"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do, I stare out the window and wait for spring." - Rogers Hornsby

:: Saturday, February 01, 2003 ::

Memorial to the crew of the space shuttle Columbia was moved to the left panel of my blog, Monday, February 3

:: posted by Al at 10:36 AM [+] ::
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Movie Review: "Confessions of A Dangerous Mind"

This is based on the autobiography of Chuck Barris, creator of "The Dating Game", "The Newlywed Game", "The Gong Show", among others. In it, he not only tells how he created these shows, but claims to have been a CIA operative and killed 33 people in its service. The CIA, for its part, says this is ridiculous, and it never happened, but it does make for an entertaining film.

The film goes back and forth between showing Barris' child- and young adult- hood, as a young man obsessed with having sex, which apparently pushed him toward creating "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game". There's a hilarious scene staged for "The Dating Game", using well-known actors, which I won't spoil here.

George Clooney directed this film, his first as a director, and spins it around wildly at times, with weird color schemes and transitions, but in the context of the subject matter, they all work. Clooney also appears in the film as Barris' CIA contact, played in almost a caricature, a low-key cloak-and-dagger guy, the stereotype we all thought of when we thought of 1960's era spies (though most of them probably didn't sport a mustache as Clooney does here!).

Sam Rockwell, in his first leading role, does a terrific job as Barris; there are times when his mannerisms are so much like the real Barris (the "Gong Show" scenes) it's frightening. Drew Barrymore, who has turned both her life and career around, does a wonderful job as Penny, the girl who stands by Barris no matter what.

Lots of fun in this film; well worth seeing.

AYRating: 3.5 stars

:: posted by Al at 10:11 AM [+] ::
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Sports Jerk of the Week

After both Tracy McGrady and of all people, Allen Iverson, offered their starting spots on the NBA Eastern Conference All-Star team to Michael Jordan, as a measure of respect for all Jordan has accomplished, today, Vince Carter of the Toronto Raptors refused to do so, supposedly citing the "millions of fans who voted for him".

Get real, Vince. Please. Other All-Stars in the past have given up their spots to honor veterans -- Doug Collins in 1978 for John Havlicek, and Tim Hardaway in 1992 for Magic Johnson.

Just two years ago in the baseball All-Star Game, Alex Rodriguez moved over to third base so that Cal Ripken could play one last game at his original position, shortstop.

These were class acts, but we shouldn't expect much from some people who are part of the "It's All About Me" Generation.

:: posted by Al at 4:41 PM [+] ::
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Sports Hypocrisy of the Week

It's OK for high school star LeBron James, who will turn pro next year, to have a $80,000 Hummer because it was financed by his mother, but apparently getting a couple of free jerseys as memorabilia isn't, according to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, which has now suspended James for the rest of the season.

Does the OHSAA really think they are upholding the wonderful traditions of amateur athletics by making this ruling? No, what they are doing is hurting James' teammates, who might have been able to go on and win the state title and say they did it with someone who will be an NBA star in a couple years, if not sooner.

I'm not going to weigh in here on the rightness or wrongness of high school athletes going pro when they're not ready, but this decision clearly stinks.

:: posted by Al at 4:37 PM [+] ::
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Well, I Never Did Like Bruce Froemming Anyway

Major league umpire Bruce Froemming was taken off a plum assignment, umpiring the two Mariners-A's games in Japan, and suspended for ten days, for making an anti-Semitic remark to a MLB employee.

Comments:

1) Good for MLB for taking swift action

2) Gosh, do we need some real baseball or what?

Cubs pitchers and catchers report in twelve days.

:: posted by Al at 2:31 PM [+] ::
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Here's A Baseball Blog I Like

Check out this interesting and thoughtful baseball blog site.

:: posted by Al at 12:57 PM [+] ::
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BLOGGING 101

You know, this is tougher than I thought.

To find something interesting to write about every single day, and keep it topical, and something that you (the reader) actually wants to read, and something you can't read about elsewhere.

So, maybe I'll make this a Friday thing, since I asked a couple Fridays ago when I started this thing in the first place -- let me hear from you. Ask me a provocative question. Ask me something you want to know about. My e-mail address is on the top row of this blog along with the other links. That'll give me something to mull over, to write about, to think about over the weekend.

Note for today: January 31 is the birthday of three MLB Hall of Famers: Ernie Banks (he's 72 today, isn't that scary?); Nolan Ryan, age 56 today, and Jackie Robinson, who died too young at age 53, and would have turned 84 today.

:: posted by Al at 11:23 AM [+] ::
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And Speaking of Elections That are a Waste of Time...

There's an election for Mayor of Chicago on February 25.

It's such a yawner that the official City of Chicago website comes up with zero listings when you search for "Mayor Election" using its search engine, and this is all Mayor Daley has for a re-election website.

There are a couple of challengers, but no one with any political base, or prior elective experience. It's really too bad that Richie Daley has co-opted everyone in the city to this extent. I'm not a fan of his, and though he has done some good things for the city, he's also sent us back to the bad old days in many ways, treating his friends and family to sweetheart contracts.

He also can't put two sentences together, but did contribute a new word to the English language a year or so ago, when asked if he minded the scrutiny he'd be put under if his brother ran for governor (which didn't wind up happening), he said to the assembled reporters, "You guys scrooten me every day."



If Richie gets less than 80% of the vote, I'll be very surprised.

:: posted by Al at 9:23 AM [+] ::
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Six weeks from today...

I'll be at Spring Training!

:: posted by Al at 9:23 AM [+] ::
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As If We Don't Have Enough Sleaze In Politics Dept.

Jerry Springer's thinking about running for the Senate from Ohio, his home state, in 2004.

Although come to think of it, we've already had a bizarre TV star in a significant political office in this country.

God, do I need some baseball to start to distract me from all this nonsense.

:: posted by Al at 2:09 PM [+] ::
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THE SHRUB'S NEW MATH

So based on the numbers GWB gave during last night's speech, he proposed at least $423 billion in new spending programs, along with $674 billion in tax cuts, not to mention the money he's going to have to spend on his new little war.

Now maybe he adds this differently, but the way I see it, that's one TRILLION dollars in new deficits, leading us back to the bad old days of rising interest rates. Only when Clinton raised rates did we get back to balanced budgets, and oh yes, wasn't that a Republican mantra for a while?

Everyone says they want less government until there's something they want from the feds, and then they want it now , and oh yes, they want it for free. It don't work that way, children. You can't get something for nothing. Sure, every single one of us would like to pay less taxes.

But the bottom line is that the United States of America is the greatest country in the world, and one of the reasons is that we are able to do things, and we are nowhere near what really were confiscatory tax rates of up to 70% in the 1970's.

:: posted by Al at 2:00 PM [+] ::
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SEPARATED AT BIRTH?

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz

Larry Tate from "Bewitched"

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if you can't see these pix, right click and click "show picture"

:: posted by Al at 9:39 AM [+] ::
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