Monday Morning Blues

Weather permitting; the PIAA baseball and softball semifinals will take place today. In baseball there is a WPIAL representative guaranteed for the A and AAA baseball finals. The Western final in A is Neshannock and Carmichaels, in AAA Peters Township will take on Kiski Area. In AA, the Western representative will either be from the WPIAL (Riverside) or District 6 (Huntingdon). In softball Western finals, Sto-Rox (WPIAL) will take on Smethport (District 9) in A. Sto-Rox continues to be in my mind the top small-school all-around sports program in the state. Just this year, they reached the WPIAL final in football, won the PIAA final in Boys’ Basketball, their baseball team made it to the PIAA quarterfinals and the softball team is in the state semifinals. No WPIAL representative from the AA bracket, as the Western final is Northwestern (District 10-Erie Area) against Bald Eagle Area (District 6). Finally in AAA, Shaler (WPIAL) will take on Bellefonte (District 6). Good luck to all the District 6 and WPIAL teams going for PIAA gold.

I bet the Pirates are glad their recent road trip is over. After getting whupped by the A’s yesterday in Oakland, they dropped to 11 games under .500! Wasn’t it just two weeks ago that they swept the Cubs at PNC Park in a dramatic doubleheader? That walk-off grand slam and walk-off extra inning home run must have maxed them out for the season.

I was in Baltimore this past weekend for a friend’s bachelor party. Part of the festivities was taking in an Orioles game at Camden Yards. A beautiful ballpark no doubt, but my favorite is still PNC. We have Baltimore to thank for starting the retro styling, fan-friendly stadia. All the cold, heartless cement bowl, hard Astroturf fields are pretty much extinct. Even the remaining parks with turf have pretty much switched over to the FieldTurf type surface that looks and acts more like grass.

The Giants were in Baltimore for an interleague series and I’ll say that I stood and clapped each time Barry Bonds came up. One word that I try not to use is “hate” in the context of “don’t be a hater”. However, there was pure hatin’ going on at Camden Yards Saturday. The Balco thing hasn’t helped Barry out, but this has been going on everywhere pretty much since he left Pittsburgh. Barry isn’t my favorite player, and I’ll be the first to admit that part of my standing and clapping was just to incite fans (all I heard was some quiet muttering late in the game). The cats in front of me sat with their hands in their laps when Bonds came up to bat, but had the nerve to stand and clap when Bonds went opposite field to hit his 675th home run. 675!!! Willie Stargell is a legend in Pittsburgh and he retired with 475. That’s 200 more home runs than a hall of famer that played 20 plus years in the big leagues.

Rafael Palmeiro hit two home runs, the second of which puts him ahead of Mickey Mantle on the all-time home run list. Yet still, there are people who think him unworthy of the hall of fame.

Have I mentioned how great I think it is that the Pistons are on the verge of dumping the almighty Lakers in the NBA finals? I’ll personally volunteer to feed loudmouth Stephen A. Smith humble pie on the air.

Last week I poked fun at ultra-conservative “columnist” Ann Coulter and her inability to write a column without using the word “liberal”. Well, I did some research and have some numbers to back up my claim. This will be the first installment of the “Coulter Count”. In the last five columns that were featured on the Yahoo Op-Ed page, she has used the word 43 times. That’s an average of 8.6 times per column! Her high was 11, low 6. I’m setting an over-under at 9 for your entertainment purposes (it’s only exhibition, not competition, as always… please no wagering). I can only imagine what one of her “books” is like. I’ll be going to the library for any of that stuff though.

The funny thing is Lake Superior State University puts out an annual Banished Words List. Back in 1995, they had this about the word “liberal”
“Liberal – Columnist Bob Cudmore of The Record in Albany, NY, recently wrote: ‘Banish liberal or at least have it declared an obscenity, which is what the word had become. It’s probably better today to be called a Marxist, a Commie, a pinko, a fellow-traveler or a useful idiot…If liberal was deemed obscene by academics and dictionary-makers, maybe conservative talk show hosts, callers, commentators and politicians would be less likely to use the word…Perhaps then, instead of deploring an idea as liberal, conservative speakers would have to explain why they are against it.’”

Got to listen to two CDs from a recent large purchase from Columbia House. It was a great deal, they sent me a letter to cancel and re-subscribe, I got 12 free and then 1 for 6.95 and two more free with no shipping. 15 CDs for under $50. I’ve got some that the plastic isn’t even off, I’ll try to pass on reviews when I see fit. Two of them you should pick up are Jet’s “Get Born” and Maroon 5’s “Songs About Jane”. Listened to them multiple times to and fro Baltimore this weekend and both are recommended.

Pick up the Chappelle’s Show season one DVD set if you get a chance, the extras and bloopers on the second disc. Some of the stuff that got left on the cutting room floor is pretty funny.

I can’t wait until Family Guy comes back to the air (early ’05 I think). This is the first case of a show being brought back to life because of DVD sales. If you don’t have the DVDs you can still catch the show every night at 11:30 on Cartoon Network. I know Leno and Letterman rule the late night circuit but watch this show if you missed it during its too short run on Fox.

Get to Best Buy tomorrow and pick up “To the Five Boroughs”. Only $9.99.