Showing posts with label Football.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Football.. Show all posts

Finally Friday...

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Friday, December 04, 2009 22 Of Your Sparks

When did this practice of putting loved one's pictures or names on your car window after they pass away?

I do not remember ever seeing this when I lived above the Mason-Dixon line, but it is VERY common down here in the South.

Do people do this where you live?

What is your impression of this practice?


I heard another theory on the “Tiger Incident” today and thought…’how do people come up with this s**t?’

The theory is that Elin found out about the other women and while Tiger was sleeping she began to beat him upside the head.

Tiger woke and fought off her blows and then realized he had to come up with some excuse for the bloodied lip and bruises, so he got in the car and purposely crashed it to account for the wounds…


There are concussions in football. WHAT? You didn’t know that?

You thought that all those men could play a game where you band and crash and knock and tackle and concussions would not exist?

Now there are teammates who complain when players with concussions do not play…

You know if doctors begin making all the decisions on who plays and who does not – the first thing that will happen is players will try and lie and cheat their way around the tests so that they can play.

Secondly, half the league will be on IR if doctors stop all players who have gotten knocked around from playing.

What to do? Better helmets? Well there are bigger helmets, but then the players will begin to look like The great Gazoo and no one wants that…do they?



Change the rules on tackles? You try and hold up on making tackles and there will be more injuries than we have today.

Rule that if a player has more than 3 concussions in a season they are sidelined? This might make sense if you can really determine the concussion occurred.


Congratulations to Mr. Derek Jeter of the NY Yankees for being named Sports Illustrated Sportsman Of The Year. The first NY Yankee to be given that honor in the 55 years of the award (it is as old as I).

Mr. Jeter is one of the good guys in sports. He has never been in trouble…no stories of him drunk in a club...no stories of hookers or drugs…never accused of slapping a woman around...plays every game hard...has respect for his opponents...

The man now owns 5 World Series rings…Off the field he began his TURN 2 FOUNDATION in 1996, whose goal is to “To create and support signature programs and activities that motivate young people to turn away from drugs and alcohol and "TURN 2" healthy lifestyles.”

He had an MVP caliber year, but once again he was not given that honor by MLBWA (the only major honor he has never won). That award went to the well deserving Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins.

BUT, Jeter had one hell of a year:
  • He batted .334, ranking him third in the AL
  • On Sept. 11, he passed Lou Gehrig's franchise mark for base hits, which now stands at 2,747.
  • He led the American League by reaching base 289 times,
  • He finished second in the league in hits (212),
  • He was third in on-base percentage (.406)
  • He was fourth in runs (107)
  • He was eighth in stolen bases (30)
  • He was named an All-Star for the 10th time, including the sixth time as a starter
  • He won his fourth AL Silver Slugger as the best hitting shortstop in the league
  • He earned his fourth Gold Glove as the league's top defensive shortstop.
  • In 15 postseason games he batted .344 with a .432 on-base percentage, three home runs and six RBIs.
  • He batted .407 in the World Series.
Additionally, this year Jeter was named the American League recipient of the Hank Aaron Award, given to the best hitter in each league, and was also the winner of the Roberto Clemente Award, given to the player who best displays skill on the field while giving back to the community off it.

With all of the drama athletes’ display today, Derek Jeter is a true Sportsman. I know many people who despise the Yankees…but to a person they all say “but how can you not admire #2, Derek Jeter”…He is one of the good guys.


Lastly, did you see this play in college football...?

Really, even if you hate football check this out.

Florida State's offensive line has been taught to not move from their stances if the opposing team comes across the line too early. This past weekend, it appears that Zebrie Sanders had been conditioned a little too well.

Now it looks like the ball was hiked too early, but there was never a whistle and the play went on all around the guy and ...well...and...you watch!



HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND

TREE AND LIGHTS THIS WEEKEND









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Sports Friday On The Couch...

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Friday, April 11, 2008 36 Of Your Sparks

DID YOU KNOW?

TODAY IS TRAVIS' BIRTHDAY!!!!!

How about some cake?


and confetti!!!!


GO WISH TRAVIS A HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!




This is probably the best time of year in sports. March Madness has just ended and this year it ended with a bang. A fantastic final game that came down to the last shot in regulation and then went into overtime. Unfortunately, Memphis did not win, but all the same...a fantastic three weeks of basketball.

Baseball has just begun it's regular season and all 30 teams have hopes and dreams of playing into October. Little leagues and pony leagues and Cal Ripken leagues have begun across the country. Young boys and girls all out in the fresh air, playing a great game and learning sportsmanship and teamwork.

The NBA regular season is wrapping up and the playoffs begin in a week. We are not a huge fan of the NBA any longer; the game has become to much about me, me, me...but the playoffs hold an allure to see the best players in the game battling each and every evening.

The NHL playoffs began on Wednesday. We have totally lost interest in the NHL over the last few years. Still, our Rangers are playing well this year and we would not be unhappy if they could make a run at Lord Stanley.

We were looking at the four major sports and how their playoffs are set up. Both in the NHL and the NBA a full 53% of the teams get into the playoffs (16 out of 30 teams qualify). Is this necessary? Why have a regular season? Just let everyone in the playoffs and be done with it.

The NFL lets 37% of their teams into the playoffs (12 of 32 teams). A number of years ago MLB added wild-cards to their playoffs and many of the tried and true fans rebelled. In the end it has worked out pretty well and has kept many teams in the races until the last minute. But, in the end, only 26% of the teams make the playoffs (8 of 30). This is where we think the number should be.

The playoffs are for those teams that worked hard during the regular season...the teams that did their jobs the best. To allow 50%+ of the teams into the playoffs just seems, to us, to be overkill.



In Georgia, the azaleas are blooming and 42 invited men are walking the lush green fairways of Augusta National Golf Club. One of the hardest tickets in sports to obtain, these ducats are willed down to family members and cherished. This year marks the 51st appearance for Mr. Gary Player. It also marks the 30th Anniversary of his last win and he is 73 years young. Think about that...he has been playing in this tournament longer than most of our readers have been alive. remarkable!

He has won three Green Jackets over those years. Unfortunately, this track can be brutal and he shot a +11 in his first round.

Trivia fact...did you know that the Green Jackets are not allowed to leave the grounds of Augusta? YUP!



The Olympics begin in Beijing, China on August 8th, but the repercussions of the IOC selecting this location is causing world-wide upheavals. Protests have been held everywhere the Olympic Torch has appeared. Leaders or representatives of some countries are debating on whether they will boycott the opening ceremonies.

We understand the protests due to China's abysmal human rights records, but to physically attack normal citizens who are carrying the Torch, the symbol of these games, makes no sense.

Let's be honest folks, the Olympics have changed. Professionals are now allowed to take part in the games. they are covered in politics more so now than every before; discounting the 1936 games in Berlin, the US boycott in 1980 and the retaliatory boycott by the Soviet Union in 1984. There actually was a time when politics were not part of the Olympics. When amateurs competed against amateurs and the goal was to excel against the greatest from other countries.

Now, this week, the IOC executive board disqualified and stripped the medals from the athletes who won gold with Marion Jones in the 1,600-meter relay and bronze in the 400-meter relay.
Her teammates on the 1,600 squad were Jearl-Miles Clark, Monique Hennagan, LaTasha Colander-Richardson and Andrea Anderson (pictured above).

The 400-relay squad also had Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson.

We understand why Jones was asked to turn in her medals, but to chastise and stigmatize these other women is going overboard. There is no proof any of them cheated. They did their best and their team won. Some will say that they won because Jones cheated. Is the IOC now going to go back to the 60's and the 70's when the East Germans and the Soviets were using performance enhancing drugs and strip away all of those medals?



All of us who regretted the end of Brett Favre's career might have shed tears prematurely. "It would be hard to pass up, I guess," he told the Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald. "But three months from now, say that presents itself, I may say, you know what, I'm so glad I made that decision. I'm feel very comfortable in what I'm doing and my decision."
"Yeah, I can probably be up there doing that and playing, but again, I don't know. It's only speculating. I think the world of that team. I had a lot of fun, not only this year, but over my career."

But if Aaron Rodgers went down with an injury?

"Aaron has fallen into a great situation," Favre said. "And if that opportunity presented itself and they did call, it would be tempting. And I very well could be enticed do it."

Favre did say he would be hard-pressed to accept in October and it would all depend upon if he was in shape.

C'mon folks...do you think he would NOT be in shape and would NOT say yes? Me thinks he would be on the first play to Green Bay.



Well...maybe three of you have gotten to this point without hitting the 'close window' button and moved on to another blog...

For you three...here is some Tuneage for your weekend. Have a great one...be safe...be happy.

Live at Keystone is the re-issue an an album originally released in 1973. It was the result of a jam session at the Keystone in Berkeley with guitarist Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders on keyboard, John Kahn on bass, and Bill Vitt on drums. When it was originally released in the 70's, this was record one of a two record set. With the remastered 2004 release, it was split into two separate discs; however, an additional track, "Merl's Tune" was added so that you have 55 minutes of music on volume one.

Merl Saunders was a long-time collaborator with Garcia, with the Dead, and the leader of many different bands in the Bay Area. He's also worked as a keyboardist on the Hammond organ with a long list of musicians, including Harry Belafonte, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, B.B. King, and Bonnie Raitt.

Two to take you into the weekend "It's No Use" and the aforementioned "Merl's Tune"

ENJOY...






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Monday Meanderings...

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Monday, January 28, 2008 29 Of Your Sparks



TIME TO DONATE SOME RICE TODAY!
<-----------------------------------------------
Build your vocabulary, feed the hungry...
16,034,896,090 grains donated at this point...16 BILLION TOPPED!


Thanks for all the wonderful comments on our 500th Post...



Now, to start off the week leading up to the sporting event that gets hyped the most of any, we present you with a video we received from Dad Vince:





Found this fun widget over at Brother Rich's "Favorite Office Time Wasters"
What is your score??? Post it in the comments...

Our best was to Level 6 - 181,252 points - 5 tries...





brought to you by TravelPod, the Web's Original Travel Blog ( part of the TripAdvisor Media Network )




This post has, all of a sudden, turned into a 'theme' post... the theme in this case is our brother...

As some of you know, Richard is assistant features editor for the San Antonio Express-News... well upon our arrival home this evening, we were thrilled to see two emails in our in box. The first is an article published on Saturday on the SA E-N website (maybe a birthday present to Richard to give him some 'inches' on the site... just kidding brother...)...

Anyway, we present it to you with this link to the story...hope you enjoy it!



And the third in this 'theme' is this link to a podcast Richard is involved with...if you are a "LOST" junkie, like we both are, you might want to check it out - a note though, we had a bit of a problem listening to it last evening. It kept stopping and starting, so we did not get the whole way through. We are planning on trying it again today from our office...

The show comes back on this week with a repeat of last season's final episode on Wednesday and then a two hour block on Thursday, the first hour being a look at the characters and the mysteries and the second hour being the first of the new season...with the writers strike still on-going, we will have at least the eight episodes that are "in the can" prior to the work stoppage...



Last evening on TurnBaby Talks, we made a bet with her friend Mr. Fabulous on the Super Bowl. It began with a small $5.00 wager and evolved into a wager where the fan of the defeated team will put a video up on their site honoring the winning team.

Stay tuned to next Monday when he will be honoring THE BIG BLUE over on his site... bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahaaha



Go on over to Travis' and wish him a HAPPY 500!

At the same time, please keep our good friend Julie's husband Jeff in your thoughts today as he undergoes an operation on his hand after a work-related injury...

OH and Happy Birthday Songbird...go wish her a big H.B.!
[birthdaycake.gif]



Let's dip into our vault of live music...this is from The Fox Theater in Denver, Colorado recorded the evening of December 13, 2000...

Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy of HOT TUNA. On this song, Jack gets to showcase his incredible bass guitar virtuoso...as Jorma states at the end, "incomparable" ... Having seen these two live more than 10 times over the years, we can attest to the fact that Jack is one of the best who has ever played the instrument.

Enjoy "Ninety-Nine Year Blues", a traditional Folk song reworked by these two masters...



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Weekend Review...

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Monday, January 21, 2008 27 Of Your Sparks



TIME TO DONATE SOME RICE TODAY!
<-----------------------------------------------
Build your vocabulary, feed the hungry...
15,088,124,750 grains donated at this point...15 BILLION TOPPED!




Good Monday all....

How was your weekend? Ours was pretty good...we went pre-shopping for our new iMac and have pretty much zeroed in on a 20" monitor and 350gb hard drive. We will probably up the memory to 2gb from the 1gb the computer ships with to allow for faster draw when using Photoshop and allow us to have more programs open at once. That was our problem with the old mac...we would have iTunes, Photoshop, Illustrator and Firefox all running at the same time and the poor little thing just could not handle it. Still not sure if we will get the wireless keyboard, but will certainly get the wireless mighty mouse, which offers trackball scrolling and two-button options...

Totally cool and graphics are incredible...Just do not think we will be able to get it until mid-February, so our music stored on the old one and any graphics programs are unusable until then...



Saturday evening we went and celebrated the 83rd birthday of Nancy's mom, Mama Dot...we brought along an antipasto which went over pretty well...had a real nice time with the entire family and then had CAKE....yummo cake...apple with a caramel frosting made from fresh apples received from Vermont...also had a small piece of homemade pecan pie which was just deLISH...



Sitting watching the San Diego / New England game...not sure the Chargers have a chance, but they put a 3 and out on Tom Brady on his first possession and now are moving the ball...

Chargers could not get in the end zone...once again the Patriots looked like they could be had, but held off the competition and will be going to the Super Bowl...

Time for the Giant and Green Bay...as our good friend Dixie mentioned on her blog, we have a $5.00 bet on this game as she takes the team from Wisconsin and we are backing our Giants...BIG BLUE is ready for this game and we expect them to play well...going to be bitterly cold up there, they are saying this will be the third coldest game played in NFL history.

The coldest game was the 1981 AFC championship game, played Jan. 10, 1982, at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium. The temperature was minus-9, and the wind chill plunged the readings to minus-59 as the Bengals beat San Diego 27-7.

Next was the Ice Bowl on Dec. 31, 1967 for the NFL title at Lambeau Field. The Packers beat Dallas 21-17 on Bart Starr’s quarterback sneak in the final seconds. It was minus-13 that day and the wind-chill factor was estimated at minus-48.

Should ONLY be about -25 with the wind chill tonight in Green Bay!

10 - 6 at halftime...Giants almost put the ball in the end zone near the end, but the pass was dropped...arg....

CRAP...Toomer drops an easy pass...Eli Manning has been plagued with an NFL leading 47 dropped passes this season...OH for some stick-em...hehehehehe

END OF THE WORLD ALERT: FOX will be having a Red Carpet for the Super Bowl with Ryan Seacrest hosting....WTF!!!!!!!????

We have just heard the report on "Heater-gate"...on the sidelines they have benches for the players that are supposed to have hot air blown into them to provide some warmth...seems on the Giants sideline the air being blown into them is only lukewarm...

GB finds out penalties will kill ya every time... 13 -10 Giants...then the Giants give up a long kick-off return...sheesh

And the Giants learn that penalties will kill you...giving GB a TD...arggggggggggggg...

And the third time is the charm for the Giants field goal kicker and BIG BLUE is headed for the SUPER BOWL!

The defense really shut down Green Bay all game...

NE already 14 point favorites???? NE has not covered in about 6 weeks...way too many points IMHO

For a more complete wrap, head over to Travis'...



On our way to Chicago today for another press approval. Will be there overnight and returning later on Tuesday. Should be a bit chilly there also...was only about 26 Sunday here in the Memphis area....

OK...ready for Spring...LOL



Dug into our collection for today's Tuneage...just reached in and grabbed the first CD that hit our hand...we will say we did reach into the jazz section...Came up with The Count...

Count Basie And His Orchestra...on the Verve Label, the album is called li'l ol' groovemaker....BASIE!

All music on the album was arranged by Quincy Jones.

Recorded on April 21, 22 and 23 1963 in New York City, the album features the following musciens:

Count Basie - Piano
Snooky Young - Trumpet
Fip Ricard - Trumpet
Al Aarons - Trumpet
George Cohn - Trumpet
Don Rader - Trumpet
Henry Coker - Trombone
Grover C. Mitchell - Trombone
Benny Powell - Trombone
Urbie Green Trombone
Eric Dixon - Saxophone
Marshall Royal - Saxophone
Charlie Fowlkes - Saxophone
Frank Wess - Saxophone
Freddie Foster - Saxophone
Freddie Green - Guitar
Buddy Catlett - Bass Guitar
Sonny Payne - Drums

The first song is called "Nasty Magnus" ... written by Los Angeles DJ Johnny Magnus, a good friend of Quincy's. First you hear Al Aarons on trumpet, then Eric Dixon takes over.



This is called "Pleasingly Plump" ...written by Quincy, the trumpet solo by Al Aarons


The Count died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida on April 26, 1984 at the age of 79...he left us with a legacy of brilliance...





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Yea Big Blue, Boo Dead Mac, Sunday Whispers

Sparks Of Insanity By Vinny "Bond" Marini Monday, January 14, 2008 22 Of Your Sparks



TIME TO DONATE SOME RICE TODAY!
<-----------------------------------------------
Build your vocabulary, feed the hungry...
14,056,707,390 grains donated at this point...


Sitting in the apartment on Sunday and just jotting down thoughts throughout the day...

Did some cleaning...does that excite you to no end? Bought some new air fresheners...one is a Caribbean scent..making me want to feel the sand between my toes... it is not heavy, so no gagging..ok?



Football today...two great games on tap...Hoping Indy can stop LT... and then my Giants take on Jessica Simpson's team the Dallas Cowgirls...

We know Travis is doing a wonderful job on the game in progress recaps, so we will just say we are disgusted with the way the Indy Defense fell apart against an LT-less San Diego team... Peyton just seemed off even with over 300+ yards passing...

Makes next Sunday's AFC Championship game boring as that team from NE will put a real stomping on the Bolts...

Giants take the lead early....then give up a TD to Jessica's team...



"Terminator - The Sarah Conner Chronicles" begins tonight...as we said on the Radio Happy Hour, we are never really excited when TV tries to take on a movie, but we will give this one a look-see... tonight...

ARG Giants drop a sure interception...

Tomorrow that show that shall not be named begins again... a few weeks of watching delusional people with no voices make us cringe until we get down to some 'hopefully-talented' people...

We leave for St. Cloud, MN on Tuesday... dug into our closet for our winter coat and had to brush the dust off!

Pulled some lasagna and gravy out of the freezer for dinner...yummy yummy....




Interesting responses to our question of Friday regarding whether all y'all actually listen to the music we post, especially when we do Tuneage Tutelages...

Most said they do listen to some, but not necessarily all of the songs. Time constraints seem to be the most popular reason. But in the same breathe many did say the appreciate the music and hope we continue...

psssst...want to know the truth??? We were never going to stop... bwahahahahahahahahahaahahahaahaha



BIG TIME drive by Eli Manning at the end of the first half resulting in a tying TD with :07 seconds left in the first half...Will they start saying Peyton is Eli's big brother instead of Eli being Peyton's little brother after today?

First half ends in a tie and no pictures of Jessica in the stadium yet....

So, went upstairs at half time and the Mac was locked up...now it will not restart correctly...think between all the graphic programs and Tuneage we have just too much on it now and we can not move any off as the CD burner is not working...keep you fingers crossed for us that next month a new one will be arriving...then we can move everything off the one upstairs and use it as a repository for when we start converting our vinyl to digital.

Also hopefully, we will get the one upstairs limping along for a while longer or else there will be a lack of Tuneage for a while as all of our music is stored there and the laptop is work-issued and they do not want us loading tunes on it ...silly, we know...real silly...

Well...there will be a lack of Tuneage for a while...might need to buy an external CD drive to get this one back up and running and not sure that makes sense at the moment...

Well 8 years is a long time for a computer in today's day and age and we have really worked the crap out of the one upstairs...It can not find the system drive right now and we would need to reload the system disc and without the CD drive...well...

We pause for a moment of reflection....

ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG



Giants take the lead...21 -17

YES! Interception in the end zone.... GIANTS ON THE WAY TO GREEN BAY!

BIG BLUE!



Well, "Terminator - The Sarah Conner Chronicles" began real hot and with a bang....

We also spent the hour in the chat room for TurnBaby's BlogTalk Radio Show, though we did not listen to the show...the archive is calling...

We have begun to try and work out a way to get that iMac sooner than next month...info to come...



In the meantime, we will use some of the things we had previously uploaded to lifelogger...some we have used before, some we had been saving for future posts...

This is the DAVE MATTHEWS BAND doing their rendition of the classic Bob Dylan song "All Along The Watchtower"

We grabbed this descriiption over at wikipedia.com...

Dave Matthews Band has played the song since the band's inception in the early 1990s.

Their rendition of the song maintains Dylan's three chord structure and key signature but differs in style. Vocalist and guitarist, Dave Matthews, typically begins the song slowly with just vocals and acoustic guitar. The band members come in after the line "the hour is getting late" and the song tempo and intensity picks up. This is then followed by extended solos taken by the band members culminating with the line that the band chooses to highlight, "No reason to get excited."

The song is often chosen to feature a guest performer since it is a well known rock standard. Watchtower, as it is often referred to by fans, is a concert staple, often performed as a concert closer or encore. Performances of the song, including those played and sung solo by Matthews or with guitarist Tim Reynolds, have totaled more than 500 to date. The group has released the song on more than a half-dozen live albums but has never released a studio recording of the song.

Enjoy




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