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May 31, 2005
Photo of the Day - Radley
Radley. May, 2005. A couple of weeks ago Jim and I dog-sat for his sister's dogs, Radley and Emma, overnight. They are both Norweigan Buhunds, a breed known for being affectionate and intelligent. Which these two most certainly are. There were times when I had three dogs vieing for my attention all at the same time (Radley, Emma and Bailey). Which didn't always go over so well with Bailey since he thinks he should be the only one I lavish attention on. But for the most part it worked out well other than the incident with the blinds and the futon cover. But it's always fun to have extra fur-friends around!
Posted by silverdsl at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)
Brendan Gaughan Says Some Drivers are Greedy
Brendan Gaughan Teleconference
Today Brendan Gaughan did a long and wide-ranging teleconference with the media. He was very positive and optimistic about his new crew chief Tony Liberati and Orleans Racing as a whole now that they got some of their early season problems sorted out. Those are all good things to read because hopefully all the good vibes will translate into some more great finishes for Brendan and Steve like we saw at Charlotte. This week both teams go to Dover and I would love to see them build on the fine finishes that they both got two weeks ago.
But one of the answers which caught my attention the most was the following in response to whether or not he misses Cup racing: "I guess everybody misses the money. None of us can lie. Look at how greedy some of the guys are. They're definitely in it for the money, some of 'em." Gaughan then goes on to say that he doesn't really miss Cup racing because he's much happier now driving for a team that means something to him. Brendan is candid and honest about his opinions, something which I am a big fan of. However, as I've mentioned before those that are outspoken also have to know when to keep certain things to themselves and I think this is one remark that Brendan was better off not saying to the media.
One thing that strikes me right off the bat is that Brendan comes from an extremely wealthy family himself. In fact I seem to remember last year when Brendan was talking about going back to Orleans Racing him saying that he didn't care about the money and that wasn't why he was racing since he always had plenty of it. So unless I'm not remembering his earlier comments correctly I find it curious that now Brendan is talking about how he misses the money in Cup racing. I believe that the truck series drivers should be earning far more in terms of race winnings than they do but in most cases they are probably still earning more than many race fans. I kind of doubt that Brendan is hurting for money right now, particularly since I doubt he is acting as general manager at Orleans for free.
But more than that I don't think publically accusing other drivers of being greedy and only being in it for the money is a wise idea because that's not going to win him any friends among his peers in the garage area. There may be truth in what he's saying. But I think the majority of drivers are racing because they love to race, it's in their blood and it's a part of who they are. I don't think a lot of drivers could survive on the Cup level if they didn't love to race and compete against each other. The money is great on the Cup level but there is so many demands on the drivers in so many ways. Competition, as well as the pressure to succeed, is intense and drivers have to be there to race and win. Few drivers can last long if they are just there to pick up a pay check and don't care much about the results on the track. You take guys like Kyle Petty or Ken Schrader who haven't won for years and struggle for good results. No way are either of those two just in it for the money because if they didn't have a passion for racing I don't see how they could put up with poor results almost weekly for years.
I'm glad that Brendan is so outspoken because he makes some interesting comments. But like Curt Schilling and Gary Sheffield I think he sometimes gets carried away and says a little too much.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)
Nascar Members Club: Thou Shall Not Say Anything Negative
I joined the Nascar Member's Club which thus far seems to be a big waste of time and money since I don't go to any races and even then it might not do much for me. But for those folks lucky enough to partake in some behind-the-scenes activties at a race in conjunction with the Nascar Members Club there are some strict rules. Or at least such was the case with fans who got to stand in front of the stage during driver and crew introductions for the All-Star Challenge. The following is one of the rules that participants must agree to: "Also, when attending a Driver Introduction event, negative comments toward drivers are expressly forbidden. Positive comments only are allowed. Failure to follow this policy will result in the removal of your pass for the event and possibly the revocation of your Membership."
On the surface I understand what the intent is. They don't want fans heckling the drivers or screaming offensive remarks at them from up-close. I agree that kind of behavior is inappropriate and shouldn't be tolerated. However, only positive comments are allowed? How far would they take that? If I were there and was to turn to another fan within earshot of someone in a position of authority of the club and say "I think Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman need to make amends and end this silly feud. I can't believe Penske is allowing them to continue like this since strife between teams only hurts the company in the long run." Or what if I said, "I don't like Junior. His attitude towards women bothers me." Would they throw me out for that? Neither comment constitutes bashing, but nor are they positive comments. Would I get thrown out for saying something like that? What if it was Nascar I was critical of, not a driver?
What's particularly disturbing is not only could you be removed from the event but from the fan club as well. Again, if someone is disruptive and shouting offensive things at drivers then I fully agree with taking action to send a message that inappropriate behavior isn't acceptable. But if they were to apply that rule to people who simply express opinions that aren't positive, well, that's a problem. Nascar fans aren't all going to be positive and happy and love everything that happens or every driver. In fact many fans seems to be pretty negative sometimes about anything that doesn't involve their own favorite drivers. Which is fine. Yes, the attitude of some fans definitely astonishes and perplexes me sometimes but fans should be able to express any opinions they want that isn't an insult directed at someone else. But maybe Nascar doesn't quite agree with that.
I'd be interested in what might happen if they apply this rule and toss someone for saying something that they don't like. It could very much turn into something pretty ugly for Nascar since the media and many others would drool over an opportunity to attack Nascar for attempting to quell fan negativity and criticism.
Posted by silverdsl at 08:58 PM | Comments (0)
Should Jeff Gordon Apologize to Cubs Fans?
Last week the big controversy was Jeff Gordon's horrible rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game." So the writer above feels that Jeff Gordon owes Cubs fans an apology. Why? Because to this writer Gordon's awful singing was as insulting as if Gordon had made fun of someone's religious beliefs. I think that's taking things just a bit too far. No doubt there are traditions related to the game of baseball that people take very seriously but baseball is just a game. I don't think there is much of a comparision between one's religious beliefs which are often what guides their entire lives morally and what happens on a baseball field. I also wonder if the writer was equally as offended by Ozzy Osbourne when he "sang" TMOTBG and was almost as bad as Gordon, though he at least knew all the words.
Was Gordon a poor choice to sing TMOTBG? Yes, he definitely isn't the right person to sing anything. But I'm failing to see how bad singing and not knowing the words to a song is the equilalent of making fun of someone's religious beliefs. Maybe I need to be a Cub fan to get it. The implication is also that Gordon deliberately wanted to mock the Cubs tradition of singing TMOTBG. And I don't think that was the case. He simply didn't do a good job singing the song. He ended up embarassing himself and looking foolish but I don't think he purposefully sang that bad - he simply can't sing at all.
Posted by silverdsl at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)
Not a Great Weekend for the Yankees
After Turnaround Yankees Want to Turn It Up
The Yankees head out on their longest road trip of the season this week playing the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins, the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals, the last two in round two of inter-league play. For a while the Yankees were playing outstanding baseball, winning far more games then they were losing. Then came this weekend when they lost two of three to the Red Sox. Which might be fine because no team is able to win every single game. But it's the way that the Yankees lost which kind of disturbs me because the pitching pretty much fell apart again.
Saturday's game was horrific. The Yankees pitching staff was rocked by the Red Sox for 17 runs on 27 hits while the Yankees only managed 1 run on 8 hits. Carl Pavano started the game for the Yankees and maybe it's something about him because the last time the Red Sox got so many hits was in 2003 against the Marlins, a game in which Pavano started for the Marlins and didn't record a single out. Pavano gave up five runs on eleven hits and considering how well the Red Sox were hitting against him perhaps the Yankees should consider themselves lucky that all he gave up was five runs. 27 hits is the most given up by the Yankees since 1928. It was just an absolutely awful game. Not only was Pavano bad but Paul Quantrill was also putrid giving up six runs in relief on seven hits, including a grand slam. Mike Stanton and Buddy Groom were barely any better each giving up three runs of their own.
So with Saturday's debacle in mind I figured Sunday would bring a better result, particularly with Mike Mussina on the mound since he's been pitching so well of late. But Mussina was unimpressive to put it kindly, giving up five runs on seven hits and two walks in just three innings. That's pretty bad and while every pitcher is going to have some rough outings from time to time I really didn't count on Mussina being that awful. By the end of the night the Red Sox had seven runs on sixteen hits and the Yankees had only managed to score two runs on six hits. This in spite of the fact that they were facing former Yankee David Wells, fresh off the disabled list. But instead of being shaky Boomer almost pitched a complete game. Which is truly incredible considering his age, weight and health problems.
The Yankees will be playing a weak team in the Royals this week so it's a good opportunity for them to stack up a few wins and go on another win streak. And really this is only two games that the Yankees lost. Over the past twenty I think they had won something like sixteen of twenty. That's excellent in spite of how bad this weekend went for them. But even against weak teams the pitching is still going to have to be decent. So I hope that this weekend was just a case of the Red Sox breaking out of the malaise that has infected them rather than a sign that the Yankees have more problems with their pitching staff.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)
30 Climbers Scale Mount Everest
Favorable Weather Allowed Many to Summit
Sometimes things go wrong on Mount Everest such as recently when a U.S. climber died or when five had to be rescued from an avalanche but there are also times when things go very right on Everest. Such was the case on Monday when the weather finally broke and allowed 30 climbers to summit Everest on the Nepalese side. Weather conditions had been so dreadful with biting wind and snowstorms that most had been grounded in camps for weeks. The break in the weather came just in time too since the climbing season on the Nepalese side closed on Tuesday. I can't even imagine preparing and spending all the money to get to Everest and then be grounded by weather to the point where they couldn't even make an attempt for weeks. Apparently several climbers have also summitted from the Chinese side over the past few days as well.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)
Florida Teens Accused of Beating Homeless Man to Death "For Fun"
I really don't understand what drives people like this. Two Florida teens allegedly beat and kicked a homeless man to death "for fun" and "to have something to do." They didn't just attack him once either but went back three times to beat him more. Words can't possibly describe how revolting it is to me to hear someone describe beating someone as "fun." That's just insane that some people's idea of a good time to relieve boredom is to hurt another person. The scary thing is that these two probably aren't the only ones who are this disburbed and think this way.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)
May 30, 2005
Photo of the Day - Bailey
Bailey the Pug. May, 2005. Poor Bailey. His back is acting up again. It's a vicious circle. He has to eat a different kind of food due to his kidney problems and that is making him gain weight. Which is bad for his back and makes it hurt. So we took him for a walk for some excercise which he loved but that seems to have also make his back hurty. So it seems like we/he just can't win. Hopefully when Jim takes him to the vet this week she'll have some suggestions for us as to what we can do.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
Worst Race Ever!
That describes the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. And I'm not just saying that because Michael Waltrip got wrecked out of the race. This race featured twenty-two cautions. Twenty-two! Which set the dubious record of most cautions ever - the most previous had been twenty, done twice at Bristol. While there was some side-by-side racing going on, it just doesn't give the drivers too much time to race each other and get up front if there's going to be cautions seemingly every few laps. Which unfortunately probably contributed to all the cautions in the first place because in expectation of yet another yellow drivers were probably not showing that much patience and just wanted to try and get to the front as fast as possible before their momentum was killed by another slow-down in the action. The Busch race, which I didn't watch so I can't comment much on, was also full of cautions.
I was thrilled that Martin Truex, Jr. finished 7th and especially that Ken Schrader finished 9th. It was also good to see Kevin LePage, another driver with a single-car team finish 12th. However, with the exception of Truex, when those guys finish well it's unfortunately usually due to other driver's misfortune. And that was the case on Sunday. Only twenty cars finished the race on the lead lap and even a number of those cars had damage from incidents. A lot of the wrecks featured hard hits too which is something that I hate to see regardless of who the drivers are that are involved.
So why were there so many wrecks? That's because Humpty Wheeler, decided to levigate the track, which is a fancy way of saying that he ground the track down, with the intent of improving the racing. Well, he certainly didn't achieve his goal, just made the speed faster. The track was so bad that any number of drivers roundly panned the decision to levigate the track over the past two weeks that there have been events at Charlotte. There's no doubt that the increased speeds and newly smoothed track led to the twenty-two cautions. And the sad thing is that it's unlikely that the track will be much different when the drivers return in October so it's possible that we will see another wreckfest. Worst of all is that it always seemed like the racing used to be pretty good at Charlotte before the levigating was done.
Jimmie Johnson won the race, making it the third year in a row that he's won the Coca-Cola 600. I'm no fan of Johnson these days but I still think that's pretty impressive. In the two proceeding years Johnson won because his car was the class of the field but this year he had to come from 4th place on a late re-start to pass Bobby LaBonte literally at the last second to win. There are quite a few fans who are convinced that the fix is in because Johnson is sponsored by Lowe's and the track is named after Lowe's. But I think it's a case of Johnson and the #48 team having the track figured out. Dale, Jr. is a master of plate races and I don't see too many people saying that the fix is in when he wins at Daytona or Talladega. I especially don't think the outcome was predetermined considering that would mean that LaBonte would have had to have been in on it and let up at the last second to let Johnson win. No way does a guy like LaBonte do that. The way he kicked the car after he got out of it is an indication of how much he wanted to win.
Another thing of note in this race is that Carl Edwards tangled with Dale Jarrett. Essentially he ran Jarrett right over. Which didn't go over well with DJ, though finishing 8th probably took some of the sting away from their run-in. Edwards took full responsiblity and apologized but it seems like he runs over other drivers a lot. Edwards has that big smile and that great attitude so I think he's getting a pass in a lot of ways in comparison to a Shane Hmiel with his bad attitude who can't even bump a guy accidentally without it setting off a firestorm. Hmiel has earned his reputation but thus far Edwards hasn't gotten much criticism. Well, if he keeps running over guys, particularly when they're teammates like DJ and Elliott Sadler are, eventually he's going to find out that payback can be a bitch.
Overall, I was really looking forward to this race and I was extremely disappointed with the way it turned out. I'm hoping that this weeks races at Dover are much better.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)
Another Race, Another Kurt Busch Incident
Busch's Contact With Cameraman Caught on Tape
Kurt Busch wrecked twice in the Coca-Cola 600. Wrecking early and hard seems to be par for the course for Busch this season and understandably he's not taking it too well. Which has led to some temper tantrums, most notably at Darlington, earlier this month. So after wrecking the first time on lap ten on Sunday evening Busch got out of his car and as he walked by a Fox cameraman nudged him out of the way with his shoulder. I do think that Busch needs to keep control of himself, something he doesn't always do well but after seeing the video of this "incident" I understand why Nascar completely cleared him of any wrong doing. Busch was walking through a mass of people purposefully with much more on his mind than saying "excuse me, can I get by?" Yes, perhaps he could have been more careful but I didn't see much that Busch did differently than other people in a hurry when they're walking through a crowd.
The only reason why this got anyone's attention is because it involved Busch and he's gotten himself into trouble before with inappropriate behavior. Some have said that if it involved a driver like Tony Stewart we'd never be hearing the end of it and that Nascar would have punished him but I don't agree. There was no verbal exchange between the two and it didn't seem like Busch had any other intent besides getting past. Could he have been more polite? Sure. But Nacar isn't and nor should it be in the business of penalizing drivers because they aren't well-mannered enough.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
How Long Would You Wait?
Fans Wait for Hours for Wristbands for Dale, Jr. Autograph Signing
In some ways this is connected to the previous entry since this also relates to getting autographs. I'm continually amazed by how long people will wait in line for the opportunity to get some athletes autographs and I've discussed it before in this space. In the case of a signing last week in Charlotte by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. some fans got in line as early as Wednesday night for the distribution of wristbands at 8 a.m. Friday morning! That's for an autograph signing on Friday night at 7 p.m. Which is on top of the lengthy car rides of as much as 13 hours that some fans took to get into line in the first place. Now Junior doesn't do many public autograph signings that are free and I understand that die-hard fans will feel compelled to do whatever it takes to make sure they can get one of the 175 wristbands that were available. And 375 people showed up to wait in line so it was definitely necessary to get in line extremely early to be sure that one got a wristband. But is an autograph, a few photos and maybe a exhange of a word or two with a favorite athlete worth all the time spenT waiting?
For me it wouldn't be. I'm definitely not opposed to waiting in line for a few hours for an autograph from one of my favorite athletes. But there's only a select few athletes that I will do that for and if it's a situation like the one above that would require an overnight wait only to wait the rest of the day for the signing to actually begin, there's no way that I'd do it. In the end it's only someone's signature. Some athletes will go out of their way to talk to fans knowing how much that means to them, but that's not the case for all athletes. So sometimes you don't even get the satisfaction of even interacting with them beyond "Hi, please sign this." At some signings they won't even let you take photos with the athlete so you can't even have the thing that I like the best - a photo with my favorite driver or player. And unfortunately there's often no telling what any individual signing is going to be like because there are always different time limits and rules for each appearance.
Each person has to do what they are most comfortable with. For some people waiting in line days before is no big deal. For some fans a wait longer than an hour isn't worth it. For me I think I've gotten to the point where the only athletes that I'd wait in line for are David Cone, Michael Waltrip and Steve Park. Maybe add Kevin Harvick to that list because of how fan-friendly he is and Ken Schrader because I've never met him before. And even those guys I definitely wouldn't be willing to wait in line for days before the signing actually happens.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)
Autograph Seeking Out of Hand
If You're Older Than Athletes, Then No Autographs
Tom Sorenson from The Charlotte Observer has a very valid point in the above article about the lengths to which fans will go to get autographs even if it means misbehaving to do so and how often those autographs aren't for personal collections but to sell on Ebay or in other venues. So his solution is that people shouldn't ask for autographs for anyone who is younger than they are. That way the crowd for drivers are smaller and more children get autographs. Now Sorenson is writing tongue-in-cheek with this article so he's not entirely serious. But his main point is that adults should take a step back for all the children who want autographs because they are getting them from people they truly idolize, that they are better behaved and that they aren't going to sell them for a profit.
There's one big problem. Just because it's a child looking for an autograph means that they will be any better behaved than older autograph seekers. I've seen kids scream vulger things at baseball players who won't sign for them or try to leap over barracades to try and get an autograph, despite knowing that they're not supposed to be doing that. In addition, many people looking to make a profit, both the parents of children and memorabilia dealers, will use children as a lure to get autographs. I used to see this all the time at Yankee Stadium. Adults would instruct kids that they're with as to what to do to get the attention of the players and then get their autograph. Half the time those kids didn't even know who the players are who they were trying to get autographs from. Then they're inevitably be the comments about how much the autographs from certain players are worth.
But I do agree that the autograph seeking process has gotten out of hand. I've discussed related issues before in this blog a time or two about fans who will seemingly do anything to get an autograph, even act out or who are never satisfied no matter what a driver or athlete does for their fans. So what's the solution? The best solution is one that would make most fans very unhappy - reduce the access that fans have to the drivers in the case of Nascar. Now I strongly believe that athletes and fans should interact. But I see no reason why there has to be so much access to the drivers in the garage area. That situation is completely out of hand. In addition, I think that the drivers shouldn't be expected to stop all the time to sign autographs. Yes, if a guy has a few extra minutes I think he should sign if he can. But in baseball you don't see players signing autographs for every fan they encounter. And sometimes it seems like that's the way it is in Nascar which sets up the expectation that every driver should be signing at all times even when they are busy. It's incredible really. Fans will complain that a driver didn't stop to sign autographs for them as they were driving by on a cart. Meanwhile the driver might have smiled and waved but that's still not good enough. That's even more than most baseball players do when they see fans. Of course those fans also have no idea where the drivers might have to be or what else might be on their minds when they drive by without stopping.
As to the issue of autographs being sold there's just no way to avoid that. The autograph and memorabilia business is booming. Everyone wants something signed or otherwise connected to their favorite athletes. I don't see any practical way to stem the tide of people who go to signings or chase athletes just to turn around and sell the autograph an hour later. Perhaps the drivers can start personalizing everything to the specific person asking for the autograph but that takes extra time which slows down the process and often there's a limited amount of time to sign a lot of autographs. So that's probably not practical.
What it boils down to is that athletes getting harassed by fans for autographs or those autographs ending up on Ebay isn't likely to change any time in the near future.
Posted by silverdsl at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)
Tony Eury, Sr. Has Harsh Words for His Nephew, Dale, Jr.
Says Junior Keeps Wrecking Michael
After Sunday's incident between teammates Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Michael Waltrip, Junior's uncle, Tony Eury, Sr., his former crew chief who now (supposedly) works with both the #8 and #15 teams at DEI said the following: "I don't know what his problem is with Michael, but it'll be fixed [Monday] -- I'll guarantee it," an irate Eury said. "He acts like he's friends with [Waltrip], but every time he gets around him on the racetrack he ends up wrecking him." I think Eury, Jr. is exaggerating because it's not been often that Junior and Michael have tangled on the track. However, I think Eury's underlying point that there are problems at DEI is a valid one.
There's no doubt that everyone at DEI are most definitely not on the same page. And that's a huge problem. Sure, Junior might have gotten into Michael regardless of how well everyone was working together but my feeling is that there's not a tremendous amount of respect and cooperation there between the teams. That's not to say that everyone hates each other - far from it. When I was at Dover I saw both the #8 adn #15 crews, now switched, laughing and joking around with each other since they were pitting a stall a way from each other. There are plenty of times when you see Michael and Junior laughing and talking together. And the Eurys and Junior are related to each other. But on the track and in the garage when it comes to the actual racing it seems like the positive vibes goes away.
Until this week when Steve Hmiel became Junior's interm crew chief, the teams didn't work together. There was no sharing of information, no discussing set-ups and approaches. As I referred to above Eury, Sr. is supposed to be working with both the #8 and #15 teams but he has been working soley with the #8 team, led by his son. How is that allowed to happen? As I've discussed in this space not too long ago, this approach is directly opposite to what the most successful multi-team organizations do. I think that can effect what happens on the track. When you've got two teams under the same roof that work so separately than that feeling probably translates onto the track as well. It's been said quite a few times in recent times that Junior and Michael don't work so well together at plate tracks anymore and perhaps that has to do with the way that the teams overall don't really work together. Maybe there's even a tie-in with the incident between Junior and Michael on Sunday. If the teams aren't working well together then Junior probably isn't as inclined to take that much care when he's racing around Michael even though they're teammates.
Supposedly there was to be a team meeting this morning at DEI between all parties to hash everything out and get on the same page. That's a good thing. But a laying down of the law to work together and smooth over any problems between the teams or drivers should have happened a very long time ago. It shouldn't take Eury, Sr. spouting off for that to happen. Teresa Earnhardt, as the owner of both cars, should be involved enough to recognize when there's a problem with the way the teams are functioning and the company is operating and if she doesn't want to handle it, direct Richie Gilmore or someone else to take care of it. Well, if she did point out things that need to be fixed to get everyone on the same page it's been woefully mishandled so far.
Problems with the way DEI operates isn't something new either. Steve Park had has share of problems at DEI from some contract conflicts to the #1 team not getting the resouces and support necessary for success after he returned. There was the whole Ty Norris situation when suddenly Teresa decided to give him a position with reduced responsibilities and he ended up leaving. Then the Slugger Labbe situation in which he resigned from the #15 team and then left DEI saying that he wasn't comfortable with the direction that DEI was headed in. Of course there's the Pete Rondeau fiasco of last week. All of it adds up to an organization in flux at a minumum, though I'd go so far as to say that DEI has some serious problems that need to be addressed in terms of the way the organization is run that might be preventing them from having as much success as they could potentially have. Not potentially have - should have. The #8 team features one of Nascar's top drivers and this much disarray does not seem usual for an organization like DEI.
So what will the future bring at DEI? Because Michael is racing for DEI and has forged a terrific partnership with Tony Eury, Jr. that I hope lasts a long time, I'd like to say that this will serve as a wake-up call and that DEI will get everything straightened out. But given how many other things have happened that should have prompted some sort of action, I'm not feeling too positive that things are suddenly going to change at DEI. I think the sharing of information will definitely help but I think the future remains cloudy for DEI, at least for now.
Posted by silverdsl at 07:37 PM | Comments (0)
Michael Waltrip Gets Wrecked.... By His Own Teammate
A day later and I'm not finding what Dale Earnhardt, Jr. did to Michael Waltrip during last night's race any easier to swallow. I'm positive that Junior didn't intend on spinning out his own teammate but he sure did make an exceptionally huge mistake. Teammates should be racing each other and I have no problem with a hard battle for position between teammates but at the same time teammates need to use a little extra care around each other. It's a matter of respect for one. Not just for each other but also for the organization that employs them and the hard work that goes into putting those cars together. But due to some very poor decision making by Junior he wrecked himself, wrecked Michael, wrecked Matt Kenseth and wrecked Terry LaBonte so badly that he had to be taken to the hospital briefly.
I was pretty scared at first when I saw how hard Michael hit the wall. Especially since his crew couldn't get much out of him on the radio afterwards. So I was worried that he might be injured. Luckily, thanks to his in-car camera viewers on TV were shown shots of him taking off his helmet on his own so we knew that he was pretty much okay. Still, I was nervous until I saw Michael give an interview after he got out of the in-field care center. He still looked pretty shaken and dazed but he still managed to talk about what happened. I have to give him a lot of credit. He could have lashed out at his teammate and he had every right to do so. But he didn't. Instead he said that he didn't really know what happened and was critical not of another driver but of the lack of safer barriers all the way around the track, something he's 100% right about. I felt bad for Michael's crew because they kept asking each other if anyone knew if Michael was okay. Meanwhile all of us at home knew Michael was mostly okay because he gave the TV interview but obviously no one on the crew had access to a TV monitor any more to know.
But back to what Junior did - there really isn't any sugar-coating it - Junior spinning out his teammate was careless and demonstrated a complete lack of patience. On one hand it's a little understandable considering he spend the majority of the race prior to that moment towards the back of the pack and was even a lap down at one point. So he finally got himself into the top ten and was probably anxious to get a even better run going. Well, it's such a tremendously long race that there was no need for Junior to be pushing things in that spot. Every driver makes mistakes and does stupid things but this was an exceptionally idiotic move. It's not the first time he's cost himself or others on the track either - last year's wreck with Carl Edwards during the final ten races comes to mind - and that's why I think it's unlikely that Junior will win a championship until he changes his approach, despite his obvious racing talents. Championship caliber teams minimize their mistakes.
The worst part of all of this is how costly it is for Michael. Aside from the fact that he took a very hard hit and is probably hurting today, Junior ruined an excellent run for Michael and the #15 team. They had gotten into one early wreck when a car blew up in front of them and also might have gotten damage in the same way that Jeff Gordon did when pieces of the track came up and hit the car. Through a tremendous amount of hard work they kept coming in to the pits and working on the car until they got it to the point where it was right again. Once they got into the top ten via a call by Tony Eury, Jr. to stay out when other cars pitted, Michael kept the car there. And I was starting to think that he'd have another top ten which was exactly what he needed to move up in the points a couple of spots. But that didn't happen thanks to his teammate.
Instead Michael drops a spot in the points to 18th and he's more than 50 points out of the Chase for the Championship. That certainly doesn't reflect how well he's been running this season. Without the two blown engines, Jeff Green wrecking him twice and Junior wrecking him he would definitely be comfortably in the Chase which is exactly what DEI asked of him prior to the season. And in the end if Michael doesn't get into the Chase, it's unlikely that anyone will do more than look at the cold, hard numbers. DEI will point to his failure to get in the Chase and not re-sign him, not taking into consideration how much has befallen him that was out of his hands. Or that his own teammate being one of the ones to hurt his quest to make the Chase. Junior dropped to 15th in the points but he's still in the Chase at the moment. But it really doesn't matter - even if Junior doesn't make the Chase he will still have a ride at DEI.
Kenny Wallace said on one of Speed's shows that Junior is so famous and so "big" that he can do whatever he wants. And I think that's true. His ride is safe for as long as he wants it no matter how many boneheaded moves he makes. Because as much as I love Michael, the reality is that DEI is Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Junior will be coddled, given in to, agreed with, excuses made for, and catered to. It's not just because he's an Earnhardt, that his father started the company or that he is involved with the decision making at DEI. It's because he's Nascar's most popular driver, a tremendous source of revenue and someone they build their entire program around. He is the face of DEI but also one of the faces of Nascar along with Jeff Gordon. Junior wants a crew chief change - he got it. He wants another crew chief change - he got that too. So perhaps he didn't see the need to show much care when he was racing his teammate because while he doesn't want to cause a wreck, in the back of him mind he knows that it doesn't really matter if he wrecks Michael by accident because he's Dale, Jr. and he can do whatever he wants. I'm sure there will some discussions at DEI with Junior, Michael and their teams to try and work everything out but what kind of consequences does Junior face for doing this sort of thing? None.
It will be interesting to hear what Michael has to say on Inside Nextel Cup tonight. Based on what he just said on Nascar Nation it appears that Michael is more than likely going to parrot back the company line about Junior making a mistake and misjudging things. Which is true but you know he's also thinking that his teammate is a moron. Really, what choice does Michael have but to toe the line and absolve his teammate? Unlike Junior, Michael does have something to lose because a wrong move could mean that DEI doesn't re-sign him.
But the bottom line about all of this is that yet again Michael has another good run spoiled by something not of his own doing and that's hard to take and I'm not the one in the car so I can only imagine how disappointed Michael is today.
Posted by silverdsl at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
May 29, 2005
Not a Good Night in Charlotte for DEI
I could make a whole big entry about how upset I am right now with Michael Waltrip getting wrecked by his own teammate but I think I'll save it for tomorrow after I've calmed down a little and I know the final outcome of the race. But needless to say Junior made a very poor decision on the track tonight and it was very costly to him and Michael both. All drivers will make mistakes from time to time but that was an exceptionally idiotic move. Poor Michael.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)
Deadliest Catch
Jim and I have been watching this cool show on The Discovery Channel, Deadliest Catch. It's a reality show that follows a number of Alaskan fishing boats as they travel the Bering Sea in the hopes of making big money off of crabs, particularly Alaskan King Crab. Why do a reality show about fishing? Well, this isn't just any kind of fishing - Alaskan King Crab fishing is one of the world's deadliest jobs with a high injury rate. Unfortunately as the show reflects, there is also a high mortality rate as well. What's so good about this show is that it portrays the reality of what is being filmed a lot more than most reality shows do these days. While I'm sure the crews are still conscious of the cameras and may adjust their behavior accordingly there isn't as much fakeness or exaggeration of behaviors as you would see on reality shows like "The Real World" or "Survivor." Because after all these guys have a job to do and it's not play to the cameras.
Viewers get to know the crews of each ship from the rookie "greenhorns" to the experienced deckhands to the captains of each boats. It's incredible what the crews of these boats go through and how hard they work. First of all, the conditions they have to endure would be unbearable for a lot of people. It's amazing what these men put themselves through in the hopes of a big payday. In a snowstorm many people stay home from work. But not Alaskan crab fisherman. Because the season is so short they can't wait out a storm, they must set huge crab pots and haul them in while it's snowing, in gale force winds, with huge waves crashing over the ship. In addition, they work around the clock often just getting an hour or two of sleep before they have to get back on deck to work their tails off again.
The captains don't just steer the ships either. They must figure out where in the vast Bering Sea to go to find crab, preferably where they can haul in a huge amount in every pot, with no other ships nearby. This involves strategy and a bunch of educated guesswork. Sometimes it pays off big time and sometimes it doesn't. When a ship hauls in a bunch of empty pots the captain must then figure out what to do next - whether to keep fishing in the same area in the hope that the next string of pots will pay off or move on to a different area. In addition, the captain directs the crew and is responsible for their well-being as well. So he has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders.
Each ship has a different feel to it from the ultra-religious, to the family-type atmosphere with one captain's wife on board to cook for the crew, to the discordant atmosphere on one ship in which virtually everything that could go wrong did go wrong for them including having almost their entire catch ruined by the time they got back home. The ship that I, and most other viewers, like the most is the Northwestern, captained by Sig Hansen. There are two other Hansen brothers who are part of the crew and the crew overall has been together for ten years. It shows because they have a great rapport with each other and work really well together. Which pays dividends as they rank among the ships to haul in the most crab each season. One interesting thing about the Northwestern is they are very supersitious and it's interesting to see some of the things that they do in the hopes of bringing good luck and big hauls which of course which equals big money.
As already noted crab fishing in the Bering Sea is dangerous work and the show doesn't shy away from showing it. If someone is swept overboard if they don't have survival gear they will probably drown within minutes and even with survival gear they will only last a limited period of time in the ultra-cold water. So we see one crew member fall overboard and the frantic effort to haul him back in. Ultimately they are successful but he later twists his ankle badly on the deck. However, since the rest of the crew can't haul pots without him he must deal with the pain and work on. During the opi crab season a whole ship is lost. During the big storm, the Big Valley went down with five men on it. Unfortunately even though three men have survival gear, only one of them survives. The show captures the search and rescue effort, including the one survivor who is plucked from the sea, as well as the reaction of the crews of the other ships who hear the news that their fellow fishermen have paid a heavy price for fishing the Bering Sea. Later another man loses his life separately when he is swept overboard off another boat.
It's a ten part series and I'd be interested in The Discovery Channel doing other reality shows like thia that follow people who work in other dangerous jobs. From watching this show I definitely have a better understanding of why Alaskan King Crab is so expensive and I also have a new appreciation for what these men are doing out on the Bering Sea.
Posted by silverdsl at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)
Pete Rondeau Says DEI Didn't Play Fair
Contract Went Unsigned by Teresa Earnhardt
On Friday Pete Rondeau has a few things to say about his release as crew chief of the #8 driven by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and this weekend he's had more to say and it sure doesn't make DEI look so great. Rondeau says that he signed a three-year contract with DEI to be crew chief of the #8 during the off-season but the contract, which contained a clause that Rondeau had to be given six-weeks notice before he was to be let go for performance-related issues, was never signed off on by Teresa Earnhardt. That begs all sorts of questions. Such as why Teresa wouldn't sign that deal - did she want DEI to have an out in which they wouldn't have to pay Rondeau the balance of the money owed to him? Did they think they would be getting rid of Rondeau early on so they saw no reason to sign a three-year deal with him? Did they have second thoughts about that six-week warning clause? Why didn't Rondeau insist on getting that contract signed off on before he started work as Junior's crew chief? I have heard that sometimes in Nascar things are done via handshake deals but in this day and age when so much money is often involved that's just not a good way of doing business because it opens the door for someone to easily reneg because there's no signed deal. And in Rondeau's case there was no signed contract so his options to fight back legally against what DEI did to him are probably limited.
What else is big is that Rondeau says that DEI promised him that information would be shared between both the #8 and #15 teams with Tony Eury, Sr. working with both teams. Which would have been a big help for Rondeau being so new to being a Cup crew chief. Had Tony Eury, Sr. actually acted as the liason between both teams that would ensure that both teams are fuctioning and racing as well as they possibly can based on pooling of information and resources. Instead that never happened. Why would that promise be made, then never followed through on, particularly when it would benefit the company? Then suddenly now Steve Hmiel starts talking up how both teams will be sharing information and working together like they just thought it was a good idea now. Well, apparently it also occured to them that this might be a good idea a few months ago but it never actually happened.
Of course Rondeau feels he was wronged so he's not going to be very positive about his experiences at DEI so he is biased. But it seems to me that this is just one more indication that there are internal problems that must be addressed at DEI. We only get limited information about the inner workings of DEI so it's always possible that there is a lot more to this situation than either DEI or Rondeau is saying. But this whole situation just seems like it wasn't handled as well as it could have been from DEI selecting Rondeau to work with the #8 in the first place if they felt he didn't have enough experience to be Junior's crew chief, to the teams not sharing information with each other, to Rondeau not being told of any "communication" problems, to the contract not being signed to the way he was let go.
In a couple of places I've seen it said that Rondeau should have kept his mouth shut about all of this because he's burning his bridges with DEI and that it will make other teams less likely to hire him. Well, I highly doubt that Rondeau is going to be too willing to stay at DEI since it sounds like not only does he think they gave him a raw deal but that he thinks that they might not be trust-worthy. As far as other teams go when DEI talk about how bad his communication with Junior was and how he's not ready to be a Cup crew chief yet, that damages Rondeau's reputation and makes it hard for him to find work on the Cup level. So I think Rondeau is well within his rights to defend himself.
Posted by silverdsl at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)
Auto Parts Show to Models: Show Less Skin!
Las Vegas has a reputation as sin city and there is no lack of adult themed entertainment readily available out in the open in Vegas. But the Specialty Equipment Market Association, an organization that draws more than 100,000 people to their yearly trade shows in Las Vegas, has told exhibitors to have their models wear more clothes. Granted I have no idea how little clothes the models were actually wearing but exhibitors and past attendees were perplexed and so am I. The auto industry has always used attractive women, particularly scantily-clad attractive women to sell their products to men. In addition, everywhere you look in Las Vegas itself there are women not wearing many clothes from the women working inside the casinos, to the billboards to the late-night shows in the hotels. So what's the big deal if exhibitors use scantily-clad models to draw attention to their products? The only thing I can think of is the at the association was concerned that they were offending and turning off female attendees to the show.
Posted by silverdsl at 02:59 PM | Comments (0)
Decision to Leave "Trackside" Not Michael Waltrip's After All?
Claimed It Was His Decision On Inside Nextel Cup
According to a report on ThatsRacin.com, contrary to Michael Waltrip saying on Inside Nextel Cup that he left Trackside on Speed voluntarily to devote more time to his Busch and Cup rides, the choice to leave was not his. It's funny because when I watched Michael saying on INC that he wanted to set the record straight that he left by his own choice I had the feeling that he might not be telling the truth based on his body language and deliver. It sounded like something that he felt he had to say rather than he wanted to say and he seemed to be looking down, away from the camera. Then there was an article in Nascar Scene about him being replaced by Rusty Wallace which also indicated it wasn't voluntary and in which he declined comment. Why would he choose not to comment for that article if he knew that false stories about why he was replaced were circulating? So I wasn't surprised by the Thatsracin article. I'm just glad that it came on the Friday of a holiday weekend which means that it will be missed by a significant amount of people because there are already a lot of people who think that Michael is simply a mouthpiece who doesn't think for himself. So the last thing that he needs is for people to read that article and have the widely-held opinion that everything he says is told to him by Nascar or a sponsor re-enforced.
So why would Michael lie if the above article on Thatsracin is true? I'm sure we'll never know but if there's anything to the article there are a couple of possiblities. One, is that Michael wanted people to think that the choice was his because it looks better for him if he wasn't essentially fired from the show. Two, is that it was partially his choice in that perhaps he was offered a variety of Speed shows that he could do but not all of them and he choose INC and the truck races, so in that case the decision would in fact have been his in a way. The third possibliity which I suspect could be the most likely is that given the firestorm of backlash by fans who were opposed to Michael being replaced by Rusty to the point where it was a big topic of discussion on XM's "Dialed In," Speed told Michael to say on INC that it was his choice just to shut the fans up. That's kind of unfortunate that he would go along with something like that but I guess in a lot of ways he wouldn't have much choice if they asked him to do that since the folks at Speed are his bosses as it relates to what he does on their shows.
The other thing that makes me think that Speed might have been trying to do some damage control is that after the furor erupted over the possible changes to INC and Michael being replaced by Rusty suddenly it was said that Michael was renewed for INC and the truck series broadcasts. Perhaps Speed didn't realize how badly some of this would go over with the fans. And if their intention was to do damage control they were successful because most people stopped talking about the new vice president at Speed possibly making changes that they didn't like once they were appeased by the news that Michael was staying on INC and after he made his statement about "Trackside."
I have no illusions that the drivers always tell the truth publically. Some fans might sugar coat it by saying they are just spinning or telling white lies and often it is just a matter of slightly adjusting the truth. But the drivers are expected to maintain a certain image, to always present a rosy picture of what's going on with their team, to push the products and companies they sponsor and essentially make everyone from fans to sponsors happy no matter what. So inevitably that will include exaggerating or fudging the truth. Such as when almost every driver talks about how wonderful their car is each race weekend when surely some of them know that their car doesn't have a chance of sniffing victory lane now or maybe even ever. Or how the drivers say all the "right" things when asked their opinions about different situations rather than what they might actually think. Or how some drivers surely speak highly of products or companies they couldn't care less about. Or what I think happens most often how the drivers must pretend that they are the happiest people on the planet even on days when they are tired, cranky, upset or sick.
Posted by silverdsl at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2005
Many Factors Dictate Fans Allegience
Both Veterans and Newcomers Enjoy Much Fan Support
This article illustrates the many reasons why fans choose to follow particular drivers, everything from those drivers having certain qualities they admire, to always having been a fan of particular organizations to admiring their talents on the track, to having met them and been impressed to thinking that they're cute. Of course the reasons why fans become enamored of any sports figure or celebrity are just as varied. It's always interesting to me to hear how someone became a fan of a particular person or team and I often ask people I encounter that very question. In baseball my favorite players are Mike Mussina, Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill (retired), and David Cone (retired). In Nascar my favorite drivers are Michael Waltrip, Steve Park, Kevin Harvick, Ken Schrader and Jeff Gordon. And I think I like them all for very different reasons.
I wasn't always a Mussina fan. In fact I didn't know too much about him before he came to the Yankees other than that he was an excellent pitcher. But he joined the Yankees during a period of time that many of my favorites were leaving the team due to not being re-signed or via retirement. So I was looking for someone to be a fan of who I could admire for both what he did on and off the field. And that is very definitely true of Moose. From almost pitching perfect games several times to the exceptional way he treats his fans he has come to impress me quite a bit. I'd say that all that he does for his fans is one of the biggest ways that he won me over. In baseball very few players do a lot of interacting with their fans other than in the most casual of ways. But Mussina has yearly meet & greets and also has a dinner for members of his fan club. And he really makes a big effort to interact with each person on an individual level. Besides that several years ago Mussina did something that will endear him to me forever, not because he had to do it, but because he thought it was the right thing to do.
Though he's not as flashy or as much of a superstar like a Derek Jeter, Tino Martinez was a huge part of the Yankees excellent run in 1996-2001. Quietly, he provided leadership both on and off the field. There were definitely times that Tino struggled mightily at the plate but I don't think the Yankees would have found as much success during those years if they didn't have Tino. I always admired his attitude and the way that he seemed to be able to come up with big hits when needed. Tino "gets it" when it comes to winning and to the game of baseball and his exceptional attitude in combination with how much he's done on the field for the Yankees both offensively and defensively is why I became such a big fan of his.
Early on when I first became a Yankee fan I didn't like Paul O'Neill that much. I thought that his occassional temper tantrums were childish. But it didn't take me long to realize that those outbursts came because O'Neill is incredibly hard on himself and because he cares so much about helping his team win. So when he didn't produce the way he thought he should he felt he was letting his team down. Few players played the game harder than O'Neill and he gave 110% effort on the field even when he might be playing through an injury, or in the case of when his father passed away, emotional turmoil. George Steinbrenner once called him a warrior, and though Steinbrenner has since thrown around that term to describe other players I believe it very much applies to O'Neill. He always was a player I loved watching play and I've come to like him even more now that he sometimes works the YES broadcasts and I hear more of what he thinks than he used to reveal when he was an active player.
Where to begin with David Cone? I think the biggest thing that made me a fan of Coney was that he was always one of the few players that didn't seem to view dealing with the media as a chore. Not only that but Cone was often willing to actually express opinions and talk about what he thought. In essence give interviews of real substance rather than just say the "right" things. And he took on the role of team spokesperson since many of his teammates would have rather had as little to do with the media as possible. In addition, Cone was always a leader in the clubhouse, often helping his teammates with problems or serving as a liasion between the players and management. I was always fascinated by the transistion Cone made between his early days when he was a hell-raiser in the clubhouse who got himself into some pretty big trouble and the later years of his career when he became very involved with the player's union and someone who teammates turned to for advice.
Of course there's also what Cone did on the field. I remember the first time I saw Cone pitch in person at Yankee Stadium and it was 1998 when he won 20 games. He was so dominant that day pitching a shutout until he lost it a little at the end of the game and had to come out for a reliever. But the biggest moment of Cone's career was when he pitched the perfect game in 1999. I literally had tears of joy in my eyes when he did that I was so happy for him. Cone was also very fan-friendly and he was a player who made an effort to talk to fans that he encountered. I'm not sure there will ever be another baseball player who I like quite as much as I've always liked Cone.
Michael Waltrip is another guy I'm not sure I know where to begin on because there's so much I can say about him, and often do in this blog. I do know how I first became his fan and it was by watching him on Inside Nextel Cup, then called Inside Winston Cup. Somehow he was always making me laugh. Then I realized that he wasn't just a funny guy but he also had a lot of intelligent things to say when he was being serious. Much like Cone, I always admire the guys who are a little more willing to reveal a bit more of themselves and what they think than others are. Another huge reason why I like Michael is that he has a quirky personality and he's not afraid to do or say something that no other driver whould consider doing or saying. He's not afraid to be a little different and I very much like that.
Michael has always had to struggle a bit more for his success than some other drivers. I have to admire someone who raced as long as he did without winning and still didn't give up, in spite of how discouraging it must have been sometimes. Michael also gets criticized a lot by fans who don't think he belongs in Cup and the more that people are down on him the more I pull for him to show them that they're wrong. What has also come to impress me about Michael is his big heart. From helping Kenny Wallace when he didn't qualify for a Busch race last season to everything that he did as part of Operation Marathon. What Michael did for OM is really incredible, particularly since that money will help brighten the lives of countless terminally and chronically ill children.
But besides all of that is the way Michael is with his fans. He does a huge amount of appearances and while some of that is to make his sponsors happy there is no doubt that he is also making a lot of fans very happy. After having met him in person a couple of times he has impressed me so much with his attitude towards his fans. I've never encountered any person as well-known as he is who has made me feel like my being a fan of his matters to him. And I can't say enough about the great attitude of the people who he surrounds himself with as well. It used to be that Steve Park was my favorite driver and while he still ranks up there Michael has definitely surpassed Steve in my eyes.
It's a very simple reason why I became a fan of Steve Park. I saw an interview that he did and I noticed that he was from Long Island where I was living so I figured I had to support a Long Island guy, especialy after I found out that he lived for a while in Connecticut where I grew up. Then in the course of the same interview, even though he had just been wrecked out of the race, his attitude was still so positive and upbeat. He also made sure to let his parents know that he was okay which impressed me as well.
After Steve's accident and the way he was treated in the garage area when he returned other drivers in his position might have given up on their racing careers. But not Steve. He was determined to prove to everyone that he could still do it and he has very much shown that in the truck series. That strength of will to return from the accident and keep on going even when there were a lot of people who said that he should stop racing is an inspiration to all. Steve is also tremendously fan-friendly. He goes out of his way to make all his fans feel important and he very clearly enjoys talking to his fans. There is just something about Steve's overall attitude, much like Tino Martinez's attitude, that indicates that he "gets it" when it comes to a lot of things from racing to his fans.
Like many other fans, Kevin Harvick caught my attention when he essentially took over for Dale Earnhardt, Sr. at RCR. I've come to love how passionate Kevin is about racing, his aggression on the track and his overall attitude towards racing. While I don't agree with everything that Kevin has done I also enjoy the emotion that he brings to the sport. In addition, Kevin very much also gets its when it comes to his fans. From the way his website is run to the fan club meetings to the great way he treats his fans he really is terrific. When I met him and he was so nice to us that definitely made him even more of a fan of his than I was before.
Ken Schrader is another driver that I came to appreciate through watching him on INC. He's got a sly sense of humor and the interplay between himself and Michael can be hysterical. But Kenny also loves to race and he will race anything. Cup, trucks, ARCA, dirt track racing. He will race anything at any time. I really admire that because it shows that he truely loves racing. He's not in a very good Cup car right now and that has to be a struggle for him but he's still out there with a smile on his face each week.
I'm a fan of Jeff Gordon for one simple reason - his racing talent. He has accomplished so much in his career and he amazes me sometimes with what he does on the track. He never gives up - see coming back from three laps down to win a race earlier this season for no better example of that. Just an absolutely outstanding racer and I consider myself lucky to be a race fan at a time when he's racing so that I can see him race. Admittedly I don't feel as passionately about Jeff as I do about the other drivers I like, probably because there are less personal qualities about him that I like as compared to other drivers but I am truely in awe of his racing abilities and accomplishments.
Two others deserve a mention. Neither of these two guys are favorites of mine but they both have a quality that I very much admire and that is their willingness to speak out and say what they think. Those two are Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and RCR driver Jeff Burton. Both are much more willing to say what they think more often than their peers and I wish that others were as willing as they were to speak out. I don't always agree with what Schilling has to say but I like that he is willing to put himself out there and give his opinions, whether anyone agrees with him or not. Burton is particularly vocal on safety issues, as is Michael Waltrip, and that is especially admirable.
So if anyone has read this all the way through to the end that is why I am a fan of the players and drivers that I like the most. There are many other players and drivers that I like but those nine guys are the ones who I support and admire the most.
Posted by silverdsl at 02:12 PM | Comments (0)
Rondeau: Communication Wasn't a Problem
Thus far Pete Rondeau has been pretty silent about being removed as Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s crew chief. But he spoke to the Roanoke Times and it sounds like he takes issue with the reason that DEI and Junior has given as why they felt they need to make a crew chief change. Rondeau said, "From my side of it, I gave him what he asked for. And now I'm hearing he wanted more. Basically what he got was what he wanted. I guess that still wasn't enough." He later says that "I never got any warning on it. It was pretty quick." So if Junior and DEI felt like something different needed to happen in terms of the communication and the way the team was operating it appears that was never communicated to Rondeau. So if there was a communication problem, perhaps it was a two-way problem. How is someone supposed to know that the way that they are crew chiefing on race day is a problem if no one tells them? Perhaps Rondeau might have changed his style over the radio if Junior or someone else had told him that it was an issue.
My feeling is that there was probably pressure from Budweiser, the sponsor of the #8, as to why their car hadn't been in Victory Lane yet this season and also from within DEI itself. So they felt that they had to make a change to show that they were trying to move in that direction and also in the hopes of somehow finding the magic path to lead them back to winning races, something that I don't think is going to come as easy as they'd like regardless of how many crew chief changes they make. Despite the #15 team finding a lot of success recently I still think DEI has some internal issues to work on and I'm not so sure that's going to happen with Steve Hmiel, someone who might oversee some of that, becoming Junior's crew chief.
Posted by silverdsl at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)
New Jersey Shore Towns Try to Entice More Visitors
Last summer was a bit of an off-season for many of the Jersey shore towns so in the hopes of warding off the same problem this season, Cape May County and much of the rest of New Jersey is kicking off a campaign to try and convince people to choose New Jersey for vacation instead of places like the Outer Banks or Virginia Beach. Personally I love the Jersey shore, particularly places like Cape May that are on the quieter side. But a lot of times people think of New Jersey as nothing more than the oil tanks and big factories they see from the Jersey turnpike. I'd say it's unfortunate that not more people have discovered and come to appreciate the areas of natural beauty in New Jersey like I have but it's not really a bad thing because it means that a lot of the places that Jim and I like to go to aren't spoiled by a ton of visitors trampling everything.
Posted by silverdsl at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2005
Photo of the Day - Flowers
New Jersey Botanical Gardens, Ringwood, New Jersey, May, 2005. I don't know what these kind of flowers are called but they had lots of them in both lavendar/white, white and a few different shades of pink. They had them all fenced off with a gate for visitors to get in, probably so that deer wouldn't eat them.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)
Things I Like...
Over on NYYFans.com there's a thread about things that people like so it made me feel like listing things that I like. Of which there are a lot.
Friends, family, Jim and Bailey. :)
And now in no particular order:
Blogs
Nascar
Baseball
Yankees
Maps
Cameras and Photography
Michael Waltrip, Steve Park, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Ken Schrader to name just a few Nascar drivers I like.
Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi, Tino Martinez, Mariano Rivera
David Cone, Paul O'Neill, Joe Girardi
Ocean waves
Seashells
Cape May
Ogunquit
Las Vegas
Arches
Deserts
Rocks and minerals
Wave smoothed stones
Spirals
Rutilated Quartz
Hugs, cuddling 'n stuff ;)
Music
Fleetwood Mac
Simon & Garfunkel
John Mellencamp
XM Satellite Radio
Writing
Claire B. Lang
NYYFans.com
Good stories
Robert Frost
To Kill a Mockingbird
Richard Wright
Primo Levi
Perfect games
Pugs
Furbabies
Glam/hard rock
Purple
Good causes
Valley of Fire State Park
Marginal Way
Cape Porpoise
Magazines
Yummy food
Geysers
The rock
24
Color
Abstract Designs
Patterns
"Crazy Train"
Inside Nextel Cup
The Simpsons
Homicide: Life on the Street
Bed & Breakfasts
Porches
Crunchy food
Earl Jeans
Boots
Speaking up
Grandslams
"Rocky Horror Picture Show"
X-men
Abandoned places
Paulinskill Viaduct
News and information
Jersey Shore
Funny stuff
Research
"Mississipi Burning"
Roots
Dr. Suess
Laughing
Books
Silver jewelry
Tulips
Roses
Smiles
Looking at photos
Symbols and signs
Salem's Lot
Stephen King
Maya Angelou
Langston Hughes
Raise the Titanic
Canyons
Going out to eat
Embroidered clothes
Velvet
Leather
Fics
Walt Disney World
Waterfalls
Crafts
Bookstores
Sleeping late
Starfish
Sea glass
Drawing
Making a difference
Nature
Posted by silverdsl at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)
Son of Lafayette, CA Mayor Was the One Who Threw Beer at Giambi
On May 14 during a game against the Oakland A's a fan threw a beer at Jason Giambi as he was entering the dugout and ended up being arrested for battery among other charges. What's incredible is that it turns out that Eric Anduri is the son of the Mayor of Lafayette, CA. Talk about someone who should know about the need to behave appropriately! That just boggles my mind that Anduri who should know that his actions can reflect on his father decided that his need to show Giambi that he doesn't like him outweighed everything else.
Posted by silverdsl at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)
Yahoo Testing New PhotoMail Service
Allows Multiple Photos to Be Inserted Directly Into Emails
This sounds like something that could be interesting. Yahoo is testing an email service which will allow users to insert as many as 300 photos into the body of an email as thumbnails. The recipient would then click on the thumbnails for full-sized versions of the photos. The service would also allow users to store an unlimited amount of photos on Yahoo's servers. In addition, users could do things like put photos in borders and rotate them. This is all significant because usually email services require mulitiple photos to be sent as attachments and also limit how big the file size of the photos being sent are. But they won't have to place many limits because all that will be in the email are the thumbnails and the full-size images will be served from the Yahoo servers rather than actually be contained in the email itself.
The only problem with PhotoMail that I can anticipate is that already the Yahoo photo galleries that people upload photos to can be extremely slow to use even on a high-speed connection. So if that is also the case with PhotoMail, I'm not sure how well it's going to work because it will just be too difficult to get to the full-sized photos. I can only imagine how long it might take for emails containing 300 thumbnails to be delivered too. But this does sound like a potentially useful service if Yahoo can ensure that their servers can handle it.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
Carrie Underwood Wins American Idol
Yawn. That's my reaction to the news that Carrie Underwood is the new American Idol. I watched the sing-off between Underwood and runner-up Bo Bice on Tuesday and I was underwhelmed with both of them. Off notes, uninteresting songs and performances that were uninspired was the story of the night. Maybe it was to be expected because by the time they get down to the final two it really doesn't matter all that much who actually gets crowned the winner. Both of them will put out albums and as we've seen in the case of Clay Aiken the runner-ups can do just as well as the winner.
It's not much of a surprise that Underwood won. She's cute, blonde and seems to be the type that would have wide appeal. She has said that she plans on focusing on country music which seems like a good fit for her. That is if the American Idol producers let her go country since they may want her to make a more pop oriented album. Bice will make a rock album for sure though I think they will need to do a lot of work to make it stand out from any other rock oriented album out there. The one who I think has the potential to be the biggest star out of the whole bunch is Constantine Maroulis. A lot of people didn't like his attitude and I don't think his voice is quite as strong as some of the others but I think that he has a presence and an understanding of how to play to his audience that will probably take him far.
All the American Idol finalists are going to be taking part in the festivities this weekend in Charlotte in conjunction with the Coca-Cola 600 since Coke is a big sponsor of AI. On Saturday night they will be taking part in an event with Michael Waltrip, also sponsored by Coke, which involves go-karting with children of Iraqi soldiers. It's a shame it's not open to the public because I'd love to see some photos from that. Especially when Michael meets the AI contestants - I wonder if any of them are even going to know who he is or if he's going to know who they are beyond that they were on AI? The AI finalists will also sing the national anthem before the start of Sunday's race.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:16 AM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2005
Photo of the Day - Purple Flower
New Jersey Botanical Gardens, Ringwood, New Jersey. May, 2005. Of course I had to take photos of all the purple flowers at the gardens since purple is my favorite color.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)
Mansfield Motorsports Speedway for Sale
On May 15th Mansfield Motorsports Speedway sold out for the Craftsman Truck Series Race that Bobby Hamilton ended up winning. Ten days later the track is up for sale and the owner, Michael Dzurilla, who has owned the track for just three years, is also forced to disban his NHRA Pro Stock drag racing team, which was unsponsored. Apparently in spite of two sellouts the past two years the track did not make a profit, partially due to weather related problems. That the track was unprofitable was a pretty big problem considering the owner put $17 million worth of upgrades in.
Despite two sellouts of 20,000 each, the revenue from those races didn't cover the costs of hiring personnel, paying for temporary bleachers to be brought in and Nascar sanctioning fees. But this year tornados destroyed the bleachers, which also caused the cancellation of some race weekend events. In addition the cool temperatures caused concession sales to be weak. Last year's qualifying was wiped out by rain and it was chilly at last year's race as well. So what it adds up to is not enough money to pay the bills. Which has forced Druzilla to put the track up for sale.
So what happens? Maybe a buyer will turn up with deep pockets and innovative ideas to turn a profit at the track. But at this time of year in Ohio weather might always be an issue. So unless Nascar gives the track a different date cool temperatures and potential storms might always be an issue. Since Druzilla saved the track from a sheriff's auction when he bought it, that doesn't sound great for the chances of another buyer turning up now. Which means that a track which is very popular with the race fans might bite the dust. Which is very convienient for Nascar since there is a push by Craftman, the sponsor of the series, to have a race at Chicagoland where Sears, the parent company of Craftsman is located. So this might open a date for a race to go to Chicago.
I'd like to say I'm surprised by this but I'm not really because the expenses for running a track have got to be incredibly expensive beyond what was listed above. I can't even imagine what the insurance must be like or the payroll. I don't know what the housing market is like out in that part of Ohio but around here there would probably be any number of developers drooling over this news so they can buy it and turn it into houses or condos with the necessary permissions.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)
Steamboat Geyser Erupts In Yellowstone
For the first time in two years the tallest active geyser erupted on Monday in Yellowstone National Park for about 20 minutes. Some early morning visitors and a park employee were lucky enough to catch it erupting. The geyser last erupted twice in 2003 and based on when it erupted prior to that erupts only very erratically. I wonder if those visitors knew they were watching something very rare? I'd love to go to Yellowstone someday but I don't need to see a rare geyser erupt - I'd be thrilled just to see any geyser erupt.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)
Jeff Gordon Should Never Attempt to Sing Again
Jeff Gordon was selected to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch at yesterday's Chicago Cubs game and also throw out the first pitch. One problem - Gordon can't sing and doesn't know the lyrics to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." But he attempted anyway and he was terrible. Awful. Embarassing. He sounded horrible and he could barely sing it since he didn't know any of the lyrics. On top of that he referred to Wrigley Field as Wrigley Stadium. So Gordon was booed by fans at the stadium and his hideous performance is the subject of much debate today.
Personally, I think the whole thing is pretty overblown. Yes, he was terrible so I understand why people might make fun of him. And yes, it would probably have been a good idea to run through the lyrics to become familar with what he was going to be singing. But I know if I had to do what Gordon did I would be at least as awful if not worse. I'm a huge baseball fan and I don't know the lyrics. Nor can I sing. It was said on XM yesterday before Gordon made his appearance that he had some misgivings about singing but his PR person told him that all he had to do was sing the first line or two and then the crowd would take over. So perhaps Gordon figured that he could handle that, not knowing that he would have to sing the whole thing. It's since been said that he was supposed to have a monitor in his ear so he could sing along with music and it wasn't working and that could cause problems for even practiced musicians if that's true. I guess I just don't get how some people are horribly offended by what Gordon did. If it were the National Anthem I could understand but it was simply "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Embarassing? Yes. But an offense to baseball fans everywhere? I don't think so.
Posted by silverdsl at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)
Motley Crue Sues NBC
Over Ban Stemming From Use of Obcenity
As Jim pointed out - gee, might this be a publicity stunt? On New Year's Eve Motley Crue performed on the Tonight Show and during the course of the show Vince Neil used the F-word. So in response NBC banned Motley Crue from ever performing again which shouldn't come as a suprise to the band considering the increased scrutiny by the FCC of radio and TV stations regarding language. And in fact the FCC did investigate this incident. So Motley Crue is claiming that the band's free speech rights have been violated and that their record sales have been hurt. In addition, Nikki Sixx said, "We meant no harm, but it feels that we're being singled out unfairly. This is a discrimination issue, pure and simple."
Where to begin? First, of all I think NBC has the right to decide who they do and don't want to have on their shows. Motley Crue did something that violated the FCC's rules during a live broadcast and no network wants to take the risk of that happening again, though using a delay might be a wise idea for NBC in the future, particularly when dealing with volitile bands that are known for wild behavior. Secondly, freedom of speech doesn't appear to cover the band's right to say the "F" word whenever they want as the FCC has strict rules regarding the use of any curse words on radio or TV. Not only that but I'm not sure how freedom of speech applies to getting banned from a TV station for misbehavior. But what I have the biggest issue with is Sixx's comment about the band being discriminated against.
I think that Sixx's claim that this issue is about discrimination "pure and simple" is an insult to people who are truly discriminated against because of race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, sex, age, etc... None of those things have happened to Motley Crue. They have simply been told that they will never be invited to perform on an NBC show again because Vince Neil used the "F" word. I imagine it's possible that there are other bands who have cussed on TV and have still been invited back to perform down the road but I still fail to see how their situation falls into the category of discrimination.
It's also laughable that Motley Crue is saying that this incident has hurt their record sales. How is that possible? What other NBC show would they have performed on to promote their greatest hits album and tour? Maybe they would have gone on the Tonight Show again at some point but since they aren't banned from any other network or show I doubt that being banned from one network has had a major impact on their sales. In fact this incident is more likely to boost sales given that it is keeping with the band's bad-ass image that they've cultivated through the years. If people aren't buying their album or going to see them on tour perhaps it's because their music is no longer of as much interest to people as it once was.
Posted by silverdsl at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)
Wreckage Off the Coast of North Carolina Might be Blackbeard's Ship
In 1996 a group of researchers found the wreckage of a ship two miles off the coast of Atlantic Beach, North Carolina that they believe is of a ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, that once belonged to the pirate Blackbeard. It is believed that in 1718 the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground which led to Blackbeard abandoning it and that he was then killed by the Royal Army near Ocracoke Inlet. Since 1996 the researchers have raised more than 16,000 artifacts, including 20 cannons from the wreck. While there is some evidence to support their claims they are hesitant to say without a doubt that the ship did indeed belong to Blackbeard because they haven't yet found the one big piece of evidence to definitively support their theory. I'd be interested in seeing some of the artifacts that they have raised.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)
Nokia Unveils Handheld Internet Tablet
...but I'm not sure how widely this will catch on, at least at first. It's been a while since there was a gadget that caught my eye but Nokia's new 770 Internet Tablet looks interesting. It's a portable tablet-like device that will allow users to access the web around the house or anywhere that there is a wireless broadband connection. The idea is that it's a cheaper alternative to buying a laptop if one wants to have a portable way of accessing the internet. It's only $350 so that is definitely less expensive then going out and getting a laptop. However, a big drawback that I see is that, at least based on the photo, there is no keyboard. And since many people will want the ability to respond to emails, use instant messanger services or post on message boards that could be a problem, though there may be some way of doing that via a stylus rather than with a keyboard as is done on other handheld devices.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)
More on Martin Truex, Jr. Getting Voted In To the All-Star Challenge
Truex Really Doesn't Have Good Cup Stats To Date
The debate over Martin Truex, Jr. being voted in by fans to the All-Star Challenge rages on. Both Marty Smith and an anonymous scribe on Nascar.com weighed in on the subject among others. In reading the second article, the "We Wonder..." column, I was amazed to see that in four Cup starts by Truex he's DNF'd every time. His best finish is 21st at Talladega. While I happen to really like Truex and think that he is an extremely talented driver who will win plenty of races over the course of his career, those stats are not reflective of someone who should be voted into an All-Star race. A lot of fans are saying that Truex deserved to be voted in since he is the reigning Busch Champion. Except for the fact that the All-Star Challenge is for Cup drivers and not only isn't Truex a full-time Cup driver yet, but in the races he's raced, none of them have brought very impressive finishes.
Yes, Truex has raced well in each of those races for the most part but in the end what a driver is evaluated on is the final position they finish the race in. I'd love if it were different because Michael Waltrip would get a lot more respect since many fine runs of his have been ruined mid-race by bad luck, but the reality is that the drivers are ultimately judged on cold, hard stats, not by how well they were racing in a race before disaster struck. Except in the eyes of the fans of course who most certainly don't use stats to decide who is most deserving to be voted into the All-Star Challenge. For that they use the Earnhardt Connection.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)
Alex Rodriguez Confesses That He Goes to Therapy
To some it might not seem like a big deal that Alex Rodriguez admitted that he goes to Therapy but for a major league baseball player that's a huge deal. Admitting to what some people unfortunately view as a weakness or in a negative light is difficult for anyone but even harder for someone who is in the public eye to the degree that A-Rod is. This revelation came at an event in which A-Rod and his wife Cynthia, who has a degree in psychology, donated $200,000 to a mental health program at the Children's Aid Society in Washington Heights. I have to applaud A-Rod for having the courage to discuss going to therapy publically. Speaking out like he is could encourage others to seek help and that is a very good thing.
What makes it even more courageous for A-Rod to admit to going to therapy is that earlier this season one of his own teammates, Gary Sheffield, said that those who use "mental coaches" are "weak-minded." It was a foolish comment then and it's even more ridiculous now that A-Rod has publically said that he goes to therapy. And not only does A-Rod go to therapy for his personal issues but he believes that it helps him to be a better baseball player. I wonder what kind of conversations A-Rod and Sheffield might have in the clubhouse about going to therapy? Maybe A-Rod's admission will encourage some of his teammates to seek out a "mental coach" themselves, regardless of whether Sheffield thinks it makes someone weak or not.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)
Finally a Yankee Pitcher Retaliates!
The New York Yankees rocked the Detroit Tigers behind a fine pitching performance by Mike Mussina last night but the story of the game was reliever Paul Quantrill. A continuing issue with the Yankees for a couple of years now is the lack of retalitation by the ptiching staff when the Yankee hitters get hit by pitches. Personally, I'm not a big fan of retalitation as there is always the potential for an injury either from the pitch or if there is a brawl between the teams that follows. But sometimes it is necessary for a message to be sent to the opposing team that the pitchers will protect their hitters. The Yankees have seemed hesitant to do that... until last night.
In the 7th inning Alex Rodriquez, who had hit two homeruns earlier in the game, was hit by a pitch thrown by Franklin German which appeared to be intentionally thrown. So the following inning Quantrill first threw behind Jason Smith, then hit him in the back. I would rather that Quantrill had thrown at Smith's thigh if he felt he absolutely had to retaliate but I can't say I was too upset that for once someone on the Yankees pitching staff was sticking up for their hitters. Both Quantrill and Joe Torre were thrown out of the game which means there will be fines and possibly suspensions handed down but in the long-run the Yankees probably did the right thing. Now teams will know that if they hit a Yankee intentionally one of thier hitters may pay the price.
Mike Mussina was outstanding in this game. He allowed just six hits and no walks over seven shutout innings. Mussina has won four of his last five decisions and looks to have put his early season struggles behind him. At the start of the season Mussina was inconsistant and struggled to pitch effectively. But lately he's been much stronger on the mound. I hope that means that he will be able to pitch well for the remainder of the season. Considering that thus far Randy Johnson isn't as dominant as the Yankees thought he would be when they traded for him the team needs someone else that they can count on to be ace-like on the mound. Mussina just may be the guy if he keeps pitching like this.
The Yankees offense hit six homeruns last night. Both A-Rod and Jorge Posada hit two each. The amazing thing about A-Rod's homeruns is that they both came off of Wilfredo Ledezma. A-Rod has only faced Ledezma four times, including last night, and has homered off of him each time. Of course that probably won't last that A-Rod hits one out off of Ledezma each time he faces him but obviously he's very comfortable at the plate against him. Which might have led to A-Rod getting plunked later because the Tigers might have wanted him to be a little less comfortable. Gary Sheffield and Robinson Cano also had homeruns for the Yankees. For Cano it was his first major league homerun ever. It's got to be very memorable for a player anytime they hit their first homerun but I would think that hitting it at home and in a stadium full of as much history as Yankee Stadium makes it even more memorable.
Last night's game was a big improvement over what we saw from the Yankees this past weekend against the Mets. While the Yankees took 2-3 from the Mets it seemed like they were playing sloppy baseball again so it's lucky that the Mets were playing even sloppier baseball. Last night showed what the Yankees are capable of doing when all cylinders are firing and I hope they continue to play this way as the season goes along.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2005
Photo of the Day - The Road Not Taken
New Jersey Botanical Gardens, Ringwood, New Jersey, May, 2005. It's a path not a road but it reminded me of my favorite Robert Frost poems which happens to be one of my favorite poems of all time.
The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
I always seemed to have taken the road less traveled and that indeed has made a difference.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)
Official: Pete Rondeau Out as Junior's Crew Chief
Steve Hmiel Interim Crew Chief
As was widely speculated yesterday, Pete Rondeau has been replaced as Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s crew chief after just 11 races. He will be replaced by Steve Hmiel, the technical director at DEI and Junior's spotter, on an interim basis. Unless there's something major about this situation that hasn't been said publically I think this move is a mistake. I'd like to say I have no idea what DEI is thinking with this move but I do. They want immediate results, a whole bunch of wins and a better standing in the points for their top team than to be 11th in the points. Well, after all the changes they made in the off-season if they didn't expect that this team might struggle for a while before everyone adjusted and got used to working with each other then I'm amazed. You can't change everything about a team except the driver and expect that they are going to start winning races right away. Especially when you add into that the fact that Pete Rondeau is relatively new to crew chiefing and that overall DEI has struggled to adjust to some rules changes this season. What DEI has just done reminds me of George Steinbrenner when he freaks out over some losses and fires a bunch of people just to shake things up.
While DEI was probably afraid that Junior would slip further in the points if they didn't make a move now, I think 11 races is way too short of a time to find out whether a crew chief is going to be a success or not. What happens with the next guy they get in there on a permanent basis? Will they get rid of him after just a few races? And keep on making crew chief changes unless Junior wins right away and keeps on winning? The reality is that no driver is going to find Victory Lane every week and even the best of teams are going to struggle sometimes. Just ask Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson or Kurt Busch. Or Matt Kenseth for that matter. There's what's amazing - Kenseth is 21st in points and you don't see them rushing to get a new crew chief. Nor have we seen much movement with teams below Junior in points, other than with Dale Jarrett's team, though some of that will probably happen as time goes on if some of the teams that aren't performing up to expectations show any improvement.
Why not show more patience with this team even if it meant less than a championship season in 2005? Yes, it might be embarassing if Junior doesn't make the Chase for the Championship but allowing this team to develop could pay big dividends in the long run. It's just like when you have a young prospect in baseball. Teams need to give them an opportunity to get used to playing on the major league level because they could end up with an outstanding baseball player. Junior's team could have turned into a strong one but they were never even given the chance to find out. Richie Gilmore said on XM this afternoon that Pete Rondeau is an excellent crew chief who they'd like to keep in the organization, maybe on the Busch level, but if he's that great why isn't he staying with Junior? It just seems to me that DEI needed to give this team a lot more time to get their legs under them and put together a string of strong runs. The funny thing is that while Junior is only 11th in points he has had some good runs so he's not been awful this season - simply not as good as last season.
It's almost incredible that DEI went through the trouble of making the big off-season crew swap, something which Junior supposedly wanted, just to make more changes now. What's equally incredible to me is that Junior has been saying how great it is to work with Rondeau, yet he's still out the door. Was Junior lying? Was this change made without his input? Of course it's absolutely impossible sometimes to know when a driver is telling the truth and when a guy is saying the "right" things but Junior supposedly was one of the more up-front and honest guys. Or maybe not. It's going to be very interesting to hear what Junior has to say about all of this though no doubt he will speak the DEI party line.
The other thing that happened with all of this is that the news was first announced on the Dale Junior Pit Board via a post from Kris Rondeau, Pete's wife. Aside from thanking the fans for their support Kris gave out Richie Gilmore's email address and encouraged fans to email him to express their outrage. That might be fine if Gilmore's email address was available publically but as far as I know it's not. In that case, posting that email address, which has now been edited out, is highly inappropriate. That's also the kind of thing that could backfire as lots of people within Nascar read the Pit Board and may assume that Pete put Kris up to posting Gilmore's email address. I understand the anger and the desire to do something but that's just not the thing to do, particularly on a message board that is read by hundreds of people a day.
I have to wonder if DEI has a long-term plan. Of course the main goal is to have both Cup teams in the Chase for the Championship and to have one of them be the eventual Cup Champion. That is the goal of just about every organization in Cup. What I mean is a long-term plan in terms of achieving those goals. Because my feeling is that they don't. That they are just throwing things at the wall and hoping that something sticks. In the case of Michael Waltrip and the #15 team something did stick in that making Tony Eury, Jr. the crew chief seems to have been a great move. But even with Eury, Jr. and the former #8 crew moving over to the #15 I got the feeling that there wasn't all that much behind it more than that they needed to get Eury, Jr. away from Junior. As it turned out it was the right move but what's the plan with the #15 team? Not much of one considering they don't know who the driver or the even the sponsor will be for sure in 2006, though I dearly hope that DEI will recognize how awesome Michael is working with Eury, Jr. and keep them together for a few more years. Which brings us back to the #8 team - doesn't seem like there's much of a concrete plan there either other than that Junior is the driver.
It's astonishing what's happened to DEI. This organization has one of the top drivers in all of Nascar and should have a strong foundation yet sometimes you get the sense that they have no idea what they're doing.
Posted by silverdsl at 06:15 PM | Comments (0)
Gaughan Wants to Run Full Truck Schedule
Moves Into Top 30 in Points, Guaranteed Spot in Races
This article is mostly about the good news that with his top ten finish at Charlotte Brendan Gaughan has moved high enough in the points that he is guaranteed a starting spot in the rest of the races from here on out, assuming that he stays among the top 30 trucks. That shouldn't be too much of a problem so not having to worry about missing races due to poor qualifying efforts should be a big boost to the team because it's one less thing for them to stress out over. Which should hopefully in turn help Steve Park to have a teammate who is also running well.
What's of most interest in the article is that Brendan still wants to race all the remaining races in the truck schedule. I figured he would. Most racers, other than those who are retired or semi-retired, don't want to have to miss races that they could potentially be a part of. What Brendan says is standing in his way is the lack of a full-time crew chief and sponsorship issues. Regardless of whether or not he races the full season I think Brendan needs a full time crew chief. Every team does if they want to have any measure of success. But the sponsorship issue will be interesting to see how that play out.
As I've harped on more than once in this space Steve Park's #62 truck has no primary sponsor. Yes, The Orleans is on the truck but that doesn't really count since it's the Gaughan family's company and they probably aren't paying themselves for the privledge of putting the decals on the truck. So while Steve does have associate sponsors this is the second year in a row that he doesn't have a primary sponsor. On the other hand Jasper is the primary sponsor of Brendan's #77 truck for at least the partial schedule that Brendan is running. If Jasper declines to sponsor Brendan in the rest of the races will he look for another primary sponsor for the rest of those races?
I will probably get chased with pitchforks if I ever said this outside of my blog but I wonder if there isn't a slight conflict-of-iterest there if Brendan is involved in the process of looking for sponsors for both Orleans Racing teams. He is the general manager so one would think that he might have a hand in sponsor related issues. The conflict comes in because he is also the driver for one of those trucks. Let's say there's a potential sponsor, new to the sport. Who does Brendan pitch a potential sponsorship for - his own truck for the remaining races that Jasper might not be sponsoring him for or for sponsorship of Steve's truck? Maybe he's not involved in the process at all but I would tend to think that he is. I guess having the owner's son, who is also the driver of one of the trucks, also be the general manager and be involved in business decisions sets up some potentially murky situations. Not that it's unusual in Nascar for teams to be family run but it seems, at least from how vocal Brendan is about some things, that he takes a pretty large role in the management of the organization.
Posted by silverdsl at 03:14 PM | Comments (0)
Nascar Could Use More Kevin Harvicks
Nascar Could Use More of Harvick's Grit, Aggressiveness
Scott Fowler from the Charlotte Observer believes that Nascar could use more drivers with Kevin Harvick's approach and attitude and I agree. Harvick has done some things that I don't agree with when he loses his temper. But I can't fault him for his passion for racing, the emotion that he brings to the sport or how hard he races on the track. As Fowler points out these days the majority of drivers are corporate and PC, afraid to say anything that might make waves. Not Harvick. I have no doubt that Harvick also keeps his sponsors, team and the fans in mind, every single driver must do that as part of their job, but he is much more likely to speak his mind honestly than many other drivers. I don't always love it when he calls another driver a name but I like the fact that he is much more willing to put himself out there than a lot of other drivers.
What's interesting to me about Harvick is that there are quite a few fans who can't stand him. Some of them are the very same fans who bemoan how corporate Nascar has gotten and how much they hate the way the sport is changing. Well, Harvick's attitude is in some ways very old-school. Yet he's called names and while he is extremely popular, has never achieved the degree of acceptance among fans that one might expect. As Fowler points out this probably has something to do with the fact that Harvick is from California instead of North Carolina which means to many fans he is an outsider and always will be. That's unfortunate. But to be expected since so many fans are resistant to the sport growing outside of it's Southern roots.
Something else about Harvick which I really like is how fan-friendly he is. I've heard many stories about how great he is with fans and found that out for myself when I went to the race at Dover. I had been asked by Michael Waltrip's PR person what driver I wanted to meet other than Michael and after a moment of confusion because I couldn't figure out who I wanted to meet since I was already going to be meeting my favorite driver, I choose Harvick. Most people might have gone with Junior or Jeff Gordon but I choose Harvick because I knew how good he is with fans. And I wasn't disappointed. He was extremely open, friendly and one of the nicest people that we met all day. He and his wife, Delana, really get it when it comes to the fans and they show that in many ways from the yearly fan club meeting to an outstanding website where they interact with their fans.
So while many people think of Harvick as a punk I think Nascar could very definitely use more drivers like him. No doubt Harvick makes his share of mistakes on and off the track. But he also has an attitude about a lot of things that I wish more drivers had.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2005
Photo of the Day - Statue
New Jersey Botanical Gardens, Ringwood, NJ. There were some interesting statues at the botanical gardens that I snapped some shots of including this one. The statues aren't particularly well taken care of which gives them extra character.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:48 PM | Comments (0)
More Than Meets the Eye
A few entries ago I discussed the fireworks between Kevin Harvick and Joe Nemacheck at the All-Star Challenge. One thing that struck me is that the two of them were screaming at each other yet the real culprit of the wreck was Tony Stewart. I knew there was a past history between the two and that probably fueled the throwing of head/neck restraints, finger waving and yelling. It just seemed like there was really some hard feelings there that went beyond what had just happened on the track. And apparently there is.
Each week Kevin and Delana Harvick do diary-style entries about the past weekend's race events. So in Kevin's diary he said, "All I will say is that there is always more to a situation than what is shown on television." Then Delana followed with "Obviously there is no love lost between Kevin and Joe. And if you'll listen closely, that's what Kevin's disappointment stemmed from Saturday night. Trust me, there are a lot of things that happen and are said at the track that you guys never ever know. So don't always assume what you are seeing is all that is there..." So now I am really dying to know what exactly has gone down between Kevin and Joe because it sounds like it's a lot more involved than just getting together on the track. Could be a situation that could lead to further carnage on the track if the involved parties don't make an effort to keep control of themselves.
But I think it's often true that there is more to many situations that fans never hear about. Which is unfortunate because then we draw inaccurate conclusions about some situations or people.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)
Fatal Plane Crash In New Fairfield
L.I. Plane Crashes in CT, Kills Two
I grew up in New Fairfield, Connecticut and my parents still have a house there. Naturally that means that I went to New Fairfield High School and my mother also taught there for more than 25 years. So today there was a plane crash right behind New Fairfield High School when a plane experienced mechanical problems. It tried to land on the softball field of the high school but was unable. It ended up crashing into the woods and exploding which meant that both passengers on the plane were unfortunately killed. Bad as it is that two people died in this crash, I'm just glad that the plane didn't land on the school or someone's house.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:11 PM | Comments (0)
Might Be Something to the Rumors About a Shakeup on the #8 Team
Well tonight on the Junior Pitboard Kris Rondeau, the wife of Junior's crew chief thanked everyone for pledging their support to her with the MS walk that she's doing. Not too long ago some fans from the pitboard made some sort of banner for Pete and the team and in her post Kris said that Pete never saw it and that he might never get the chance to see it. That sounded bad but it's easy to misinterpret something that is said on a message board.
However, that was followed by a post by someone who was listening to "Fast Talk" on MRN and a reporter on that show reported that they had spoke to Junior and others at DEI who indicated that they were unhappy with the direction in which things were going and that there would be a shake-up with the #8 this week. So now we have Lee Spencer reporting it, Steve Richards on MRN reporting it and a cryptic comment from Kris Rondeau. All of which I think doesn't bode well for Pete Rondeau but I guess we will see what happens as the week progresses.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)
Man Has Huge Collection of Batman Toys
Jerry Polizzotti is a New Jersey man who has a huge collection of toy memorabilia in his attic. It appears that Batman is his biggest passion but he also collects Beatles and Bond related items. He doesn't just have a few hundred items he has a few thousand items including rare items. I suppose that some would think that his hobby is a waste of money or strange. But we probably all have a hobby or two that others think is a waste. I collect gems and minerals and a lot of people I'm sure think it odd that I like rocks so much. Or my interest in Nascar makes a lot of people look at me strangely. Sometimes it's funny how much we are judged on the basis of our interests and passions.
Posted by silverdsl at 04:00 PM | Comments (1)
Junior to Get New Crew Chief?
From The Sporting News via Jayski's: Changes at the #8? Crew Chief? Teresa Earnhardt made a surprise visit to Lowe's Motor Speedway last Saturday night, and some Dale Earnhardt Inc. insiders say it was a move to rally the troops. Several DEI sources expect changes to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s #8 team this week. Pete Rondeau has performed admirably as crew chief, but the front office feels a stronger hand is needed to motivate the brew crew. Jimmy Elledge, crew chief for #41-Casey Mears, and Ford were mentioned as possible replacements. Tony Eury Jr., #15-Michael Waltrip's DEI crew chief and Earnhardt Jr.'s cousin, says he gave his word to his men that under no circumstances would he abandon them during the season.(Sporting News)(5-23-2005)
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is currently 11th in points but he hasn't won any races so far this season as compared to last season when he already had a few wins under his belt. His #8 team has seemed to struggle even though their overall results are pretty good. I actually think that his season is a lot more successful than a lot of fans and the media are giving him and his team credit for considering how many issues they've had to overcome on the track. But the expectations are much higher for the #8 team than to be 11th in points. So rumors have it that Pete Rondeau will be replaced as the crew chief for the #8 team.
I'm not sure how much truth there is to this rumor but it seems pretty early to be making another change while Junior and his team are still getting used to the big crew swap that happened in the off-season. Yes, if there's a problem on the #8 it is better to address it now rather than letting it simmer for longer and potentially sink them further in the points standings. But it has seemed like Junior and Pete Rondeau have been working fairly well together. So why make a change now unless they are panicing or there are issues that I'm not aware of? I think the team needs longer to gel and get into a groove where they can get put together a string of great finishes. That would surely make a lot of people feel better about Rondeau as Junior's crew chief.
In addition, Jimmy Elledge is Junior's brother-in-law since he is married to Kelly Earnhardt, Junior's sister. While Elledge is a good crew chief it seems to me that this might be a mistake considering that having family as Junior's crew chief didn't work out too well towards the end of the Eury's tenure with the #8 team. If they must make another crew chief change I think they need to take a look at someone outside of the organization who isn't related to anyone. That person might have a fresh perspective. What is also important is communication which I think is one problem that Junior sometimes has. So their ability to communicate well would be key in addition to their ability to set-up a car well and call a good race in the pits.
What worries me is the last sentance about Tony Eury, Jr. assuring his team that he is staying with them no matter what this season. Does that mean that the idea of the two Juniors reuniting has been discussed at DEI? I really hope not because working with Eury, Jr. has been wonderful for Michael Waltrip. I had some misgivings before the season started about how well that partnership was going to work out considering how Michael has clashed with Eury, Sr. but as it turned out under Eury, Jr.'s leadership the #15 team has been outstanding. So I would hate to see anything happen to break that apart. Not to mention just because Eury, Jr. has worked so well with Michael doesn't mean that he will work well with Junior. History has shown that they really aren't a great match for each other so my suspicion is that a second go-around wouldn't end any better than the first time.
Posted by silverdsl at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)
Kevin Griffin Photography
I came across the photography of Kevin Griffin this weekend and was pretty impressed. Some of what he takes are black and white, extreme close-ups of waves which given my love of the ocean and wave photography really caught my attention. I've seen Griffin's style of photography before as it relates to waves and it makes for some pretty cool photos. Most people wouldn't think to do black and white photography when it comes to waves but it actually makes for some really dramatic shots.
I would like to link to Griffin's website but in good conscience I can't because while his photography is awesome his website isn't as good. It's hard to navigate and it's dependant on the use of a pop-up which isn't a good thing since most people have pop-ups disabled these days. I found it very difficult to get to the galleries which also isn't a good thing considering his images are the whole reason he has a website in the first place. So I can't send any readers of this site over there because I don't want to frustrate anyone like I got frustrated. Or maybe I was just website-challenged on my multiple visits to try and see the photos he had there.
Posted by silverdsl at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)
Very Random Thought
For some reason I had the urge to have a Baby Ruth bar, a candy bar I have not had for a very long time. And it will probably be a long time before I have it again. It's not that it tasted bad but that it's so messy that I now have chocolate crumbs strewn all over my desk and I haven't even eaten more than a small piece of it. With every bite that I took more and more pieces kept falling off.
I'm not a huge fan of sweets but every so often I get the urge for some chocolate. So it's very convienent to have the bookstore, which sells a large array of candy bars, down the hall from my office. But I don't think I should stray too far from my favorites - Mounds, Charleston Chews and Twix. Yum!
Posted by silverdsl at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)
All-Star Challenge Not Getting Good Reviews
B. Duane Cross has a pretty scathing review of this past weekend's All-Star Challenge on Nascar.com of all places and I agree with pretty much all of what he said. As I noted in my earlier entry it was a less than impressive event for a variety of reasons. Cross even went so far as to call the race a "joke." While I'm not sure I'd go that far I do think overall the race is far from a must-see.
One of the biggest issues that Cross brings up that I agree strongly with is how Martin Truex, Jr. got voted into the Challenge. I happen to be a fan of Truex and I believe that with as much talent as he has he will have a very long and successful career in Cup once he gets there. However, as cross pointed out Stanton Barrett for goodness sake has started more Cup races this season than Truex! The reason Truex got voted in is because of the Dale, Earnhardt, Jr. connection since Truex drives for DEI and is a close friend of Junior. The Junior connection is why Kerry Earnhardt almost got voted in last year as well until he wrecked in the Open, in spite of the fact that he too isn't a full-time Cup driver. Junior fans will do whatever it takes to ensure that they get their man, whether it is Junior or someone connected to him, voted in. Like Cross, I definitely think that the All-Star Challenge should be for full-time drivers or those that have raced their way in via a win of some kind, either during the regular season or by winning the Open. Truex will likely be in the Challenge plenty of times in the future completely on his own merits by winning races.
The only thing I disagree with Cross a bit on is about the #12 Alltel team and the way they conducted themselves during the pre-race introductions. He feels that they were over the top and should act like they've been there before. Well, I say that since the pre-race introductions are all about the fans I have no problem with the teams putting on a show for them. In fact, I think it would be nice if a few more teams showed a little more enthusiasm and excitement for that reason. Maybe the #12 was a little over-the-top but I suspect that most fans enjoyed what they did the best. In the end this event really is all about the fans so why not do something a little extra to entertain them?
While I'm on the subject of the pre-race, I should note another thing that is getting some negative attention and that is Pamela Anderson's presence as Grand Marshal. I wasn't bothered all that much by the way they interviewed her or that she was part of the pre-race. She is what she is and that is someone who has made a career based on her body. She has a project to promote and that is why she was there. What I don't like is that Anderson was wearing some of the skimpiest clothes imaginable yet she was apparently still allowed in the garage area as she attended the driver's meeting. Yet recently a TV reporter wasn't allowed in the garage area to do her job because she was wearing a skirt. Well, why is it okay for Pamela Anderson to ignore the dress code but not a TV reporter? It's to be expected that Anderson would dress provocatively but surely she could have dressed in a way that grabbed attention without the short-shorts that Nascar supposedly prohibits in the garage area.
ETA: Back to the Alltel team - the footballs they were throwing into the crowd? Autographed by Ryan Newman, Matt Borland and the rest of the team. Other teams may have done something like that but the only other person who I actually saw make a gesture like that was Kurt Busch who signed a hat and gave it to someone in the audience near the stage. I think signing those footballs is a very cool thing for the Alltel team to do and it shows that they get it when it comes to the fans.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)
Carlos Zambrano Told By Cubs To Use Computer Less Often
Computer Could Be Causing His Elbow Problems
The Chicago Cubs believe that Carlos Zambrano's elbow issues could be connected to the amount of time that he spends typing on the computer and have told him to cut back. Zambrano apparently spends at least four hours a day on the computer "emailing with his brother." It's definitely true that spending a lot of time on the computer can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome and other issues but I can't remember ever hearing about another player told to cut down on computer use. I have to admit though that I'm skeptical that all he was doing was emailing his brother. So perhaps there was also some other issue there besides the physical one.
Curt Schilling spends a lot of time on his computer, both on message boards as Gehrig38, but also playing the game, Everquest. I wonder if he does anything special to make sure that all his computer time doesn't effect him physically? It's often not something that anyone who uses a computer thinks of but pitchers have to be very careful about their arms considering that's how they make their living. I wonder if he's ever been told by the Red Sox to stop using his computer so much?
Posted by silverdsl at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
CBS Chief Blames Mariano Rivera for Ratings Loss
Mooves Says Blown Save Blew CBS's Chances to Win Key Demographic
According to a New York Times article, Leslie Mooves, Chairman of CBS, claims that the competition between CBS and Fox was so close in the key 18 to 49 demographic that the blown saves by Mariano Rivera during last year's post-season games against the Red Sox cost CBS the ratings win against Fox. Apparently, Mooves supposedly said, "Mariano Rivera cost us more money than the Yankees." Well, maybe if CBS had better programming that actually appealed to the 18-49 demographic then they wouldn't have to be dependant on Rivera's ability to close out a game to win in the ratings.
Of course it should be noted that CBS are the former owners of the Yankees prior to George Steinbrenner. CBS could never make a success of the team and sold them to Steinbrenner for $10 million in 1973. It's now estimated that the Yankees are currently worth $950 million so Steinbrenner made quite a bit of money on that deal.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
Just One of Those Things
It really takes so little to make my day. This is another one of those things that falls into the category of not appropriate to share publically but it made me smile so I had to say something about it here. When I find out that something that I said or did made someone else feel good that makes me in turn feel good. Sometimes I reach out to people to tell them "job well-done" simply because it seems like the right thing to do, not because I have to or that I'm looking to get anything out of it. Especially when a lot of time has been spent on something I feel like I should take a few minutes to acknowledge good work. I didn't expect to hear anything back on this one but I did and it made me smile.
But it's funny how with with two somewhat similar situations how the response can be so radically different. Like night and day really. That really speaks volumes and re-enforces a lot of what I've been thinking lately.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
Boston Sportscaster Sues Comic Strip Creator
"Get Fuzzy" Comic Suggests Bob Lobel Does Sportscasts Drunk
"Get Fuzzy" is a comic strip about a dog and cat that talk and their owner. I've never been a huge fan of it but occassionally it's good for a laugh, particularly since from time to time there are references to the Yankees or Red Sox. Turns out that's because the creator of the strip, Darby Conley, lives in the Boston area. So the May 13 comic featured the dog, cat and their owner watching TV. The dog says, "Is this sportscaster ... drunk?" The owner then follows with The owner replies, "Lobel? Who knows?" The comic then ends after some other dialogue with the dog saying, "Guys, guys! How can you fight while there's a drunk guy on TV?" It's long been speculated by those in the Boston area that Bob Lobel who does the sports for WBZ-TV, a CBS station, has a drinking problem and that he goes on the air under the influence. So the strip was a reference to the speculation about Lobel. Which didn't go over well with Lobel as he is now suing for libel.
I have no idea what Conley was thinking by doing this strip. It's not like something that was just going to be seen by his friends. "Get Fuzzy" is syndicated to 450 newspapers. At least one newspaper, the Boston Globe , realized the inappropriateness of the strip and substituted "him" for "Lobel." But it ran unedited elsewhere. Granted it is hard for someone to prove libel so it may be hard for Lobel to win his case. But on the other hand, a public assertation in a comic strip that a guy goes on the air drunk is really over the line and I can see why Lobel wants to try and do something about it. Particularly since, as the article notes, he is in contract negotiations with his station so that sort of thing could be very damaging if the station thinks that there is a wide-spread belief that Lobel is a drunk. After reading the lengthy SoSH thread on this issue it does appear that a lot of people do think he goes on the air drunk, so the comic strip probably re-affirms what a lot of them believe to begin with. It will be interesting to see if this ends up getting to court and if Lobel can prove libel.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2005
Photo of the Day - Frog
May 21, 2005. New Jersey Botanical Gardens, Ringwood, New Jersey. Yesterday Jim and I took a ride to the New Jersey Botanical Gardens. We had been there once before and I was in the mood to take some photos so that was what we thought of that wasn't too far from where we were. At first it was pretty cloudy and that didn't make for optimum photo ops. But the longer we were there the sunnier it got so I was able to get some decent flower shots as well as some cool shots when we walked a little ways down a path into the woods.
This photo of a frog we came across is one that I took in the woods. Not that it's an amazing photo or anything but I put it up because I don't think I had ever come across a frog (or is that a toad?) that big in the wild before. There are surely much bigger frogs hopping around but the only ones I've seen in their natural habitat were pretty tiny. This frog wasn't alone either. We saw at least three other sizable frogs nearby. There may have been more but we might not have seen them since even these frogs were pretty well camouflaged.
We had been to the NJBG once before and there are some nice areas that we saw, and given that there are 96 arces there surely lots of pretty parts that we haven't seen. However, I haven't enjoyed my two visits to the NJBG as much as visits to other botanical gardens. The reason being that it always seems a little wornout and not taken care of. Plus, both of the times that we've visited the flowers have seemed somewhat sparce even though it's been at times where there should be plenty blooming. I guess the reason is that because these are state run gardens they don't have the budget for upkeep or planting as some gardens have. It's a nice place to take a walk but it's probably not worth a long drive out of the way to get to.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)
Just Wondering...
Park Moves Up in Points Standings With Strong Finish in Charlotte
TopTen at Charlotte Gets Gaughan Going in the Right Direction
If The Orleans and Kroyer Racing weren't one of the more prominent sponsors at truckseries.com, would Steve Park and Brendan Guaghan have so many articles written about them and their teams and would their race reports be featured so prominantly? I love any and all articles about Steve and I wish that more publications would do articles on him but it does seem that quite a bit of coverage of those guys ends up on truckseries.com as compared to other media outlets. Likewise, if the same people who do truckseries.com didn't also do Bobby Hamilton's offical site would there be as many articles about him either? Truckseries.com does a good job of providing articles and information about a series that is often overlooked, even on Nascar's official site, and that is a good thing but I can't help but wonder if some of these relationships, particularly the ones that involved advertising dollars might dictate their news coverage. Keldan Media Group also does Dennis Setzer's site so I will have to see if he gets more coverage than others as well. I could very well be talking out of my ass right now but often coverage on websites, even news oriented ones, aren't governed by the same rules as offline media publications so this was just something I was thinking about the other day.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)
Jorge Posada Blames Randy Johnson for Mis-Play at First
No One Covered First in Yesterday's 7-1 Loss to Mets
In the last entry I briefly discussed finger-pointing in relation to the incident between Brian Vickers and Mike Bliss. Well, here's another guy who could stand to learn a little about when it's appropriate to point fingers and when it's not. During yesterday's game against the Mets, Randy Johnson remained on the mound during a play, which sent Jorge Posada up the first base line. So with home plate empty, Mets pitcher Dae-Sung Koo scored all the way from second. After the game Posada said, "Obviously, Randy has got to be at the plate. When I looked back and saw he wasn't there, I tried to get back as fast as I could."
Well, Jorge even if you're 100% right you don't publically point fingers at your teammates and call them out to the media. When Tino Martinez was asked about that play he said that he should have been the one to cover home, even though he likely was thinking the same as Posada. But Tino knows that the appropriate way of pointing out a teammate's mistake is by saying something to them within the confines of the clubhouse, not to reporters post-game. It's especially bad considering Jorge hasn't been impressive for the Yankees this season. Not only that he's made his share of mistakes including some awful base-running errors. Yet not a single one of his teammates has criticized him to the media, even though they were all probably thinking some pretty unkind things about some of the brainless thing that he's done.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - I have no problem with players speaking their minds and being honest about what their thinking. Even about their own team. But it has to be done in an appropriate way. That means making more general statements about the team as a whole needing to play better and avoid mistakes, rather than singling out individual players to blame. Especially since Johnson has been playing for long enough that he likely knows that he did wrong without Jorge pointing it out to him. But it just sounds really bad when Jorge comes out and blames RJ specifically for that play.
Jorge has a history of making some iffy comments such as his ill-advised remarks a few years ago about an umpire who got ill during a game. In the past he's gotten a pass for a lot of his remarks but now that he's no longer one of the best catchers in the American League fans are less willing to put up with him mouthing off. I wonder if Jorge will back-track on some of his remarks about RJ once he sees the firestorm? Surely the media will try to whip this up into a feud between himself and RJ.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)
Mark Martin Wins All-Star Challenge; Michael Waltrip Wrecked Early
I'm not a fan of the hoopla that surrounds the All-Star Race. For one thing it's a non-points race so in the end the race means nothing except to the fans and to the winning driver's bank account. It's also not always great racing. I also think it's a big early in the season for an All-Star event. While the Open had some moments, the Challenge itself seemed lacking in a lot of racing. Particularly after the wreck that took out half the field.
But let me start with the Open. I was really pulling for Ken Schrader to win at first, particularly since he had qualified well and was running up front. But running up front isn't good enough since only the winner of the Open makes it into the big show - the All-Star Challenge. Travis Kvapil had a good car early on but eventually Mike Bliss was the man and was out in front. I'm not a fan of Bliss but he's a guy that gets very little attention or notice from anyone - not Nascar, not the fans and not the media. So for him to win would have been a very good thing for him and his team. So I was hoping that he'd end up winning just to show that sometimes the little guy with an independant team can do it. But on the last lap Brian Vickers very clearly booted Bliss out of the way for the win. Not pretty.
At first I was pretty upset with what Vickers did. I've never minded hard racing but when guys deliberately spin each other out of the way I'm not always comfortable with that. But after the race I thought about what Vickers did and I realized that on the last lap it's no holds barred and drivers are going to do whatever it takes to win. Especially when it comes to a guy like Vickers who has had so little success in his short time in Cup. I also think that there are quite a few other drivers who would have done the exact same thing as Vickers. So while I'm not celebrating that he spun Bliss out of the way, I understand why he did it and I'm not as worked up about it as a lot of people are. If a lot of folks' favorite driver was in Vicker's position how would they feel if that guy had spun Bliss? Probably a lot differently.
Where Vickers could definitely used better judgement is in his post-race comments where he deflected most of the blame for spinning Bliss out onto Bliss himself. Come on! We're not blind. It's a tough thing to do but his actions would probably have gone over better if he had been able to acknowledge a little more of the blame and not point the finger at Bliss, who looked to be pretty much the victim in that situation. Granted it's hard for a 21-year old to have the maturity to do that but perhaps in time he'll learn.
As for the All-Star Challenge itself it was great to see Mark Martin win, particularly since it's his last year racing Cup full-time. However, overall the race was pretty boring to me. And not just because Michael Waltrip got wrecked in the big pileup. The quality of the racing just didn't seem great but perhaps after half the field was out of the race that might have hurt the competitive nature of the race, particularly since some decent cars bit the dust. Teammates Ryan Newman and Rusty Wallace also got into each other so when it was all said and done I think only 11 cars were actually running which doesn't really make for a very interesting race, particularly if there's not a lot of side-by-side, multi-groove racing.
The big wreck was caused by Tony Stewart getting into the back of Joe Nemachek who promptly turned and got into Kevin Harvick which led to carnage among all the drivers behind them. Poor Michael was down on himself for not being able to drive through that wreck but with the way cars were bouncing off each other it was almost unavoidable for him to get caught up in it. Once the cars stopped spinning Harvick got out of his car and threw his head and neck restraint at Nemachek's car and the two got into a finger-pointing/yelling match in the in-field. I can't say I was upset at seeing such a display of emotion but I'm glad that it didn't led to a fistfight which would have been costly for both drivers. Of course Nemachek and Harvick have a past history which is why they were getting into each other's faces so much but perhaps they should have saved some of their ire for Stewart. Really in the end though it was just one of those racin' deals.
The other incident of note was the late wreck between teammates Ryan Newman and Rusty Wallace. Newman got loose and when he went up the track Wallace got into him because there was no way for them to avoid each other. No big deal right? Well, for most teammates they would probably be laughing about it afterwards once they got over their disappointment about being wrecked. But Newman and Wallace can't stand each other. So one has to wonder if this will led to further ill-will between the two even though there was nothing that either of them did wrong.
I guess the race could have been worse - if not for the Bliss/Vicker incident and the fireworks by Nemachek/Harvick there might not be much of anything to talk about from this race. But it sure didn't make me think that we'll be seeing great racing next weekend at the Charlotte 600 which is unfortunate. The track was ground down and it appears that has hurt the racing some. Last year Michael finished 2nd in the 600 and I was looking forward to seeing if he could repeat that or dare I say it even better it. But he said during the truck broadcast that he hates what they did to the track and all three DEI cars seemed weak during the Challenge. So I'm not sure it bodes well for Michael next week though only time will tell. Hopefully somehow the 600 will make for more interesting racing than what we saw during the All-Star race.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:17 PM | Comments (0)
May 21, 2005
El Duque to the Disabled List
A lot of Yankee fans have bemoaned the fact that the Yankees let Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez sign with the Chicago White Sox this past off-season. I agreed with the Yankees decision not to re-sign El Duque because based on how he was unable to pitch at the end of last season, I figured he would be in line for at least one trip to the DL, if not more. El Duque was great for the Yankees both last season and in his previous stint in pinstipes but his age and injury history the past few years means that he's an injury waiting to happen. And indeed an injury did happen. El Duque has a sore muscle in the back of his shoulder. I seem to remember that he suffered a similar problem at the end of last season that made him unavailable for the Yankees. So I'm glad that the Yankees didn't give into temptation and re-sign him because they might have one more pitcher on the DL.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
NA-PA
So unfortunately Michael Waltrip got wrecked out of the All-Star race tonight. I'll discuss that whole mess later on after the race is complete but the interview he did really cracked me up. First of all the opening question to him is something along the lines of "It looks like the entire right side of your car was destroyed - what happened?" So he says totally dead-pan "The entire right side of my car was destroyed." Then busts into a huge smile. I wonder what he really wanted to answer to that question?!
But it was something else which really made me laugh. Over the past week or two for some reason I've been amusing myself by randomly saying "Na-pa" in a very sing-song voice because I joked that if Michael had a baby his or her first words wouldn't be Ma-Ma or Da-Da but Na-pa. So in his interview Michael had his hat on backwards and when he turned it around so that the NAPA logo was visible like a good little walking billboard/spokesperson he goes "Na-pa" the exact same way that I've been doing these past couple of weeks and that just cracked me up because it confirmed for me that if he ever has another child (unlikely) that kid will be going around the house saying Na-pa, Na-pa all the time.
He had some good comments on the Bliss/Vickers incident too. Should be a very interesting discussion on Inside Nextel Cup on Monday about all of this.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)
Not Every Musician Gets it When it Comes to the Fans
Fans Pay - Again - For Rock Star's Arrogance
This is a really interesting column, at least to me since I'm always interested in anything that relates to fans and how they interact with their idols. Mark Brown from the Rocky Mountain News wrote a column about fans being abused by their favorite musicians. Brown goes so far as to call some recent behavior by some musicians appalling and I have to agree particularly as it relates to the Rolling Stones and the Counting Crows.
The Rolling Stones are charging ridiculous prices for some tickets for their upcoming tour. Yes, they are one of the best rock bands ever but $625 for the best seats prices out quite a few of their most die-hard fans from those seats. Of course there are seats available for as little as $60, with other seats going for $99, $150 and $450 at least for the show at Giants stadium, but it just seems like charging more than $200 for even the best of seats to a concert is outrageous. And I probably wouldn't spend that for the majority of concerts, even for my favorite bands. But the worst thing, as Brown points out, about the $625 tickets is that on top of ticketmaster fees, the fans have to pay a $100 fan club fee for the opportunity to get those tickets. So a $625 ticket is really a $725 ticket. Ridiculous. And fans have no choice but to pay up if they want the best seats to see their favorite bands.
I'm in total shock over what the Counting Crows' Adam Duritz did. Apparently the Crows have a solid message board on their official site filled with die-hard and devoted fans. But just because fans are die-hards doesn't mean that they are always going to be happy with everything that their favorites do. So the fans weren't happy with the band's concert promotion deal with The Gap. Well, instead of recognizing their fans right to express their opinions as they see them, Duritz ripped those fans in a curse-ridden post on the message board. Here's an excerpt: "Don't you ever get tired of listening to yourselves? I know I do. And you wonder why I choose not to communicate with you lately. I wonder why anyone would." Well, I don't know why anyone would want to listen to Duritz after that!
Yeah, it proably gets frustrating to read criticism all the time. And there are some stuff that probably gets posted which is laughable. But come on. Cursing out your fans isn't smart. Regardless of what you might think of them these are the people who buy your music. And in case Duritz hasn't noticed recently they aren't exactly topping the Billboard charts these days. Duritz has every right to be angry about what he read on the board and respond to it. But there's an appropriate way to do it without attacking the people that you are dependant on for your success.
A fan's opinion can be every bit as valid as anyone else's. In fact sometimes fans have great ideas or can offer valuable input. After all, they are the people spending the money on your product. But fans can only form their opinions on the basis of the information they are given which can be incomplete at times. So if Duritz wants his fans to look more favorably on the band's deal with the Gap all he has to do is present the reasons why the band did the deal and how it benefits everyone. He is entitled to believe that his fans are idiots but expressing it, particular while cussing them out, just isn't smart.
Posted by silverdsl at 08:38 PM | Comments (0)
Orleans Racing's PR Person, Mike Snow, Responds
I've talked in this space about how it doesn't seem like Orleans Racing has been doing a great job of disseminating information about Steve Park in recent months and I'm not the only one who has felt that way. So it's been a topic of discussion at Steve Park Central. Apparently Mike Snow, the PR person at Orleans Racing, was informed that he was a topic of conversation at SPC and showed up to defend himself. Gee, I wonder who told him?
I kind of had a feeling that he would probably read our comments eventually and it's good that he took the time to respond to our concerns. It sounds like there are some things that they plan on doing in the future such as an email newsletter which will help get information out in a timely manner directly to the fans. They also plan on updating the website sometime in the next few weeks. All of these are good things. He also said that he does in fact do frequent press releases, a pre- and post-race report for every race and gets interviews for Steve on a regular basis. Which is also a very good thing. However, if these things are being done and no one can find any of it, especially when you consider that not everyone goes to truckseries.com, then a problem remains in terms of getting your message out to your audience.
Snow also mentioned about how busy he is which leads to some problems getting everything done. I pretty much figured that was the case. Of course being busy doesn't seem to stop all the other driver's PR people from making sure that information is disseminated as it should be. Some of those PR people are even busier given that they are with teams who have many more sponsors. But it is probably very difficult for Snow given that he is making the transition from being a journalist to being a PR person. There are probably some things that he has to handle that he never expected that he would have to do. It's a tough juggling act to get everything done for sure.
I mentioned on SPC that they should consider getting some interns and I think that would be a big help for them. There is at least one large university in the area with a communications program and probably other colleges and universities close by as well. All they need is one or two people who are looking for some PR exerpience who can help out with some of simpler tasks that would help free Snow to do some of the things on his to do list. We certainly made liberal use of student aides and interns for any number of things in the PR office I used to work in and many organizations came to us when they were looking for interns as well given that we were a university.
Snow mentioned that he intends on coming by at least once a week to SPC to answer questions and all. On one hand that's good because it's a great way to get some information directly from the source. It will also make fans feel good that they are important enough for Snow to come by to chat with them. But on the other hand it is a fan message board and usually it doesn't work out so well to have someone associated with the subject of discussion on a fan message board, particularly as it relates to discussion because people become unwilling to express their opinions openly. It will be interesting to see how his presence on the site plays out. I can't help but be reminded of the former PR person for the YES network who turned up on NYYFans.com. That sure went bad in a hurry but so did her tenure at YES for that matter.
Posted by silverdsl at 07:55 PM | Comments (0)
Steve Park Finishes 5th at Charlotte, Brendan Gaughan 8th
I didn't get to see a single lap of last night's race because we were out celebrating Jim's father's 60th birthday but I was thrilled when I got back to find out that Steve Park finished 5th! Brendan Gaughan finished 8th and that was very a very good thing too. Both teams have seemed to struggle so much this season so both of them ending up in the top ten is awesome. Brendan had spoken recently about how the changes they made based on what they discovered at the wind tunnel would really pay off at Charlotte. I didn't want to get my hopes up too high but I was thinking that if he was right and they did get good finishes this weekend it would be a positive sign that they are starting to turn the corner. So I'm so happy that they did indeed finish this race so well.
What's important is that the #62 team builds on this great finish over the next few races. If they can put together a string of solid finishes in the top ten that will really give this season a huge boost for that team. There will still be some races where they are bit by bad luck but if they can have more good races than bad, something they really haven't seemed to be able to do yet, then they will be in good shape. My feeling is that Steve won't be winning the championship this season, though I'd love to be wrong about that, but what I'd like to see is Steve finish higher in the points then he did last season. A solid top five finish in the points would be awesome for Steve and might help get that truck some sponsorship. Hopefully a few good finishes in a row will lead to another trip to Victory Lane for Steve.
Posted by silverdsl at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2005
Dead Sea Dying
For Dead Sea, a Slow and Seemingly Inexorable Death
This is an interesting article about how the Dead Sea is evaporating to such a degree that huge mudflats with hundreds of sinkholes are threatening to collapse roads and buildings near Israel's border with Jordan and have destroyed some of the plant and wildlife reserves that were on the shores of the Dead Sea. Over the past 50 years the water level has dropped 80 feet and the sea has shrunk by a third. In the next 20 years it's expected that the sea will drop another 20 feet. A lot of the reason for this is that the Jordan River has gone dry but naturally development and industry of various types has also played a role.
When I went to Israel back in 1990, one of the places that we visited was the Dead Sea. It's a very popular tourist destination not just because it's the lowest point on earth but also because it's the saltiest body of water anywhere too. That means that people float like no where else. The water is very warm too so many people really enjoy taking a dip there. Personally I didn't enjoy it because the water stung like crazy because of the high salt and mineral content. Maybe next week I'll see if I can find some of the photos I took in Isreal, scan and post a few.
Posted by silverdsl at 04:29 PM | Comments (0)
Ventura County Star Forced to Disable Comments on Website
Too Much Trolling; Offensive Remarks
There are some patterns that tend to be present on most online forums and I read this article with amusement because one of those patterns played itself out on the Ventura County Star website recently. That newspaper decided that they would add a comments section to the articles that they published on line to allow readers to express their opinions on the subject that were being covered. At first everything was great. There were good discussions and comments that might not have appeared in print. Then suddenly race became an issue in virtually every discussion and the moderation staff was forced to start deleting some offensive remarks. Finally, trolls started posting things just to get other users riled up and the amount of inappropriate comments and vicious arguments escalated. So now the Star has decided to suspend the comments section until they can figure out a way to have it without having to spend all their time moderating every discussion.
This kind of situation plays out over and over again on countless forums and message boards. A board starts off small and everyone knows each other. There are great discussions and everything is fine even if not everyone agrees with each other. But as the board starts to grow and more and more people come in not everyone knows each other anymore. Then something happens and there is a hot-button issue that divides the community. On a smaller board everyone just agrees to disagree but on larger boards groups tend to form and people take sides. Often things turn personal. Finally, trolls show up specifically to start trouble and say things to incite arguements. The only way to get a handle on these problems is by having community standards which are enforced by a moderation team or by having a closed board where only a limited amount of people, all of whom know each other can post. The whole purpose of the Star's comment section is for any reader to comment on articles so having a closed board won't really work for them. But moderating the discussions somehow is really the only way to go.
Unfortunately a lot of these issues aren't easy to handle. Often it seems like the solutions are simple on the surface. Just do this or that. But when you're dealing with large groups of people, even online a lot of thought needs to go into the figuring out what approach is best for the community. And unfortunately as we've learned on NYYFans.com, the larger the community the more problems that sprout and the more complicated they are.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
Lighthouses of Delaware Bay Cruise
Since I am really intrigued by lighthouses I would love to go on this cruise. It goes by a bunch of lighthouses in the Delaware Bay that aren't visible from shore. The cruise on June 4 also includes a look at some of the old World War II installations in the Cape May area. The only problem about going on this is that whenever Jim and I are down in Cape May we need to use the time that we are down there for arranging things for the wedding. Sounds like fun though especially since the price includes food.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)
Kevin Pennell Named Best Jackman
Pennell Jackman for Michael Waltrip
Last night was the Nascar Nextel Pit Crew Challenge where all the pit crews took part in various competitions to find out who is the best both individually and as a team. So Kevin Pennell, the jackman for the #15 driven by Michael Waltrip, was named the top jackman in the individual skills competition. Pennell wins bragging rights and also $10,000. Prior to being jackman for Michael, Pennell was jackman for other DEI teams including those of Dale, Jr., Steve Park and Jeff Green. Michael's team has really been on their game this season and have seemed to work really well with him. So it's awesome that Pennell was named the best jackman.
The team that won the overall competition was the #9 team of Kasey Kahne led by crew chief Tommy Baldwin, Jr. That's no surprise that they won this competition since they were really on their game last weekend at Richmond which is part of why Kahne won. A few drivers turned out to support their teams which is cool including Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth. The reigning Cup champion showing up at an event that he doesn't have to go to because his crew is taking part shows that Busch isn't a complete jerk. I'm sure his crew appreciated him being there.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2005
On the Heels of Bad News...
Re-Signed for INC, Truck Races
I wrote this entry once already today but apparently because I'm so out-of-it from lack of sleep I accidentally deleted it at some point. Or at least that's what I think happened. I remember writing a brief entry about Michael Waltrip getting his contract entended by Speed to work the truck races and stay on Inside Nextel Cup but when I just updated my blog that entry was completely gone. I thought maybe I imagined writing the entry and forgot to upload it but a friend of mine emailed me and coincidentally happened to mention this particular entry. So I know it was there at some point. Jim even checked the server but there's no hint of it anywhere.
Anyway, as disappointed as I was to hear that Michael will no longer be doing Trackside, I'm thrilled to find out that he will still be doing Inside Nextel Cup and that he will continue to work the truck races. Each week I look forward to watching him on INC so I'm so happy he's going to continue with that. I really enjoy when he works the truck broadcasts too. When the action gets good on the track Michael can't help but get excited about it and I think it's pretty cool. His reaction is just like the fans reactions at home to great racing. Yes, broadcasters traditionally are supposed to keep their emotions under wraps but I enjoy it when they show a little emotion. So I'm hoping that if Speed is going in a more serious direction with their shows they don't make Michael tone down his spontaneous excitement. I also like it when Michael talks about Steve Park during the truck broadcasts because it's always obvious how fond he is of Steve. They both speak very highly of each other. That tickles me when my two favorite drivers talk about each other.
This post is probably a lot more rambling than the last version since I'm half-asleep right now but I wanted to put this entry back up since it updates the earlier entry about Michael being replaced on Trackside by Rusty.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:34 PM | Comments (0)
Photo of the Day - Rose
Elizabeth Park, West Harford, CT, June, 2002. I really have to pay attention to when roses start blooming because I would really like to go to the rose garden near Jim's house and take some photos. Even better would be to go back to Elizabeth Park but I don't know if I'm going to make up that far.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)
One Other Point on Trackside
And it has nothing to do with Michael Waltrip - can you believe it!? Trackside is filmed each Friday at the race track in front of an audience of fans. The setup always was that the show was filmed with the panel facing the audience. Suddenly for the past few shows they've turned things around so that the audience is behind the panel, facing their backs. I don't know if this is a permanent thing but I don't get why they would film the show like that. I think part of the cool thing about Trackside was that the panel could interact a little with the audience, even as the show was taping, because they faced them. But now apparently the only time they interact with the audience is during breaks when they have to turn around to talk to them. It just doesn't seem as fan-friendly to me. Maybe the Speed producers decided that the audience was a distraction to the panel but I think it's a shame for the fans because seeing the back(sides) of the panel in most cases isn't as fun as seeing their faces.
Posted by silverdsl at 06:43 PM | Comments (0)
Shea Stadium Head Groundskeeper Indicted for Involvement With Gambling Ring
I'm very interested to see where this one goes. Dominic Valila, the head groundskeeper at Shea Stadium was allgedly on the side helping run a gambling ring for the Bonanno crime family in which he was a runner who kept lists of bettors, paid out winnings, collected loses and recruited new gamblers. In addition to taking bets on horse racing and football, the ring also took bets on baseball. The key question is whether it's accurate that Valila never took any bets ever from anyone in the Mets organization. I saw somewhere else that he is a long-time employee so that begs the question as to whether in all that time if anyone in the Mets knew of what he was doing and made use of his services. Since betting is so highly frowned upon in baseball if any member of the Mets placed any bets with him that would be a huge scandal.
ETA: Not So Fast...
When I wrote the above entry I hadn't come across The Daily News article yet which indicates that there is an investigation into whether the Mets clubhouse manager, Nick Priore, placed bets with Valila. That's huge because he has direct involvement with the players. One would like to think all the Mets players would know better but I'm sure whether he might have placed bets on behalf of players will be investigated. The Daily News also brings up the pitcher John Franco, who was a long-time member of the Mets until this season. An FBI report last year stated that Franco had ties to the Bonanno family himself as he was friendly with some alleged mobsters and left tickets for them to games. That sets off some red flags. Perhaps there is no connection between what Valila was up to and Franco's social ties to the Bonanno crime family but it really does make one wonder.
Posted by silverdsl at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)
Saw U2 Last Night!
So last night Jim and I went to see U2 perform at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey. A big thanks has to go to James, AKA Stick Michael on NYYFans.com for giving us the tickets! That was very cool of him, especially considering how much in demand U2 tickets are. Of course U2 put on a great show. Even though we were all the way up near the top of the arena, it's obvious what great stage presence the band has, particularly Bono. They play with such an incredible energy. They played lots of their most popular songs but also some lesser known songs which made for a good show. I think I liked hearing "City of Blinding Lights," "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and "Where the Streets Have No Name" the best. I had never seen U2 before but Jim has raved for years about the show he saw them do at Madison Square Garden a while back so I was really looking forward to seeing them last night and they certainly lived up to the advance billing. It used to be that I went to see some sort of live music at least once every single weekend but now I only go to a few concerts a year. So I'm glad when the concerts I do make it to are as awesome as last night's was.
There was only one somewhat disappointing thing about last night's show but that really had nothing to do with the band. The crowd was absolutely dead. Sure, during songs like "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" they were into it but for the most part most people were just standing there, sometimes swaying back and forth a little. It was just incredible to me that even on the floor, that the audience didn't pick up on the band's energy. It was warm inside so maybe that had to do with it but I couldn't understand how people weren't more into the music. The other thing is that it seemed like Bono and the band's comments on social issues were passing right over the heads of most people but I guess that's to be expected since people are there to hear a concert and don't really care about the band's opinions. However, I have long admired Bono for taking a stand on various issues and for being so outspoken.
At any rate, a great, great show and I hope to get the opportunity to see U2 live again.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2005
Jason Giambi Maybe Not Done Yet
3-4 in Yankees 6-0 win Over Mariners
Just as everyone was starting to write Jason Giambi off as being done as a productive player he has started to come alive on the Yankees West Coast trip. Last night Giambi was 3-4 with a homerun, two singles and 3 RBI. For this road trip Giambi is hitting .350 which isn't too shabby for a player that the team wanted to accept an assignment to the minors last week. Of course it's a very small sample size of at-bats so Giambi could fall off a cliff and stop hitting tomorrow. But it's a sign that he has at least a little something left.
The other stars of last night's game were Carl Pavano who pitched five-hit complete game shutout and Alex Rodriguez. Pavano has been somewhat inconsistant since he came to the Yankees so it's good to see him have a pretty dominant game like that, though the Mariners are far from an offensive powerhouse these days. A-Rod was 2-4 with two RBI. He hit a solo homerun in the fifth and leads all the majors with 13 homeruns. The Yankees have now won ten games in a row and that's incredible considering how badly they were struggling just a couple of weeks ago. I don't know how long they can extend this win streak but it sure is fun to watch them play right now.
Posted by silverdsl at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)
This has just been bugging me. There's a driver who has a fan message board on their official site which is pretty active, particularly since from time-to-time the driver and his wife will drop in with a message here or there. For the most part the board and the site itself are very well run. The board is a fun place and a good source of information. The webmaster is a presence and will step in if need be to handle problems. However, there is one long-running problem there that has gone unaddressed which discourages me from participating there even though this driver is one of my favorites and I know it chases others away as well. That is that there is some bullying that goes on where some users try to tell other users what they should be posting about or how to be a fan.
Since I don't participate in the board myself I usually just read this stuff and shake my head but this most recent incident really irked me on behalf of the person who found themselves a target. Someone posted an article about this driver's father and some of the racing-related things he's involved with. No big deal right? After all, articles like this are posted all the time on racing boards. But for some reason someone felt it was inappropriate and told the user who posted it how wrong they were to have posted something like that. But they didn't just express their opinion and move on they did it in a way that I think came across as very harsh and intimidating even if that's not the way they intended it.
Apparently this person felt that anything that had to do with this driver's family should be off-limits as a topic of conversation unless initiated by the driver himself. Never mind that I've never seen any rule about that. Or that the driver's wife is constantly mentioned and discussed. Or that there was absolutely nothing offensive in the article what-so-ever, this person just figured other people would be interested in it. We have a rule at NYYFans that we don't allow discussion of the player's personal lives unless it's newsworthy but if someone posted an article about Derek Jeter's father, particularly if it was baseball related we'd let people discuss it. I just don't understand why posting such an innocent article set this person off so badly. You don't want people to be discussing the intimate details of the driver's relationships but at the same time fans are going to be interested in what's happening in their lives and that includes reading about their families if an article gets written about them. Maybe there's something I missed in which there was some big controversy a long time ago about a similar article but if there was no one has mentioned it.
It just seems like something the webmaster should be stepping in on and that hasn't happened. It's possible because there's a friendship there but ignoring that type of thing won't make it go away. I think it makes for a very uncomfortable board because users never know if even the most innocent post is going to get attacked. What's most unfortunate is that since this board is part of a driver's offical site it is a reflection of him in some ways. So it just boggles my mind that fans bullying each other is allowed to continue there.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)
Did Jeff Moorad Violate Conflict-of-Interest Rules?
Enrique Wilson Says Moorad Negotiated His Contract With the Cubs
Former utility infielder for the New York Yankees, Enrique Wilson, just signed with the Chicago Cubs and while normally those type of signings fly completely under the radar, Wilson's signing is raising a few eyebrows. The reason being that Wilson mentioned that Jeff Moorad negotiated the deal for him as his agent. Moorad is a former agent who is now a general partner in the Arizona Diamondbacks and it is against major league conflict-of-interest rules for a team executive to negotiate a contract for a player with another team. It' possible that Wilson was confused and was referring to one of Moorad's former partners but Wilson was asked for clarification twice and both times he said that Moorad is his agent. This might not go anywhere if it's just a misunderstanding but if it's not Moorad could be in some hot water.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)
Manny Gluck, Yankee Stadium's Longest Working Vendor Passes Away at Age 65
Worked at Yankee Stadium Since at Least 1964
The reason I make note of the passing of Manny Gluck is because I know exactly who he is since I often enter Yankee Stadium through Gate 4, where he sold programs from a stand for years. I know I've bought programs from him over the years and many, many others have as well. R.I.P. Manny.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2005
John Darby: GPS Technology Not Accurate Enough for Nascar
Drivers Ask Questions, Get Silly Answers
According to Marty Smith, a couple of months ago during the drivers meeting before the race in California, the drivers questioned John Darby, the Nextel Cup director, on a variety of matters related to speeding on pit road and the process by which drivers are caught, which is new this season. So Robby Gordon asked about the possiblity of using a GPS system as part of the process and Darby answered that they can't do that because the system isn't accurate enough. Well, considering that until this season whether a driver was caught speeding or not was dependant on an official with a stopwatch, that's just ridiculous. An official with a stopwatch, who often had to make a judgement call and missed a lot of speeders they were fine with his accuracy but they aren't okay with the accuracy of a GPS system? Now I know that GPS accuracy is dependant on a variety of factors from weather conditions to the expense of the equipment involved but it seems to me that if the U.S. Military and airlines can use GPS technology and find a way to get it accurate enough for their needs so can Nascar. Unfortunately Nascar is woefully slow when it comes to some technological advances and this appears to be one of them. More than likely they don't want to have to spend the money that would be required to get the system to work accurately enough for them.
Posted by silverdsl at 03:51 PM | Comments (0)
Parachutist Dies in Jump From Eiffel Tower
A parachutist who was trying to film his jump from the Effiel Tower as a publicity stunt for a Norweigan clothing company died when the parachute got caught on something and detached. Yikes! Of course jumping from the Effiel Tower is a huge no-no and he had to sneak the parachute and mini-camera in. I post this article because I was amazed to discover that since the tower opened in 1889, hundreds of people have jumped to their deaths from it. Doing a quick search indicates that number may be as high as 400. Mot of those are unfortunately suicides but according to the above article at least one other death was also of a daredevil who supposedly died of fright on the way down.
Posted by silverdsl at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)
Newsweek Retracts Koran Story
Story Lead to Violent Protests in Several Countries
Damage is Done and Can't Be Fixed
Last week Newsweek reported that an anonymous source who was a Senior U.S. official told their reporter that a investigation had confirmed that a U.S. investigator at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet. Newsweek's story led to violent protests in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Indonesia, among other countries, which led to the deaths of 16 people. Only one problem with the story - the source's information wasn't accurate. The source later said that he can "no longer be sure" of the information he provided. While Newsweek did contact Pentagon officials who didn't take issue with the story before it was printed, it's appalling that Newsweek went with such a volitile story without having a single source who was willing to go on record with a definitive confirmation that the investigation had in fact confirmed the claims of some prisoners at Guantanamo that a Koran was destroyed in a toliet.
When dealing with investigative news the use of sources is a tricky situation. It can be hard to get people to go on record with information if they fear repercussions for speaking out. In addition, if you've got a highly placed source, such as the one Newsweek was using in this case, who is in a position to know the information they are providing and they have always given solid information in the past, Newsweek would have every reason to trust this person. But being anonymous means that their source never has to face the music for being wrong which in this case they were. You also have to wonder if an anoymous source might have some sort of agenda that they are using the media for, which again they don't have to answer to. With stories like this which are so damaging and have such far-ranging consequences Newsweek and other similar media outlets must do a better job of proper sourcing. Yes, Newsweek apparently showed the story to someone at the Pentagon but they should be going further than that. They should have followed up specifically on that item and it appears that they didn't do that.
The second article I linked to highlights the biggest problem with this story and it's how damaging it is to the United States relations with Muslim countries. This damage will be almost impossible to fix. Newsweek 's retraction will never get as much coverage in those countries as the original story did. In addition, many who do hear about the retraction will believe that the Koran story did still happen and the U.S. government is engaging in a cover-up. Unfortunately due to the mistreatement of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, to many the story that an investigator tore up a Koran and flushed it down a toliet is completely believable. So in spite of the retraction many are going to be inclined to think that it happened anyway.
Newsweek has issued an apology but it seems to me that they will need to go further than that. I think they need to investigate their use of anonymous sources. But more than that I think they need to take a look at the process by which the reporter and editorial staff decided that there was nothing wrong with running a story that anyone should be able to know could light a firestorm of outrage without properly ensuring that the information the story contained was factual.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
Was that Jimmy Spencer's Real Email Address He Gave Out On INC?
Jimmy Spencer gave out an email address on Inside Nextel Cup tonight and I wonder if that was real or fake? A lot of people heard it so I guess some folks are going to try and email him. Hee, hee, hee, maybe I should come up with a list of questions never to be asked of Jimmy Spencer... unless one comes across his email address of course. Actually Spencer is very out-spoken so a lot of questions that other drivers would shy away from answering out of fear of saying the wrong thing, Spencer would probably answer.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:47 AM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2005
This Can't Be True... Can It?
I don't like to put much stock in what random people on message boards say because anyone can say anything and there's often no way of verifying anything that they say. But what I just came across when I wandered by the thatsracin.com forum caught my attention. Someone said that the huge mistakes that Brendan Gaughan referred to that he said was corrected when the Orleans Racing trucks were taken to the wind tunnel was, according to this user on the forum, that the bodies were mounted in the wrong position on the chassis.
I dearly hope that this person is mistaken because if this was in fact what the problem was that seems like a huge error that should not have been happening. It's a very good thing if they corrected that problem or whatever actual problem existed that they discovered when they took the trucks to the wind tunnel. And in the short-term they will probably run better. But a team that doesn't realize that they are mounting the bodies and the chassis incorrectly is a team with some pretty big issues. If that is true I'm not sure I have confidence that they are putting other things together on the truck correctly or that they can avoid other making other big mistakes. And maybe Steve doesn't have confidence in that either as per his outburst over the radio after his battery went in the race at Mansfield.
I ask again - what is wrong with the Orleans Racing organization? Mistakes are going to happen but to be putting the trucks together that incorrectly, and Brendan did admit that they were making some huge mistakes, isn't what I would expect from an organization that is as good as Orleans. What's going on there? What happened to them? They had their struggles last season but I never would have expected things to be so difficult for both teams this season.
Now I'm even more curious to find out why Steve was so angry when he got out of his truck after the race and who he was yelling at. Maybe it's unconnected to the problems that he had during the race but it sure would be interesting to find out what it was all about. Any number of people saw him react in that way, and someone posted photos at SPC. Of course thus far we haven't heard word one about what it was about. Had that happened during a Busch or Cup race Fox would have been all over it but Speed didn't even mention it if they even noticed. They're doing another one of those Q&As over on Steve's site and I asked what his outburst was all about because a lot of people were wondering but somehow I have the feeling that he's not going to answer. Gee, ya think he'd honestly answer a question about whether the trucks were being put together incorrectly until recently? Doubtful on that one too.
Perhaps I need to start crossing my fingers to ward off bad karma and bad luck for Steve like I do for Michael. I'm sure it does nothing but make me feel better but it seems like Steve could use every bit of good thoughts at race time that he can get.
ETA: Apparently it is true that the bodies were being mounted on the chassis in the wrong position. Brendan said it somewhere and I guess I missed it the first time otherwise I would have been horrified then. It was added to the original thread at the other place that Dodge told them to mount them in a particular position that they found would make for the best results and they and a few other teams didn't do it for some reason. The whole thing is just perplexing - why wouldn't they do as Dodge recommended, if that's true? Why did it take them so long to figure out that this was the problem? Mind-boggling. I just hope everything is straightened out now.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)
Tino Martinez Named AL Player of the Week
I never thought in a million years when Tino Martinez was re-signed by the Yankees in the offseason that he'd be a player of the week but that's exactly what has happened. Over the past week Tino hit .391 with six homeruns, 15 RBI and ten runs scored. All of this in only six games. This is the fifth time that Tino has been named a player of the week during his career and I would think this would be one of the most rewarding. He's back with the team he loves and showing a lot of people that he's not done yet. Simply amazing. Go Tino!
Posted by silverdsl at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)
Photo of the Day - Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon National Park. January, 2005. Big cliffs of Grand Canyon. The thing is that where we were in the Grand Canyon the walls of the Canyon aren't that high in comparision to what it's like deeper into the Canyon.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
So if I did Have a Spare $2 Million What Would I Do With It?
A Picture-Perfect Fire Island For Sale
I will never have a spare $2 million to literally burn like the lawyer in the previous entry but if I did there are quite a few things I would do with it other than buy a house only to burn it down. For starters, I would buy a house for Jim and I to actually live in. Then I would take a few trips to parts of the country that I've been dying to see. I would also buy some nice things for my parents and Jim's parents. I would also donate some money to charity, including a nice sum to Operation Marathon or maybe to the Victory Junction Gang Camp directly. And some would go in the bank and in investments. Then there's also the beautiful painting in the above article, "Fire Island Beach" by the artist Sanford Robinson Gifford, which is going up for auction at Christie's this week. The painting was done in 1878 and it's a gorgeous scene of the beach somewhere on Fire Island. Looking at that painting it's easy to picture that one really is at the beach. But of course it's unlikely that I will ever have a spare $2 million.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)
Man Buys Million Dollar Houses Has Fire Department Burn Them Down
Wouldn't it be great to have a spare $2 million? Think of all the things that one can do with that kind of money. Well, if you're W. Christopher White, a real estate lawyer from Manhattan you take $2 million and burn it. You see White lives out in Montauk and he decided that a neighbor's house was obstructing his view of the water so when it went on sale he bought it and donated it to the Montauk fire department so they could burn it down for him as they were conducting training exercises. Which is apparently what he did with the original house on the property he owns and lives on next to the house he just had burnt down. The incredible thing is that the house that was burnt down was just five years old so it was a perfectly liveable house, it just was in White's way. That the local fire departments were able to conduct training excercises in a house like this is a good thing but I can't help but think what a waste it was of both the $2 million and the house that it went up in smoke simply because someone's view was partially blocked.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2005
Photo of the Day - Ogunquit Flowers
Ogunquit, Maine, July, 2004. There's a hotel right by Marginal Way in Oqunquit where there is always beautiful flower plantings right along the fence which separates the hotel property from Marginal Way. I believe the hotel is Anchorage by the Sea. A number of months ago there was an article in Maine Magazine about these plantings and it's actually pretty impressive how much time and work goes into maintaining them. I wish I could remember more of the details but I seem to remember that whoever plants them either doesn't get paid a lot or might not even be paid at all even though it's almost a daily job in the summer months. But it was an interesting article that I should try to see if I can find online somewhere.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)
Maybe Not Bad Luck After All...
I had thought the battery dying on the #62 during today's race at Mansfield which ruined a good finish for Steve Park was pretty much bad luck, just one of those random things that can happen. But hearing a little of what Steve apparently said over his radio as per some people were at the race it appears that he feels that the battery going was something that was preventable and shouldn't have happened. It's reported that he said, "The GD battery is going! I know the trucks are better, but there WILL be some changes!" and more telling "It isn't bad luck, we make our own luck and that this kind of thing needs to stop happening."
I have no idea what kind of changes Steve might be thinking of but one thing he's right about is that having great finishes spoiled by these kinds of things going wrong has to stop. There are always going to be things that go wrong from getting caught in a wreck to bad pit stops to mechanical problems. But it seems like something is always happening every race to Steve. And when you think about it to the #77 too given that their season isn't much to speak of. If the team is on the top of their game as much as possible and runs as many mistake free races as they can then when batteries go or the engine blows it's not as costly as it can be since it's only one race. If it's an every race thing then after a while it is very costly indeed. I'm just really glad that Steve won in Fontana, not just because of how wonderful it was to see him back in Victory Lane, but because of how that is what is keeping him from being even lower than 15th in the points. I can't imagine how frustrating this has got to be for him to struggle through these problems just about every race.
What's perplexing to me is that Orleans Racing is a very well-funded organization. The Gaughan family has more money than they know what to do with. So they have the financial resources to hire the best personnel and get the best equipment they can. One roadblock is that they are a West Coast team when the majority of all other teams are based in North Carolina which makes it harder for them but if they are willing to pay enough then where they are located shouldn't be a problem in terms of attracting people to work for them, particularly given that they are located in a very vibrant area. Orleans also isn't new to the truck series. They almost won a championship with Brendan in 2003 and won many races with him his entire time in the truck series. So they know how to get the job done but they just aren't right now.
Maybe they are spread too thin between the two truck teams which is a distinct possiblity given that Steve had mentioned himself before the season started how tough it was going to be to run both teams. As much as I think Brendan is a great guy, perhaps having a general manager who is also the driver of one of those trucks isn't such a great idea, particularly when he is also the owner's son. A separate person as the general manager who doesn't have as much of a personal relationship with the company and the people working there might be able to bring in some perspectives that Brendan might not see as clearly since he is an insider. But I can't help but go back to the lack of a primary sponsor for the #62 truck. Having a major sponsor to answer to besides a few associate sponsors, at least one maybe two of which Steve has a long-time relationship with prior to coming to Orleans, changes things. If there is a demanding sponsor that insists on results then it tends to make the urgency for getting good results seem all the more important. Otherwise a sponsor could pull their sponsorship. Regardless of the reasons for some of the problems, perhaps there does need to be some changes as Steve mentioned.
Brendan has talked about Orleans potentially expanding. Well, it seems to me that they need to focus on getting things in order with their current program before they do that. Another thing Brendan said is that they learned a lot in the Wind Tunnel recently which should help them at some of the upcoming races including Charlotte on Friday. I really hope that's true because I would really like to see Steve get another good finish - kind of sad that his only top ten and top five came with his win at Fontana. He and the team are much better than that.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
Nascar Drivers: 360 Episode One
FX's "reality" show, Nascar Drivers: 360, which follows a number of drivers around to show what their lives are like on and off the track premiered on Friday. I put reality in quotes because much like other reality shows it's not really a true depiction of reality. Even more so with this show as Kenny Wallace, one of the participants on the show, has said that all segments are subject to approval and editing by both Nascar and the drivers themselves. Which means that it's not a true picture of what happens because anything negative, the least bit controversial, or that Nascar or the drivers don't want to show can come out. In addition, I believe that there are some things which are set up specifically for the show, such as Dale, Jr's meeting and relationship with his ex-girlfriend Kortni from last season. Or the Kasey Kahne scene from this most recent episode when they film him waking up in his motorcoach, which I will discuss later in this entry.
Friday's episode focused on Kurt Busch, Rusty Wallace and Kahne. The segments with Busch featured his girlfriend Eva Bryan quite heavily and a lot of people don't like her too much. Many seem to feel that she was taking too much credit for what Busch did or that she's too fake. What strikes me is that Busch truly thinks the world of her. He said that to him she's the most beautiful woman in the world and how much her support and presence in his life means to him and has helped him. So my impression is that when Bryan talks as she does it's because she is very much Busch's partner. She's not there on the race track with him but she is there with him at every race, at most events, in essence a huge part of his life. From what he seemed to say he does credit her with being part of why he was able to become Champion. In addition, all the interviews on this show are probably coached and the answers are in response to very specific questions that are meant to elicit certain comments. In addition, the answers are edited certain ways. So as with every reality show who knows what the full answers are that any of these people, Bryan included, say and how hearing the full version might change how they come across?
Then there was Rusty Wallace and I found his segments to be pretty uninteresting, much like last season. The crazy thing is that while Wallace isn't as hyperactive and hysterical as his brother Kenny, he definitely is an outspoken and interesting guy. But none of that is really coming across in the show. Just like last season I feel like he's self-censoring himself and putting on a bit of an act for the cameras. He even said in one of the segments that he is training his son Steve, who is also a racer, in the ways of acting appropriately for the fans and the media. And I think that he is very much "acting" in that way that all these guys do when there are cameras around and they are in the public eye rather than just being himself. Of course every single participant in a reality show does that to a degree but I feel like Wallace is doing that even more than some others. I actually fast-forwarded through some parts of his segments and I suspect I will do the same in future episodes.
The Kasey Kahne segments were the most interesting to me. They showed him a lot with Kristi LaBonte, Terry LaBonte's daughter, who may or may not still be Kahne's girlfriend. LaBonte is an attractive woman but she definitely doesn't fit the usual profile for a driver's girlfriend which is a lot flashier in looks and attire, often with blonde hair. Even if they are still together now (the show was filmed months ago) I would not be surprised to see her replaced with another woman, or more likely several women, in the future who are more model-looking. That's just the way it seems to work these days, with the driver's significant others seeming to serve as status symbols. For Kahne's sake I hope he doesn't go this route - LaBonte would certainly be a lot more understanding of the way the racing world operates more than a lot of other women.
What really made me laugh was the scene in which they show Kahne supposedly being woken up by his alarm at 8 a.m. the morning of the Daytona 500 in his motorcoach. I'm supposed to believe that a whole camera crew got into Kahne's motorcoach without waking him up and was just sitting there in his bedroom waiting for him to wake up? I guess he could be a heavy sleeper but I'm skeptical. Not to mention what if he slept in the nude? Of course that wouldn't be shown but that would make for an embarassing situation for the crew. Last season there was a scene with I think it was either Jamie McMurray or Junior himself shirtless. My suspicion is that they are deliberately setting up some of these half-naked scenes with the young heartthrob drivers because they know the female fans love those shots. Some have said that it looks like Kahne has "morning wood" but while I didn't look all that carefully I don't know how anyone could really tell with boxers that baggy. I think that's just wishful thinking on a lot of fans parts.
What was really disturbing was one of the last scenes after the race in which a female fan was trying to get Kahne's attention so that he would go over to the fence where she was presumably to sign autographs and pose for photos. No joke, she was calling him over like he was a dog. "Come here little boy! Come over here! Come to Mommy! I told you to come over here!" That's just scary. Kahne is a human being, not a dog or a possession. He doesn't have to go over to the fence just because a fan is calling him over. What's really scary is that while there are plenty of fans who realize that it's not going to make a good impression to act like that towards the drivers, there are a lot of fans who see nothing wrong with screaming ridiculous things at the drivers or doing anything they can to get their attention. What they probably don't realize is how many people laugh at them when they do stuff like that, the drivers included and not in a good way. I certainly understand getting all freaked out when in the presence of my favorite drivers but I can't imagine ever calling one of them over like a dog.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)
Charges Filed Against Fan Who Threw Beer at Giambi
During last night's game between the Oakland A's and New York Yankees, a fan threw a cup of beer at Jason Giambi as he walked back to the dugout during the eighth inning. Giambi didn't react at all, simply went into the dugout and sat down. On the other hand fans around Eric Anduri pointed him out to A's security who immediately removed him. Anduri was arrested for public intoxication, battery and throwing objects on the field. In addition, he spent the night in jail. After several incidents of inappropriate fan behavior in Oakland, it's good that the A's are taking incidents like this seriously. I guess there are some who think that Anduri getting arrested is an overreaction since it was only a beer that was thrown at Giambi but if the minor incidents aren't taken seriously then it won't serve as a deterrent to those who might be thinking of doing something worse.
I'm not so sure that other players would have reacted, or really non-reacted, as well as Giambi did. He didn't even shout anything at the fan. Perhaps that's because Giambi took heat from the A's fans all series so it wasn't so shocking that a fan took things a little further. Maybe he was surprised that it happened. Or more than likely he realized that confronting a fan, even verbally, is a no-win situation, particularly for a player who is already not viewed very well by much of anyone, including his own team's fans.
What gets me is the lack of outrage about this incident among many Yankee fans. There are a lot of factors that make it different from The Sheffield Incident but I would have thought that more fans would be slamming this fan and A's fans in general for their behavior. Instead there is a mostly indifferent reaction. I think there are two big reasons for that, one, that it didn't happen during a play and two, perhaps the biggest reason, that a lot of Yankee fans practically hate Giambi these days so no one gets too upset when beer gets thrown in his face. Maybe Giambi's own lack of a reaction made the incident not seem like a very big deal too.
But I do think it's a big deal, just like all incidents of fan misbehavior are a big deal. I've discussed more than once here that some fan's inability to recognize when they are behaving inappropriate makes the games or races less enjoyable for other fans, not to mention the players or drivers. Fans shouldn't be throwing anything at the players, even something as harmless as beer. I'm glad that the A's and the Oakland Police addressed the situation because otherwise the next time this moron might get it in their head to throw something that could seriously do harm if nothing happened to them for throwing the cup of beer. Some fans ran onto the field during today's game and I would expect that they will be facing charges as well to discourage others from doing the same.
Posted by silverdsl at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)
Vince Neil Teams Up With Hard Rock Hotel
Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil, a Las Vegas resident, is a busy boy. Besides being on tour with Motley Crue, Neil has a new private label wine which he is unveiling at an event he will be performing at in Las Vegas. But the bigger announcement is about the motorcyle-cafe that he will be partnering with the Hard Rock Cafe on as part of their $1 billion expansion. That could turn out to be a very lucrative investment for Neil.
I liked the Hard Rock Cafe when I was there. It's a popular hotel/casino with the "in" crowd and usually those type of places aren't my cup of tea. But I really enjoyed the Hard Rock. Maybe it was because it was a Sunday night which was perhaps an off-night but the vibe seemed pretty relaxed but fun there. We ate in one of the restaurants there which was a fairly casual place but good. Then we saw Hootie and the Blowfish at the Joint, the nightclub there. That's a really great space for seeing a concert. It's not a huge club and the set-up is condusive for being able to see well anywhere in the club. Lenny Kravitz is playing there in a few days and I would love, love, love to see Kravitz perform there. I'm sure that is going to be an amazing show!
Posted by silverdsl at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)
Yankees Climb to .500 With 8th Consecutive Victory
Probably two weeks ago I was just about giving up on the New York Yankees chances for making the post-season. Hard to feel too good about a team that is tied for last place in the division with the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays Not giving up on being a fan of theirs, just thinking that with the way they were playing that it was going to be very hard for them to climb out of the hole that they had dug themselves into early on. But they have gone on an amazing win streak, winning eight games in a row, including today against the Oakland A's. Granted the teams they've been winning against, the A's and the Seattle Mariners, have not been playing good baseball themselves but the Yankees as a team overall are really looking like they're playing with a lot more confidence. The hitting has been on fire, led by Tino Martinez, and the pitching has been good as well.
Enough can't be said about what Tino Martinez is doing. He's been so locked in at the plate and added two more homeruns today, one a solo blast in the second inning and the other a two-run shot to tie the game in the fourth. What's absolutely incredible is that Tino now has twelve homeruns this season and is tied for the Major League lead in homeruns with his teammate Alex Rodriguez. I doubt that's going to last but I think it's really awesome for him now.
It also should be mentioned that the much-maligned Jason Giambi doubled in the seventh to give the Yankees the lead and Robinson Cano, who had four hits today, followed with an RBI single. Not that Giambi's big hit means that he's broken out of his slump, or inability to hit if one thinks that he's done as a player, but I think he deserves some credit for coming through. I would love to see Giambi turn things around and go on a tear but I suspect that's not going to happen. But at least this will give him some much needed confidence and hopefully he can build on it.
Posted by silverdsl at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)
More Woes for Steve Park; Finishes 20th at Mansfield
I don't have too much to say about this race because I could only listen to it on XM rather than actually watch it but what could have been a top ten and maybe even a top five was ruined for Steve Park when his battery died and he had to come in close to the end of the race to get it changed. That meant that he finished 20th. Yeah, it could have been worse but that sure isn't good considering how well he had been running. Once again, it's not something that was in his control at all, just more bad luck and again, what is there to say about it that I haven't already said in this space time and time again about the back luck that keeps hitting this team other than at Fontana? Luckily Steve remains 15th in points but I had been hoping that a much needed top ten finish would move him up a little in the standings. Brendan Gaughan has been talking up how well they're going to do at Charlotte and I very much hope he's right because they really need to start putting together some good finishes. It's still fairly early in the season but to slightly change a saying of Yogi Berra's - it gets late early.
Ron Hornaday looked like the man to beat for a lot of this race but he got black-flagged on a restart. I only know what they said on XM which isn't much to conclude whether it was the right call or not. I think it was kind of shoddy coverage of the race that they didn't really seem to go back and look at a replay to see if Hornaday did in fact jump the re-start or not. In any event a lot of folks felt that he got screwed by Nascar and that he didn't do anything wrong. To further compound Hornaday's problems he left the pits with a gas can which meant he had to come back in, that hurt him as well.
Bobby Hamilton ended up winning with Jack Sprague coming in second. Hamilton came from 26th and Sprague from 25th so that's pretty impressive. Rookie Todd Kulever finished 4th so he had to feel good about that. Other notables include Ricky Craven finishing 8th, having to overcome some early problems to do so and Guaghan finishing 15th. No idea what happened to Gaughan as he seemed to be in the mix for a top ten finish at one point but dropped back and never rebounded. The trucks go to Charlotte and hopefully it will bring better results for both Orleans teams.
Posted by silverdsl at 06:00 PM | Comments (0)
Kasey Kahne Wins at Richmond; Michael Waltrip 9th
Last night's race at Richmond featured Kasey Kahne winning his first Cup race ever. And he did it in fine fashion, fending off Tony Stewart who wasn't about to give up without a fight. Kahne had an outstanding car but he's had great cars before and not been able to seal the deal, either because of something going wrong or because of even stronger cars that he's had to battle. Kahne has finished 2nd six times in his career and has also been on the pole for a Cup race six times so it was great to see some of that finally translate into a win. With this win he becomes the 13th driver to win in all three of Nascar's major series - Trucks, Busch and Cup. What was nice to see was after the race was over Stewart made a point of leaning into Kahne's car to congratulate him and it was obvious that he was pretty happy for Kahne that he got his first win in Cup.
I was pretty nervous about this race for Michael Waltrip heading in. When I looked up the stats to see how he's done in his career at Richmond his past results weren't pretty. Only one top ten in something like 37 starts and 11 DNFs, most of all active drivers at that track. But last night was a much different story than it's often been for Michael there. He started around 24th or 25th and after spending some time back there gradually moved up until he was in the top ten where he spent a good chunk of the race between 8th and 10th position. He lost 8th position to Bobby LaBonte at the end of the race but 9th is still outstanding at a track where he's been known to struggle. I'm just really impressed with Michael and how he got that top ten - a job well done by all parties. His team is so locked in right now and I'm very much looking forward to Charlotte.
Michael was also the beneficiary of Jimmie Johnson's bad luck. Johnson, the points leader, spun and wrecked on lap 81, which sent him out of the race. Finishing 40th hit him big time in the points. He's still leading but it's allowed a bunch of drivers to get much closer to him. So while Michael didn't move up any positions in the points he did move within the magic 400 points of the leader so if the Chase for the Championship were to start now he would be in. Unfortunately it's unlikely that many drivers will end up in the Chase but it's still good to see Michael within striking distance now. I'm hopeful that if his team keeps on running this well he has a good chance of making the Chase. That would really shock a lot of people.
Jeff Gordon ended up ruining his own night by wrecking himself trying to avoid a a spin by Rusty Wallace. He ended up putting himself into the wall, something which he admitted to. It's not all that often that drivers can admit when they do something stupid or when they cause a wreck so it was a little suprising that Gordon was so forthcoming that he made a mistake. But I guess it's easier to admit fault when no others got caught up in the mess.
I wish there was more to discuss from this race but really the big highlight other than Michael's fine finish was the win by Kahne - he's really got a bright future ahead of him.
Posted by silverdsl at 05:33 PM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2005
Roger Clemens to Return to the Yankees?
Heyman: Stage Being Set For Roger Return
Word is that Roger Clemens has a handshake agreement with Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane that if the Astros are horrible this season Clemens can or will be traded but only to the Yankees. And now that the Astros are looking pretty bad, though through no fault of Clemens' since he's been outstanding, word is that Clemens is telling friends that he wants out of Houston and back to New York after his son graduates from high school at the end of the month. Well, I've got a few problems with this scenario. First of all, the last thing the Yankees need to do is trade for another aging, high-priced pitcher. Clemens is going to be 43 in August and he makes $18 million plus another $3 million if he's traded. The Yankees would be responsible for the entire $3 million plus whatever is left to be paid to him for the rest of the season. In addition, I think it's foolish to give up a good prospect, which the Astros will surely want, for only half a season of a player.
My other question is that if Clemens is so unhappy with the Astros and the way they've been playing why would he want to come back to the Yankees? They've been playing better of late but it remains to be seen if the recent win streak is a sign of better things to come or whether they will fall back into the bad habits of April and early May. Of course if Clemens were to pitch as well in a return to the Yankees as he is for the Astros then it would be a big help to the Yankees in terms of winning more games. In Heyman's article it's said that Clemens wants to get another ring and that's why he wants to go back to the Yankees. But even if the Yankees start winning more games I'm not convinced it's a sure thing they will be in the post-season or even if they get to the playoffs if they can make it back to the World Series.
But what really gets me about Clemens pushing to be traded back to the Yankees is that when he "retired" he claimed it was to spend more time with his family. Then when he un-retired he said that the only team he would play with was the Astros because he could stay close to his family and the Astros wouldn't make him go on road trips unless he was scheduled to pitch. Well, if he goes back to the Yankees he's in New York which means that he's going to be far away from his family again. So essentially all that talk about family was mostly empty talk from Clemens. I don't doubt that he loves his family and wants to be around them but it seems that he really didn't mean it when he said that the only team he would pitch for after his "retirement" was the Astros because of his family. That's the most unfortunate thing about Clemens is that while he's a great pitcher you can't trust what comes out of his mouth. Much like many other athletes I think Clemens lives in his own world and doesn't really understand why some of what he says and does comes across so badly.
Of course there's the other issue of what happens if Clemens comes back to the Yankees. I don't want to have to deal with that again.
Posted by silverdsl at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)
Changes Planned to Inside Nextel Cup
By June 27 there will be a new look to many of Speed TV's Nascar shows. Besides the ill-advised move to replace Krista Voda on Nascar Nation with Leeanne Tweeden, Speed plans on shortening Inside Nextel Cup from and hour and a half to one hour, replacing some of the talent on the show and using more in-car communications to make viewers seem like they are in the car during the race. I've got some issues with all three of these planned changes but particularly the first two.
In terms of the length of the show, the longer time has allowed the panel to discuss issues in some depth that they might not have been able to do on an hour show. They talked quite extensively about fire and safety as well as the James Finch incident and I'm sure we would not have heard the same amount of commentary if they only had a minute or two to talk about each issue. In addition, they are able to devote time to going over each race, which will become more important as the season goes on and there are more three-race weekends. In an hour they can only briefly mention the Busch and Truck races and that does a disservice to the fans who tune in to hear some commentary on those races in addition to what's said about the Cup races. With a longer show they are also able to interview the hot seat guests for longer which also adds to the show. The hour long shows were way too rushed and I'm extremely disappointed that they will go back to a format where they will just have to quickly gloss over everything instead of being able to spend time on anything. A more relaxed show is a much better show.
I also take issue with any planned changes to the panel on Inside Nextel Cup. Since one of the biggest reasons I watch the show is for Michael Waltrip, I certainly hope they don't plan on replacing him. I don't see how they can since his unique personality, commentary and his outrageous sense of humor is a huge part of the show. In addition, the interplay between Ken Schrader and Michael is priceless. They are hysterical on that show and Ken often also has some great insights. I think it's a big plus to have one driver from a multi-car, large organization as well as a driver from a small team that often struggles for success.
My feeling is that it may be Johnny Benson who gets replaced. As time has gone on it's seemed like Johnny has less and less to say each week. I guess part of that is becuase he is in the truck series and the races aren't as frequent but even when it comes to discussing what's happening in the truck series he doesn't seem to have as much to say as he once did. I don't know why that is but I can see Speed replacing him which I think would be a shame because I think it's a good idea to have someone who represents another series besides Cup on the panel. Or maybe they'll end up keeping Johnny and replacing Michael and/or Ken. Speed may want to cut down on the humor on INC, which I think is the best part of the show and go to a more serious format where they simply review the races without joking with each other or about their competitors.
I think it's a good idea to use more of the in-car communications to show viewers what it's like for the drivers during races. But if they are planning on doing something where they discourage the panel from commenting much on what happens during the races and instead make them simply show what happens - "Here's what Jimmie Johnson had to say after he caused another wreck" without any discussion that doesn't seem very interesting. Not to mention with the shorter show after every clip Alan Bestwick, if he gets to stay on the show, will be saying, "Oops, we're out of time!"
My feeling is that Speed thinks that many of their viewers aren't interested in any in-depth discussion of anything related to Nascar. That all fans are interested in is fluff pieces like they have on Nascar Nation or a race review that never touches upon any issues. Maybe it's not just Speed that feels that way given Fox's over-hyped Sexiest Driver Poll. Well, this fan and many other fans want some actual hard news coverage and discussion of the issues facing Nascar. It's really a shame that no one seems interested in giving us any of that kind of coverage of the sport, not on Speed and not anywhere else either.
Posted by silverdsl at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
Ed Viesturs Becomes First American to Climb all of the World's 8000m Mountains
Summited Annapurna to Achieve Feat
It took him sixteen years but Ed Viesturs has become one of only twelve men to summit all fourteen of the world's 8,000+ meter mountains. In doing so he became the American to achieve this feat and only the sixth person to do it without supplimental oxygen. Viesturs has summited Everest six times, including three times without oxygen. This was his third try to summit Annapurna and he was almost turned back by high winds which has kept other climbers from reaching the summit thus far. I read elsewhere if some of those other climbers are able to summit Annapurna there may be two other climbers to join Viesturs in this most prestigious group of men who have conquered all of the world's biggest mountains.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2005
No New 35mm Camera Models?
Someday there will no longer be any 35mm cameras made. Some may find that ridiculous considering how many people still use 35mm film cameras, even in spite of the digital revolution. But I was reading today in Shutterbug that at the latest PMA (Photo Marketing Association) show in Orlando, for the first time there were no new 35mm camera models announced. That is a sure sign that 35mm cameras are beginning to be phased out.
I don't use my 35mm camera much anymore. I'd use it if I wanted to use one of my specialty lenses that I can't use on my digital camera like my semi-fish eye lens. But otherwise, I find the photos I take with my digital camera are just as good as the ones I can take with my 35mm camera. And I can almost instantly see the results rather than having to wait to get the photos developed at a photo lab. Considering my constant battles with all the area photo labs, most of whom did a lousy job developing film and printing my photos, I'm really happy that I can just download the photos to my computer, in essence "developing" them myself.
In somewhat related news I'm getting the urge to get a new lens for my digital camera. One of the lens companies came out with a wide-angle lens made specifically for digital cameras and I might look into getting it if it's not too pricey.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
Photo of the Day - Tulips
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, May, 2005.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
Even in Death, Petty Still Touching Many Lives
Five Years Today Since the Death of Adam Petty
Victory Junction Gang Camp
Hard to believe but it's been five years since Adam Petty died at age 19, in a fatal accident during Busch practice at New Hampshire International Speedway. From all accounts, Adam was an exceptional person, who had a tremendous impact on all those around him even though he was so young. In Adam's memory, the Petty family created the Victory Junction Gang Camp, a camp for terminally and chronically ill children. It's incredible what they do at that camp to make sure those kids have the time of their lives and maybe forget about their illnesses for a little while. The entire Nascar community has really embraced the Victory Junction Gang Camp and has really supported them in so many ways, including Michael Waltrip with his Operation Marathon. So while I never met Adam Petty, I can say that he touched my life in a way because I've had the opportunity to support Operation Marathon. Knowing that my donations have gone to the VJGC and will help some children who need a little extra light in their lives has meant so much to me.
On this day the Petty family are in my thoughts.
Posted by silverdsl at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)
Jeff Burton Thinks There Should Be Random Drug Testing in Nascar
Nascar Should Be at the Forefront of Drug Testing
From the article: "I'm not aware of anybody using drugs in the sport," Burton said, " but I wish we were more pro-active in testing. I wish we would do more testing. Without a reason of suspicion, I wish we would do random drug testing." The writer of the above article puts Burton's comments in the context of steroids but I think that Burton is talking about drugs overall. He is very safety conscious and I imagine that he's given some thought to what could happen if a driver took to the track under the influence of some sort of drug. I would like to think that all the drivers are smarter that that, but you never know, especially considering the possibility that Shane Hmiel did exactly that. I agree with Burton that random drug testing should be happening. Nascar is a dangerous sport and every precaution should be taken to ensure that no one is racing with drugs in their system.
Burton points out that there is no driver's union so that eliminates a lot of the roadblocks that stand in the way of drug testing. As he also mentions there are still legal issues to consider but it does strike me as curious that Nascar doesn't mandate drug testing unless there's suspicion that someone is using. It almost makes me wonder if they are worried about what they might find out. If a Cup driver was busted for drugs that would be a huge scandal, particularly if it were a big-name driver. Then again, even if a big-name driver did test positive, I wonder if we'd even find out about it? The financial ramifications for the sport, for the driver's team, for their sponsor and for the driver themselves could be motivation enough to encourage Nascar to find ways of keeping something like that quiet. For all I know, there already have been positive drug tests that have been covered up.
Posted by silverdsl at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)
I Just Discovered that I Have a Carl Edwards Autograph
When I went to Las Vegas Jim and I got a bags full of cra... stuff from the organizer of the Operation Marathon Getaway. Most of what's in there is, in all honesty, pretty useless to me as I'm not huge on driver related merchandise unless it's something really unusual or cool. None of the bags were the same and we just got them randomly. One of the bags had a bunch of Michael Waltrip stuff, which I will probably save just because of how much I like Michael, the other bag had a bunch of Dale, Jr. stuff which I will probably eventually toss because I'm just not a Junior fan. There was also some signed stuff in the bags. I think we got another hero card signed by Michael but there was also small Nextel Cup sign that had an autograph on it. And I could never figure out whose scrawl it was on that sign. Until I pulled it out the other day while I was cleaning and took a better look at it and realized that the autograph isn't of an unknown driver as I had thought but Carl Edwards. That's kind of cool because Edwards is definitely a rising star in Nascar, a very talented driver, unbelievably enthusiastic and positive at all times, and a good guy. Definitely the type of driver that Nascar could use more of.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)
Tino Martinez: Not Done
Martinez Gets a High Five
Bombers Tips Caps as Tino Homers Again
Five Straight for Yanks, Tino
Those are just a few of the many articles from today that are similar to what's been written over the past few days about Tino Martinez and what he's been doing for the New York Yankees. Five straight games with a home run - wow! And what a homerun it was yesterday. It's quite amazing really how good Tino has been. After leaving the Yankees in 2001, Tino had two awful years for the St. Louis Cardinals and one decent but unspectacular season for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In the off-season the Yankees re-signed Tino as a backup for Jason Giambi. I admit my expectations for Tino weren't that high. Well, at least for now, Tino is proving everyone who thought he wouldn't do much in his return to pinstripes wrong. Now it's Giambi who is riding the bench and Tino who is a starter. The question is if Tino can keep hitting at this pace. My guess would be no, he's not going to hit homeruns this often. But if he can keep finding ways to produce at the plate and make himself valuable he will continue to see a lot of playing time. And that is a very good thing for all of us long-time Tino fans.
The Yankees won yesterday 13-9 but they are really lucky that they did so. The offense and the bullpen, two areas that haven't been strengths for the Yankees this season (but then what has?) really bailed out Carl Pavano and the defense. Pavano gave up nine runs on ten hits, which includes four homeruns in just four innings. That's dreadful. On top of that Alex Rodriguez made two big errors which led to runs and for the first time Tony Womack looked shaky in left field. And Jorge has got to start hustling to first no matter how much he thinks he just hit a homerun. But the Yankees did what they have struggled to do for most of the season and that's come from behind to win. Not just once but twice. And the bullpen was solid, which gave the offense the opportunity to do their thing. If I saw more of that kind of never-give-up, we-can-do-it attitude I'd feel a lot better about this team. Coming from behind was always something that the good Yankee teams of the past were always able to do but happens much less frequently these days. I guess some would wonder why I'm not jumping up and down for joy even though the Yankees just went on a five game win streak. Well, they were playing a lousy team in the Seattle Mariners. I''m glad that they're winning but I'd like to see them do a little more of it against better teams. Then again, last week they were struggling against even the weak teams. But maybe with Tino's help, this team has finally woken up and they will play the way that they are capable of playing for the rest of the season.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:59 AM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2005
Photo of the Day - Tulips
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, May, 2005.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
John Rocker: Still Not Too Bright
Rocker Speaks, Should Have Kept Mouth Shut
John Rocker keeps insisting that he's a changed man from when he made some extremely offensive comments back in 1999 to Sports Illustrated. And sure, he hadn't said anything raciallly offensive lately... yet. But he apparently hasn't learned his lesson about not saying whatever pops into his mind to the media. Which is incredible considering how much trouble he got into in '99 but also because he hired a PR person to help him out. How do you even do PR for someone like this? It's all damage control.
From an interview he gave to ESPN.com: "I've taken a lot of crap from a lot of people. Probably more than anybody in the history of the sport.I know Hank [Aaron] and Jackie [Robinson] took a good deal of crap, but I guarantee it wasn't for six years. I just keep thinking: 'How much am I supposed to take?'" I have no doubt that Rocker gets things shouted at him constantly since he made those infamous comments but there is no comparision between being taunted by fans and being threatened and harassed like Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron were. None. Especially since Rocker brought his problems on himself with his big mouth and attitude. Whereas Aaron and Robinson were mistreated simply because of the color of their skin. Rocker's comments are absolutely ridiculous.
As a side note, the history professor who was quoted in this article is someone that I know through work as he's spoken at many of our conferences and lectures. In fact coincidentally he spoke at a symposium that we had today on Fiorello H. La Guardia.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)
On the Injury to Pit Crew Member Josh Yost
During a pit stop at Talladega, the rear tire changer for the #31 of Jeff Burton, Josh Yost, was run over by Rusty Wallace as he was leaving his pit. Yost suffered a serious injury to his ankle that required surgery and will be out for the season. When the injury was first reported it was said that he suffered a bad cut but based on the graphic description of his injury in the above article this was way more than just a cut. And the surgery was much more than just repairing a few torn ligments as first reported since his entire ankle needed to be reconstructed.
Being part of a pit crew is difficult and dangerous enough during a race but as it turns out some drivers will try to make rival pit crew's jobs even harder by trying to intimidate them. This involves brushing back pit crew members and being very aggressive getting in and out of the pit box. If a driver does manage to intimidate another pit crew then it adds time to that crew's pit stop so that is why drivers do things like that. Apparently Wallace is well-known for this practice and the implication in this article is that it led to Yost's injury.
Wallace called Yost to apologize and Yost says that blaming someone would be counterproductive. So they are apparently okay with each other or so Yose says. But I'm not sure that Wallace should get a pass for this. If he was intentionally trying to brush back Burton's pit crew it ended up seriously injuring someone. If that happened on the street Wallace would be facing charges, no matter how much he didn't intent on hurting anyone. Accidents are going to happen no matter how careful everyone is but it just doesn't sit well with me that drivers intentionally try to brush back pit crew members. I guess some might say I'm a wuss or that what's the big deal since this practice has been going on forever. But just because something has always been part of the sport doesn't make it right.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:50 PM | Comments (0)
Dodgers Want Uniformed Police to Control Fans
Last week there was another incident of fan misbehavior at a baseball game that was fairly serious but didn't get any attention what-so-ever. I imagine that's because there were no players involved but given that it led to a delay of the game I would think it would have been mentioned somewhere. Apparently two teens jumped onto the field and when they were arrested the crowd responded by littering the field with cups, bottles and other garbage which led to the delay of the game. I don't get it - the appropriate action was taken against the fans for running onto the field so why were the fans upset? Maybe it has something to do with how young the fans were but fans running onto the field just can't be tolerated and the incident from a few years ago when one of the White Sox coaches was assaulted is why.
Uniformed police roaming the stands during games is standard at Yankee Stadium. I assumed the same happened at most other stadiums but apparently not. Even the presence of uniformed police doesn't stop everyone from acting out but I'm sure it does make some people think twice. But what really gets me is that the Dodgers just created a director of security position at the stadium a few weeks ago. That's amazing to me - who coordinated security if there was no position like that previously? Was there even any security plan? That's just mind-boggling to me in this day and age that it's only recently that they have someone in that kind of position.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)
Wynn Las Vegas Show Cut to One Performance a Night
Le Reve Gets Unfavorable Reviews
This probably interests no one but me but just two weeks after it opened the elaborate aquatic show Le Reve at the Wynn in Las Vegas has been cut from two performances a night to one performance a night. I remember thinking when I first heard of this show that it sounded just like Cirque du Soleil's O which is also an aquatic show. I saw that back in January and I thought it was amazing. So Le Reve was going to have an uphill battle to be better than O. And for at least one reviewer from the L.A. Times, the show did in fact seem to be little more than a watered down version of O. Given that tickets are $121 for Le Reve I can understand why audiences might rather spend their money on the original rather than the imitator.
With how much money was spent on everything at the Wynn and how much attention to detail there is, I'm surprised that this show wasn't made to be a little more original so that it would be as spectacular as the rest of the Wynn supposedly is.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)
A David Cone Sighting
My all-time favorite baseball player is the now retired former Yankee pitcher David Cone. After an ill-fated attempt to resurrect his career with the Mets in 2003, Cone has all but disappeared, only resurfacing occassionally at charity events, usually Yankee related ones. Despite using Google alerts for various other topics, it only now occured to me that I should have one for Cone and that might give me some hint as to what he's up to these days. And in fact it did. Today is apparently ALS Advocacy Day and a number of people will be testifying in front of the U.S. Senate's Health Appropriations Subcommittee in an effort to get them to increase the amount of money in the National Institutes of Health's research budget for Lou Gehrig's disease, otherwise known as ALS. Cone will be one of those people. Much like Curt Schilling, Cone has always worked hard to support this cause. When he was an active player, particularly when he was a Yankee, he was involved in events to raise money for this cause and it's good to hear that even though he's retired he still lends his name towards helping those who suffer with ALS.
In some ways it doesn't make sense that I'm such a big Cone fan because in his younger years he was pretty crazy off-the-field and was accused more than once of inappropriate sexual behavior towards women, though he never was charged with anything. But as Cone got older he changed and became a real leader in the clubhouses that he was in and I admired the way he handled himself, particularly in light of his misbehavior in his younger years. Somehow Cone just had a way of smoothing over issues that brewed among players or between the players and their team. He had a way of helping players who had problems and was always popular with his teammates. But perhaps the biggest thing that Cone did that made him an asset in the clubhouse was the way that he dealt with the media. Not only did Cone always seem to have the right thing to say but he never shyed away from dealing with reporters like many of his teammates. But unlike Schilling who has a somewhat advesarial relationship with members of the media, despite seeking them out, Cone was one of the rare players who enjoyed a terrific relationship with members of the media.
But more than all of that is the way that Cone treated fans. I went to two appearances he did and heard many stories of others who encountered him and he always, even when he was on his own time, made time for fans. And he didn't just sign an autograph, he would chat with the fans and make them feel like they mattered, whether they were a kid or a grown-up. I'd like to say that all baseball players follow Cone's example and treat their fans like this but that is far from the case. In fact, many fans are lucky if they even get a wave from their favorite player, let alone an autograph or a conversation.
Of course Cone had a long and accomplished career on the field as well. He was a 20-game winner twice, ten years apart, once in 1988 with the Mets and once in 1998 with the Yankees. He also has five world series rings and helped pitch each of those teams to their world series wins, though the last one in 2001, he struggled so much that year that his only appearance was a small one. More than all of that is that in 1999, Cone pitched a perfect game, one of only 17 perfect games in the history of MLB. That was truly an amazing game and I will never forget listening to that game on the radio on the way home from my parent's house in Connecticut and how I actually had tears of happiness in my eyes for Cone when he got the final out. I have that game on video and I love watching it.
Ah, memories. There are lots of players that I like. I even have a favorite Yankee - Mike Mussina. But thus far I've not found another player that I'm quite as fond of as I was David Cone.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
Giambi Asked to Accept Minor League Assignment
Prior to last night's game against the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Torre met with the struggling Jason Giambi to assess his situation and discuss various options for how to get him going at the plate, if that's even possible. Though all parties tried to stay mum on the exact details of what was discussed apparently the possiblity of sending Giambi to the minors came up, something the Yankees could only do with his permission. Based on Giambi's comments after the meeting it appears that going to the minors is not something he wants to do, at least not now.
Cashman noted that he is concerned about Giambi's mental state and I also think that a lot of Giambi's problems are mental rather than physical. Unfortunately mental roadblocks can be even harder to overcome than physical ones. There's no doubt that Giambi is a different player now that he has stopped using steroids but steroids don't make a lousy hitter into a great one. So there has to be some natural ability still present for Giambi. Not to mention his continued ability to take walks indicates that he still has a good eye at the plate. So what's the problem? Probably a combination of a lot of things. From feeling pressure to prove that he can still hit without using steroids, to feeling like he must immediately show that he is still worth his huge contract, to having trouble adjusting to not playing first base, etc... Perhaps this is already happening but I think the best thing for Giambi would be to visit a sports psychologist who can help him work out some of these issues. Unfortunately it can be very hard to convince someone to visit a therapist and more so considering his teammate Gary Sheffield made some ill-advised comments earlier in the season about people who use "mental coaches."
Most Yankee fans are of course all over Giambi for his lack of production and a lot of people want the Yankees to get rid of him immediately. While I share their frustration with his lack of production, I don't think the overall situation is as easy to resolve or handle as everyone seems to think. The Yankees owe Giambi something like $80 million dollars and I don't think voiding that contract is going to be as easy as waiting for him to testify in the Balco trial. There is sure to be a legal battle that will involve the player's union and it will be ugly on all sides. In terms of Giambi agreeing to some sort of buyout that may also not be so easy because the player's union isn't going to be too happy with a player taking less money on his contract. It's particularly tricky since this is all related to steroids so anything that happens with Giambi in this area could set a precident for what happens with other players who are found to be using performance enhancers.
Some fans think Giambi should "man up" and just retire. Well, it's not easy for players to admit to themselves when they aren't the same player they once were. It's also not easy to come to terms with giving up a sport that most of them have probably been involved with on an almost daily basis since they were kids. Players retire from baseball at a fairly young age, most of them before they are 40, so they have a lot of life ahead of them and while many of them look forward to spending more time with their families that's also a lot of time that they don't quite know how to fill. Then there's also giving up the camraderie of the clubhouse, the adoration of the fans, and if a player is lucky the satisfaction of helping his team to get to the post-season and win. None of these things are easy to walk away from and I have a tremendous amount of sympathy for any player who has to deal with these issues, steroid user or not.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2005
Photo of the Day - Tulips
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, May, 2005. It was a nice day so I took some more tulip photos. Many of the nicest and most colorful tulips are in full bloom so I had a good time snapping some shots today.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
Roush Conspiracy Theory # 1,001
Trent Cherry is the rear tire carrier for the #12 of Ryan Newman. He also writes a blog for thatsracin.com. When I first saw his blog I figured it would be very safe, very PC and pretty much just give a little summary of each race weekend. Instead Cherry is pretty candid with his opinions, at least about teams and drivers other than his own. Often it's pretty interesting to hear about what he and his team are up to. It give a little peek into the life of a pit crew member which is neat.
So at the Darlington race this past weekend it appeared Ryan Newman was on the verge of winning until a late caution brought on by a spin by Mark Martin. Most of the field besides Newman came in for fresh tires and that allowed Martin's teammate Greg Biffle (and others) to pass Newman to win the race. So Cherry makes a comment in his blog that implies that he believes that Martin intentionally spun to bring out the caution so Biffle could get fresh tires. When questioned on that he says that he was joking because Martin isn't a good enough driver to spin himself.
I don't know what he's thinking with either comment. First of all, it's not like a fan talking about a conspiracy theory. Cherry is a member of another team and some may take what he says as gospel and assume that Martin did in fact spin himself because the assumption is that Cherry would be privy to things in the garage area that the average fan wouldn't be. The second comment is just outrageous because Martin has won 34 Cup race, finished in the top ten in points 14 times and has 45 Busch series wins, the most ever. There is no question that Martin is a very accomplished and talented driver and someone in the garage area, even on a competing team should be able to recognize that. Newman is also a very talented driver with 11 career Cup wins and his numerous poles but this early in his career, for all Cherry knows Newman will come up short in comparision to Martin when it's all said and done.
I guess I think that it's unfortunate that one member of the garage area feels the need to take a shot in public at another member of the garage area. It's not the first time Cherry has made comments like that either as he's also commented on which drivers he thinks are the most overrated. Then there's also the laughable entry about how he thinks drivers aren't atheletes and don't work out which is ridiculous when you consider that Michael Waltrip and Kyle Petty are marathon runners, Carl Edwards hits the workout room all the time, Steve Park works out every day and the list goes on and on. But back to his habit of taking shots at others in the garage area, I'm not against him being critical of those around him. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, particularly in a blog. But I feel like it needs to be done with a little more respect. I don't even like it when the drivers insult each other. I have a feeling Cherry wouldn't like it too much if someone took a shot at no-neck Newman for his inabiliity to seal the deal, in terms of being able to win many poles but not translate that success into winning races, at least not this season.
Posted by silverdsl at 08:50 PM | Comments (0)
Why No Pre- and Post- Race Notes on Steve Park's Website?
Over on Steve Park's website they had asked fan club members to email with our information so they could put together a list of people to email presumably about information about Steve, his site or the fan club. I thought this sounded like a excellent idea and made note of that because some sort of newsletter, particularly with the Orleans Racing site going un-updated and Steve's website being re-designed and also sporatically updated this would be a great way for people to keep on information about Steve in terms of pre- and post-race notes, appearances and other information. As I've noted previously, the flow of information from Orleans Racing in particular is uneven to be nice about it so anything that helps fans know what's going on with Steve is a good thing.
Well, much to my surprise I got a response from the webmaster of Steve's site and I'm astonished. He noted that appearance information will always be on Steve's site as soon as it's confirmed - that's a good thing. But what amazed me is that he said that they have no intention of posting the pre- and post- race notes on Steve's site. Every driver's site posts those and for good reason. Those contain information about the track, the driver, upcoming events, the race and most importantly quotes from the driver as to what they think on various topics.
It might be okay not to post those if they could be found elsewhere but given that the Orleans site is not being updated it appears that finding those could be like finding a needle in a haystack unless it ends up on truckseries.com. I just don't get it - why wouldn't they want to post those on Steve's site? I nicely tried to say why it might be a good idea to reconsider that decision but if they don't understand by now why having the most amount of information related to Steve as possible on his official site is a good idea, then it would take far more than a few sentences in an email to explain it. Maybe since there's no primary sponsor to answer to there isn't as much pressure to make sure that this stuff is circulating in as many places as possible, but it does a disservice to Steve and to the fans if it's almost impossible to find out anything about even something so simple as what happened to Steve in a race. Granted, Orleans Racing will actually have to do the pre- and post-race reports and that doesn't always happen, but when done one of the first places that should be sent to should be Steve's official site.
The webmaster did say that they will be doing the Q&As with Steve after races instead but as cool as that is that Steve will be answering fan questions, that's not really a substitute for an explanation of what went on in a race. Fans ask Steve about all sorts of race related questions but much of it is general questions rather than things specifically related to the race just past. Then again, maybe he's just not choosing to answer those questions as I asked about something that happened in a race prior and it didn't get answered. It's also good to be able to look back at past race reports for information and the Q&A's have disappeared from his site. Hopefully when the site is redesigned the archive will feature those Q&As because at the very least they contained some interesting answers.
I'd say I don't even know why I care so much but I know why. One, because I find it frustrating as a fan to not have easy access to information about my favorite driver, particularly when every other driver has this information readily available on their site and often on their team's site as well depending on what it is. But more than that having worked in public relations I know the importance of getting information out to as wide an audience as possible and I wish it was getting done in a more effective way for Steve.
Posted by silverdsl at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)
Robby Gordon Gets New Crew Chief and Car Chief
In an attempt to turn around what has been a miserable season so far, Robby Gordon is getting a new crew chief, Greg Erwin, and team manager/car chief, Frank Kerr. The general manager of Robby Gordon Motorsports said, "Twice we failed to qualify (Bristol and Darlington) because of careless mistakes made to the car between practice and qualifying, and that will not be tolerated. We have made other mistakes during races that have caused poor performances, and Robby and I have charged Greg and Frank with making sure these same mistakes, or any like them, don't happen again." That's pretty bad if Robby's old crew chief was making mistakes that bad which led to them not qualifying for races or not doing well in the races that they did make it in to.
However, I think there is another issue that Robby needs to address and it's the motors he's getting from Menard's. He obviously feels a lot of loyalty towards them since he's been very supportive and he's pointing the finger at his former crew chief and car chief for some problems. But it's seemed like engines going bad has been a continual theme for Robby this season. Maybe his crew chief made some bad choices that contributed to his engine problems but I'd say that might be an area for Robby to pay attention to as well.
Single car teams are always going to struggle much more than multi-car teams. There's no way of getting around that. But I thought that Robby would have it a little bit better than some of the other teams. He's got sponorship from some large companies so there is some money coming in. And beyond that Robby is a good driver who is far from new to the sport. Prior to the start of the season I heard him talk a couple of times about what he was going to try and do this season and it seemed like he had a good plan. So it's a bit surprising to me that he's struggled this much. Robby isn't one of my favorites by any means but I would like to see him turn his program around and have some measure of success.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)
Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney Marry
For some reason I had it in my head that Kenny Chesney was gay. I have no idea why but I had just always thought that he liked men more than women. But he just married Renee Zellweger in St. John so I guess he really does like women. Apparently Chesney has always had a thing for her and wrote a song about her a number of years ago but they didn't formally meet until January at a charity event. Apparently they really hit it off because four months later they are husband and wife.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
May 09, 2005
Photo of the Day - Flowers
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, May 2005. Not tulips but still nice and colorful flowers.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)
Coincidence?
Life is full of lots of coincidences but when it comes to something similar happening at least three times now I'd say it's no coincidence. I will have to figure out a way to do a little test to really find out for sure.
Oh and note to self: best sweep up around here...
Posted by silverdsl at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
Would the Runaway Bride Have Gotten as Much Attention if She was a Minority?
Interesting commentary by Douglas MacKinnon, who was press secretary for former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, in which he says that the media doesn't care about the disappearance of minorities but focuses undue attention on the disappearances of young, attractive, white women. I would agree with him. I'm quite sure that every day there are people who unfortunately turn up missing. Yet the stories that we hear the most about, particularly from the cable news shows, are those that involve young white women. And unfortunately it's all about money and ratings. One anonymous person at a cable news network said, "We showcase missing, young, white, attractive women because our research shows we get more viewers. It's about beating the competition and ad dollars." That is a sad state of affairs that a lot of people are only interested when it's a woman who fits certain characteristics.
Posted by silverdsl at 03:31 PM | Comments (0)
newenglandruins.com
I find abandoned places to be absolutely fascinating. It's always intriguing to me what might have happened in those places and how they came to be abandoned. I'm not alone in my fascination for abandoned places and ruins as there are quite a few people who enjoy urban exploration which is basically exploring abandoned factories, mental asylums, houses and other structures. Often, to explore these places it involves trespassing so this isn't an activity that is encouraged but there are quite a few websites devoted to this practice.
What I enjoy most of all is seeing photography of abandoned places. So I was very happy when Preservation Magazine did an article on urban exploration and featured some photography by Rob Dobi, who is based in Connecticut, and explores abandoned places in New England. His website, newenglandruins.com is full of absolutely amazing photos that Dobi has taken in the abandoned places that he's visited. He really has quite an eye for capturing some truly haunting and memorable shots.
Posted by silverdsl at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)
A Truly Amazing Photographer: David Muench
Photo by David Muench
In all this time that I've had this blog it occured to me that I've never discussed my favorite photographer. That would be landscape photographer David Muench. For more than 40 years Muench has been creating incredible photographs of the natural world. He has been the primary photographer for countless books and has also had his photographs featured in many magazines and exhibitions. His son Marc, also takes outstanding photographs in a very similar style as his father does so they often collaborate on projects together.
Many of the subjects that Muench photographs are things that I find fascinating such as landscapes that somehow feature water or rock formations. Over the weekend I picked up a whole book on natural stone arches that features his photography. I've always been fascinated by arches and I hope to one day visit Arches National Park. So to see a whole book filled of all sorts of arches from the kind at Arches National Park to sea arches, featuring Muench's photography was really exciting to me. Though I haven't gotten to look at it in-depth just quite yet, what I have seen of it I love! It makes me want to hop on a plane right now and go to some of the places that Muench featured in this book.
Muench has said that he tries to capture the spirit of the land and he is successful. I can't imagine how long he and his son have to stake out various spots waiting for the light to be exactly right to capture their images. But the waiting is well-worth it as the photos that they take really show the wildness and natural beauty of the land. He has also said that he hopes that his photos will make people aware of the importance of perserving these places. Well, I can't imagine anyone looking at his work and not wanting to keep these beautiful images intact.
I'm in no way, shape, or form anywhere close to the photographer that either Muench is. But I would say that their work is an influence on my photography. I can particularly see it in some photos I took last summer in Ogunquit at sunrise when the tide was out and also in some of the shots I took in January at Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire State Park. Hopefully, this summer I will have more opportunities to take photos in some beautiful locations.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)
May 08, 2005
Photography - Red Rock Canyon
Red Rock Canyon, Nevada. January, 2005.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)
Kurt Busch Acts Up Again
For quite some time reigning Cup champion, Kurt Busch has been on his best behavior. I figured that after he got into trouble with Nascar and after the incident with Jimmy Spencer made him very unpopular with the fans that he had matured and learned some lessons about appropriate behavior. Well, it appears I was wrong about that. Busch got into the wrong position on the track when he was laps down after a lap one wreck, was sent to the pits for a two-lap penalty when he refused to get in the right position, had extremely harsh words for Nascar over his radio and when they told him to turn off his engine as a further penalty he revved it instead. As a capper he tossed a water bottle out of his car and it hit a Nascar official in his pit.
That's a temper tantrum of ridiculous proportions. I understand that drivers are going to get upset when they think they've been wronged by Nascar but they still have to do as they are told. There is just no way of winning against Nascar so it doesn't pay to refuse to listen to them. On top of that, it's one thing to express displeasure about something Nascar does over the radio, but if he was bashing Nascar and cussing them out I can understand why they weren't pleased. But the worst thing that Busch did was throwing the water bottle. If he intentionally hit the official, that's inexcusable. I don't care how upset a driver is at something that Nascar does, throwing things at officials should never happen. Especially since the official in the pit is just enforcing what is told to him by the higher-ups in the tower.
The other thing that bothers me about this incident is that Fox completely dropped the ball on reporting on this. The first viewers found out that Busch had misbehaved in some way was when it was announced that he, Michael Waltrip and Jeff Green were called to the oval office after the race for a chat. It was obvious what Michael and Green were called in for but no one had any clue why Busch was in trouble. Am I supposed to believe that they didn't pick up any hint of what happened with Busch over Nascar's radio communications which they monitor? I think that's highly unlikely. For some reason they choose not to say anything about it and that's doing their viewers a big disservice because this could be a huge story if Busch gets parked for a race or otherwise penalized since he's fourth in the points. I can see how it creates problems if they had no video of the incident but it should have been mentioned in some way.
It's even more unbelievable that they said nothing considering the Fox producers were chastised by their higher-ups for twice deliberately not immediately telling viewers that a race had been red flagged until they had gone through some commercials. Apparently they were afraid that some viewers would turn the channel if they knew there would be no racing for a while. They were told that shouldn't happen again and I agree. That a race is red flagged is important information because it indicates that there is a problem, either because there is a bad wreck or some other issue at the track. That's not a small piece of information they are keeping for viewers.
Given these two situations it makes me wonder what else Fox decides to keep from viewers during race broadcasts.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)
More on Sterling Marlin
From Jayski's: Ganassi has no plans for Marlin, to the #07? #40-Sterling Marlin said last month that he didn't think he'd be back at Chip Ganassi Racing next year because the car owner had been reluctant to discuss a new contract with him. Ganassi said Marlin can change that via on-track performance. "Right now, we don't have a plan for Sterling for next year,'' Ganassi said. "But if he wins a couple of races, it's not like we can't change our plans.''
Assuming he needs a new job next season, garage speculation has him moving over to Richard Childress Racing to drive the #07 Jack Daniel's Chevy that Dave Blaney currently pilots. Jack Daniels is a Tennessee-based company that would love to be represented by a homestate driver. Busch series driver David Stremme, who is part of Ganassi's development program, is most commonly mentioned to replace Marlin in the #40 Dodge.(ESPN.com RPM), NOTE: have heard that Marlin has already met with Jack Daniels's reps and is a front runner for a Jack Daniels's sponsored ride, it could be in the #07 RCR Chevy or Jack Daniel's coud move to another team.(5-8-2005)
Oh for crying out loud - if Sterling is to win a couple of races he's going to have to be given competitive equipment and I just don't think Ganassi has given him the necessary resouces for that for a while now. So it's virtually a done deal that Sterling is out of the #40 because I can't see him being able to win a couple of races. Winning one race might be doable but more than that is probably out of the realm of possibility considering Roush and Hendrick seem to have Victory Lane pretty much all to themselves this season. Michael Waltrip has been mentioned as a possiblity for the #40 but I can't see them going with anyone other than David Stremme who fits all the qualities that any team wants in a young gun - he's young, attractive, personable, marketable and he can drive.
As for the bit about him being considered for the #07 that Dave Blaney is currently in at RCR, I think that really stinks for Blaney. He's been bouncing around for a while now, and it wouldn't be the first time he got the boot out of the old #30 car in place of someone else. I think Blaney has done the best he can with the #07 which will never be a top ride at RCR. He deserves better than to be tossed out so soon. What I don't get is the Jack Daniels sponsorship - that they would potentially leave RCR for another organization seems to indicate that they have only a one-year deal with RCR and I'd think that any organization would want a major sponsor to sign on for multiple years. But perhaps they have some sort of out if the results aren't what they want. I wonder what other organization they might end up with if there's any truth to that?
Posted by silverdsl at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)
Yankees Win Two in a Row
In a sign of the times, I'm thrilled that the Yankees have put together a two-game win streak. In the past that would be something that would happen routinely, the Yankees winning a few games in a row. Well, not anymore. But thanks to an absolute complete-game gem by Mike Mussina yesterday and a good performance by Kevin Brown of all people today, the Yankees won their last two games against the Oakland A's. Which means that they finally won a series! How sad it is that winning series, something which they used to do all the time has happened so infrequently so far this season.
I'm not surprised that Moose pitched so well yesterday. Mussina has struggled this season just like the rest of the pitching staff but he's too good of a pitcher to not rebound. And he's not ancient in comparison to Brown. It was just really great to see Mussina pitch so well yesterday and he had to be happy too. If the Yankees can count on getting strong pitching from him more often than not they will be in much better shape. I'm glad that Kevin Brown pitched out of trouble today and lasted seven innings. However, I still don't have too much confidence in him. With today's win he improves to 1-4 and lowered his ERA to 6.39. In a sign of how truly bad he's been, this is his first win since last August 28th! Hopefully he can find a way to get a few more wins for the Yankees but I'm not holding my breath.
What I'd like to see is the Yankees win tomorrow night too and put together a nice win streak to give themselves some confidence.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)
Five Rescued From Mount Everest After Avalanche
Just days after an American was killed in a fall on Mount Everest, five people had to be rescued from Everest after an avalanche swept through the area in Camp One where they were camped on their way up the mountain. One Canadian survivor spoke of how the avalanche swept through his tent and swept him in his sleeping bag right out. He was buried, but luckily he was very close to the surface so he didn't suffocate. What was also lucky was that they were at Camp One, making rescue much easier, though still difficult, than if they were much higher on the mountain. That is an experience they will certainly never forget, which much like the death of the American just a few days ago speaks to the dangers of the mountain.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:09 PM | Comments (0)
May 07, 2005
Michael Waltrip Retaliates, Gets Parked a Lap
Much as I suspected, the lap seven incident was not the last time that Michael Waltrip and Jeff Green found each other on the track. So since that incident the two messed with each other with Green brake-checking and Michael bumping him. Finally, Michael just flat-out spun him. Michael said over his radio that Green brake-checked and that he didn't mean to spin him. Maybe he didn't intend on spinning him but I have no doubt that he sure did mean to get into him and send a message. So Michael ended up getting black flagged and parked on pit road for a lap. Of course he and the team weren't happy about that, particularly since nothing was done to Green, but I don't see how Nascar had any choice but to park Michael. They looked the other way when Michael got into him at least once, maybe more, no way could they ignore it when Green gets spun.
Hopefully there won't be any further penalties to follow. Apparently Michael and Green have been invited to the oval office for a chat after the race. That's probably not a bad idea to warn them both so things don't get any further out of hand. Michael said earlier in the week in an interview on Nascar.com that he's very non-confrontational at least when it comes to business that he ignores things and hopes that they go away. I suspect that's what he's been doing with the situation with Green, but Nascar getting involved will force both of them to settle whatever the issue is between them. I hate for Michael to be in trouble with Nascar but on the other hand it might be a good thing in the long run because it could prevent other situations that could lead to more ruined races.
Some fans are saying that Michael should be suspended for a race or two. But why would Michael be suspended for something that countless drivers have done and not been suspended for? Tony Stewart has spun plenty of people without being suspended for it. Johnny Sauter was black-flagged in a Busch race recently for rough driving and nothing more came of it. Even Steve Park was black-flagged for spinning Jack Sprague last season and he didn't have to miss any races. I don't like retaliation and I don't particularly love that Michael went after Green but on the other hand it's sometimes necessary to send a message. It's just like in baseball how I hate to see batters hit by pitches in retaliation but sometimes it's necessary to send a message to the opposing team. But with Michael, what's okay for other drivers to do isn't okay for him to do because there are so many people who are looking for any reason to criticize him.
I just feel bad for Michael because he probably had such high hopes for this race that he might be able to continue his streak of fine finishes. I hope this won't be a momentum killer for this team. Next week is Martinsville which I don't remember as being a particularly great track for Michael but perhaps he'll do okay. But Charlotte is coming up in a few weeks and last year he finished 2nd in that race so there is definitely something to look forward to. I have a good feeling about that race for him.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)
Streak of Great Runs Over for Michael Waltrip
I had such high hopes for Michael Waltrip that this race would bring him his third top five in a row. I think he was really optimistic too about continuing this awesome streak of great finishes that he's been on the past few weeks. Well, on lap seven at Darlington it came to an end. It appears that Jeff Green, who Michael went to high school with, and that he's tangled with previously, hit him from behind and put him into the wall. Right now they're in the garage and by the time they get back on the track after everything gets fixed Michael will be many laps down and will just be riding around the track for points. This has got to be one of the most frustrating situations for a driver, to have high hopes and to see those hopes dashed by something that wasn't his fault in the least. That seems to happen a lot to Michael unfortunately.
They interviewed him as the car was being worked on and he was so upset. Just really looked like he was about to burst into tears. In fact he was so beside himself that he was just about at a loss for words which is very rare for Michael, who always seems to know the perfect thing to say. I don't think he knew what happened either, at least when they were interviewing him. Someone came on the radio a bit ago to tell him that it wasn't his fault and he said that he appreciated that person telling him that so perhaps he was blaming himself. Whoever was talking to him said that they called home to find out that "one person let off the gas and the other person didn't." Yeah, that sums it up. It will be interesting to see whether Michael looks for Jeff Green to retaliate.
Posted by silverdsl at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)
Third Watch Season Finale
I don't know what was more painful to watch tonight the Yankees play so pitifully that I was literally laughing or the absolutely dreadful Third Watch, which was the series finale. Cancelling Third Watch was putting it out of it's misery. I can't believe how bad tonight's show was. From the ambush at the police station to Cruz as a suicide bomber to the sappy way the show closed, it was a sad ending for what was once a quality show.
Cruz blowing herself and countless gang members up with hand grenades, in essence making herself a suicide bomber was the most ridiculous part of this show, especially considering they had her getting a post-humous medal of honor for what she did. Well, I'm sorry but I find it hard to believe that the New York City Police Department would give a corrupt cop who murdered countless people by blowing them up a medal of honor, regardless of how many criminals there were among the people she killed. Where did Cruz get the hand grenades? She stole them from criminals she was arresting and never turned them in as evidence as she was supposed to. She and Bosco go to the gang lord's headquarters and Cruz goes in alone, Bosco never suspecting a thing in spite of some huge hints. Hello, hop on the clue train!
Cruz goes in and gets searched but somehow the gang members miss the hand grenades in her jacket pockets. Once inside a building full of gang members she blows herself and everyone else in it up. And the difference between this character and any other suicide bomber is what exactly? I'm supposed to think she did the right thing because they were responsible for the ambush on the police station, an ambush in which no one was even hurt in? I'm supposed to think this character is a hero because perhaps she stopped more bloodshed? Please! Cruz went out as a murderer and I think the police department would be trying to distance themselves from her, not celebrate her.
For a while they played up the return of some characters from the past but Kim Raver and Eddie Cibrian were only shown for about ten seconds. There was a nice scene with Michael Beach at least. The show ended with Sully doing a voice-over of what happens to all the characters and somehow all of them managed to live happily ever after. Awwww, how sweet. I guess a lot of fans loved how everyone ended up so happy in the end but I just felt like it was too sappy for my taste.
I guess I shouldn't have expected a good show tonight considering how dreadful the rest of the season was. But I had hoped the show would go out on a good note, recapturing some of it's past glory. No such luck.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:06 AM | Comments (0)
May 06, 2005
Nice Run for Kenny Wallace!
I didn't get to watch a single lap of the Busch race tonight but I do know that Kenny Wallace came in second. That is so awesome for him! His last win was back in 2001 so it would have been great for him if he could have passed Matt Kenseth for the win. But from what I hear he raced his ass off so he has nothing to be ashamed of though for a racer anything less than being in victory lane is probably somewhat of a disappointment. Kenny moved up to sixth in the Busch Series standings which is also awesome. He's really the only veteran (old guy) in the top ten in the Busch Series standings unless you count Greg Biffle. I don't know if it will last but it's great to see Kenny so high in the points. Realistically it probably won't happen but it would be awesome to see him win the Busch championship.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
Krista Voda to be Replaced on Nascar Nation by Leeann Tweeden
Voda Leaving for Job in Pittsburgh
If there's any truth to this it's absolutely appalling that Speed is negotiating with Leeann Tweeden to take Krista Voda's place on Nascar Nation. I've discussed Tweeden before, here and here, and have a major issue with her being hired in any journalistic capacity. This is a woman who has had a relationship with at least one driver and has friendships with other drivers. As I discussed in relation to Marty Smith previously, I think it's a problem any time a reporter has a friendship with one of the subjects they cover in terms of their ability to be objective, let alone when they've had a sexual relationship with that person. What's even more disturbing is that according to Elliott Sadler, as noted in one of the above entries, Tweeden is also a liar. Even more reason why she should not come within ten feet of any kind of news show, as fluffy as it might be since you sure can't call Nascar Nation a hard news show.
Of course Speed will be willing to over-look any of these issues because Tweeden will probably bring huge ratings to Nascar Nation due to her popularity as an object of desire for many men. However, I wonder how Speed is going to handle it if Tweeden becomes involved with a driver or someone else in the garage area? It's been said, and I have no idea how true it is, that Tweeden was involved with several baseball players while she was a correspondant for "The Best Damn Sports Show" on Fox. So if there's any truth to that, perhaps Speed will just turn a blind eye like Fox might have.
In my opinion, Tweeden is a most unworthy replacement for Krista Voda.
Posted by silverdsl at 04:17 PM | Comments (3)
ABC's American Idol Inquiry Signifies a News Shift?
Some media analysts feel that ABC's "Primetime Live" investigation into allegations by Corey Clark that he had a "special" relationship with Paula Abdul signifies the changing values of television news. Some feel that the motive was for ABC to attack a rival network, others feel that it reflects what television journalism is now about. Former NBC news president, Larry Grossman said, "That's characteristic of the prime-time magazine shows at all the networks. They are nonfiction entertainment rather than dealing with the major issues of our time. . . . If it's a good story, it's a good story. The question is: What do they define as a good story?"
I think that's a very accurate summary of the state of television news. It's a sad state of affairs when an entire hour on a hard news program is devoted to whether Paula Abdul had an affair with an American Idol contestant, particularly when it probably doesn't make much of a difference in the long-run anyway given that the judges don't make the determination of who goes and who stays on AI. There's no doubt that an expose on AI is going to get huge ratings so I can understand why they would do that story. But aren't there more important issues that can and should be focused on? I can certainly think of a whole laundry list of issues that seem to matter more than the allegations of a contestant from AI who was thrown off the show and probably has an ax to grind.
Posted by silverdsl at 01:20 PM | Comments (0)
Increasing Number of People Getting Their News From "The Daily Show"
The author of this article mentions among other things that while on his book tour he's discovered that an increasing amount of people of all ages are getting their news soley from "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central. From what I've seen of the show Jon Stewart does an excellent job and it can be very funny. However, as the sole source of news? That's a little scary. I wouldn't depend on any one outlet for all of my news but if I did my choice wouldn't be a show on Comedy Central no matter how good it might be.
I don't always have time but I try to read, listen and watch multiple news sources as much as I can. I always read at least two newspapers a day, check out any number of news related websites from all across the country and also watch some TV news. I like the TV news the least because often they do gloss over or do very superficial stories. When a story interests me I will often go looking for more coverage on it, either on CNN or a similar cable news station or somewhere online, perhaps in local papers. I guess that's all because I'm an information junkie and I like to be as informed as possible about what's going on in the world around me. Of course it's impossible know everything about every single event or subject but I try to keep up with as much as I can, particularly about the things that interest me.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2005
Photo of the Day - More Tulips
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, May, 2005.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)
Yankees Fall Into Tie for Last Place
There is no sugar coating how bad the Yankees are playing right now. In spite of the fact that this team features countless former all-stars and on paper appear to be one of the most talented in baseball, they are playing absolutely pitiful and dreadful baseball. In all areas the Yankees are horrible - pitching, hitting, base-running and defense. That's not to say that every single player is failing in every at-bat or pitch but overall the team looks awful. With tonight's loss against the Devil Rays they have slipped into a tie for last place in the division with... well, the D'Rays.
Joe Torre held a meeting with his players prior to this game and it didn't do one bit of good. Oh, Gary Sheffield hit a two-run homerun, Jorge Posada and Tony Womack had two hits and Tanyon Sturtze pitched a hitless and scoreless inning. But otherwise the rest of the team did absolutely nothing... at least nothing good. I'd say that it looks like the team is playing like they don't care about the outcomes of the game but I still firmly believe that the majority of major leaguers want to win every game that they play. So the desire is still there I think but the execution just isn't.
What doesn't help are the injuries. Jaret Wright on the DL with a shoulder strain. Randy Johnson having to miss a turn with a groin tweak. Jason Giambi out after being hit in the head. Bernie Williams on the shelf with an elbow problem. Ruben Sierra on the DL with a ribcage problem. Not that all those players were productive when they were healthy but being injured on top of everything else just makes matters worse. But all these injuries are to be expected when the team is made up of so many older players whose bodies aren't likely to hold up as well as younger players.
Many are saying that the Yankees should fire Joe Torre or some other manager. Maybe release Kevin Brown and/or Jason Giambi. That a move like that would send a message and wake the team up. Well, I don't agree. The Yankees made some radical moves just a few days ago and made no difference. So why would firing someone make a difference? There's no way that the Yankees will eat $80 million owned to Giambi and probably won't want to eat Brown's contract either. But even if they did I highly doubt their absence will matter much either. Because the remaining players still need to get the job done and I have some doubts about whether they can do it.
I'd like to say that I see some sort of sign that things are going to turn around but I don't. If the Yankees can't win games against another struggling team, can't wake up against one of the few teams that had a worse record than they did, then I see no reason to think that they will wake up and go on a big win streak against better teams. And my reaction - disappointment and disgust that the Yankees are playing so bad but I'm not as freaked out and upset as a lot of fans. The reason being that I expected sooner or later that this would happen. No team can continue to be the best, be in the post-season every year. Just as eventually every player declines as their career winds down, every team is going to go through periods when they flat-out stink, sometimes long periods of time. Is this one of those periods for the Yankees? Too soon to tell but I don't think it's looking good right now.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)
May 04, 2005
Orleans Racing News
Orleans Racing Reorganization
Michael Gaughan Fined
For a chance we actually heard some news related to Orleans Racing today. The most important piece of news is that effective immediately Orleans is severing its ties with Brendan Gaughan's crew chief, Billy Wilburn, as well as his truck chief, Travis Sharpe. The reason that Brendan gave is that they are both from the East Coast which makes it hard to work with a West Coast team and also that Wilburn really wants to work with a Cup team rather than a truck team. Now all of this is probably true but I can't help but think that the departure of Wilburn and Sharpe is connected with the woes for the #77 team both in qualifying and during races.
Now here's where things get a little murky. Apparently Charlie Wilson, Steve Park's crew chief is going to take an expanded role at Orleans Racing. As best I can figure he will be handling duties for both teams in terms of setting up the trucks and a lot of the technical details. Basically he will be the crew chief for both teams. From what I can tell on actual race day there will be someone to be determined to help out as the actual physical crew chief for Brendan. What is curious to me is that Brendan seems to indicate that they are in no rush to hire a new crew chief for him and will let Wilson handle most of the duties for both teams for the next two races at least.
I guess I wonder how well that's really going to work out. Being the crew chief for one team is a tremendous amount of work, let alone for two teams. Every team seems to name at least an interim crew chief when there is a parting of the ways with the outgoing crew chief. So it seems strange that Orleans wouldn't look to name someone separate, at least for a few races to handle things for the #77 team. It's seemed like Orleans has struggled with two truck teams this season and now taking one crew chief and splitting him between two teams seems like it might be a recipe for further struggles. Wilson has apparently taken both trucks to the wind tunnel and according to Brendan he discovered some things that will greatly benefit both teams. That is definitely a very good thing. I just hope that they aren't spreading themselves too thin with what Wilson's role will be for the next few races. That would defeat all the benefits that they might have gained through taking the teams to the wind tunnel and also the testing session in Charlotte.
In other Orleans related news, Michael Gaughan was fined $1,500 for actions detrimental to stock car racing for unapproved carburator booster stems on the #77. I'm not really sure of the technical details of what that is or what it does but what I don't quite get is why Gaughan as owner is fined instead of the crew chief which is usually the way it works. My guess is that perhaps it is that way because the #77 now has no crew chief given the above parting of the ways but it would still seem like Wilburn would have to pay up even if he's no longer with the team.
I may as well throw another Orleans Racing related item in this space. From all that I've heard Mike Snow is an excellent writer and a great guy all-around. Any number of people have spoken highly of him. However, as the PR person for Orleans Racing, I'm not sure things are as well-oiled as everyone might like. I have no doubt that he's overwhelmed, particularly if working the PR end of things is new to him since he had previously spent a long time in the journalism field. But so far information about Orleans Racing and it's drivers has not been disseminated in a timely fashion. From the fact that the website is woefully un-updated to how unevenly pre- and post-race reports and other information is released to how hard it is to get information about appearances or even get questions answered there are definitely some problems that need to be addressed. I'm far from the only person who have raised similar concerns either. My guess is that Snow needs help in getting everything done that he is responsible for and I hope that happens. Because that will only benefit Orleans Racing, Brendan and Steve in the long run.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)
Finally! Scott Saval Booted Off of Amerian Idol
I was seriously convinced that the next American Idol was going to be Scott Saval, who would be a most undeserving choice. But tonight he was finally voted off. Strangely, last night was one of his best performances but it wasn't enough to convince voters that he should stay. Actually it would have been somewhat amusing if Saval had won AI because he had no stage presence what-so-ever, his voice isn't great and his attitude grated. So they would have had a major makeover project with him for sure. But he's gone. While the remaining contestants on AI aren't all that impressive they are certainly more deserving of being the winner than Saval.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:29 PM | Comments (0)
David Ortiz Rips MLB Drug Policy, Says Latinos Are at a Disadvantage
Feels Language Barrier is a Problem
Four out of the five players who have tested positive for steroids thus far under MLB's new drug testing policy are Latino. David Ortiz thinks this is no coincidence because he feels that due to the language barrier many Latinos face that they don't fully understand what substances are banned or why the use of some suppliments could pose problems in relation to the drug testing. One of his major complaints, and I think he has a valid point, is that the player's association meetings where many of these things are explained aren't translated into Spanish.
However, while I think when it comes to important information it's essential that both MLB and the player's association makes every effort to be sure that everyone fully understands the information that is presented to them, I'm not sure I buy the language barrier as the reason why four Latino players have tested positive. It seems to me that there are countless other rules and policies that players who don't fully read and speak English understand and are able to comply with. I'm not really talking about the rules of how to play the game per say as those are things that are universal for the most part in all parts of the country. But what about things like policies in the clubhouse or directives from their teams? Somehow the Latino players are presumably able to comply with those rules so it would seem to me that they should able to comply with rules relating to something as important as a drug testing policy.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:12 PM | Comments (0)
Major League Baseball Unveils MLBlogs.com
A few days ago I made mention of how Major League Baseball had a site called MLBlogs.com but at the time there was little information available about what they were going to do with it. It's now been unveiled and it appears that anyone can sign up to have a baseball related blog hosted there. It looks like a slick site and they already have blogs going from a variety of fans and also from some people who work in the media covering baseball for ESPN and MLB.com.
However, naturally it's not free to have a blog at MLBlogs.com. Fans will have to pay $5 a month or $50 a year to have their blog hosted there. Given how many places there are to get completely free blogs or journals I can't say that I see a flock of people running to pay $50 a year to have a blog on MLBlogs.com. Though I could be wrong because maybe there will be a lot of people who will want to be affilated with Major League Baseball. The one thing is that I'm sure blogs on MLBlogs.com will have fairly high visibility if the blogs are promoted elsewhere on MLB.com.
What I wonder about is how MLB is going to handle blog entries that are critical of players, teams or even MLB itself. Are they going to allow bloggers the freedom to blog about anything they want? I can pretty much discuss anything in this space because it's my blog, on a domain I own, hosted on Jim's server. But it may be a different story for blogs hosted by MLB. Are they planning on reading every blog entry that goes up? Will they ask fans to take down certain posts that are highly critical or offensive? I'd like to think they will let fans discuss anything they want in their blogs but when it comes to what gets blogged about on an official type of site folks tend to be a lot more restrictive than they would elsewhere.
Posted by silverdsl at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)
Schilling Calls Injury Stress Reaction Not Bone Bruise
Red Sox Say There's No Difference
Curt Schilling called into Boston radio station WEEI to say that the injury that has him on the DL isn't a bone bruise as the Red Sox have stated but instead a Stress Reaction. Theo Epstein says that the Sox medical staff uses the two terms interchangably but it appears that while they aren't radically different, a bone bruise which usually results from an injury like getting hit on the bone isn't quite the same as a stress reaction which is usually a deterioration in the bone which can lead to a stress fracture. I suspect that they use the term bone bruise because it sounds better than saying that Schilling has an injury which could turn into a stress fracture. Fractures are never a good thing, particularly for a pitcher.
What's interesting to me is that when Schilling first went on the disabled list he discussed his injury in a thread on Son of Sam Horn here: I Have a Stress Reaction. In that post he says that the injury happened while he was pitching and he felt it, which makes it a wee bit unlikely that it is a bone bruise as the Red Sox claim. Schilling point blank says that it could turn into a stress fracture and he's wearing a protective boot to ensure that this doesn't happen. When Schilling posted that it pretty much flew under the radar because of the attention given his remarks on the Devil Rays/Red Sox brawl and how he said that one of the D'Rays had called Lou Pinella an "idiot." But Schilling's comments on his injury got my attention because it was much more in-depth than what had been said elsewhere and did seem to be different than what was being reported in the media. Yet it seemed that the media paid more attention to Schilling's request for none of what he said to be used anywhere outside of SoSH rather than potentially newsworthy information in the post itself.
I had thought it was odd that Schilling was posting about his injury on SoSH considering he had backed off on posting a lot because it seemed that the attention doing that was garnering him was starting to be a problem for him. So it surprised me that he would post something that could potentially get a lot of attention. Now that he's gone on WEEI to say the same, whether they called him or he called them, I'm wondering if he specifically wanted that information out there that he doesn't have a bone bruise, that it's a stress reaction. I'm not sure why it even matters so much to him but that he would take the time to clarify and comment about the Red Sox dumbing things down for the media makes me wonder. I had been thinking with the post on SoSH he was trying to stir things up with the media again but maybe he's trying, even subconsiously, to stir things up with his own team.
Posted by silverdsl at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)
Some Weeks...
...I have lots of material for this blog and other times it seems like there isn't much going on. This is one of those weeks when it seems like other than a few Nascar and baseball related items there isn't all that much to comment on but perhaps that will change as the week goes along.
Posted by silverdsl at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)
Touch Screens On Grocery Carts To Make Shopping Easier
Both IBM and a company called Springboard Retail Systems have come out with similar computerized devices that attach to grocery carts and feature computerized touch screens with the goal of making grocery shopping easier for comsumers. Both devices are similar with features such as the ability for consumers to create shopping lists on their home computers that they can access on the device in the store, built-in GPS technology which allows the device to guide consumers to the aisles in which the products they are interested in are located, and as each item is scanned as it's put into the cart, the ability to figure out a total bill which can just be handed to a cashier. The last item would save time because then all that needs to happen is for the groceries to be bagged and then the customer could leave.
Naturally, there's a way to keep track of all of a customer's purchases and advertising for products geared towards what that customer usually buys can be displayed on the screen. With handy directions to guide them to where in the store those items can be found of course.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)
New Theory: Jack the Ripper Sailor Who Also Killed Overseas
Every few years someone comes out with a new theory on Jack the Ripper and the latest is that he was a sailor on a boat that docked in London before the first murder. Other murders that the author of a new book ties to this sailor are those in Nicaragua and Germany, where murders that were similar to those that Jack the Ripper committed in London took place in those countries. What's amazing is that more than 100 people have been identified as potential Jack the Rippers. Yet no one will probably ever know Jack the Ripper's true identity.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:27 AM | Comments (0)
May 03, 2005
Dale Jr. Calls Jimmie Johnson an "Idiot"
File Under "Opinions Best Kept To One's Self"
I guess I should be complimenting Dale Earnhardt, Jr. for speaking his mind but when it comes to one driver calling another driver names I can't say I like that. Particularly when the driver calling another driver an "idiot" also had a hand in the 25-car wreck that he is blaming the other driver for. Yes, it's true that Jimmie Johnson had a hand in both wrecks in the Cup race at Talladega. And yes, Jimmie often places blame at the feet of other drivers and makes excuses for wrecks in which he played a role. But I think it's kind of humorous for Junior to be calling Jimmie an "idiot" for getting into Mike Wallace and causing the "Big One" when Junior bump-drafted Wallace into that position in the first place.
Sometimes it seems common-place for drivers to throw around the word idiot and moron when talking about their fellow drivers. And I don't really have a problem with it when it's a general commentary such as "They're driving like idiots out there today!" But when it's directed at a specific driver it's a much more personal insult and that bothers me. Of course in the heat of the moment just after they've wrecked or run a long race, drivers are going to say things that they don't necessarily mean. But two days later? There are definitely ways for Junior to get the same point across without saying Jimmie is an idiot. I don't recall Carl Edwards calling Junior an idiot when Junior wrecked him a few races ago, even though I suspect he wasn't thinking too kindly of him after that incident.
I'm sure Junior's fans are celebrating him for telling it like it is. Well, it's like it is from Junior's point of view. And of course as with everything there are often two, three and sometimes four or more sides to every story. It's funny how Mike Wallace the man who was wronged the most in all of this by being "run over" (in his words) by Jimmie and Junior, has stayed silent except for his interviews on Sunday and kept out of all of this. He's not blamed either guy, even though I imagine he must have his own opinions on how it all started.
As I said here, that wreck was really a matter of a few different factors coming together to produce disaster for 25-drivers rather than just one guy making a mistake. Even if blame could be placed on the shoulders of one driver, it's plate racing where the margin of error is so teeny-tiny. So I just don't get the fervor to tar and feather either Junior or Jimmie for their role in this wreck, or in Jimmie's case for the second wreck. Why does it matter? Every single driver out there makes mistakes so by the time each of their respective careers are over I'm sure they will both have a long list of wrecks that they would have caused. That's just the way racing works - sometimes a driver makes a move that doesn't work out well... for anyone.
Claire B. Lang interviewed quite a few drivers today on "Dialed In" on XM and with the exception of Junior apparently, all of them seemed to say that blame doesn't really matter in a wreck like that because the "Big One" is inevitable and it just takes a tiny little wiggle or movement, something so accidental. It may have been Jimmie or Junior's fault on Sunday but it could just have easily been one of them who caused a 25-car wreck too. So while drivers are often quick to get angry with each other for incidents on the track, at plate tracks it's usually a different story because even a driver who is driving a smart race and trying to stay out of trouble can find himself at the center of a wreck.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)
Photo of the Day - Pink Tulips
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY. May, 2005. Another tulip shot from yesterday.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)
MLB to Create Blog Site?
Blogs are the "in" thing these days with seemingly everyone having a blog. So MLB appears posed to jump on the bandwagon since they have registered MLBlogs.com. They aren't just registering it to make sure no one else uses it either. Apparently they are already set to have content delivered via sixapart.com, the company that publishes the software that I use for this blog, Moveable Type. They also publish Typepad as well. The question is what kind of blogs are they going to have - blogs by Bud Selig and his cronies? Blogs by players? By fans?
I'd like to see blogs by players. But I don't want it to be fluffy entries that never say much of substance. Instead I'd like to have players give real analysis and commentary on the games, as well as what's going on around them. I'm not holding my breath for that to happen though.
Posted by silverdsl at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)
U.S. Climber Dies on Mount Everest
Just like a big wreck at a plate track is inevitable, death is also unfortunately inevitable on Mount Everest. More and more people go to Everest in an attempt to climb it and not all of them are unfortunately prepared for how harsh the conditions are there or how difficult it really is. Even those that are extremely prepared and equipped for the climb can encounter a problem and lose their lives. The conditions are so bad on Everest that rescues can be almost impossible if something does happen. No details were provided as to exactly what happened to this particular climber but I'll have to poke around and see if I can find some more information somewhere.
A few years ago I went through a phase when I read a lot about Everest and some of the other big mountains. It's truly incredible how big these mountains are and what it takes to climb them.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)
Random Thoughts on Inside Nextel Cup
Last night was a pretty funny episode of Inside Nextel Cup. I have to say as much as I love Johnny Benson he's a bit too quiet and reserved sometimes. I guess a lot of that is because he's not racing in Cup anymore and that's the focus of the show. So last night he was off testing and Kenny Wallace filled in, which worked out really well. The combo of the two Kennys (Schrader and Wallace) and Michael Waltrip made for some hysterical bits. Those guys really love joking about with each other and it makes for a good show for viewers.
What was up with Michael playing with Kenny Wallace's wedding ring? Now that was just bizarre. Kenny is in the middle of asking Dave Blaney a question and I see Michael tapping Kenny on the hand. I figure he's trying to get his attention but then I hear the sound of metal hitting wood. Then Michael does it again. And Kenny says, "That's my wedding ring" and goes back to talking to Dave Blaney as if Michael playing with his ring/hand is the most natural thing in the world. Maybe because he was in such good spirits due to his fine finishes Michael did seem to have a lot of restless energy. He's often a bit restless but tonight he was looking around and moving around even more than usual.
I think the panel did a good job of analyzing the big wreck in the Cup race without placing all the blame on one driver's shoulders. I also think that it was a combination of factors that led to the wreck. Some fans are upset with that because they wanted the panel to blame Jimmie Johnson but they have to call it as they see it. They were talking about how the big wrecks are funny in a way after they happen. And I guess it's true. No one wants to be out of the race, have to ride around with a damaged car for the rest of the race or have to think about the bills that come from having a ruined plate car but on the other hand I guess all they can do is laugh about it when they get stuck in a tangle like that 25-car wreck. It just take one little wiggle and suddenly cars are all over the place. Who do you get pissed at - when you're sitting there in the mud with 24 other cars mangled around you, there's no way of even knowing who to get mad at. By the time you figure it out it probably doesn't seem worth it to get bent out of shape about it, particularly since the big wrecks are expected at plate tracks.
Dave Blaney was the hot seat guest and I can't say he did or ever has made much of an impression on me. He's obviously a good guy who can race but he's not got a very dynamic personality or at least so it seems. In spite of how laidback he is, and how he's far from a star in Nascar, he's got a very large and extremely devoted following of "Blaniacs." Every driver, even the least known, have fans but Blaney's are willing to do to extremes to support their guy. The #07 is really just a repainted #30 so it remains to be seen if Blaney will have more success than anyone else in the #30.
Ken Schrader didn't actually say as much as I thought he might about his 8th place finish. I guess that's because as he said the car just really wasn't all that great. So he finished so well as much out of luck because he wasn't caught up in any of the wrecks as anything else. But still to have qualified dead last out of all the cars who showed up to Talladega and to still end up 8th is kind of impressive. For a change instead of getting caught up in a wreck, Kenny was able to drive though the big one by some miracle which is good driving on his part. It would be nice if one day Kenny actually had a competitive car that could run up front and contend for a win. I don't see it happening at BAM though which probably means it won't ever happen for Kenny since when he's done at BAM he's probably done in Cup, though we'll continue to see him racing trucks.
Not surprisingly there was no discussion of the illegal parts that were found on the #00 car, owned by Michael that was to be driven by Kenny W. if it had made the race. Michael was laughing when it was briefly mentioned at the end of the show - I'm guessing he probably did get or was going to be teased about that off-camera. I imagine there might be more discussion of that issue next week after penalties are actually handed down but I don't anticipate Michael saying anything too earth-shattering on that issue given his recent remarks about teams having to be responsible for making sure all the parts on their cars are legal and if not pay the price.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)
Yankees in Full Panic Mode
Cano Promoted, Bernie Benched, Womack Shifted
The Yankees beat the Devil Rays 6-2 last night behind a strong performance by Mike Mussina but the win was overshadowed by a number of moves announced after the game which indicate that the organization is finally realizing that the team could find itself in a dire situation before too long. Long-time centerfielder Bernie Williams will be benched, Hideki Matsui will be moved to CF, Tony Womack will move from second to left field and prospect Robinson Cano will be promoted from the minors to play second base. In addition, because Randy Johnson "tweaked" his groin and will have to miss his start tomorrow as a precaution, Sean Henn will be called up to pitch in his place. Also, Steve Karsay was designated for assignment.There will also be other moves made later in the week when Tanyon Sturtze comes off the disabled list and that could include Jason Giambi taking his place on the DL.
While it's great that the Yankees are making moves to shake things up in hopes of jump-starting the team, the centerfield issue should have been addressed in the off-season. It's been clear for a while that Bernie wasn't the centerfielder he once was and this season it's been almost painful watching him out there. In addition, he's not as productive as he once was at the plate either. I'm certainly not ready to say he's done but the signs are there that he's not the player he was even just a few years ago. Bernie contributed a great deal to the Yankees amazing run of '96-'01, but he is a much older player now and there is no doubt that he is nearing the end of his career. The Yankees should have signed Carlos Beltran, or otherwise addressed centerfield, and benched Bernie prior to the season starting but possibly due to financial constraints they let Beltran go. Well, now they are stuck with not too many great options to address the problem now.
Matsui won't be terrible in centerfield but he doesn't have a great arm so he's not the ideal player to field that position. But what really concerns me is shifting Tony Womack to the outfield. Womack hasn't played the outfield for more than a game or two in six years. Six years! And now suddenly he's the every day left fielder. I assume they wouldn't stick him out there if they didn't think he could handle it but it's probably a bit of a crapshoot as to whether it will work out. If Womack isn't good in the outfield they could put Bubba Crosby out there but he doesn't hit. As a last resort they can stick Ruben Sierra in left field when he gets off the DL but he's a horrendous fielder. Another issue is how Bernie adjusts to splitting time at DH. Jason Giambi hits better when he plays the field which I think is part of why he is struggling to be productive now but hopefully the transition will be easier for Bernie. It's especially going to be hard because it's not like Bernie will be DH'ing everyday, given how many other potential DHs there are.
The big bright spot in all of this is the promotion of Robinson Cano who is highly touted as a prospect with a very good future. Cano was strong in spring training both hitting and playing the field well. If he can continue to play that way in the majors now that could really energize the Yankees. However, after a big first game, another highly-regarded minor leaguer, Andy Phillips, has struggled. The Yankees almost never show patience with their young players so Phillips will probably be on his way back to the minors soon. I hope that isn't what happens to Cano if he doesn't make a splash immediately and he isn't consistantly productive in his first stint in the majors. My other fear is that if Cano blossoms in the majors the Yankees will end up trading him for another aging veteran as a short-term solution to either centerfield or for the bullpen woes. The Yankees need to hang on to some of their young talent.
I feel sorry for Steve Karsay. He's worked to hard and had to overcome so many setbacks in his return from shoulder surgery. Now he has to face finding another team to pitch for, which may not be easy for a player who lost so much time due to injury and hasn't pitched a great deal to show what he's still capable of. At least this way he will get an opportunity to latch on with another team if he can and pitch more frequently since after he rejoined the team it never seemed like there was much of a role for him. Hopefully Karsay will do well elsewhere, except when he's facing the Yankees of course.
I have no idea what to expect out of Sean Henn. He's another young guy who is highly regarded but I don't know much about him. Hopefully he will only have to make one start for RJ. I'm not really that surprised that RJ tweaked something. The older the player, the more at risk they are for injuries. The Yankees are smart to be cautious with RJ because losing him for an extended period of time would be a disaster. I suspect that this won't be the last time that RJ will miss a start due to injury while he's in pinstripes but I just hope that all his injury problems are minor.
As for Jason Giambi, DL'ing him on Thursday when Sturtze returns would take care of the problem of what other reliever might need to be released. Giambi has some sort of arm problem and if it's going to effect his hitting, especially when he's still struggling in other way to regain his form at the plate, it's probably best to have him be on the DL and let it heal rather than trying to play through it and potentially make matters worse. I have no idea what the Yankees are going to do with Giambi if it turns out he can't find a way to be productive at all at the plate this season or in the future. If they were going to be able to void his contract they probably would have done it already and I can't see them wanting to eat the remaining money owed to him. The best case scenario would be for him to go on the DL and then be on fire at the plate when he returns. That's probably not realistic to think that's going to happen though.
At any rate, there are a lot of moves being made with the Yankees right now. It's hard to say whether this shake-up is going to be enough to wake the team up or not. I'd like to think they are on the verge of a big win streak and they will go back to being a dominant team that other teams feared facing like in years past. I'd like to believe that they are headed for the post-season. But even with these changes the reality may still be different from what I'm hoping happens. In any event, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:41 AM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2005
Photo of the Day - Tulip
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, May, 2005. So today I took some tulip photos. It used to be that I would spend a lot of time taking photos on campus, walking around after work and going back on weekends. But as time has gone on I've spent less and less time doing that as the way they've planted the tulips has changed. I took some shots today but I don't think I'll be taking any more this season. A bit too much sunlight in this shot but I kind of like it anyway.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)
I'm Going to Maine!!!!!
I'm so excited! I'm going back to Maine this summer! Unfortunately Jim can't go with me because he doesn't have that much vacation time left but my Mom is going to go with me to Ogunquit in July! I can't wait! I think I've mentioned a time or two how much I love Maine, particularly the Ogunquit area. Yay!
Posted by silverdsl at 02:42 PM | Comments (0)
Twins Pitcher Juan Rincon Suspended Ten Days for Testing Positive for Steroids
This should open a few people's eyes. There are many who think that the only players who use performance enhancers are hitters. Well, relief pitcher Juan Rincon of the Minnesota Twins tested positive for steroids and has been suspended ten days. Rincon plans a grievance and I'm sure he will claim that he took some sort of suppliment or vitamins that made him test positive but assuming that he was in fact taking steroids he is the first relatively well-known player to test positive under the new testing policy. Rincon has been pitching well for the Twins so losing him hurts but he will simply serve his ten day suspension and be back on the field when it's over. Given that it's only May, losing him for ten days probably won't make a difference in the outcome of the season for the Twins in the long-run.
I'm sure Rincon won't be the last player, pitcher or hitter, to test positive but I'm having my doubts about whether there will be any truly big-name players caught. Not because they all stopped using performance enhancers but rather because the better paid, big-name players have access to more resources and funds to pay for designer steroids that can't be detected or have already moved on to HGH.
Posted by silverdsl at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)
Aaron's Re-signs With Michael Waltrip Racing
Will Sponsor Michael's #99 Through 2008
Another bit of good news for Michael Waltrip is that Aaron's Sales and Lease Ownership has extended their sponsorship of the Michael Waltrip Racing #99 Busch car through 2008. Aaron's has been a sponsor of Michael's since 2000, which is longer than I had thought and apparently that partnership has paid off as they have expanded their sponsorship as the years have gone on. In total Aaron's has sponsored a MWR car in 79 races with three wins and four poles. What Aaron's does really well is utilize Michael's comedic side in their commercials. They obviously invest a lot of money in those commercials but also in their sponsorship with Michael Waltrip Racing and in the sport as a whole since they also sponsored both of this past weekend's races. I certainly would never have heard of Aaron's without their presence in Nascar and I'm guessing a lot of other fans wouldn't know of them either if not for the fine job Michael does in promoting them.
Of course one item can't help but jump out at me. Either at the end of last season or early this season Michael announced a driver development program through Michael Waltrip Racing that will compete in Hooters Pro Cup and ARCA Races. I think he might have two drivers that he is working with, at least that was the case at one point, but the driver named in the above press release is Ken Butler III. The name of the President of Aaron's is Ken Butler. Hmmmm. Coincidence? Probably about as much coincidence as the driver of the DEI car sponsored by Menard's being named Paul Menard. At any rate, I hope Ken Butler III works out well in the MWR development program because it would be really awesome for Michael to have a young gun at MWR to be the future of the organization.
Posted by silverdsl at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)
May 01, 2005
Photo of the Day - Ken Schrader
Dover, Del., September, 2004. In honor of his 8th place finish in today's race here's a photo of Ken Schrader from the driver's meeting at Dover. I love this shot because it's such a typical Ken Schrader look. Made me think he was about to question someone's sanity!
Posted by silverdsl at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
Titanic Items Bring Over $150,000 in Auction
Since I was a little girl I've always been interested in the Titanic and it's ill-fated voyage. So it caught my attention when I saw that there had been this auction of relics from the Titanic. While $150,000 isn't a small amount of money I guess I'm a bit surprised that this auction didn't bring even more money. But the items that were auctioned were interesting including a gold pocket watch that got stopped due to water damage as a survivor was being rescued and the only known example of a third class menu postcard.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
More on Talladega
Besides Michael Waltrip's awesome finish at Talladega I was also thrilled that Kenny Schrader finished eighth and Jeff Gordon won. Jeff just had such a strong car today and he really dominated a lot of the race. Today would have been the birthday of Randy Dorton, the Hendrick Motorsports engine builder who lost his life last fall in the plate crash in Martinsville. So it is somehow fitting that on his birthday Jeff had a car with such a terrific engine. As for Kenny Schrader he qualified dead last out of every car that tried to make the race so to finish eighth is pretty incredible. A lot of it was luck and being able to stay out of the trouble that often finds him on the track but a top ten finish has to feel so good to Kenny since he often finds bad luck.
But other than the great finishes by Michael, Kenny and Jeff, I wasn't too happy with this race. The reason being that out of 43 cars, only 11 cars finished the race with no damage. There was a 25 car wreck that took out a huge amount of very good cars and then a smaller "Big One" that took out more good cars in the last laps of the race. It's inevitable that eventually the "Big One" will strike at a restrictor plate race but so much of the race had gone by cleanly that I was starting to think that it might never happen. No such luck. In the blink of an eye 25 cars were literally wadded up, ruined and stuck together in the mud. Many of them were eventually able to return to the race but there was no way for them to be competitive after that. Michael was lucky to have gotten through that one without any damage and Tony Stewart was even luckier as he did an absolutely masterful job of dodging cars coming at him. The second wreck involved less cars but it caught cars that should have been contending for the win at the end of the race instead of finishing the last few laps limping around the track. I just think it's ridiculous that so many cars were destroyed this weekend, especially when you add in the cars from yesterday's wreckfest of a Busch race as well.
What I don't understand is the rush to place blame on some driver or another's shoulders for causing the "Big One." Yes, sometimes it is obvious that a driver made a mistake and caused a wreck or got into a guy and spun him. But sometimes I think circumstances just come together in such a way that disaster strikes and it's not really anyone's fault. Such is the case I think with the "Big One" today. Many people are blaming either Jimmie Johnson or Dale Earnhardt, Jr. depending on which driver they like and which driver they hate but I can't really blame either one though they both probably had a role in what happened. It just worked out that Junior bump-drafted Mike Wallace at the same time that Jimmie Johnson wiggled up the track. Which led to disaster. I guess everyone wants to have a villian but the drivers really don't want to wreck each other or themselves for that matter so it's hard for me to hate a driver because they had a hand in a wreck or turned a guy because all the drivers are going to make mistakes from time to time and the vast majority of the time there is no intent behind it.
That said, I am starting to get concerned by the way Jimmie Johnson is driving. I've always liked Johnson but increasingly I've found him grating on me this season. First, he seems to be involved in quite a few on-track incidents this season. Impatience, frustration, I don't know what but he often seems to be a factor. Again, I hate to place blame on one driver's shoulders because sometimes things just happen but there does seem to be a bit of a pattern developing and it might not be a good one, particularly if Johnson wants to win the Championship this season. What's also bothering me is that his attitude in interviews is troublesome as well. He never wants to admit the slightest bit of fault in any incident and is always quick to blame someone else. Yes, as mentioned often blame can be spread around for incidents, but sometimes it's nice to hear a guy acknowledge fault and apologize. I'm guessing his fellow competitiors like that too.
I'm glad that there isn't another plate race coming up for a while. Some people love the excitement, some people love the potential for a big wreck, I just hold my breath until the race is over hoping that Michael doesn't get caught up in anything and that no drivers get hurt.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)
Michael Waltrip Finishes Third at Talladega!!
Another awesome finish for Michael Waltrip! Third at Talladega! I suppose that he might be the slightest bit disappointed that he didn't win since he is so outstanding at plate tracks but given that the car was on the verge of blowing up on the last couple of laps he's probably just lucky to have finished. I'm just so impressed with the way Michael and the entire #15 team have really come on strong the last few races. Sixth at Texas, second at Phoenix and now third at Talladega - just terrific! It seems like they are really locked in right now and it makes me so happy! Even an early problem in the pits where a tire got away and they were penalized was something they were able to overcome which is the sign of a good team.
Michael moved up to 15th in the points which on the surface doesn't seem so great. But considering at one point they were something like 38th in points after some early season misfortune to now be 15th is amazing. They are moving up in the points at the right time too. As the season goes on it will be harder and harder to make these big jumps in the points. My dream would be for Michael to crack the top ten in points, stay there all season long and be in the Chase for the Championship. I don't know if that's realistic because he's going to face a ton of competition but he is certainly capable of a season like that if everything falls into place for him.
A couple of times under caution Michael mentioned on the radio that no one seemed willing to work with him. Which really hurt him a couple of times when he tried to make a move and no one would go with him which translated into losing spots. In the end it didn't hurt him too much as he ended up in third, but one does have to wonder if he had gotten more people to work with him if he could have mounted more of a charge on Jeff Gordon and potentially could have won. I haven't heard if Junior experienced similar problems but it wouldn't have surprised me because when you've got a team that has been so dominant at plate tracks I would think that there are some teams who aren't going to be so keen on doing a lot to help them out.
There is one thing that really gets me though. That's how the Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fans are starting to freak out about Michael's recent fine finishes. Junior hasn't done badly himself by any means the past few races either but he hasn't done quite as well as Michael and to a lot of Junior fans that's unacceptable. Because to some of these fans even though there are two and sometimes three Cup teams at DEI, the DEI team that should be finishing the best in every single race is Junior's. Somehow that Junior and his team haven't finished as well becomes Michael's fault. Michael plays the hand that is dealt to him and right now it's a very good hand. He deserves success just as much as Junior does. In fact, Junior's own father hand-picked Michael for the #15 team and wanted him to do well. So the level of outrage directed towards Michael just amazes and saddens me.
What bothers me the most is that Michael is being accused of being selfish or a poor teammate. That's ironic considering today during one of the cautions Michael asked his spotter to radio Junior and remind him that they are teammates and should work together. That's neither selfish nor being a poor teammate. But Michael has no obligation to hang at Junior's bumper and try to push him into the lead. Especially if he doesn't feel like Junior is working well with him. Michael wants to win these races just as much as Junior does and he should be doing everything he can to win. Calling a driver who wants to win selfish is ridiculous anyway - that's what they're supposed to be out there doing. And if anyone thinks that Michael as a person off the track is selfish that's even more ridiculous - see raising $1 million via Operation Marathon for the Victory Junction Gang Camp and all that he does for his fans as evidence that he is certainly not selfish.
At any rate, it was a terrific day for Michael. I really look forward to him getting some positive press this week and I'll have my fingers crossed for him that he will have a great race next week in Darlington too.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:10 PM | Comments (0)
Steve Park Finishes 13th at Gateway
I meant to blog about this earlier but didn't get around to it sooner. But in last night's race at Gateway International Raceway, Steve Park finished 13th and Brendan Gaughan finished 22nd. Prior to the race Steve had talked about how he felt that Gateway "owed him one" since last year he was running 4th in this race until his transmission went. Well, this year mechanically everything seemed sound but they just didn't get as good of a finish as I'm sure they would have liked. I didn't get to tune in until the last 30 or 40 laps but apparently at one point they were in the top ten but after a pit stop they lost spots that they weren't really able to make back up. That's not good. I'm not sure what happened to Brendan but it seemed like at the end of the race he lost a bunch of spots too.
Steve moved up to 15th in the points which is very good. And he's not out of the top ten in points by much which is great because a couple of awesome finishes could vault him into the top ten. Still, I'm disappointed by Steve's finish last night as well as the season overall for this team in spite of the win at California. I guess some will think I'm a bad fan for not being thrilled for Steve because he finished 13th and moved up a bit in the points. But my expectations for Steve and this team are to do better than they did last season. And in order for them to do that they are going to have to rack up the top tens, top fives and win a few more races. 13th is definitely not bad but I would have liked it to have been even better - Steve is certainly a better racer than what the majority of his finishes (other than California of course) this season have been including last night.
The season is far from over so there is plenty of time for the #62 team to go on a great run and put together some excellent finishes. They definitely have it in them. Any team that can win is certainly capable of winning again. But I had hoped to see them build on that win and thus far they haven't. Some will say I'm being negative, because that 13th place finish isn't too bad, but it's just so important to get some momentum going. For Steve's sake, for the crew's sake, for the entire team's sake. The good feelings from the win will only go so far, particularly as more and more time goes by between great finishes. So I hope that if not a win, this team has a bunch of top tens and top fives in their future.
I can't even pinpoint anything that they can work on really. Unlike at DEI where everyone has been fairly forthcoming about what some of their issues are and where they need to make improvements, Orleans, Steve, Brendan and everyone else seem to be fairly tight-lipped about what issues they may or may not have and what they might be working on. No team likes to talk about the negative stuff but it seems like a lot of stuff goes unexplained. We never did hear anything about what occured in the pits in Martinsville and how the air gun hose came to be stuck in the truck when Steve left the pit. Nor did we hear anything about the tangle on pit road with Ted Musgrave if that actually happened. Nor did we hear why his engine expired in the race before that. So I guess we might never hear why Steve's truck wasn't as good as he would have liked after that pit stop or what happened to Brendan. Maybe it's just all random bad luck or maybe they still need to work on some things in the pits or at the shop. No idea, I just hope that in Mansfield we see Steve running up front.
Posted by silverdsl at 08:47 PM | Comments (0)
Charity Auction Will Give One Lucky Winner Opportunity to Spend Day in Busch Pits
Money Will Go To Victory Junction Gang Camp
Kevin Harvick Incorporated is auctioning off the opportunity for someone to spend the day as a guest of the #33 team for the Busch race in Charlotte in May. The winner will be able to watch the team prepare the car, tour the hauler, met the crew and watch the race from the #33 pit. The money raised from this auction will go to the Victory Junction Gang Camp.
Last Fall I won a similar auction which Michael Waltrip Racing ran to raise money for Operation Marathon, a charity fundraiser which raised $1 million for the VJGC. I was Michael's guest at the Dover race in September and it was one of the best experiences of my life as I got to see all the behind-the-scenes action of everything that happens on Cup race day. I got to do so many awesome things including visit with Michael by his motorcoach, tour a couple of haulers, meet some drivers, see all the action in the garage area, go to the drivers meeting, sit in on the #15 crew meeting, watch the driver's introductions from up-close, ride around the track with Michael on a truck during the driver's introductions, stand next to Michael and Buffy during the pre-race ceremonies next to the car on pit road and watch the race from the #15 pit. All very cool things, made even better because we had a wonderful tour guide with us that day, Michael's PR person, Brooke Hondros.
I've posted pictures from that day in this blog and it was just an amazing experience. So I have no doubt that whoever wins that auction is going to have a great time. There is nothing like being up-close to the action in the garage area. However, I noticed in the small print that there is no guarentee that the auction winner will get to meet Tony Stewart, the driver of the #33. While the auction is still cool regardless, I can't help but think that it would be nice if the auction winner did get the opportunity to meet either Tony or Kevin Harvick. While I know that there are considerable demands on the driver's time, all that it would require is five minutes to say "hi" and sign a couple of autographs. If Michael Waltrip could do it the morning of a Cup race, then Tony or Kevin could do it the morning of a Busch race. It would probably mean that the auction would bring in more money too.
Posted by silverdsl at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)
A-Rod Severs Ties With Memorabilia Company
Tried to Sell Memorabilia From Ten RBI Game Without His Permission
The company, A-Rod Authenticated, that Alex Rodriguez previously worked with on "The Ultimate Experience," an event with Barry Bonds, started running ads immediately after A-Rod's amazing ten RBI game the other night saying that for the "low" price of $399, fans could purchase special balls with his stat line from the night and his autograph. Not surprisingly, because A-Rod is raked over the coals for everything that he does that doesn't involve ten RBI, both fans and the media criticized him. Turns out A-Rod never gave permission for A-Rod Authenticated to sell those balls and he has severed his ties to the company.
I find it a little suspicious that this company, which A-Rod had said that he had formed a partnership with to have control over who sold his memorabilia and to make sure it was authentic, would decide on their own not just to sell these balls but to run ads promoting their sale. Suppossedly A-Rod was so upset about the sale of these balls but he't not going to pursue legal action - well, why not if they did him wrong? I can't help but wonder if A-Rod, or at least his people, did give the okay for the balls to be sold at some point and either didn't realize they would be sold now during the season or didn't expect the criticism.
It's actually kind of funny to me that A-Rod was getting flack for doing the exact same thing that every other player does. Perhaps a little more time goes by before they start selling autographed memorablia related to whatever big accomplishment they've made but inevitably they all do it. For example, David Cone and David Wells did it for their perfect games. Granted perfect games may be somewhat different than a ten-RBI night but I can't think of too many players who don't sign stuff and sell it for inflated prices. At least, as A-Rod noted in the article, he tries to donate most of the proceeds from autograph sales to charity. I suspect not too many other players do too much of that, even the ones who are multi-millionares like A-Rod.
It's actually ridiculous how much the players charge for their autographs or the memoribilia companies like Steiner Sports charge for autographed items. Derek Jeter signed baseballs for example go for $350 on the Steiner website. I don't care who the player is who signed it, I'm not paying $350 for someone's autograph. I have paid up to $100 for certain player's signature and I didn't like doing it. In those cases (David Cone, Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill) it was to get their autographs on photos I had taken of them and since it's not like in Nascar where the drivers do free or inexpensive signings all the time, I had no choice but to pay the price to get their signatures. But I don't think I'd pay that much again, even though it's a neat thing to have the player's signatures on a photo that I took. It just seems like a lot of money for someone's signature.
Posted by silverdsl at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)
Boy Lost Off of Cape May Whale Watch Boat
Told To Stop Horse-Play, Didn't Listen
This story caught my attention because I think I've been on this boat a few years ago when I went on a Whale/Dolphin watch in Cape May. Apparently this boat went out in rough seas on the first trip of the season with a group of boy scouts. The kids were playing a game in which they were jumping up and down with the waves to get airborne, and the boy accidently fell overboard, in spite of 44-inch high railings. A life preserver was thrown to him and an off-duty employee of the boat jumped in after him but he slipped under the water and was gone almost instantly.
What gets me is that both the daughter of the boat's captain and the chaperones of the boy scout group told the kids to stop playing the wave jumping game but as soon as the adult's backs were turned they would go right back to their jumping game. Just about every situation you can say "if only..." and this is no different. If only those kids had settled down when they were told. Accidents can always happen but I just hate to hear these stories in which a bad decision led to disaster.
Posted by silverdsl at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)