public relations. Let me explain something to you: If you are up 3 games to 1 with a home game remaining and don't close out, you choked. There is no other term for teams that BLOW 3-1 series leads. To deny that as choking is just as lame as saying that if the Cubs played the D-Backs 10 times, they would have won 7, but the D-Backs just happened to win the first 3 ... don't be "bitter."

Mark said...

Actually, I'm not really bitter about it at all (I mean, its not like the Braves lost).

Of course, we have hindsight providing us 20/20, but 7 games is probably the max this Indians team could've taken the Red Sox. They had the starting pitching (despite the egg laid by CC), and they had the middle relief, but they didn't have a closer (causing Wedge to burn out his aforementioned middle relief) and their lineup was just a tick below Boston's.

Moreso than anything else, to say the Indians choked it away is undermining what the Red Sox accomplished. Their lineup was relentless...they had a gameplan for games 6 and 7 and executed it to perfection. Halfway through game 7 I was actually in awe of them....everyone in that lineup (even freakin' JD Drew) waited out pitch after pitch and hit the pitch they wanted. They just didn't miss. Not once. Nothing Cleveland could do about that...they needed a hell of a lot of luck.

But I guess if you don't really watch or pay attention to whats going on in the games, its pretty easy to smugly look at the boxscore the next morning and, after giving yourself a self-satisfied pat on the back, proclaimed that the Indians "choked"

I personally think that people who use phrases like "choke" are overcompensating for a lack of real sports knowledge by overusing a tired cliche. What's especially frustrating is that I know you're better than that.

Skurny said...

Ooooh...he did the "I'm not mad, I'm disappointed" guilt trip.

That's how you know he's serious

Mark said...

F U Skurny. I'd be more than happy to bring up last year's World Series as long as we're on the topic of chokes

AngryWhiteMan said...

F U BB. The best team won!

Mark said...

can you name 3 players on your own favorite team?

Didn't think so

AngryWhiteMan said...

Thanks for giving me a little time BB you fucking fag.

I can name like ten.

Albert Pujols
Jim Edmonds
Ryne Sandburg
Peter Petrelli
The Incredible Hulk
A fish called Wanda
Malfishion The Dragon Slayer

Fucking idiot.

Skurny said...

1948

Mark said...

whats funny is that I took a look at those names and thought "wait, he spelled Sandberg wrong...fucking idiot"

You spelled Wanda right though

Fucking idiot

AngryWhiteMan said...

You're stupid.

AngryWhiteMan said...

Dummy head!

J.ust O.ver B.roke said...

Look you cheeky douche, the fact that you spend your many and continuously lonely nights seeking information on the circa 1980 zone rating of one Larry Dybzinski doesn't make you an all-knowing expert or give you the right to redefine the sports definition of the word choke.

Fuck hindsight, Cleveland got a split in Boston, snagging home field advantage, and came home to win the next two for a 3-1 lead. At what point before game 5 does someone say, "well if Boston wins the next 3 you can't say the Indians choked?" The elements that constitute a choke don't include who the "better" team is. When you lead a playoff series either 3-0 or 3-1 and you end up losing that series, you choked plain and simple. I don't need a damn prospectus to figure that out.

Of course, I guess when you pay so much attention to false-impacting statistical minutiae that a simple label doesn't compute because it doesn't start with a decimal point, a term like choke might not sit well with you. How's this instead: The Indians .choked - does that compute or do the letters actually have to be swapped for numerical counterparts? Just in case - the Indians .246533 ... that's International Phone Key Pad standard, but I'm sure the all-knowing Baseball Kreskin already figured that out.