Penny for the Giants

This just in--Brad Penny has signed with the Giants. Nice to see a veteran who could really help choose San Francisco. It goes to show how far they've come since their incredible awfulness. And no, Penny is not Cliff Lee. But he is an ex-Dodger with a huge chip on his shoulder who will get a chance to make them pay for perceived slights. It's also important to note that by going from hitter friendly Boston in the dominant American League to the pitcher's paradise of AT&T in the weak-hitting National League, Penny's stats are almost certain to improve. And he's in a contact year. All in all, a nice pick-up for a 5th starter. He'll hold down the fort 'til the Unit gets back (and possibly take his place next year) and allow the kids (Martinez, Sadowski, etc.) to get some much-needed seasoning.

Hey, I Just Saw...

Besides his epic "Bacon" take, Jim Gaffigan also has a great bit about how awkward it can be to admit that you just recently saw what was at one time a popular film (Hey, I just saw "Heat." Great movie, anyone want to talk to me about it?)--especially when you then have no one to talk to about it.

C'mon, we've all been there. For whatever reason you didn't make it to the theater. No time, bad word-of-mouth, short of cash at the time, etc. This happened to me a few years back when I saw Fight Club for the first time. I didn't see the film until it had been on DVD for a couple of years, but fortunately no one had told me about the twist ending until I saw it for myself. I was blown away and wanted to tell everyone I saw what a great flick this was, but everybody had already seen it or didn't care anymore. But that's the norm. The only really amazing thing here was that I hadn't heard about the twist ending yet. Compare this to TV Guide ruining A Beautiful Mind for me by describing Paul Bettany as Russel Crowe's imaginary friend--this in an article written very shortly after the film was released on DVD. Horrible.

But this indiscretion pales in comparison to that of the marketing department of 20th Century Fox, whose re-released original Planet of the Apes featured a war-torn Statue of Liberty ON THE FRONT COVER! Maybe not the best idea to give away the brilliant Rod Serling-penned ending before your audience sees the film. What if other films used this "strategy?" "...and Kevin Spacey as Keyser Soze" or "Kevin Spacey as John Doe (the killer in 7even)." "Oh, and Bruce Willis is really dead the whole time. Didn't want you to be confused."

But the real reason for this post (wow, 4 paragraphs in!) is to sing the praises of a show called Boston Legal which aired from 2004-2008. I never saw a first-run episode of the series, but am catching up on re-runs now on the ION channel and can't get enough of them. Incredible writing (it is a David E. Kelley show after all) and a stellar cast combine to produce a hilarious, thought-provoking, and sometimes very poignant show. And every episode features brilliant performances by both James Spader and the one-and-only William Shatner, both of whom won multiple Emmys for their respective roles. I could go on and on about how much I like this show, but since it's been off the air for almost a year, who really wants to know about how many of the show's actors appeared in Christopher Guest films (I count 6) or how many were in one of the many Star Trek series (4 in this category)? Oh well, what are you going to do?

TO UNDERSTAND KOBE BRYANT, ONE MUST FIRST LEARN THAT NO - 06.25.09 - SI Vault

TO UNDERSTAND KOBE BRYANT, ONE MUST FIRST LEARN THAT NO - 06.25.09 - SI Vault

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Excellent article from Sports Illustrated. Very insightful look into one of sports' most private people.

Simmons: The shadow of steroids

Simmons: The shadow of steroids

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Great article. And finally...someone makes reference to 2002 debacle. I thought the whole world had forgotten about that.

TIMMY!

As a loyal Giants fan since 1986, it pains me to see how feeble our offense is right now--especially when it comes in support of arguably the best pitching in MLB. Don't laugh. The Giants have always been pitching-poor as far back as I can remember, but this year their staff has more shutouts than any other team and the best ERA in the bigs. Crazy stuff. My point is, the current incarnation of my favorite baseball team features not one, but two pitching prodigies (Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain) who despite being dominant nearly every time out, don't have nearly the stats they should because of lack of run support AND DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT IT. Last year, this didn't really hurt Tim Lincecum in his bid for the Cy Young because the voters took a closer look at his win total and accounted for how many times the Giants bullpen had blown leads he'd taken into the 7th and 8th inning. In baseball, where there's a stat for everything, the numbers were on his side.

Anyway, today it happened again. The Giants won 4-2 in a game that Lincecum started. His line? 8-2/3 innings, 4 Hits, 2 ER, 7K and 1 BB. Oh, and a No-Decision for the game because the Giants waited until the 10th to score their 3rd and 4th runs. But that's not even the worst example. Cain had a 9-inning shutout the other day and got a ND because no one scored for either team until the 10th. Incidentally, Cain is the active leader for least amount of run support in all of baseball. In true poetic fashion, one of Cain's earlier wins was an 8 inning masterpiece in which he drove in half the Giants' runs (they won 2-0).

For the record, here are the stats for these unfortunate souls:

Lincecum: 12-3, 2.19 ERA, 205K (league leader) w/24 starts How many more wins would he have on a team in the top half of run production?

Cain: 12-4, 2.44 ERA, w/23 starts How about wins for him?

I know, I know. Small market. Nobody really wants to see the Giants play. But with all that's wrong with baseball right now, shouldn't the sports world try a little harder to embrace these two?

And don't forget the Kung Fu Panda. He's ambidextrous and hitting .329 (good for 2nd in the NL.) We aren't Bonds and Co. anymore. War ESPN doubling our coverage next year (2 whole games!)

More Ron-Ron and Other Stuff Rattling Around in My Head

A bit more on Mr. Artest: As much as I appreciate what Ron Artest can routinely bring to the table in the areas of scoring and playing good defense, I have to admit that what I'm most looking forward to are the matchups with Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Paul Pierce. Never before have the Lakers had a player who can physically match up with these 3 players--or any physical small forward for that matter. Kobe Bryant has routinely taken on the assignment of guarding the other team's best perimeter player, be he a 1, 2, or a 3, and he has occasionally given up 50 pounds and taken a beating in the process. With Artest on the team, that shouldn't happen again. What's more, Artest will now always be given the assignment to guard the other team's best perimeter player--freeing Kobe up to do what he does best, namely score himself or create opportunities for others.

The Lakers/Celtics matchups this year will be epic. Hopefully, we'll get 9 of them (Lakers in 7). With Rasheed (I average 1/2 technical fouls a game) Wallace and Ron-Ron added to the mix, it could get explosive fast. Maybe we'll even see Artest put Pierce in a wheelchair for real. Really, nothing is out of the realm of possibility.

Other random stuff: I love Freddy Sanchez already. Thank you Sabean. Garko please start hitting. Kung Fu Panda. Kung Fu Panda. Kung Fu Panda. Other Giants, please score more for Lincecum and Cain. I'd really like to see Matt Cain win the Cy Young this year so we can have four Cy Young winners (and another guy with a no-no) in our rotation next year (please come back Randy Johnson.)

While I'm thinking about it--
Joe Johnston, please cast Mark Valley as "Captain America" already. He's "Agent John Scott from Fringe and the upcoming Human Target. Dude's ex-military and looks just like Cap himself. Marvel has done a great job casting for most of their movies (Tobey Maguire as Spiderman, Wesley Snipes as Blade, Hugh Jackman--and really the whole cast of the X-Men franchise, and most recently the couldn't-be-anymore-Tony-Stark Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man. Valley should be a slam dunk.

While I'm on the topic of movies, Nolan let's get cracking on Batman 3, somebody get Warner Bros. and Bryan Singer in a room so we can get that followup to Superman Returns. And bring back Brandon Routh and Kevin Spacey. Just also give us somebody else to fight too. But not Zod. Zod will always be Terrence (Come, son of Jor-El...)Stamp. How about Brainiac or Metallo. Doomsday would also be sweet. Do the "Death of Superman" storyline already.

One last thing. Here's hoping Ryan Reynolds in The Green Lantern is as cool as it sounds.

That's all I got for now. War the Giants catching the Dodgers. War Pandoval making C. Manuel pay in the playoffs for the All-Star snub. Have you seen me play now?

Ron-Ron, Wherefore Art Thou Ron-Ron?

For most sports fans, this can be somewhat of a dull part of the year. Me, I just can't wait for the NBA season to start up again. How will Artest fit in? Can Bynum survive a game in Memphis? And the biggest question of all--will Adam Morrison get off the bench? Then again, the Mustached One might help us best by simply being a decent sized expiring contract. If our point guard trio fails to make the proper strides (really I'm talking about Farmar and Brown here; Fisher's just gonna be a year older), perhaps Morrison gets dealt for PG help. As far as I can see, that's about the only weakness the Lake Show has. Yes, it's too bad they didn't face a healthy Boston in the Finals--that certainly would have made the win that much sweeter. But injuries are part of the game, and LA had their share as well last year. Having a guy like Odom just waiting in the wings isn't really a luxury; it's more like Championship Hope insurance.

Back to Artest. Like many Laker fans, I hated to see Ariza go, but I do fall into the camp of him being at least somewhat a product of the system (i.e., hitting the open shot, able to get out in transition). He might just be Devean George (from Tiny Augsberg). And all the reasons he succeeded should be reasons that Artest should thrive. With two 7-footers behind him, he'll be given the green light to gamble and he and 24 should have a field day hounding opponents' back courts. True, Artest will have to check his ego as he deals with his 3rd (4th? 5th?) option status, but he's already made a statement by taking less $ to come to LA and he should have plenty of chances when KB takes a rest.

This concludes my sports rant. More later. GOOD NIGHT NOW!!!

Why to Blog?

Well, for starters it was important to find an outlet for the myriad things rattling around inside my head. What's more, with Blogging, I can simply say it once and have several people see it at the same time.

So where, to start. Let's talk about the name of this site. Picking a name for anything can be a challenge--especially when it's for a reasonable amount of posterity. To that end, I decided to commemorate something who could use a little posterity--namely the band I was in at Simpson College in the late '90s. By far the most fun I ever had and the most rewarding creative experience of my life.

Grindcore boy, this one's for you.