Fall Classic ...and a rant

The LCS series for both the American League and National League are just about done, with the New York Yankees leading the LA Angels of Anaheim 3 games to 1 and the Philadelphia Phillies up 3 to 1 against the LA Dodgers in their best of 7 matchup. The Phillies go for the clinch tonight in game 5. The Yanks will have to wait til tomorrow night for their possible clinching game.

The Yankees laid the smack down on the Angels 10 to 1 in game 4, but that was not the biggest thing to come from the game. Instead, a few bad umpire calls are the talk of the day. Crew Chief Tim McClelland was responsible for the majority of blown calls in this game, including one where he called Nick Swisher out at 3rd because he left too early on a tag-up play. The instant replay shows that Swisher left on time, and should have been allowed to score, but the run didn't matter anyways as the Yankees demolished. McClelland also blew this call:

As you can see, both Posada AND Cano are off of the bag at 3rd, and Angels catcher Joe Mathis tagged both players. Both should have been called out, for being off of the bag. Only one was called out, due to the fact that McClelland called time out for himself, and did not see (i dont know how) that neither of them were on the bag. Bad umping, but still, you play the game regardless. You win and lose by yourself, not the umpires.

Alex Rodriguez of the Yanks has finally broken his postseason slump, seeing as he is one of the hardest outs in the NY lineup lately. Arod has homered 5 times, is hitting .407, and has 11 rbi's in 7 postseason games. A-rod has become A-Monster this October, and has been a crucial player (as expected) for the Yankees World Series push.

While on the playoff topic, one of my favorite things about this time of the year brings is the NEW GEAR. The players are given the next year's editions of gloves, batting gloves, cleats, bats, accessories, and every other baseball necessity imaginable. Yankees captain and shortstop Derek Jeter, who has his own line of cleats/gear under the Jordan line has come out with his latest footwear present:

If you look closely, you can see a "2" (Jeter's number) on the side of the shoe, which is a little bit flashy for something from the Jeter brand. Nonetheless, it is wicked cool and just one of the many player exclusive things to drop this fall. This is the only picture I have handy of new cleats, but if you watch the games you will see some neat stuff, from C.C. Sabathia's custom Jordan XI cleats, to Johnny Damon's Puma exclusives,to Tori Hunter's PE Griffey Swingman Remix's to Nick Swisher's PE Air Max MVP's to Manny Ramirez's "MANNYWOOD" embroidered Air Max MVP's too. Baseball players have the best swag of any athletes, and that is the truth!




Aside from baseball, i need to address something:
A recent Trending Topic on Twitter has been "RIP Kanye West". First off, that's not even funny as a joke. God forbid that Kanye had actually died in the rumored drunk driving accident. Secondly, GET OFF THE HATE TRAIN. It is only cool to hate KanYe now because Taylor Swift doesn't like him. Everyone needs to step off their pedestals and remember that THIS IS KANYE WEST. HES A CELEBRITY, HE PISSES PEOPLE OFF FOR A LIVING. It shouldn't be new to you that he does it. You know hes eccentric and you know what, he has every right to be. He lost his mother in a tragic way, and his fiancee dumped him shortly before they made plans to marry. Don't act like you wouldn't act out after those unfortunate events happened to you. Also, at the VMAs when he interrupted Taylor Swift, he was drunk. That's no excuse, but still, cmon take it for face value. Even more so, its the VMAs. Its like the Special Olympics compared to any other award show. Kanye has released a short film directed by he and Spike Jonze. It depicts Ye drunk/high at a nightclub and how his night unfolds, eventually leading him to the bathroom where he stabs himself to pull out his demon, and eventually kill it. It is a humbling movie to any normal human being, but for you heartless (no Ye pun intended) bastards that are hating on him because its the "in" thing to do, you may not understand it.


If after watching that you still hate the man, listen to Gold Digger, Stronger, Love Lockdown, Jesus Walks, Through The Wire, Cant Tell Me Nothing, or ANY of his chart topping songs, and act like you don't like them. You can disagree with his antics and how he acts, but theres no denying how much of a gifted soul he is. Who else has multiple platinum records, produces beats and writes for numerous singers, has his own clothing line (pastelle) coming out soon, has his own Nike shoe, has his own LINE of Louis Vuitton shoes, his own Bape sneaker, has famous Japanese artists such as Takashi Murakami begging to team up and design his album covers, and puts on tremendous stage shows? NOONE. there is only 1 KanYe West, so please, im not asking you to embrace and love the man, but recognize talent and stop the hate.

/rant.

Remember the Titans? Neither do I.

Well, there was supposed to be a football game at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts today between the New England Patriots and the Tennessee Titans, but instead the Titans forgot to show up so the Pats had a practice. The Pats RAPED the Titans 59-0. Yes, that is FIFTY NINE POINTS TO ZERO. The Titans should be ashamed for 1. allowing that many points, 2. not scoring a TD let alot a FIELD GOAL!, and 3. giving up almost 600 yards. That is unacceptable performance for a PROFESSIONAL football team. The game ended a few hours ago and i had to get my blog on about this because it was that awful.

First off, it WAS snowing out here in Massachusetts (before Thanksgiving, this is new to us too). The Patriots are like 500 and 0 when they play in the snow. The Titans...clearly do not have such a good record. After starting last season 6-0, the Titans now fell to 0-6, which is GODAWFUL after having 20 of 22 starters return. Tom Brady DESTROYED their defense with 5 td's in one quarter, a new NFL record. Randy Moss was in the endzone so much he barely had time to think of his celebrations! Julian Edelman played like a champ, as did the rest of the team. Not much went wrong for the Patriots. They DID have a missed field goal, but it was kind of bad conditions out there today. Excusable. I say this as a Giants fan, not even a big Patriots liker, but they raped today. The Titans however...that was just a poor effort.


Speaking of poor efforts, the Anaheim Angels blew a close game 2 of the ALCS last night in the Bronx. The New York Yankees walked off in the 13th to win with a score of 4-3. The Yankees scored 1 in the 2nd and 1 in the 3rd, as the Angels scored 2 in the 5th. This deadlocked the game until the 11th when the Angels scored 1, but the Yankees responded when A-rod hit a solo homer to tie it up again. In the 13th, the Yankees got men in scoring position and a ground ball was hit into the gap between 1st and 2nd. Angels 2b Maicer Izturis fielded the ball in a great play, but airmailed the ball across the infield letting the run score to win the game. That was an awful mental mistake and even worse throwing error on ANY level of ball play. The Angels left the far too many players on base, as did the Yankees, but the Yanks capitalized on the error.

Maicer....no sir.

In other news, i have narrowed my halloween costume choices between...*drum roll please*....

OPTION 1.

Me as KanYe West and a girl as Taylor Swift

OR...

OPTION 2.


Me as Chris Brown and a girl as beaten up Rihanna

I hate halloween, but still, if it gives me a chance to dress up like KanYe and interrupt a sweet little white girl's speech, or i can be C.B. and beat up the girl of my dreams. Plus i might trick or treat for Unicef (if i even go out for Halloween).

Opinions are appreciated!

snowy and 28* to sunny and 82*...thats baseball!

First things first, i need to talk about how awesome C.C. Sabathia's cleats are. In case you dont follow Jordan brand sneakers, or even know anything about collectible footwear, these things that are on C.C.'s feet are Jordan XI's. That means they are the 11th sneaker to come out for Michael Jordan. They came out originally in 95/96 for MJ's season that year. They are made "retro" now by Nike and you can buy them for ridiculous amounts of money, but they are worth it because of how awesome these kicks are. What makes it even better is that Sabathia had them made into BASEBALL CLEATS! They are PE or player exclusive edition shoes which means you can only get them if you are C.C. Sabathia. They might just be the best cleats I've ever seen on a playing field ever.

These are the original basketball sneakers Nike made for MJ. Bask in their glory.
MJ wore them in Space Jam, so even if you dont follow kicks you would have seen them then.

These are the cleats C.C. wore in Game 1 of the ALCS. Bask in their glory!

Aside from the awesomeness of the cleats, there were some games to be played too. The New York Yankees faced off against the LA Angels of Anaheim in game 1 of the ALCS. The starting pitcher matchup was C.C Sabathia for the Yanks and John Lackey for the Halos. Lackey was off to a bad start, giving up 2 hits to start the game and letting up 2 runs in the 1st. The Angels also made 3 errors, allowing 2 unearned runs to score in the game. The final score was 4-1 with the Yanks taking it. Game 2 is tonight, and the weather doesn't look too good. With SNOW and cold/freezing rain expected, the game might not start on time, or even be played if it is as bad as it sounds.

Looks cold, doesn't it? Imagine playing in it. Getting jammed with an inside pitch in this weather feels like you broke both of your hands. Is that snow in the background? Yes. Snow is expected in the Northeast tonight, especially in NYC. It may not be baseball weather, but hey, welcome to the playoffs.

The Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers are 2 games into their series as of today, with the series split at 1-1. Pedro Martinez pitched game 2 for the Phils, and did PHENOMENAL but got the loss as Charlie Manuel pulled him a little too early. Vincente Padilla threw for the Dodgers and did equally good, earning the W in this game. Ryan Howard of the Phillies hit a solo HR in the 4th to tie a record of 6 rbi's in 6 playoff games. With the final score of 2-1, you can just tell how close of a game this was. The downfall of the Phils was when they took Pedro out. Phillies 2b Chase Utley let the tying run score in the 8th on a throwing error. That was Utley's 2nd error in 2 games in the NLCS, and both were throwing. Utley seems as if he can't turn a double play anymore, which is not what the Phils need for the playoffs. Jim Thome hit a single off of Phillies pitcher Scott Eyre to plate the 2nd run and that was all the Dodgers would need. The series is even and will get very interesting as it comes back to Philadelphia for the next 3 games.


If I were Pedro Martinez, I'd be pissed that I was throwing a GEM and my team couldn't hold on for the win. He threw very well for a guy who hasn't pitched in 36 days.


Andre Ethier of the Dodgers was pumped when he walked to first to bring up Jim Thome who got an rbi single to plate the Dodgers' 2nd run.

Coffees for closers

...and Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon, Huston Street, and Ryan Franklin will be getting no coffee. All 4 of these men blew their saves in the ALDS to give their teams another day of life in the playoffs. The worst part about them all blowing saves, is the situations how it happened. Nathan air mailed a pickoff move into centerfield to move NYY's Brett Gardener over to 3rd, only to be knocked in shortly thereafter. Papelbon got to 2 outs, with a 2 run lead, and blew it like a Thai hooker. Huston Street had a 2 run lead too, and he also blew it. Ryan Franklin got 2 outs, let up a shallow sinking liner to left fiend where Matt Holliday forgot his grown man glove and took the ball off his lower stomach, botching that play to end the game. Franklin then let up 2 walks and 2 hits to blow the game. Never have I ever seen four closers, who in their own right are very very good, blow four games in the most important times of their baseball seasons.

After not making the play to end the game, the Cards let up 2 walks and 2 hits, one being the walkoff single by Mark Loretta, who came off the bench to win it for the Dodgers.

Playoff baseball, well, playoff success is stringent to pitching. Offense is great, but pitching wins games. You need a starter to go 6+ innings, strong middle relievers to hold the game down, and a lights out closer to seal the deal. All of those aforementioned closers are for the most part shut down closers, but what happened? Did the stars and planets all align and they were in fate's hands? Or are the baseball gods just not Twins, Sox, Rockies, and Cards fans? The world will never know, but regardless, that is just another reason why baseball is the best sport.

In every other sport, you have that one player that stands out. In the NBA, when there is 2.6 seconds left in the game, and you need a 2 to tie, 3 to win - you know the ball is going to Lebron (in Cleveland's case). In the NFL, when you need a TD, you throw it to your best WR, so Eli Manning will be looking at Steve Smith when the game is on the line (in the NY Giants case). In the NHL, you know the puck will be given to Zdeno Chara for that 100+ mph slapshot when the Bruins need to get that goal. Baseball is the only sport where you cannot script who is going to come up big in that clutch spot. Of course there will be times when A-rod, Big Papi, Albert Pujols, etc. all get their chance to bat in the bottom of the 9th, but that is just luck when the lineup calls for them to bat in that position. Baseball has that mysterious "Who will come up big today?" feel to it. Noone can tell how the game will go, who will make the error, who will make the game saving play or who will hit the walk off home run. That makes baseball so special, to me atleast.

Continuing on with the playoffs, the Yankees are set to battle the Angels for AL supremacy and the privilege to represent the American League in the World Series while the Dodgers and Phillies do the same for the National League. In my opinion, the New York Yankees have the best chance to win the pennant this year due to their studly lineup, which can put up runs like noone's business. Their pitching is so-so, but when you have a lineup that is capable of putting up 10+ runs a game (and if not, they'll hit a walkoff for you in the bottom of the 9th) ANYONE can pitch with that kind of run protection. I see the Yanks taking the Angels in 4 games, and the Dodgers over the Phils in 5 (that series is a pick your poison one for me, i hate both teams). Hopefully this will come true, if the Yanks dont win I dont know if i will appreciate the World Series at all. I used to be an Angels fan until Torri Hunter made some obnoxious comments during/after the Sox series, and now, even though I appreciate the Nick Adenhart memorials/motivation, I do not want them to win.



Moving on from baseball, the Monday Night Football game this week was a classic! The New York Jets lead by Mark Sanchez cruised down into Miami to play the Dolphins at Landshark Stadium in a game that was not to be missed. New addition to the men in green Braylon Edwards showed that he can actually play some pretty damn good football (when he cares) and made a few tremendous toe-dragging, sideline-defying catches for touchdowns and huge gains.

Edwards showed that he could actually be one of the top receivers in the league..if he actually plays like he is capable of.

This wasn't the big story of the game though. Miami and their uber cool Wildcat offense was definitely in effect. Ronnie Brown finally threw a pass while playing QB this season, and their actual QB Chad Henne played out of his mind. Ronnie Brown, aside from leading the Wildcat, scored the game winning TD from 6 yards out with under 10 seconds left. The Phins are now 3-0 all-time when wearing their alternate orange jerseys, which I think are absolutely DIRTY! They look great, almost as good as they played in them. The Jets played very well too, I don't want to take credit away from them because they kept it close the entire game. Miami's play calling under 2 minutes was exceptional, and definitely the reason they won the game, well, that and the fact that Henne was beyond good and Brown + Wildcat = Success.




Ok, off of sports for a minute. I have a few things i just want to reach out to you all with.

1st off, we got some clothing. These are 2 Boston based brands, one being Boston Knucklehead, an up and coming t-shirt and hoodie brand, and the other is well established Johnny Cupcakes.


In your travels around New England, even in LA now that he has a store there too, you have most likely seen someone walking around with a cupcake on their shirt. Johnny Cupcakes from Hull, Mass has one of the best clothing lines in Boston. His brand is probably the reason why 75% of the people go to Newbury Street (add also because it is really one of the few affordable stores on the average joe's salary). Why am I telling you about a store/brand you probably already knew about/heard about? Because every holiday it seems now, JC puts out some limited edition shirts celebrating the event. This Halloween (which is one of my most hated holidays) he has come out with another "There's something in the CUPcake mix!" series. It is really something to check out, definitely gets my seal of approval.
http://www.johnnycupcakes.com/

Boston Knucklehead is nowhere near JC's publicity level...yet. I feel this brand has great potential because they're theme in their clothing is the best thing ever...BOSTON! With designs inspired from the best city in the world, only good things can happen! This brand is on the up and up, definitely something to look out for. It was featured on thrillist.com, and when they give you attention that is something to be proud about. Right now, BKH only has a few things in stock, but on their site you can see their selection and be one of the first few to be seen in a BKH tee or hoodie.
http://www.bostonknucklehead.com/shop/

The 2nd thing i wanted to talk about, is TWITTER. Twitter is by far the best social networking website on the internet. It blows myspace and facebook out of the water in my opinion, because there is no marketing gimmicks, annoying popups, stupid friends sending "play this farming game" or "take my quiz" things, and no "RANDOMPERSON invited you to LOST CELL PHONE, NEED NUMBERS group version 21466123506038". Twitter lets me get my thoughts out, no matter how ignorantly stupid, funny, incorrect, true to life, smart, genius, or retarded they are. If you want to follow me, i am JmstrJ2 on twitter. If you dont have a twitter....may God have the kindness in his soul to not smite you right now. Twitter is so 3008, facebook is so two thousand and late. (no homo, i had to)

Twitter is that cool. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Shoutout to my boy @dearisjackson , he is one of my favorite followers on Twitter. He knows whats up.

Thats all i got tonite, im about to pass out. Peace

sorry for the delay

like i said in the title, i apologize for taking such a long time between posts. ive been getting pretty lazy about this i guess, so today will be an extra long one with much to get into.
*warning - this is my opinionated blog so if you dont agree, go fuck yourself*

first things first, we need to discuss Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. NO WAY IN HELL should he have won it. first off, they voted for this 15 days into his Presidency. WTF did he do in 15 days? absolutely nothing. Not only has Obama not done anything good for this country, in fact he has made it worse! Just to name a few things he's failed to do include: failure to bring the Olympics to America, failure to settle a new health care reform, and failure to take control of a war. What does the world do? HEY LETS GIVE A FUCK UP OF A PRESIDENT A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE SO HE WONT FEEL SO BAD. damn, i wish i was could suck at something so bad that my consolation prize was the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE. I understand he is our president, and should be respected because of his position, but he needs to uhm, maybe DO SOMETHING GOOD in office before he will get my respect. Promising false hopes of "change" to a gullible America is no way to be a President. anyone can lie. Bush got the shit kicked out of him by EVERY tv reporter, radio show, blog, and almost every rapper/actor/celebrity had a statement about him. Obama had America buzzing with hope that he could lift us outta this hell and what has he done? absolutely nothing. He was supposedly given the Nobel Prize for his excellent work in bringing peoples of different nations together in peace...WHAT NATIONS?! the world hates us, China, N. Korea, Japan, all hate us. Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Cuba, Pakistan, and any other country that ends in -stan want America to die. i give it til the end of the year before Germany gets pissed that we really have an african american leader. (not to be racist, but they are.)To me, the Nobel Peace Prize is now a joke when you can win it for doing absolutely nothing. I've probably been more deserving for that award than Obama, i'm sure ive stopped people from fighting once or twice. Obama's cause bigger rifts in America than the San Andreas fault (bad joke). I completely disagree with this award being given to him. He embarrassed America by GOING TO THE OLYMPIC COMMITTEE and failing to bring this country the games. He is on TV more often than not, and in all honesty, I am sick of seeing his face plastered on EVERYTHING. Screw Obama, screw the Nobel Prize, and screw you if you disagree.


Don't blame me, i voted McCain.

On to something a little bit better than that...
The 2009 MLB playoffs are in full effect, and its already looking grim for some teams. The Minnesota Twins, who made it into the playoffs by defeating the Detroit Tigers in game 163 (a 1 game playoff for the AL Central title), are 1 more loss away from losing the series to the New York Yankees. The Yankees won game 2 in dramatic fashion when A-rod hit a game tying 2 run HR in the bottom of the 9th to send it into extra's, when Mark Teixeira hit a BULLET (fastest HR to leave a stadium this year) and walk off in the 11th. The Twins aren't exactly doing so hot lately, especially in game 2 leaving 17 runners on base. You CANNOT win a game doing that. They stranded the bases loaded in extra innings, which made me feel that they deserve to lose. You can't be a playoff baseball team if you can't produce runs like that. To make things worse, reliever Joe Nathan (who let up the HR to A-rod) pulled a retarded move to try and pick Brett Gardener off at 2nd base, and sailed the ball into center field. Given that was Nathan's 1st homerun he'd given up that wasn't a solo shot all season, it was the most inopportune time. The Twins got sloppy late in that game, which is reason why they lost. The Yankees will most likely sail through them in game 3, and wait for the Sox/Angels series to end.


The Boston Red Sox are also down 0-2 to the LA Angels of Anaheim. The Sox do not have an offense as of late, and are looking quite flat. Having scored 1 run in 18 innings, the Sox have a big problem to face if they want to advance. Cla "Suckholz" has the pressure of winning game 3 at home for Boston, which is a daunting task. In my opinion, I believe the Sox will come back and win 3 straight like they have done 2x in the past, once against the Indians and once against the Halos.


in the NL, the Rockies/Phillies series is tied up 1 to 1. Hopefully the Rockies will win this series, because i despise the Phillies, as i hate everything that comes from the state of Pennsylvania. Game 3 is scheduled to be played in Colorado, where the weather at game time is expected to be 20* and has SNOW in the forecast. GREAT BASEBALL WEATHER! im excited about this because if it is cold (if they can even play and not have it be snowed out), the advantage is huge for the Rocks who are used to playing in colder temperatures up there in Denver. My prediction for this series - Rockies win in 5.


The Cardinals and Dodgers series is looking good for LA, after the Cards blew game 2 on a costly error by left fielder Matt Holliday. Even tho it was in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs, and he could have caught the ball to end the game, he technically didnt blow it. The Cards' bullpen did, surrendering a walk, a hit, and another hit to give Mark Loretta his chance to walk off with a single. The Cardinals should be ashamed of themselves for losing in the 9th, but then again good for the Dodgers. Im not a big LA fan, but if they beat the Cards I suppose i want them to represent the NL (if the Rockies get knocked out. They are my WS sleeper)


In NFL news, thug Braylon Edwards had quite the week! Before being traded out of Cleveland (more like chased out) to the New York Jets, Edwards was supposedly kicked out of a club for PUNCHING LEBRON JAMES' FRIEND IN THE FACE. besides being the thug thing to do, WHY WOULD YOU HIT SOMEONE IN LEBRON's CREW? HE OBVIOUSLY HAS MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO CAN GET YOU KILLED. he is also a THUG. now that Edwards is in NY, it is rumored that James has an even SLIMMER chance of going to the Knicks once his contract is up. With Edwards leaving the Cleveland Browns, it is officially safe to say that Lebron has more power than the Mayor in that city. He is basically the reason why Edwards had to leave. Now who do the Browns have? Kellen Winslow? Child please.

Edwards, seen here doing his best Lebron, will now be donning White and Green in NY.

NHL has started! and it is a great thing to see back in swing. Sadly the Boston Bruins aren't out to their best start, but i have great faith that the B's are taking home a Stanley Cup this year. Chara, Lucic, Savard, Begin, and Timmy Thomas mean business this year. Sports Illustrated has the Chicago Blackhawks beating the B's in the Cup, but i think it will be the Bruins over the Red Wings or the Sharks. My other team, the Calgary Flames look great on paper, but on ice its another story. Mikka Kiprusoff and Jerome Iginla are their headliners as usual, and may move up in their division and actually do something in the playoffs this year. Either way, GO BRUINS, Bring another title back to Boston.


In other news, i STARTED A TWITTER TRENDING TOPIC AND I GOT NO RECOGNITION! the other night on twitter, i was going off about how the brand Ed Hardy is dying down and the trend will soon be dead. about 20 of my tweets were all about the brand and how it went from the most hyped up thing in clothing to the most bourgeois in all of fashion. The next morning i go on Twitter and what do i see? "#edhardyis" is a trending topic and EVERYONE in the twitterverse is bashing the brand. Its funny because even though i love the brand and will still wear the clothes, ALL of America bought into this fad and now everyone hates it. Kind of like KanYe West, its COOL to HATE him/the brand. Regardless, i feel i should have been congratulated by someone for the TT inspiration. (just kidding, but really my ego is craving some attention).
it was later brought to my attention that this FunnyorDie.com video sparked some of the attention that Ed Hardy was getting...stupid internet nerds.

The Ed Hardy Boyz: The Case of the Missing Sick Belt Buckle from Jon Daly

that concludes today's post. i'll get back to writing regularly, and ill try to do about 2 posts per week, one early in the week and one at the end. to make up for my delay, here is one of my favorite Boston rapper's best songs. M-dot (from Lynn) and Krumbsnatcha (from Springfield) team up to create "Gotta be", which is one of my favorite songs. check it out, and check out other songs from M-dot too.