Check-CH-Check the Weblog Out!!!

Well, the PIAA finals are all set. Peters Township ended Kiski Area’s dream season yesterday, beating them 10-2.

The annual Ken Lantzy All Star football game will take place this Saturday night at Windber Stadium. I was a little bitter when the Point lost the game, but I’ll be the first to admit that Windber is a far better place to view a football game. Johnstown High is well represented, as Bob Arcurio is the South head coach. He has Greg Gardill, Tony Penna, Jr. and Brian Wright from the Trojan staff assisting him. As far as players, the Somerset Daily American has the rosters published on their website this morning. They are listing four Trojans: Rick Sisco, Jeff Schellhammer, Greg Nash and Antonio Martin. However, the Tribune-Democrat’s website has reported that Schellhammer has a previous commitment and won’t be able to play. If you’re in the J-town area and not doing anything Saturday night, go out and support the guys.

The rain held off last night and the Pirates blew one again. Torres comes in to pitch the top of the ninth with a tie score and gives up two runs. I know it’s not a save situation, but did Mesa fall out of favor with Mac this quickly after Saturday’s meltdown? I think Mesa has been one of the lone bright spots as far as pitching is concerned and quite frankly, he was due for a poor performance.

Sports talk in the ‘burgh has been all over firing Mac or David Littlefield or both. Look, I’ll be the first to admit I thought that Mac was a bad hire as manager and he does get some of the blame. I can’t see firing the GM yet, he’s too new. I still think Cam Bonifay got somewhat of a raw deal, I guess you’re only as good as your last deal… …Derek Bell. The answer lies with the owner and you can’t fire him. He’s the one, along with the other small market teams, that agreed to this set-up that guarantees they’ll never be competitive.

Let me be the millionth person to congratulate Larry Brown for winning his first NBA title. I’m also ecstatic that the Lakers got their butts handed to them. Hey Stephen A. Smith, IT’S OVA!!!! HOWEVA, I am so freakin’ sick of people making these Kobe/MJ comparisons. I am no cheerleader for Jordan; you want that call Ahmad Rashad or David Aldridge. But he would have NEVER let one of his Bulls teams get spanked like this.

You don’t think Pittsburgh has some redneck in it? Well, it was just announced this morning that we’re going to host the Bassmasters tournament. ‘Nuff said.

I read today that the ECHL is dumping the stupid one-game playoff between the fourth and fifth place team. This set-up caused the Chiefs season to end early this year. I know, I know, Reading then upset Wheeling but they really didn’t belong in the playoffs to begin with. The league is re-aligning the conferences and divisions and they lost Cincinnati’s franchise (folded) so there is no need for the play in game. I don’t think it was needed before. Remember the old NHL set up with the Conferences (Wales and Campbell) and Divisions (Patrick, Adams, Norris and Smythe). When the Colorado Rockies moved to New Jersey and became the Devils they were placed in the Patrick Division which gave it six teams, while ever other division had five. In the other three divisions one team didn’t make the playoffs, but in the Patrick, two teams went home. There was absolutely nothing wrong that set-up. Oh well, it is the ECHL and they’re still doing that crappy shootout which I hate.

Hope you all picked up “To the 5 Boroughs” yesterday. It’s on point. At Best Buy they have the little sticker with the price and what they categorize the music as. I find it ironic that they choose Rock-Alternative when in reality it’s all hip hop. No instrumentals or Sabotage-like rock songs. I know some of my right wing peeps won’t like some of the lyrics on “It Takes Time to Build” and “We Got The” but all in all, it’s pretty tight.

The liner notes are neat because they have the full lyrics but there are editor’s notes and footnotes throughout them and the sketch drawings of New York are really cool too. The emotionally charged “An Open Letter to NYC” touched me, I can only imagine how a native New Yorker takes it.

And the metaphoric rhymes are at their best, two of my favorites: from “Hey F**k You” ‘I’ve got billions and billions of rhymes to flex/’cause I’ve got more rhymes than Carl Sagan’s got turtlenecks’ [complete with Carl Sagan voice!] and from “Shazam” ‘I splash on beats like sauce on spaghetti/putting MCs out of business like they’re Crazy Eddie.’

Fox debuts “Method and Red” tonight. Remember when it wasn’t cool for hip hop stars to “sell out”. It seems like it’s cool these days. I can’t see this piece of garbage lasting more than a month. How did they pitch that one to Fox? “Did you see ‘How High’? Well this show will pretty much be that movie in half hour segments.”

How long will it take for Boondocks to make fun of this program? I know he poked fun at the Eve show earlier this year. That is the funniest comic strip going on these days. Check out today’s strip to see what I mean.

I’m off to PNC Park, holler at ya later.