On September 13th, the Phillies stood at 76-69, and had a 0.5% chance of winning the division. 12 wins and 4 losses later, I still can’t believe they did it. Watching the ninth inning today (and desperately wishing I didn’t have to work so I could have gone to the game), I welled up with emotion. For just the second time in my lifetime, the Phillies were NL East champions, and are heading to the playoffs. I keep rechecking the baseball standings on ESPN to make sure they’re real.
Beat the Mets, beat the Mets,
Step right up and sweep the Mets.
Bring your kiddies, bring your wife,
Even they’ll beat the Mets within an inch of their life.
Because the Mets are really chockin’ the race,
losin’ those games all over the place.
East side, West side, everybody’s coming down,
To meet the M-E-T-S Mets, of New York town.
So Ahmadinejad wants to visit ground zero. Good for him! Give him the grand tour I say. Ground zero, the statue of liberty, Ellis island, Riker’s island,…. you know what, that’s a good tour, why don’t we just stop there.
On a related note, I understand why the US limits him to a 25 mile radius, but why is that radius centered on Columbus circle? Wouldn’t it make more sense to be centered on the UN?
David mentions this story in which a husband and wife were both having an online affair… with each other! All I can say is, some people really really deserve each other.
When I first saw the Nike commercial featuring Shawn Merriman, I couldn’t help but think one thing: “cheater”. This man has actually had a positive and confirmed blood test for steroids, which is something Barry Bonds hasn’t. All those “lights out” hits he makes, both on the field and in the Nike commercials are nothing more than a steroid fed cheat. (In case anyone is wondering, Merriman is listed at 6″4, 272 lb and a 5% bodyfat).
When comparing him to other athletes with similar crimes, one can’t help but come to the conclusion that Merriman’s four game suspension was little more than a slap on the wrist. Michael Rasmussen was forced by his team to drop out of the Tour De France (think superbowl) even though he had not tested positive for, or even been linked to, steroids. (He simply misreported his location to drug testing organizations). Floyd Landis was suspended for two years and stripped of his title. When Christian Moreni tested positive, his entire team withdrew from the Tour. (Moreni himself was arrested).
Now let’s review what happened to Shawn Merriman. He served his 4 game suspension. He was allowed to return that same year to help his team to the playoffs (with a little help from his pharmacist). He was voted the NFL defensive player of the year despite the fact that his stats were inflated by steroids, and the NFL flew him to Hawaii to play in the pro bowl (which he was also elected to). By this year everyone has forgotten everything, and Merriman is back to making Nike commercials. The lesson here is that cheating pays, even if you get caught! If they were following the example set by cycling, Merriman would have been suspended for two years, his team would have been forced to retroactively forfeit the first 4 games they had played with the cheater, and everyone else on the Chargers would have had to subject themselves to drug tests to make sure they weren’t in league with Merriman.
The worst part of all of this is that most NFL players who use steroids don’t get caught because the NFL doesn’t have a real testing policy. When 3 Panthers were found to have used steroids the year they won the NFC championship (which they for some reason weren’t asked to relinquish), they were caught by investigative reporting, not the league’s drug testing.
The whole situation is sick. If you extrapolate the numbers on known cheaters like Romanowski, Merriman, and the 2004 Panthers you can see that the league appears to catch an extremely low percentage of the cheats. (Also, you can look at the players bodies themselves. Anyone who thinks Bonds 6″1, 228 lb is large should compare him to even the smaller NFL linebackers). The NFL knows that big muscles = big hits = big money. Never mind that those same hits lead to seriousmentalbreakdowns and otherdebilitatinginjuries. (That collection of links was sadly easy to assemble). The NFL’s testing and enforcement program is negligent at best, and supportive of cheaters at the worst.
Although it would be easy to blame the NFL (which clearly shares a large burden of the guilt here), the problem is also that the fans and the media do not turn their backs on known cheaters. If Nike thought that showing Merriman in a commercial would be detrimental to them they never would have made it. (How many products does Floyd Landis still endorse?) Yet people still buy Merriman jerseys, and John Madden is busy describing how Merriman is a “misled young man” on TV. Barry Bonds can barely walk into the on deck circle without people making reference to his alleged steroid use, and is regularly treated like a pariah on the road. (Although in all fairness, he was booed on the road for personal reasons long before the steroid accusations started). McGwire (no proof, no positive tests) was denied entrance to the baseball hall of fame. Why are we so quick to forget with football players and not with other athletes? The bottom line is that we as fans must draw a line. Start booing Merriman. When San Diego comes to town hang up a large banner protesting Merriman’s choice of pharmaceuticals. Stop buying his jerseys. Refer to cheaters as such and not “misled young men who will forever be tarnished”. The integrity of the sport and the health of the players demands it.
I went out this morning to go jogging, and a man with a cane came up to me and asked if I was going to the Wawa. I assumed that he meant the 7-Eleven which was at the corner, and answered that I wasn’t planning on it. He then asked if I had a nickel or a dime. I replied that since I was going jogging I didn’t have my wallet on me and couldn’t help him out. He smiled knowingly and we parted ways. It took me a few minutes to realize that nickels and dimes are extremely unlikely to buy you anything at 7-Eleven, however in this neighborhood they can mean something else. Now I clearly don’t want to slander someone I’ve never met before based on what could simply be a miscommunication, but while many many people in this area ask me for “spare change” or “something so I can something to eat”, I’ve never been asked for a nickel or a dime before.
A month or so ago I decided to try and teach myself to solve Rubik’s cube, a puzzle which I almost assuredly owned some time in the 80s and probably never solved once without moving the stickers. I surprised myself by how quickly I could teach myself to do it (with a little help from the internet of course). Every so often I time myself to see how fast I can do it. Initially I was lucky if I could solve it in 10 minutes. As recently as last week I assumed that my mean time was about 5 minutes. This weekend someone times me at under 4 minutes on what I thought was an average solve, so I decided to see just how fast I’m doing it right now. I timed myself through 9 solves and here are my times:
So my average time is right around 3 minutes, and I seem to deviate by no more than a minute in either direction. I’m fairly impressed with myself until I saw this on youtube – it’s a 6 year old boy solving a cube at a tournament in 38 seconds.
After our first game played with the moving flag (we did the simple idea of just placing one of the flags on the conveyor belt on the Chess board), I am happy to report that this is perhaps the best house rule ever. Also, on a related note, I beat david for the first time ever.
