A very peculiar one it was. A day of tennis. For lunch, I had an Arby's French Dip Roast Beef Sub with au jus, curly fries, a cold can of Squirt soda, and a glass of water. My best friend had to work until noon at the Lyons paint store on Maple & Belmont Rd. in Downers Grove where he's the manager, and was going to meet me near my house at the tennis courts. I walked over with my shoes, racquet and retro 1980s white & red Pizza Hut gallon cooler jug, and he arrives, and he tells me "I left my racquet & stuff on my desk at work". Incredible. So he drives me back to my house, where I get my car and we both drive to the now-closed paint store to get his gear. We decided the place to play and both drove there.

We arrive at Downers Grove North High School, and we park. I opened my trunk, and no tennis racquet! I searched the car, and still nothing. Apparently after he dropped me off at my house, where I was to put my gear in the trunk, apparently I left my racquet on top of my 1995 teal & purple strap school book bag (awful terrible color scheme) which keeps my other sports equipment in the garage. Luckily my friend bought a 2nd racquet last summer and he always carries his old one, so we played. But still incredibly retarded on my part. I should put a cord on that damn racquet.

His stupid racquet has a shorter handle than mine, which made it difficult to make my new two-handed backhand smashes. The damn thing ended up giving me a blister on my left pinky, which I wrapped with a bandage, and we continued playing. The first set, I should have won, but for some stupid reason, I couldn't put it away. I got it to 5-5, then 6-5, but lost the next one, and we played a tie-breaker, which I lost 3-7, which at one point, I had it at 2-3.

Second set, I won 6-2, which seemed like a breeze, tho he did play a lot better than the score indicates. Tho at this point, we were both worn out, because in the first set, me serving, one game we had at least 9 deuces (I stopped counting them after that) and it was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen. At this point, this is when the shouting and swearing began. If you saw some left-handed dude wearing a kelly green shirt, Old Athletic yellow Gold shorts and white tennis shoes screaming, swearing, throwing balls around between 2pm-4pm, that would be me. It's not that I'm that competitive or anything, it's just frustrating to keep misjudging balls, over-hitting them, picking the wrong swing. Here's some excerpts: "God damn it!" "@$#@!" "*&*#!" "ASS!" "$@&!" "Mother... @&%" "#*@!" "$&@$ing &$@#-&$@#!" "What is it about this game that brings out the worst in me?!" "Ahhhhh &$$$$$$$$$$$$$@#" Good stuff!

On Friday, we played tennis, which I won 6-2, 6-3. Serving on the left side of the court, my serve was so fast it was basically unreturnable. I had 3 aces in one game, and had at least 12 or 13 more, but I wasn't really paying attention to that. It was probably the best serving of my life, tho today the different racquet, a pain-in-the-ass persistent west wind and bad timing prevented me from repeating that. Plus the playing surface at Downers Grove North is really slanted, and some of the hardest courts I've ever played on. Also which was very peculiar, is today in the 1st set; unlike on Friday; we had an extremely hard time winning when we served. Usually if you serve, you're more likely to win, like in real tennis. But no. We kept breaking each other's serve, tho in the 2nd game, I was the one who broke the serve. I had some really nice results from mis-hits today... like on the far right corner on the return, did the backhand, and the ball landed just over the net on the far left sideline, some of the sharpest angles I've ever hit, and I did it not only once, but about 4 to 5 times.

Also need to get some new tennis balls, the felt is wearing off on these and it's making for very fast balls and low bounces. Also got a farmer's tan going on here. And the drive home, I have never ever seen Ogden Avenue that empty in my entire life. There was maybe 7 cars in each side at every intersection, so I guess people really are staying home this Memorial Day. Another note, I get really nervous on the drive home after tennis. By the end of the match, my right leg is just worn out to @#%&, to the point that I can barely move my right foot, and cramping sometimes happens, on the right side of the shin, from the knee to the ankle. I keep Wendy's salt packets & Arby's sauce packets in the armrest in case I feel cramping (sometimes the drive home is over an hour) which seems to do the trick. I have cruise control, but that only works in high speeds. I'm probably going to be really sore tomorrow, so it's time for a nap.

Apparently today my parents sold their camper trailer to some Texan who risked his life through the massive weather system that swept the Central Plains late this week with its 72 tornadoes and killed at least 7 people. One of the few things that sucks about living in this country, is that we have the most violent weather on the planet. Speaking of which, I've deemed the Dakotas as the worst weather place in the U.S. They seem to get the coldest Arctic air in the winter with like below -20s, and 100 degrees and tornadoes during the summer. The other day it was 80 degrees there, and 3 days later, South Dakota is hit with 60+ m.p.h. gusts and 24"-48" of snow! That's crazy. Also after spending my 30th birthday last Saturday at U.S. Cellular, it had to be the coldest April 26 that I ever remembered. Usually it's sunny or raining in the 70s on this day. It was in the 40s with a cold dampness that cuts right through to the bone to the point that you can't move. The White Sox won, thankfully in the bottom of the 9th, 6-5 over the Orioles to break a 5-5 tie, and I'm sure everyone at the ballpark was NOT hoping for extra innings, since we were all on our feet for the bottom of the 9th and ready to leave the place to get warm.

Alright, back to the trailer. This thing, which resembled a giant Tylenol with Ray Charles sunglasses, was a 1976 off-white Argosy camper trailer. I really don't have any fond memories of camping with this thing & my parents. We used it mostly in the 1980s, going from one crummy Illinois campground to another. Every summer, we'd visit parks and campgrounds and such, from Illinois to eastern Iowa to eastern & northern Wisconsin to western lower Michigan. Apparently we had some vendetta with Indiana a.k.a Illinois Jr. (rightfully so) so we never camped there. Now for the TV aspect. I would have to say I was blessed growing up with Chicago Broadcast signal, because TV in small towns in the Midwest sucked. Picked up with the trailer's antennae, Very few channels, piss-poor programming and weak signals.

I would have to say, that taking vacations in a trailer & going to small towns was definitely a downgrade to my daily life. Being cramped with two fat parents in a small space or truck most of the time; I'm not really a fisherman, I find hiking tedious and boring, I of course have zero survival skills (this is what happens when your Cub Scout group spent all its time watching TV instead of actually doing scout stuff in yuppie suburbia) and doing the nighttime camp fire was always a sticky battle of bugs and bug spray. At least I had my beloved bicycle to ride around everywhere, tho there was that one incident where a smartass kid pulled a switch blade on me near my neck (it was a comb, but I will still pissed as hell). Stupid 1980s toys. Tho I will say that out west in Camp Shabbona, IL had the best, high-pressure showers I have ever had the joy to use. The water came out so hard it almost hurt. We used to go to this campground the most, tho it was mostly a fishing place and a very small town that was stuck in the 1950s, at least of 1991.

The only other memories I have, are swimming in Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin, that day I threw the stick in the forest and it hit me in the face, blinding me for a good 10 minutes, discovering that I had Chicken Pox in May of 1987 while at Shabbona (parents yelled at me a LOT that day for me acting sick. Don't get sick in my family, they'll treat you like you have the plague) that one time where the back storage box on the trailer came open and all of our sh*t fell out along Route 30, and of course, lawn darts. I also remember going to some Yogi Bear campground a few times, where they had the dusk film show with Yogi Bear cartoons. Apparently I went to those by myself as a kid (incredibly dangerous since I'm surprised I wasn't kidnapped) and that felt like going back in time, which is something you could probably never do today. And I didn't really meet any kids, since campgrounds are mostly full of old farts.

So long, camper. It was... something.

Well I have my first profile banner at TV.com. Originally I was going to have some kind of over-lapping & fading in and merging of images, but then I realized I don't ever do that nor do I have the style of multiple over-lapping images. Shown are the White Sox 1987-90 home and road jersey graphics, along with a stupid sign and a pic of Old Comiskey Park in the late 1980s. That spot is the parking lot now, and there's a concrete home plate & batters box where the real one once stood. They even painted the old foul lines in the parking lot, which back in the day, were just painted old water firefighter hoses. The ballpark faced northeast, which is a lot better I think, than the stupid southeast exposer U.S. Cellular Field has (which is absolutely hell on leftfielders in early / late season late afternoons. It also had picnic areas under the outfield bleachers fenced off with chicken wire, as well as the bullpens hidden under there as well (I find bullpens idiotic on the field).

I like the look of the old ballpark, upper deck roofed outfield seats, 3-angled outfield walls instead of a symmetrical rounded wall, everything's green and the upper deck seats were a lot closer to home plate. The fact of the matter is, due to luxury seating at the Cell, which forces the upper deck to be moved farther back. The last back row upper deck seats at Old Comiskey were actually closer than the front row upper deck seats at the Cell. If I were to design the next White Sox park, I'd make it exactly like Old Comiskey, and put the luxury boxes on the roof above the upper deck.

Eventually I'll be rotating banners when I get a hankering to create something, and yesterday's Sox home opener really put me in the spirit. It's so nice to be able to listen to White Sox games again with Steve Stone as color analyst. The difference between him and departed / now ESPN employee Chris Singleton is night and day. Singleton sucked, and apparently he got on play-by-play man Ed Farmer's nerves and was rather passive aggressive.

In other news, the NCAA championship was last night and I didn't watch because the team I picked to win it all in most of my brackets was North Carolina. I couldn't believe they were down 40-12 in the 1st half against Kansas, it made me want to vomit. Eventually they got within 4, but were out of gas by then. As for my brackets, Team Snow Storm & Team Bozo ended up with 98.9%, with a perfect Final Four & national champion, including tie breaker scores within 5 on Snow Storm and 2 on Bozo (76-69 to the real 75-68 final). Turns out these were the last two brackets I filled out and just barely got them in on time. Meh.

I'm getting a little sick of this. I have a list of celebrities that if they appear on a TV show, it has destroyed the vibe that the show has built, and it comes off as a mere cheap stunt for ratings. Right now, the Big Annoying Three: Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. How horrible all 3 of them hit SNL, and two of them more than once. Last Monday "How I Met Your Mother" jumped the shark, with Spear Britney appearing as a secretary. While I did not watch this episode (and was really annoyed by CBS with all of the hype it gave, especially during NCAA Tourney games) I have been overall disappointed with the weak and boring / non-offensive turn the show has taken, and have decided to abandon the show. Britney Spears has been an absolute mess and a complete disaster in the public eye, yet some people idolize her, think she's great , and some idiot writers or producers thought "Hey! Let's put Britney Spears on the show! That'll be good!" Once you've done that, you've rubbed stink-turd all over yourself and nobody wants to associate with you anymore.

Now another show who I thought was running out of gas / interesting stories, "My Name Is Earl", has finally jumped the shark. Last night in an hour-long episode, Earl Hickey dreams of being in a sitcom, where "The Hickeys" have this great life with themselves and their friends. For whatever reason, the show's writers decided it that it should put Paris Hilton on, having her say "Oooooh that's hot!" 3 or 4 times to the camera after someone else's dialog. Bye-bye, Earl. You almost died at the end of the episode, but it was the show who really died. You and your list, your crazy hillbilly friends and self, which doesn't explain why your parents talk normal but you & the etc don't. Beep...beep... beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

I just found out "King of the Hill" got renewed for a 13th season with 13 episodes. This is a Fox move more than anything, since Judge has said he's been sick of doing the show since at least the 11th season and currently the newer episodes have been contradicting older ones & really watering down that orange drink. I will say that there can only be one fittingly proper ending of KOTH, and that is Peggy Hill dying due to her own ego, incompetence and stubbornness. Peggy Hill, by far, is the most annoying cartoon character ever invented, and to me, to see her demise is the only loose end this show needs to answer.

Christopher Walken is hosting SNL tomorrow night. Looking forward to that.

As I type this, it's snowing. Snowing with huge flakes, and it looks like it's sticking. Which makes me glad I got my 75 minutes of shooting some hoops in yesterday. When winter comes to the Midwest, it's a time where I do zero exercising because, who the hell wants to shoot hoops with frostbite? So alas, the first few exercises of the Spring tend to be the most painful the next few days. Well today, this old man is in fine shape, so I guess I'm pretty much in shape and good enough to start really pushing.

Finally, after some disastrous outings, my shooting has returned, including nailing 3 NBA-length 3-pointers (I've measured it out) in a row and 4 of 6 at one point, tho my free throw shooting still isn't where it should be at 80%-85%. My record is 24 in a row set in 2006. I'm not that great of a basketball player, but I do enjoy shooting, and that's why I think the NBA has sucked in the past 10 years. Why waste time playing defense when you can shoot?? Yeah, I'm a chucker.

And now, my 2008 MLB picks, all in retro preferred colors.

A.L. West
California Angels. Adding Garland will help. And the team can hit.
Seattle Mariners. Burned the farm to get Bedard, tho should benefit from better team / pitchers park.
Texas Rangers. They have nothing.
Oakland A's. Broken down old team with old men and young guys. Gonna be a long year at the Bay.

A.L. Central
Detroit Tigers. I don't think Dontrelle Willis will flourish playing in hitter-heavy A.L. and Kenny Rogers is still their #5, which I view as a bad thing. We'll just see how many games the bullpen holds.
Cleveland Indians. One last run for C.C. Sabathia before he becomes a Red Sox or Yankee.
Chicago White Sox. C'mon, this team has too much talent to be worse, but I don't see them finishing higher than 3rd. Say hello to the Midwestern Toronto Jays.
Minnesota Twins. Minus Hunter minus Santana equals hard times for the Twinkies. Closer Nathan may not have many games to close while he sits on his ass after his signing his huge contract.
Kansas City Royals. Say hello to their faux-retro powder blue alternate jersey.

A.L. East
Boston Red Sox. Returning and Schilling being shelved early may turn out to be a good thing. Worked for the Marlins in '03 with Josh Beckett and the Marlins World Series run.
New York Yankees. Last call for Yankee Stadium, where Babe Ruth did his cheap right field shot homers. I find their rotation very iffy but they have the hitting, and they'll viking pillage somebody's team come the deadline.
Toronto Blue Jays. I'd pick them for 2nd, but the Jays have a history of injuries which is preventing me from picking them there. Plus they have Fat Stairs, so that's never a good thing.
Tampa Rays. I hate it when they call their teams "Tampa Bay". New uniforms (generic) and youth all around. First winning season possible.
Baltimore Orioles. The rebuilding youth movement has begun. So far Andy McFail hasn't traded Roberts to the Cubs, which I find is a good thing.

N.L. West.
Arizona D-Backs. Superior rotation, they need some OBP. Getting Chris Young from the White Sox was pure genius.
Colorado Rockies. "The Colorado Rockies went to the World Series? How can a mountain go to the World Series??" ~Tim McCarver. Young core locked up and the Rockies built it with drafts.
San Diego Padres. They're gettin' old there. Plus Mark Prior just went on the 60-day DL.
Los Angeles Dodgers. I don't think they'll do much.
San Francisco Giants. You have never seen a last place team with guys so happy.

N.L. Central.
Milwaukee Brewers. I don't know about Prince Fielder suddenly going vegan. He's gonna go from hitting 50 homeruns to 2, but he'll hit .390. Again, about 85 wins will be enough to win this division.
Chicago Cubs. Say hello to baseball's most expensive over-rated team. We'll see how Fukudome does (waits for Ron Santo slip-up) and after Zambrano, the Cubs rotation is really crummy. Middle infield is weak, no real centerfielder and no real closer.
Cincinnati Reds.
Houston Astros.
St. Louis Cardinals.
Pittsburgh Pirates. It doesn't really matter where these teams are placed... they'll be in this area.

N.L. East.
New York Mets. If Santana stays healthy, it's the Mets to lose.
Philadelphia Phillies. They got hitting for that bandbox they call a ballpark, but what about the pitching?
Florida Marlins. Why not?
Atlanta Braves. One more time, for the old farts.
Washington Nationals. New ballpark, not much else.

Red Sox over D-Backs in 6.

Well today is a happy day. It is NCAA Tourney Thursday and the beginning of the Tournament, with nothing but basketball all day and night for the next 11 days. At espn.com, I filled out the maximum number of brackets, which is 10, with the following team names:

Team O'Diarrhea
Team Slyders (after the White Castle lunch from yesterday)
Team Pomegranate (after the new Pomegranate 7-up soda)
Team Drew's Crew (after Drew Carey on the Price is Right)
Team Upset
Team Bona-fide (after those Popeye's Chicken commercials & latest catch-phrase)
Team Constipation
Team Tortas (after Friday's lunch)
Team Snow Storm (they just seem to keep coming)
Team Bozo

I was going to use "Team Screaming Veal" but I ran out of brackets & time. Last year, one of my 5 brackets pulled in a career best 92%, easily destroying the competition in the group. Nothing much that I want to discuss, other than I hope for an early Notre Dame exit, very few upsets and UCLA seems to have the easiest path to the Final Four. To kick off the Tourney, for lunch I heated up some homemade chicken egg noodle soup, and made some chili burritos, with flour tortillas, chili, shredded cheddar, minced sweet onion and sour cream. It was delicious and was inspired by a friend's potato chip dip recipe.

And btw, this reality show "Moment of Truth" is total b.s. It seems like unless the contestant quits early, they end up losing tons of money because of the polygraph. Before they play the game, they ask a contestant a bunch of questions, including embarrassing and potentially marriage / relationship destroying ones while wearing a polygraph. Which in itself is flawed because those things are not 100%. So last night this female model was asked "Have you ever had sex to advance in your career" or something, and she said a firm "No" and the poly said otherwise. She looked pretty pissed off, and looked like she was gonna kick her chair over and burn the place down, with $100,000 at stake. The final total possible is $500,000, and so far this show has given away very little cash amounts. It's total b.s. that they can't see the polygraph results either. If they asked me on the show if I had ever been on the Moon, and they said I did, then I'd threatened to sue their ass, drop F-bomb after F-bomb, and at least trash the stage.

Finally, Chicagoland is already under a Winter Storm Warning, despite it being crystal clear sunny outside right now. Spring started this morning and quite frankly, I'm getting sick and tired of the prospect of more snow, tho it's supposed to be much worse near the IL/WI border, but some models are forecasting the cold to move further south later this evening and into tomorrow. Several inches of heavy 7" to 1" snow to water ratio "heart attack snow" is possible, tho I'm rather suspect. It seems these idiots never pick the correct forecast.

Edit: watching the Kentucky / Marquette game right now. Very, very few fans in the seats there in Anaheim. Marquette being a southern Wisconsin team, pretty much the only semi-regional team near the Chicagoland area in the tournament.

Well March 1st has come and past, meaning it's the Meteorological Spring. As for Chicagoland (and this varies greatly) it was the 5th snowiest Winter ever at Midway Airport and 9th cloudiest February. Some 57" of snow fell around here, followed by a bunch of thaws which resulted in the ground pretty much being bare & some people's front lawns look like swimming pools. This certainly was one of the harshest Winters that I recall, being the 1999-00 Winter being the worst; and too young to remember the 1978-79 Winter and was busy defecating myself.

Well Spring Training has come, and I am ashamed to say this (even over which looks like a White Sox lock of 3rd place in the A.L. Central) like a lousy ESPN-teet sucking Nor-easter, I am actually far more interested in the Philadelphia Phillies / New York Mets rivalry this season than the A.L. Central where the Tigers and Indians will duke it out. I don't know. 81 divisional games depresses me for some reason (it's the redundancy) and I just can't take seeing those 4 teams so often.

As for my favorite MLB promotion, Turn Back the Clock day, so far all I know is the Mariners on July 19th will have a 1980s day (with a conflicting report of a 1981-86 pullover with the 1987-92 royal & Old Athletic Gold "S" cap) against the Cleveland Indians in their "Major League" movie uniforms which the team wore from 1986-88. Ironically, when both the original and Major League II came out in 1989 and 1994, both movies showed the Indians wearing outdated / previous season's look. The Baltimore Orioles will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of their last World Series title (the last time they did anything right) and the White Sox will pull out another 1983 T.B.T.C. game. The previous one being in 2003 for the 20th anniversary and to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the "Winning Ugly" team who won a division by a then-record of 20 games. I really don't see the point of celebrating this '83 team again (who got whooped by said mentioned Orioles in ALCS) but the Sox have won division titles 3 times since then. I don't know… first Chicago title of something since the 1960-61 Blackhawks or something.

EDIT: Breaking news! Apparently horrible White Sox radio announcer Chris Singleton has taken a job with ESPN's Baseball Tonight (don't know why in the hell they'd want such a lousy announcer with so little baseball knowledge) meaning Steve Stone is now taking over as color analyst on WSCR-AM 670 White Sox radio broadcasts! Oh FINALLY I'll be able to have some audio during White Sox games! This is the best news since, well, the '05 World Series Championship. If I was in charge of the White Sox, I'd make Steve Stone manager, GM, and sole announcer simulcast TV & radio feed. He's just that great of a baseball guru.

And I'd like to close this blog post by saying, "I don't like the show 'Silver Spoons'." Not even the hotness of Erin Gray (Kate) or the use of a brilliant young Jason Bateman cannot overcome the lameness that this show was. Terrible plot (Ricky shows up like 12 years after the fact then his mom wants a custody battle??) house full of toys that would driven jealous anger issues in even of the timid of kids, and an absolutely horrible early 1980s theme with horrible corny music that would repeat in torment in young brains for years to come. And reading through the episode guide, apparently Ricky turned into that horny, lousy rich turd of a teenage that we all hate. Drive a train in MY living room, will you!

Well it's the somethingth NBA All Star Game, and of course I won't be able to watch it because it's on TNT. I read a nauseating article about the lameness of today's NBA players, who say "It's more important to make the team than actually play in the game". It's that kind of lazy modern attitude is the whole reason why the NBA All Star Game means so little to the public. In 1988, when the game was at the old Chicago Stadium, which ended up being Michael Jordan's "rite of passage" in the NBA after his 1988 ASG showing, where he said while pissed off at halftime, "If you guys want to have some fun," then Jordan looked at Coach Mike Fratello and said, "Put somebody else in because I'm not losing in this building". And that was with the East up 60-54.

Nowadays, players are more about having a good time, taking a break from their teams and not worrying about getting hurt. Well okay, then. I just won't give a **** about your league's ASG. Apparently it used to be an honor for an NBA team & city to get the ASG, but not anymore, apparently. There's talk of putting the 2011 ASG in London, because after the '07 Las Vegas incidents and because the league distributes all the ASG tickets, meaning season ticket holders are left out; teams are now rejecting to host the ASG, including the Chicago Bulls. And as I had assumed, David Stern announced that the Seattle SuperSonics will end up moving to Oklahoma City, given either after this season or if they're forced to honor the two years left on their lease. It's partly the NBA's fault for allowing a sale to an ownership with outside-Seattle interests, who ended up confessing they never intended to keep the team in Seattle.

Today I'm officially beginning a quest. On the internet, there's websites with uniform histories of MLB, NFL and NHL, but not of the NBA. So I've decided to start up an NBA uniform history archive, with the help of ebay & basketball cards, NBA.com and a few retro sports memorabilia sites with authentics and replicas to help me on the dates. This is mostly going to be collecting images and renaming the files with dates, and then organizing them by team, with eventually merging graphics so there's a home and a road pic. This is probably going to take me at least a few dozen hours to do this, but mainly I'm going to start working on the 1970s and 1980s, then go to the 1990s, and I'll go from there. And if I ever get around to it, I'll eventually put it on something like Flickr or some website so we can all see it. And since NBA designs tend to be 360 degrees, I find making flat jersey graphics as pointless.

Too much F'ing snow! And once again, the Meteorologists got the snow total wrong – they said 2" to 4" (then tacked on their own 3" to 6" guess, trying to appear smarter than the computer by saying there'd be moisture from Lake Michigan once the eastern flow of the backend of the storm was passing through) and we barely got over an inch. And how do I know this? Well later on after shoveling earlier, our lazy bastard neighbors who never shovel their driveways and just drive over it like a bunch of jerk turds. I read that these Meteorologists get their info from 21 different computer models, and it's up to them to pick which one for the forecast. And of course, between these models, there's always a precipitation range of .15" of an inch to 5" of rain or 20" of snow. It'd be nice if they're get a forecast right once in a while, especially even 12 hours in advance. I've said it before and I'll say it again: long-term forecasts are pointless. I think these Meteorologists should be held accountable.

Anyways, as HelloStuart sent me a link about these Topps Turkey Red baseball cards , and I was looking through the Flickr set of 21st Century baseball cards. Man, baseball cards sure have changed a lot since my late 80s / early 90s collecting days. Too much emphasis on high-end graphics, foil and hologram stamping, and I'm sure they're all covered in layer after layer of glossy Ultra-violet coating. A far cry from the dirty cardboard .50 cent wax pack with really crummy pictures and color from back in the day.

I found a 2005 Upper Deck Ichiro card where he's on the warning track in Cleveland (now called Progressive Field for the next 16 years) and of course the debate here is that yellow line on top of the wall. The problem in Cleveland & elsewhere has been what the ruling is on the play when the ball hits that yellow line. In essence, it means nothing, and if it hits it and bounces in, it's in play, if it hits and lands in the stands in foul territory, it's a ground rule double, and if it hits it and bounces over the fence, it's a homerun. At least that's what I thought.

And I don't have to tell you that Valentine's Day is the lamest of all holidays. And once again, it's going to snow on V-Day here, so all the idiots out taking their Screaming Beavers to a fancy restaurant (or ghetto $tyle at White Castle with its tablecloths & candle lit Slyders dinners ) will get to wait in snowy traffic going 20 mph for 3 hours while waiting for their food for 3 hours. Seriously, the holiday makes me want to puke. "Oh let's be all flirty and sickeningly cute for a day!" How many relationships and marriages has this needless holiday ruined? Growing up, I remember my mom going ape sh*t when my dad didn't make enough of an effort on V-Day, which of course resulted in screaming, various items being overturned, vehicle gears getting grinded, money being spent and then finally, restored but bitter feelings. Seriously, what is the damn point, women?? The men had already spent all of December worrying about what to get for your ass for Christmas, and now a month and a half later, they have to deal with this sh*t?! You estrogen hormone egocentric chocolate-driven monsters! I guess the word I'm looking for is "lame". Yes, 'lame holiday'. Holidays aren't meant to destroy relationships.

Oh and apparently I'm on Level 8 now after being on Level 7 for the past 3 years. Whoop-dee-do. **twirls finger in air**

Once again, Ebay has disappointed me. There are very few sports collectibles that I obsess about, and I've had lots of training in spotting authentics versus replicas, and so forth. One object, which after 10 years, they STILL haven't reproduced correctly, would be the 1973-79 San Diego Padres cap. The other day, I found a game-used authentic version on Ebay, and in my size, a bit dirty, tho I would have gotten it professional dry cleaned. To see the cap & its Ebay auction, click here and scroll down.

When I first found this hat, it was reasonably priced, and considered bidding on it, more than I would usually. Well when I brought up the auction this morning, the price had more than tripled to $110, and I'm not going to pay that much for a hat, even if it is the real McCoy. Upon in disgust, I looked at the other bidders, and they're of course stupid a$$hole Dealers. The same jerks that snipe and swap up authentic sports gear, only to sell it to the public at a ransom that no Joe Six Pack could afford. Recently I've read of Dealers getting authentic NBA game worn jerseys and selling them for over $600. NBA.com claims to sell authentic NBA jerseys, but no they don't; they just sell more expensive versions of replicas. Bidding just ended for the cap: $142.50 + $8 for shipping and handling (a rip-off of at least $3), by a jerk who drove up the price. I'm sorry, but that's just completely ridiculous.

Now the question is, "why do you like that cap??". Well I'm not a Padres fan per se, there are certain pieces of sports memorabilia that I think just looks damn cool. The color scheme of brown and Old Athletic Gold (those Ebay pics are actually really bad and have poor contrast) is one of my favorites, and the angle curve of the Gold front panel is unique (as compared to the lazy "Trucker $tyle" cap, which consists of making the front 2 panels white (a cap has 6 panels) or a different color. I've written to New Era, asking why in the hell can't they get the replications to mimic the proper Gold front panel curve, and they said "the newer machines can't make that cut". I'm not going to spend $30 to $40 on a crappy incorrect replica [crappy 1980-84 version with orange trim & incorrect logo & wrong Gold panel curve ]. And being a eye of detail, I wouldn't want to walk around wearing a crappy replica that I knew was wrong.

This cap, whose interlocking SD logo is actually incorrect (note the middle of the S, 2nd line horizontally, on the left-end where the S cuts diagonally, it's at a 30 degree angle (as opposed to the correct 45 degree angle like on the other diagonal cuts) and extends to the point that it lines up with the left side of the D where it shouldn't. The top-left part of the S is what it should look like. And after bringing up Mike Ivie's stats, that cap is from between 1974 to 1977. If I seem obsessive, I should note that I do have a degree in Graphic Arts, and was schooled in all 3 branches, of Graphic Computer Design, Copy Prep and Printing Machine Operation, so these irregularities tend to be more obvious to me than other people.

But anyways, Ebay used to be a place of bargains and easy to use and setup. Now there's like 30 steps, Shipping and Handling is getting abused by the seller, and professional & rich companies and "Ebay Stores" are ruining it and swapping up items the general public can't afford. It just burns my ass, and just like MLB & its ticket prices and player salaries, it only seems to get worse every year. Perhaps if I really wanted it, I would have paid for it, but there's a point when obsessiveness needs to be routed. And this auction confirms my worst fears: it is a highly sought item. It's just another day in the jaded world of this a$$hole.