Blog Posts For: February 2009

The stock market may be a bear right now, but the first day of the free agent market was bullish. The opening day acquisitions have been somewhat surprising considering the fact that most MLB teams spent the winter in hibernation despite a very soft luxury tax and most NBA teams scrambling to gather as many expiring contracts as they could in preparation for the salary cap decrease, the loaded free agent market in the summer of 2010, and the impending lockout in 2011.

I will publically admit that I am a reality TV junkie, however I think the new reality series planned to air on NBC this fall is a bit over the top (although that doesn’t mean I won’t tune in). Jerry Seinfeld is going to be producing the show and the concept is his baby. The show is going to be called,”The Marriage Ref”, and basically America will be watching your everyday couples fighting about everyday stuff. The show wants to put cameras in as many homes around the country that will let them. Then as couples fight about common topics, likes hubbys that watch too much sports, or not helping enough around the house, special guest judges will be brought in to offer their comments and strategies to help the couples cope with these situations. Hmmm...interesting.
 

F. Scott Fitzgerald, between suicidal thoughts, once said that intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. According to this definition, Chicago Cubs fans must be geniuses.

Good news for fans of Def Leppard, they have just announced plans for a 40 city tour this summer. Just like in the past, they are bringing a few special bands along for the ride. This year you will get 3 bands for the price of one. Poison and Cheap trick will be joining the guys for what I am sure will be an amazing rock event. They do like support their fellow 80’s bands. Last year they toured with Styx and REO and back in 2005, the band toured with Bryan Adams.  Front man, Joe Eliot feels that, with times the way they are, if you can promise a 4 hour concert with great music people will come. The tour kicks off on June 23rd in Camden, New Jersey and goes through September 7th and finishes in San Bernadino, California.

First the pitchers and catchers reported. Then the rest of the position players came to camp. Now, on this fine Wednesday, the first exciting, but meaningless games begin.

New York Yankees fans will get the chance to heckle A-Rod in the Grapefruit opener, Chicago Cubs fans will reset the doomsday clock, and everyone else will practice making pitchers cry on the mound. Tomorrow morning baseball “enthusiasts” will read there first box scores since October 28, 2008, back when Bush was president and Philadelphia was rewarded with a team that did not let them down.

Move over Penn and Teller, Britney Spears has the newest magic show in town. You will be in for more than just the pop princess belting out her new music at her new Circus tour. She is going to also be taking on the role of magicians assistant. Britney will work alongside magician/comedian Ed Alonzo who says he will be sawing Britney in half as well as making her disappear into thin air. Britney has really taken to the magic and will even be performing her own tricks. The “Circus Tour” kicks of next week in New Orleans and Britney is ready. She is in top form, her body looks great, and the show promises to be amazing.  Concert goers are going to get their own mini Cirque du Soleil show thrown in with their concert. It is going to be a high tech, 3 ring circus extravaganza, and the fans will not be disappointed.

Have you heard about the 500 pounds of pot that was found and seized from rapper Fabolous’ tour bus? Here is the story. After enjoying Valentines weekend at the NBA All Star Weekend games that were held in Phoenix, the rappers bus was pulled over for a traffic violation, and at that time after searching the vehicle the police found the pot as well as almost $6,500 in cash. The good news for Fabolous, is at the time of the search he was not on the bus. The only people on the bus were the driver and his friend, who claim that Fabolous  loaded up the bus in Phoenix and told the driver to call him once he got to their destination in Boston. Both men have been cooperating with police but their stories don’t match up and both men have been arrested for possession. At this time there has been no word from the Fabolous camp. It looks awfully suspicious and any way you look at it that is a lot of Pot!  Fabolous has his 5th album, “Loso’s Way”, due out in April.

Well by now you have probably heard about all the big winners from last night. “Slumdog Millionaire” swept the evening with 8 wins, including Best Picture and Best Director. Then there was Penelope Cruz who won Best Actress and Sean Penn won best actor. One of the most touching moments of the night was when Heath Ledger won for Best Supporting Actor and his award was accepted by his family on behalf of his daughter, Matilda. Oh did the speech and watching the family up there, not just make you want to bawl your eyes out? Best Supporting Actress went to the very lovely, Kate Winslet. Now with that all being said and done let’s talk about the fun stuff at the very stuffy and oh so long event that took place at the Kodak theatre in Los Angeles.

When my son came running in to tell me the “monster trucks” were in town, and he insisted we go see them, I have admit I was not all that excited to comply. After all, I’m a full grown, middle class, suburban dad who much rather see a vintage rock band, then the MONSTER JAM. Or so I thought…  The Edward Jones dome is not a small venue, the St.Louis Rams play there, and it is massive, although very well laid out facility, the event however was totally sold out, luckily we reserved tickets a few days out. When we arrived at our seats, and I had a chance to look around and take in the moment, the layout of the course could best be described as intimidating. Some of the obstacles were over two stories high and formed out of dirt, cars, and even retired school buses. I could not even imagine how something with four wheels might get over them! That’s when I first started to think this could get interesting.

Last season the trade deadline was a chance to improve a team’s position to try and spoil the Boston Celtics or the Los Angeles Lakers chances to win an NBA Championship. This season the trade deadline was a chance to collect expiring contracts to put themselves in position to sign an NBA Star in 2010.

The summer of 2010 promises to be one of the best free agent classes in NBA history with a plethora of top tier players becoming unrestricted free agents or having a player option to terminate their contracts and cash in for bigger deals.

Ok, I know I promised no Rihanna Chris Brown talk this week but I can’t keep silent any longer. There has been a very unfortunate situation this week with the Los Angeles police department and the case. Someone leaked the official police photo of Rihanna taken right after the attack. Because of the nature of the photo the police had no plans to not release the photo but someone got a hold of it and did release it. Poor Rihanna cannot get a break from all this. The photo is pretty heart wrenching to look at and shows the beating that Rihanna endured. She has big bruises on the side of her forehead, blood around the sides of her mouth and darkened areas around her eyes. She looks like she is in a lot of pain. Chris Brown’s court date is set for March 5th

Professional sports in the United States are a funny thing. A sport that goes in circles can entertain millions. A sport as quick and violent as Lacrosse cannot make headway in a culture that loves to see pain being doled out and inflated scoring. A sport loved by the world fails miserably time after time (I must admit I cannot stand soccer either).

Sports leagues are an even more amazing phenomenon. Look at the history of the NBA, MLB, and the NFL. They each seemed to catch a lucky break or get a particularly stellar group of showmen that moved each league into the major three. Is there any room left for competition though? Four football leagues are about to find out.

Imagine, Prince’s surprise when he read in the paper that he was hosting an Oscar party this year and he was the last to know about it. It’s true, while Prince was in the middle of rehearsing with his band,  he read the story in the paper that claimed he was “throwing the Oscar bash of the century”.  The funny thing is, that it sounded so good in writing he actually decided to do it.  Ironically, he even had someone call to RSVP to his non- party. How embarrassing huh? Luckily Prince has practice  throwing Oscar parties since he had a big bash last year and was able to put it all together quite quickly.  The good news for us about this party is that for the first time it will actually be televised on Princes new website, LotusFlow3r.com.  Prince will also perform at his party.  Some of last year’s big names to attend were, Stevie Wonder, John Legend an P. Diddy.

The stars have been in New York this week to support all their favorite designers.  At the Jill Stuart Fall Fashion Show you could find the Hilton sisters,Paris and Nicky,  along side Kristen Bell and Amanda Bynes. Over at the Badgley Mischka Fall Fashion show you could find other famous sisters, Kim and Kloe Kardashian, while  Eva Longoria Parker and Joy Bryant attended the big Matthew Williamson Fall Fashion Show. It is like a red carpet event of who is who and who is attending which show during the weeklong event.
 

I don’t know about you, but I cannot take one more story on Chris Brown and Rihanna. It’s enough already. So we are not even going to talk about them this week and we are going to move on to something else, like I wish everyone else would.

The daughter of Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin, is speaking out about her experience as an unwed teen mother. Monday night, Bristol Palin spoke to Fox New’s Greta Van Susteren, about life as a new mom.  Bristol wants people to hear her story and learn from her situation. Although she loves her baby, she says it is hard and that “it’s so much easier if you’re married, have a house and career.”  Bristol is just 18 and does hope to one day marry the baby’s father, Levi Johnston. Bristol also speaks out against her mothers beliefs of abstinence, saying that it is just “not realistic at all”.  Well Bristol, you have your work cut out for you because there are plenty of young kids who need a good talking too.

As of today it seems a bit unclear if David Beckham will be back in Los Angeles playing for the Galaxy or staying in Milan to play soccer. If David had it his way, he would be staying in Milan but unfortunately it is not his choice.  David has been on loan playing for the Italy’s AC Milan team. He has already played seven games for them and would like to continue playing the European circuit. In fact he has even commented that it would be “difficult” and “awkward” to go back to play for the Galaxy since he has made his feelings so well known.  On the other hand he says should he have to return to his LA team he would “be professional and do what he needs to do”.

How sweet are the President and First Lady who headed back to Chicago for Valentine’s Day? The two dined at Chicago’s TABLE Fifty – Two where dinner was prepared by Chef, Art Smith. The couple dined on crispy catfish and pistachio chicken, and they may have even snuck in a piece of gooey crunchy pecan pie. It seems that in order to stay in touch with friends and keep the family grounded the First Family plans to fly home about every 6 weeks to Chicago. Hmmm… I wonder who pays for those trips home on Air Force One. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy for the love birds to have a romantic dinner together in their home town, and I love the Obama’s, I was just curious.

Well there are lots of congratulations to go around this week, starting with new Dad, Kevin Costner 54, and his wife, 34 year old Christine. They welcomed new son, Hayes Logan Costner who weighed in at a hefty 8 pounds 15 ounces. This is the second son for the couple who have been married since 2004. There is also a new baby in the KISS family. Paul Stanley and his wife welcomed a new baby girl, Sarah Brianna. This is the couples 2^nd child. Stanley has Costner beat, he is 57, and will be touring with the band this summer in honor the the groups 35^th anniversary.  Mira Sorvino and her hubby just confirmed that they are expecting baby number 3. The couple have been married 4 years and have two children ages 4 and 2.   And the last bit of baby news to share is that Taylor Hawkins from the Foo Fighters and his wife are expecting their second baby. There will be lots of baby Foo Fighters to play with, since David Grohl and his wife are also expecting baby number 2 this spring too.

This weekend the NBA All Star Game brings together the most popular (not the best) players in the league, a bonanza of sponsorship deals, and 20 hours of useless television coverage. This is truly a corporate retreat run awry. I should not have to listen Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith reflect on their careers as professional basketball players for hours on end just to watch a few events that should take a little more than an two hours to complete.

After his appearance last night on the David Letterman show, we can only hope that Joaquin Phoenix is putting on an act. I have never seen anything like that on television before. Dave was the consummate professional but it was honestly painful to watch. Joaquin walked out in dark sunglasses and proceeded to barely even make eye contact with Dave or the audience. All his answers were, yes, no or I don’t know. He could barely name the two costars in his upcoming movie, “Two Lovers”, that he was there to promote. Dave continued to plow through the longest 10 ½ minutes of television I have seen. The silence and awkwardness was a bit alarming. If this was really him, Phoenix seems to be in big trouble. If he was acting he needs to know although a bit amusing perhaps not the best career move. After making a comment about him chewing gum, Phoenix seemed a bit miffed, took out his gum and stuck under Dave’s desk. As soon as the interview was over Phoenix jumped out of his chair and started to leave. IT was just very bizarre.

Before baseball season begins it has become tradition to wait for Brett Favre to decide whether or not he will retire. Word is in that he has decided to retire. Of course, we all remember that last season he told his agent the same thing. Then he found that he could still throw the ball around with some zip with a bunch of high school kids, decided to comeback, and cause the Packers a gigantic headache, sabotaging Aaron Rodgers transition into the starting quarterback role.

The Chicago spring tease is on and the snow that was frozen into impenetrable blocks of polar ice blocks is finally begin to melt and all I can think about is baseball, baseball, and baseball. I feel like ignoring the return of the steroid scandal (I thought that tumor was benign) and daydreaming about the bleacher seats and the box scores.

This weekend was one of extremes. It started with a Sports Illustrated expose that implicated New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez as one of 104 people who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and ended with an NBA match up between two of the best basketball players in a game that did not disappoint.

Pitchers and catchers have about a week to report for spring training. This means that the season will soon be starting. That also means that anybody waiting to make predictions until the free agent pool whittled down is really out of time. I am sure a few more of these guys will be signed before the season starts (I am assuming Manny Ramirez will end up accepting a short-term deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers) and I am sure after the first round of pennant crippling injuries a few more will find a home, but it has come time to bit the bullet and make a few regular season predictions.

I am a University of Illinois college basketball fan. If I am watching a game and the Fighting Illini are not playing, then I am a Big Ten fan. However, I have to give props to a couple of Big East teams.

There is something about the fall of an institution or a person that is bigger than life that elicits such strong emotions. There is never any middle ground. It is always a reveling in an almost tyrannical vindictive showcase of fire and brimstone or an intense lament complete with blind nostalgic prose. If the documents released in the Barry Bonds perjury case are even slightly damning then I would be prepared to grab a pitchfork and join the other villagers in a mad riot on the way down to the steroid laced steel gate of his mansion.

Subtract a major part of the offense, add an opponent who does not play defense, and what do you get? Kobe Bryant posting 61 points at Madison Square Garden. Bryant hit 19 of 31 shots, including 3 of 6 threes, and sank 20 straight from the stripe. He did not do much else – only three assists, one block, and zero rebounds-, but he did manage to score the most points in basketball’s Mecca history.

It seems fitting that Super Bowl XLIII came down to the final minutes of the fourth quarter. The best games build tension until the final minutes when a few memorable drives define whole careers. This season’s 27-23 victory by the Pittsburgh Steelers over the Arizona Cardinals will go down in history as one of the best in history. It had two momentum changing drives in the final three minutes and a safety to boot.