I Hate Comcast

There's a reason why I haven't posted in forever and that's because Comcast sucks. For the third time in about a month my internet went down here at my apartment. Comcast had to come out three times and the signal at my apartment complex apparently keeps fading and they can't seem to keep it up to a strong signal so that's just great. They are terrible. I've had problems with them out in Fresno and I've yet to meet someone who's dealt with them and not have a problem. Well anyway, hopefully I'm up for good now.

So what's going on since the last post? Not much going on besides work, work and more work this summer with the Whitecaps. It's been a fun season so far and the 'Caps are in the middle of a wildcard playoff race for the first half and could lock that up this weekend. Also this weekend, we will welcome Kenny Rogers to the mound as he will make his second rehab start in the minors. His first was last Sunday against Toledo and since they are on the road this time, we lucked out and got The Gambler. Friday should be hectic, but fun as well.

That's about all going on in my life right now...it's Whitecaps all the time during the season. I've been thinking about this blog lately and the direction I want to go in with it. These are initial ideas and something I've been throwing around for a while, but I'm thinking about a new name for the blog besides "Ryan's Blog About Nothing." If I change it to a different name, a sports name, then I might change it to an all sports focus. But I don't know if I want to do that too. I like to have this blog where I can talk about things that are going on in my life. It's good for me to write about and is a nice thing to reflect on different times in your life years down the road. Maybe I could start an entire new sports blog and keep two, but don't know if I have the time for that. Then there's also an idea of buying a website name myself and linking my blog to it, the RFFL website to it and whatever else I want to throw on it. I don't know, I'll figure something out. Right now isn't a good time anyway with the season in full swing. I'll keep this blog the same it's been for now and try to post more often (if Comcast allows that).

Random Thoughts for April

So I haven't posted anything all this month since April 1st and once again I can't sleep so I decided to sit in front of the computer and write something. I've been really busy at work with our season starting this month so that'll explain a lot for why I haven't posted anything. The Whitecaps season has been going good so far once all the snow/rain/shitty weather got over with. But anyway, there has been a lot of big things happening this month so I'll run some of my random thoughts about them here...

Pens losing to Ottawa in the first round of the playoffs. Yeah, that sucked. The Penguins finished a great season on a high note with the most points in their history and then flamed out five games to the Sens. They were getting smothered in every game and made no adjustments at all...it was pathetic. But hey the team is still young, I mean Crosby is just 19 years old and he played the playoffs with a broken foot and still had a good series. Crosby and the rest of the boys will be back next year with experience and ready to take over the league in Mellon Arena's final year.

Pirates are 11-12. Great start to the season by sweeping the Astros, then a shitty second part, followed by a five-game winning streak to get back to .500. What's going to happen next with this team? They have been real streaky, but the pitching has been unbelievable. Now if the hitting could just pick it up a bit (OK, how about A LOT). I don't know about this team yet...they have looked great as times, but then other times they look like the same Buccos of old. But hey, for now they are hanging around .500 and keeping themselves alive instead of burying themselves in the division and that's all I wanted in the season preview. That's a positive for now.

The Virginia Tech shooting. Unbelievable. The whole thing affected me a lot...how could it not? I don't have much to say on it. It made me think back to a couple years ago when I was at IUP and I couldn't imagine something like that happening and I sure couldn't see myself being able to attend class after it. What a tragedy. Some people are just so lost. It definitely makes you appreciate every day that you have.

The NFL Draft. So I watched about 16 hours of the NFL draft this weekend and I was so tired of it at some point today. I think the Steelers had a great draft by filling a couple of key positions they needed. Timmons from FSU at LB was a great pick and then Woodley from Michigan that we are going to convert to a LB was nice to keep the 3-4 defense running well. Steelers also took a punter (huh?), tight end from Minnesota, OG from Rutgers and I like the WR Baker from Florida in the 7th round. He could of went earlier and could end up being a great value pick at that point. Other musings from the draft was that the Patriots became even more hate able today than I ever thought possible. They traded for Randy Moss from Oakland for a fourth round draft pick. Tom Brady to Randy Moss next year? Ugh...this is going to be gay. Hopefully Randy takes his attitude from the last couple years with him to Boston of not giving a shit because that could get entertaining if they start losing. Also, I seriously cannot wait to see the Steelers knock Brady Quinn around twice a year.

Whitecaps and the baseball season is back. The season has started back up, which means I'm busier than ever, but once the games started I realized why I'm in this line of work to begin with. Being at the ballpark, writing game notes and watching baseball every night is one of the best things. No matter how rough things are going, there is going to be a game that day. It's always something new and different each day so it helps too after 70 some straight games. The Whitecaps have been bouncing around .500 so far this season but should start get going now that this weather has picked up. My parents also came to visit during our last homestand (as you can see from the picture) and they saw two great afternoon games with the best weather so far this season. It was really good to see them and I can't wait for Krissy and Kelly and the kids to come up here for a game or two. That's the only thing that sucks about being up here...I miss them all so much :(

That's about it this month...just a lot of work going on. I also was able to make it out to Comerica Park for the first time to see the Tigers and Twins do battle. I also got to see Joe (thanks for the tickets) for the first time since I moved up here to Grand Rapids. We had a fun time talking about Detroit/Pittsburgh sports and discussing our mutual hatred for the city of Fresno. The Tigers lost to the Twins 5-3 on a chilly night in downtown Detroit, but the park is beautiful.

Ok, I think that's about it. It's only 2:22 a.m. and I have to get up a little after 7 a.m. so I should try and get some sleep sooner or later.

Let's Be Honest

Well I promised a Pirates season preview and I'm going to give you a Pirates season preview. The Mets and Cardinals kick things off tonight, but tomorrow is the real Opening Day when all the other teams begin play in 2007. Now I love Opening Day...it's the one day where every team is tied in first place and they all have a chance of a great season ahead of them. This means a lot especially to Pirates fans because it's the one time when we can dream of an above .500 season and being in a pennant race. So it's 2007...the Pirates last winning season was 1992...and we all know how that season ended in Atlanta and that's all I'm saying about that. So 14 losing seasons later the Bucs are looking to stop the streak. And every year with this Opening Day "Anybody can win" feeling, I always say this is the year the Pirates turn it around and break the streak and prove everybody wrong and then every year by May I look like a fucking idiot. Well not this year. I'm done giving the Pirates the benefit of the doubt about their team and their direction. It's just too hard to do and when you look at it, nothing has really changed.

With that said, I do think the Pirates have some potential this year because of the young pitching staff that after getting experience last year, could be ready to take off in 2007. Plus the addition of Adam LaRoche gives the offense some pop...more pop than they have had in a long time. And maybe for once we could actually rely on Chris Duffy and Jose Castillo to do something.

While they do have potential...way too many things have to go right for the Buccos this year to finish over .500. The pitching staff has to continue in improve and really need to find that ace pitcher that when he pitches you know the Pirates are going to win. Freddy Sanchez doesn't need to clone last year, but needs to be productive and become a solid .300 hitter because he doesn't hit for power. And he's already starting the season off on the DL so that's a bad omen for him already this year. Chris Duffy needs to wake up and play a full, consistent season. And I'm talking about a consistent season of getting on base, hitting over .300 and stealing bases because so far he's been pretty consistent of sucking it up. The Pirates need him to get on base to succeed. Adam LaRoche and Jason Bay need to excel batting next to each other and become a potent duo in the middle of our lineup. They have to become the guys that opposing pitchers fear when they pitch. And as great as Bay has been, I think it's too much to think that he's just going to be amazing every season year in and year out...I hope he keeps it up, but I'm expecting a small drop off in production at some point. Our bullpen and mainly Salomon Torres needs to hold up nice like last year. Torres somehow pitched great at the end of last season when Gonzo went down, but I have never liked Torres and somehow I can see him with an 8.56 ERA through May.

That's a lot of shit that needs to go right for the Bucs if they are do anything this year and if you are a Pirates fan, then you know nothing ever seems to go right for us so it's not looking good. And another reason why we won't finish .500 is because in the past two seasons we haven't even been above .500 once all year! Last year the Bucs buried themselves with an 0-7 start and never recovered despite the 37-35 second half record. Were we over .500 in 2005? Forget it, I was interning there so you really knew nothing special would happen that year. The last time the Pirates sat above .500 was May 29, 2004 with a 23-22 record. That's sad, just sad. The latest we were in a season at .500 was when I was there in '05 when we beat the D-Rays 18-2 to move 30-30 and the city was buzzing for this team. What happened? We lost in extra innings the next afternoon to Tampa and then went to New York and Boston and was buried again. Another reason I don't think it'll happen this year is because we start off with three games at Houston and then at Cincinnati. We can never ever play well against the Astros...they have our number for the past billion years so I don't see us doing much there and then we return home for a three-game series with the Cardinals...ugh. I see about a 2-7 start and that's one that the Buccos love to do and not be able to get out of. And now every article I read on the Post-Gazette and the Pirates website is all about getting that winning season this year. It worries me that they keep talking about it because they are making it out to be this impossible feat. It shouldn't be hard, it's fucking playing .500 ball....it's not even that great of baseball. Nobody should ever go into a sport or game or life and say well if win one more than we lose, I'll be happy. No teams do that, other teams set goals like playoffs, championship...at least set personal goals yourself...maybe that way players will play for something and put up some numbers. OK see now I'm pissed. That's what the Pirates do to me. Give me a minute to calm down here.

OK, so after my rant about why the Buccos will still be the Buccos this year...there are some good things in the Pirates favor. The NL Central blows. Yes we have the world champion Cardinals in there, but they aren't that good (yes, really). The Reds are the reds, the Astros look to have one of their worst teams in years but they always find a way to win, the Cubs spent about a bazillion dollars and still have a horrible pitching staff, the Brewers are always hanging around trying to get over the hump as well. I just don't really see one team pulling away from the whole division so the Pirates could always be in the 10-game reach all year. Another thing in their favor is PNC Park is still the best park in America no doubt. I'm pissed at myself for not making it out there last year cause I was trapped in Fresno, but I am already planning trips to the Burgh to enjoy PNC. And of course the Pirates are young and the sky is the limit in front of them...they can't get much worse than the past 14 years can they?

After my whole post of putting down the Pirates, I must say that I am excited about this year. But then again I'm excited about every season for the Buccos and look where it gets me. I just want the Buccos to be competitive. Just play around .500 ball, maybe get close to a pennant race in the second half of the season and I will be ecstatic...it's been so long since we could remember one of those. I'm tired of the Bucs being a joke around the rest of the country thanks to McClatchy/Nutting and I just want that to change and for them to be fairly decent and hang around in the standings...not be buried by 22 games come mid-May. Of course tomorrow I'll be doing what I do every year on Opening Day...praying and dreaming that the Pirates come out and surprise everyone by leading the division all season, wrapping up the NL pennant in mid-September at PNC Park, sweep the Mets in the first round, take out the Dodgers in six games in the NLCS and then rip the Yankees in four games for their first World Series Championship since 1979! Hey, I can dream right?

Anyway I have to go purchase my MLBTV package online so I can keep up with the Bucs all season since I'm away in Michigan. I apologize for the length of this, but if you read it all then you are probably just as doomed as me as a Pirate fan. Final record? My hope: 101-61. Reality: 78-86. GO BUCS!

Merci...the Pens are in the playoffs!

With a come from behind win over the Capitals last night, the Penguins have officially clinched a playoff berth. Their first playoff berth since 2001. That's five seasons ago, six years ago with the strike season. Let's take a look back to 2001. The Pens played their last playoff series in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Devils and were smoked in five games. With the series tied at 1 apiece, the Pens were shutout two straight games at home and were basically done after that. I remember that series being frustrating as hell to watch. I also remember the series before that where the Pens came back down 3 games to 2 to defeat the Sabres in Buffalo in Game 7 thanks to Mario's "immaculate deflection" to force OT under a minute in the game and then Darius Kasparaitis' wrister in overtime gave the Penguins the series.



Money in the bank

I can't believe that was the last time the Pens won in the playoffs. I remember that series and where I was for it very well because I was on my senior band trip in Toronto. We went to the Hockey Hall of Fame and had heard that the Pens went down 3 games to 2. It looked hopeless, but the Pens won Game 6. We left Toronto, drove through Buffalo the day before Game 7 and went home and watched the Pens win the series. It's pretty weird that was the last time they were there...it feels like that was a lifetime ago. And I'm happy it's back...it's been way too long.

Ironically, the Pens got some help tonight from the Sabres as they defeated the Devils 4-3 to keep them deadlocked with the Pens for first in the Atlantic Division. Tonight was the Devils game in hand and they threw it away so it's all even with five games left for each team. Pens have Boston tomorrow and Toronto Saturday. I'm liking our chances here. And yes the division and 2 seed does matter despite already being in the playoffs as we can get home-ice advantage. Plus beating out the Devils is always fun. Go Pens!

Staying in the Burgh!

Well I'm a little late on this news, but the Pittsburgh Penguins are officially staying where they belong, in Pittsburgh. Mario announced it a couple weeks back right before the Pens took on and beat the Sabres at Mellon Arena. I had been talking about this situation for the last month or so in my blog and finally we now know the Pens will be in Pittsburgh for good (well 30 years at least). I can't express how ecstatic this made myself and all the Pens fans in Pittsburgh feel hearing the news. This is wonderful, amazing and relieving news and now we can all get on to enjoying our Penguins and the season they are having. They smoked the Bruins on national TV Sunday 5-0 to tie the Devils for first place in the Atlantic. The Devils have a game in hand, but they've been struggling as out late and plus, it's the Devils...they suck and we'll take the division. The Pens have some big games coming up the next two weeks as they close out the season. Even if they get the division or not...the Pens are looking at their first playoff game since 2001. But more on that as we get closer to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. GO PENS!

How does that not give you goosebumps? I had tickets to this game with Matt....ugh, why did I move again?

I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks mainly because my old computer sucked and was slow as hell. I recently just purchased a brand-new Dell with 2GB of ram and 160 GB hard drive...the thing is sweet. You can expect more posts from now on because it won't take me a year to sign on and post them anymore. The new computer also has Windows Vista and so far I'm liking it. I haven't had much time to check out all the features, but it's working for me. All my programs are working, AIM and the net is working and it doesn't have a problem with blogger so it's good with me.

One thing I could have went without this weekend was Kansas blowing it to UCLA in the Elite 8. The Jayhawks kill me...so much talent and they always seem to waste it. Just a frustrating game all around. Rock Chalk Jayhawk will have to wait till next year.

Also it's the last week of March so baseball season is right around the corner. The weather is warming up and things are picking up at Fifth Third Ballpark in West Michigan as we get the place ready for some games. The Whitecaps play an exhibition game against Grand Valley State on April 4 and then go on the road to Dayton before coming home on April 9 for our home opener against Lansing. I already can't wait for the Whitecaps season, but I really can't wait to get MLB underway as well and yes, even the Pirates. I promise I will have a season preview coming up later this week. Should be an interesting season as Freddy Sanchez looks like he's going to start the season on the shelf so that's a great start. Ugh, more on that to come.

That's it for now...I'm heading to bed. Everyone have a good week.

Deal or No Deal?

And the city of Pittsburgh and all the Penguins fans sit in purgatory...waiting another couple days till the meetings resume this Wednesday. Thursday's meeting for the Pens made "significant progress" and talks will continue next week. "Significant progress", whatever that means...I guess anything's better than having that meeting end with the Pens moving. So I'm happy that things are supposedly going good and a deal could be worked out Wednesday. But in the meantime it's more waiting and wondering if we are still going to have our beloved Penguins next year.

No fan or any team should have to go through this. It's been a dark cloud hanging over the Penguins even back in 98-99 when the team was originally up for sale before Mario came in and bought them. And now this has been coming up for the past couple years and it always seems to be there. I just want to root for this team without worrying that next year they will be the KC Pens or the Vegas Pens or the Portland Pens.

So for Wednesday...get a deal done! Hopefully Bettman being there will help things out and the NHL will block the move if they have to. Here's hoping to good news for Wednesday's meetings and the game against the evil Devils. GO PENS!

Lot of Wang at the Oscar's

"And the Oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year goes to Escape from Hell written by Ryan Alexander (crowd cheering)....Ryan's road to the Oscar's began in 2006 when he moved to Fresno, California where he was inspired to write Escape From Hell..." (Ryan is handed the Oscar from Rachel Bilson, kisses Rachel and takes the podium.) "Wow what a great audience... I don't believe it...I didn't write anything down so I hope I don't forget to thank anyone. First, I want to thank God for this opportunity to be in the same category as some of my idols in the business. I want to thank my parents for always believing in me...(tearing up)...and giving me the chance to move to Fresno so I could come up with the idea for this film thanks to the shithole that Fresno is. I also want to thank my producers....(Oscar music starts glaring) What? Turn that music off! I'm not finished! YOU CAN'T CUT ME OFF! TURN IT OFF!"

Ok, you get the idea...that was funny...ok almost funny. Last night was the Oscar's and I was sitting in front of the TV the whole night...even two hours on the Red Carpet coverage hosted by Ryan Seacrest. He's terrible...he was acting like a giddy high school girl every time he interviewed some celebrity. Than Seacrest went and made a fool of himself in what was probably the funniest thing of the night. Three people he was interviewing all said that their dresses were Vera Wang dresses and after like the third in a row, Seacrest goes..."Wow, we have a lot of wang....here tonight." Ha! What was even better was he paused right after saying wang as if to be saying in his mind, oh my god did I just say that and then he finished with the rest of the sentence. Nice one Seacrest. Nothing else really happened on the red carpet. The best looking actor/actress last night, in my opinion, was Cameron Diaz. Now I'm not really a big fan of Cameron Diaz...I don't know why, something with her face or maybe it's that she's sort of annoying, but last night....wow. She was absolutely stunning. Check out the pictures below...

S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G

Moving on to the Oscar's, I was wondering when first Bush bashing joke would come up and it was about four minutes into the show...that's about right. Add to the fact that Al Gore was in the crowd and OF COURSE got to mention about six times that the climate is fucked up. No shit Gore...it couldn't be a complete night without mentioning that glaciers are melting somewhere. Oh and yeah if you didn't watch....get ready for this one...Al Gore won an Oscar. Yep, hey if you can't be president, good thing you can have an Oscar...it's almost the same thing. He won one for his movie "An Inconvenient Truth," which was about...glaciers melting and the climate of course. You know it's bad that Al Gore hangs out in Hollywood because it's the only group that would want him around.

Anyway, despite Ellen's lame intro where she didn't really want to bash on any of the actors...I think she actually did a decent job. She was no Chris Rock or Jon Stewart, but the Academy Awards doesn't want a good host anymore that doesn't have any problem making fun of everyone in the crowd. Let's see what else happened....ok, I'm really tired of Beyonce. I talked about this two years ago when she performed like 80 times and last night she did again...why is the Academy up her ass? It's getting old...find a new singer like.......Will Ferrell and Jack Black! It's good to see the Academy isn't too good to not allow this. Will and Jack had a pretty good singing number and it was refreshing to see after a pretty boring first half of the show.

One thing I always hate with winning speeches is when somebody who everybody knows is going to win (Jennifer Hudson) wins and then goes up there and acts all surprised like they had no idea they would win it. I'll give Hudson the benefit of the doubt though since three years ago she was doing the same thing I was, watching the Oscar's at home on the couch. She came out of nowhere so I can let her slide on that one.

As for the awards, the Departed took home four awards and I've wanted to see that since it's come out and I'm going to be picking the DVD very shortly. Leonardo DiCaprio didn't win best actor for Blood Diamond, but he got his dues from Graham King after the Departed won the best picture. Blood Diamond was an unbelievable movie and I'm kinda surprised it didn't take home more awards. Little Miss Sunshine was supposed to take home everything, but really didn't take much only Alan Arkin for supporting actor.

Also, why did they start so late and have it last way past midnight here on the East Coast? Come on Hollywood, you could start at 8pm instead of 8:30 and not go into midnight so we could get some sleep out here, geez. Ah who am I kidding...I don't go to bed before midnight anyway.

Other highlights or random comments from the night...Forest Whitaker's speech went a bit over the top I think..the Gospel choir performed...come on....Tom Cruise is crazy...and Abigail Breslin and Will Smith's son presenting an award together was awesome. And I'll end with a photo of Borat on the Red Carpet with the girl from Wedding Crashers...and Borat's movie was robbed!

Borat, very nice...how much?