A podcast about books, art & life — not necessarily in that order
a) Well, I think that puts the steroid scandal into perspective.
b) Selig really needs to do something about locker-room hazing.
c) Nothing says, “Happy Valentine’s Day!” like tainting your star’s back.
d) Boy, the weekend editors at the NYPost really have it in for the Yankees, huh?
1. Is it better when fans can’t remember from year to year who was in the championship game/series (see NFL, MLB) or when the same two competitors reach the finals every time (Nadal, Federer)?
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2. Is it better that the general public thinks that everyone in your league is on cocaine, or that everyone in your league is on steroids?
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3. Does the 76ers’ roster sound like the lineup of a ’70s funk band?
I was listening to The B.S. Report — the podcast by Bill Simmons, a.k.a. Sports Guy — in my car yesterday. Simmons was talking with “Cousin Sal” about the weekend’s football games, when the talk turned to the recent spate of Oscar-worthy movies they’d seen.
On over-the-air sports radio, which I haven’t listened to in several years, I would get pretty incensed when Mike & the Mad Dog would spend 20 minutes talking about last night’s episode of The Sopranos, John Wayne flicks, or why the remake of Sabrina was much better than the original.
(I’m not making up that last one. It led to the immortal line by Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, “I don’t see why people were so ga-ga over Audrey Hepburn,” confirming my suspicion that a too-excessive interest in sports is clearly a symptom of repressed homosexuality.)
With Simmons and his cousin, on the other hand, I was interested in their opinions and their looser takes on the movies. Also, both of them have worked as comedy writers for Jimmy Kimmel’s show, so I figured they may have funny stories about some of the flicks.
While they praised The Wrestler pretty highly — Sal watched a DVD screener of it with his new pal Roddy Piper — both men considered Slumdog Millionaire the best movie they saw last year.
And that’s when it struck me: I’ve been watching Danny Boyle’s movies for 12 years now, through the ups (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting) and downs (A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach) and a lesser-seen gem (Millions). At no point did I ever think he was headed for some sort of mainstream approval.
And now he’s made a movie that a couple of sports-betting maniacs from Boston consider the best flick of the year. This world is full of wonders.
When I wrote, “It’s the quiet ones you need to worry about,” I meant Marvin Harrison: O.G.
Later today, the MLB 2009 Hall of Fame class will be announced, and Rickey Henderson will likely have the most votes of anyone in nearly 10 years. I’m sure pre-steroid Barry Bonds would beg to differ, but I think Rickey’s the greatest player I’ve ever seen. I’d love to see him give a 2-hour induction speech in which he lobbies to get on an major league roster for the upcoming season.
It’s the pre-birthday edition! Celebrate my 38th by enjoying some great links! And buy me stuff! Or at least wish me a happy birthday on Sunday!
Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: Jan. 9, 2009”
It’s the first Unrequired Reading of the New Year, dear readers! Enjoy!
Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: Jan. 2, 2009”
What do you get when you combine a sportswriter awaiting his buyout, baseball’s winter meetings, two big-budget teams and Las Vegas?
This epic post from Dan Graziano, soon to be formerly with the Newark Star-Ledger.
A few years ago,I had a run of bumping into semi-famous athletes at airports. The “hightlight” was John Rocker.
At the gate for today’s flight to Atlanta, I suspected that the cowboy-hatted, muscular, tattooed man standing beside me was “somebody.” When he took his hat off, I realized he was WWE rassler Shawn Michaels.
You’ll be pleased to know that a man who has taken so much physical damage in his career gets to fly first class.
Update: Plenty of guys on the flight recognized him, but we were all afraid to go up to him and ask for a pic. He was a few rows ahead of me, so we ended up on the escalator down to the airport monorail a few steps apart.
