The NBA Finals tip off tonight between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, and to commemorate the game our boy Ryantific cranked out a couple Official WCBias NBA Finals Shirts.
They’re only $13.99, so get them while they’re hot … and support the free content on WCBias!
And for our East Coast fans, we have a couple shirts too, so hold off on the comments and letters to the Ed.:
Death Defying
Here is a review of my Saturday. It involved mostly things that were not sports but I’m posting it anyway, even if it does mostly look dumb. Saturday was a nice day for myself:I did some snorkeling and lost (another) fin. Don’t even ask, it’s another stupid story. If BP is ocean polluter #1 these days I am #2, every time I go out these days I lose a mask, fin, dignity, whatever. Anyway, it was a bust and the water was cloudy:I tried snapping some pics with my snorkel camera but they were basically garbage so I’m holding off on posting any review of that thing until visibility improves.
So that was the morning, whatever. The afternoon was nice though and it involved, as you can see here, the world’s gayest waterslide at Cold Springs Trail. Was the water cold? Not really! Did I risk life and limb by going on the 2-foot drop? Maybe! How exciting! Anyway the hike was nice, beautiful weather, saw a snake, avoided all the poison oak, I am basically like Bear Grylls only more manly pretty much. You do not want to mess with me because I will out man you. I even watched the hockey match game this weekend. Or part of it, really. I’m not going to lie to you I wasn’t totally into it. I am very organized and the idea of a team in Chicago being in the Western Conference just bothers me. If I had taken a proper camera I would have had some nice pics of beautiful vistas and flowers and whathaveyous but really I’m too lazy so you have to settle for this (sideways, encoding and flipping 3gp files is hard!) video of Australian roommate Josh going down the waterslide as well. Look how close he comes to dying there. Good work, Josh.
Should we talk about sports while we’re here? Yeah, we might as well. We’ve got the Lakers and the Celtics in a battle of the two most insufferable fan bases (no offense to RK who has been a die hard even when they had Cedric Ceballos and nobody else) so I have no idea who to root for. Let’s all waste ink/electrons arguing about competitive imbalance in baseball but let’s hype this as a matchup for the ages even though these teams have won more than 50% of all NBA championships combined? WHAT? Are you hearing me internets? Is this thing even on? So dumb.
The Dodgers are more fun to watch thanks mostly to John Ely who is like Jamie Moyer if Jamie Moyer wasn’t 50 years old. So it remains to be seen if he’s actually a real guy or just a kid whose started out hot but the second time through the league he’ll get crushed but for now the top 4 of Kershaw, C Bills, Kuroda, and Ely actually is surprisingly serviceable. Torre continues to treat Troncoso like a rented mule and for whatever reason the offense has disappeared (luckily disappearing vs. Arizona doesn’t equal a loss). And also how about a nice backslap for picking the Reds and Braves to contend? So what if it was 2 different years. Stop all the hating.
Can the San Diego Padres really look this good?
Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of posts from WCBias.com guest contributors. Interested in writing a guest post for WCBias.com? Contact us.
Maybe low expectations can be a great thing.
Just think of those times when you’re set-up on a blind date and all you’ve been told is “Well she has a great personality.” That’s the dating kiss of death. Definitely don’t expect a looker.
As time slowly creeps toward that 6:30 deadline when it’s time to pick her up, the gameplan is to play it by ear. She can’t be that bad, right?
An hour or two into the date, things are going well and this girl isn’t the ugly duckling she may have been billed as. This might not be the sexiest girl at the dance, but she will get some looks here and there.
This brings me to the San Diego Padres.
Roughly a quarter into this summer’s baseball season, the Padres look more like a prince than a frog. Expected to lose close to triple-digit games, the Padres have surprised everybody by sitting atop the National League with one of baseball’s best records (30-20).
During the spring, pundits across the nation dismissed the Padres final two months of the 2009 season, but it looks like their 34-25 finish translated to 2010.
People around San Diego, and I’m sure the nation, are wondering if the Padres are playoff contenders. I’ve held off writing this because I’ve been afraid to say yes because sooner or later the universe will balance itself out, right?
This time I’m not so sure. I don’t think this is some mixed up parallel universe.
Pitching and defense have propelled San Diego to the top. The Major League leading 2.96 ERA is only 0.02 better than that of the St. Louis Cardinals, a team the Padres edged out 2-1 during a three-game series this week.
Accomplishing this is a starting five of Jon Garland (6-2, 2.15 ERA), Wade LeBlanc (2-3, 3.71), Clayton Richard (4-3, 3.00), Mat Latos (5-3, 3.08) and Cal Poly’s own Kevin Correia (4-4, 4.03).
Even the most optimistic of Padres homers would never have expected this group, minus Chris Young, to perform so well. There have been plenty of games this season when all five have looked down right unhittable.
Ah yes, that word, hitting. Where the entire pitching staff has looked so great, offensively this club is a joke. Think Michael Richards booed off the stage atrocious.
Where to start with this group?
Instead of showing individual stats I’ll let the team’s .322 OBP (22nd in baseball), and .242 average (26th) do the talking. No regular starter is hitting better than .300. San Diego ranks 22nd in runs scored (194). Downright disastrous numbers.
Most of the problem comes from the revolving door in the outfield. Starters have included Will Venable, Tony Gwynn Jr., Kyle Blanks, Scott Hairston, Jerry Hairston Jr., Oscar Salazar, Luis Durango, Chris Denorfia and Matt Stairs.
I think that’s the complete group but after a certain point all the mediocrity starts to blend together. The list will certainly grow as the Padres try to find just one person who resembles an everyday starter.
Even at this juncture, knowing Adrian Gonzalez will be a threat and Chase Headley will continue his breakout season, maybe it’s time to admit the Padres are not exactly who we thought they were during the spring.
Sure they’re not hitting as well as hoped but pitching and defense is carrying this team. I’ve been saying the Padres are like the Indians in “Major League.” They were a joke at the start but somehow they found a way to win and that’s all San Diego has done this summer.
This team might not be the bombshell that is the New York Yankees or Tampa Bay Rays, but just like the girl from the blind date there is no shame being seen in public with her.
I would like to make a short Public Safety Announcement to all my fellow Sports Fans (including Boston Fans). The NBA Playoffs are on and Summer is here, hence BBQ time. So while you are dishing up some delicious meat product, make sure there is plenty of safety served as a sidedish
. This occurred to me when I had B-Slim, the editor and Beastie, the QA doctor over for Game 5 of the NBA finals between Phoenix and LA. We decided to juggle watching the game, brewing a batch of beer, drinking a batch of beer and bbqing BACON wrapped hotdogs. And yes, I am now aware that this is a bad combination. While watching Ron Artest make the horrible decision of hoisting a three with 23 seconds left on the shot clock, then completely redeem himself with a hideous last second bank shot rebound and then make Craig Sager say “Queensbridge”: say it! I nearly burned my beautiful new backyard down. So here is your safety tip, Bacon cooks off a ton of Grease. And leaving the lid down on your gas grill, on high is a recipe for disaster. With billowing smoke coming from my Weber Gas Grill, I opened it to see flames hotter than the desert surrounding Phoenix. Running to get water was my next move and I doused the grill down and quenched the flames thirst. BUT, this is NOT the correct move in a Grease Fire.
About.com states in there tips “DO NOT PUT WATER ON A GREASE FIRE! This can not be stressed enough. 
Pouring water on burning grease or oil will not extinguish the fire. It will only cause the burning oil to splash, spreading the grease fire around.” Putting the lid down and cutting the supply of oxygen to the flames would have been best along with dumping baking soda on the flames. I have a fire extinguisher but didn’t run to use it because my eyes saw flames and my brains said water. So I got lucky.
I don’t suggest trying to grill bacon wrapped hot dogs. Although scrumptious, you can’t crisp the bacon with out upping the temperature. Earlier in the month, Over at the Editors house, we put the dogs on a broiler pan in the oven that allowed the grease to drip down and collect in the bottom of the pan. This allowed the bacon to crisp and was delicious and safe.
JUST BE AWARE, my fellow sport and bbq lovers. That is step one.
Last night, only one night later, I saw my neighbors bushes going up in flames behind our fence. I can only assume that Boston beat Orlando, and they were bbqing bacon wrapped hotdogs to celebrate.
Hello Indie Rokkers,
Yesterday was a fun night with many wins, sadly there were no wins from Brian Matusz on my fantasy team and he will soon experience the foul sting of the waiver wire upside his head. The two wins I experienced were courtesy of the SB Chicken Ranch and also from Freelance Whales, who conveniently played two blocks from the eatery. While I could describe the joys of simple pinto beans, Spanish rice and mesquite BBQ’d chicken I will instead talk more about the show. Here’s a quick vid of Freelance Whales in Austin and I think it’s good if we start with this because it’s sort of awesome.
First up Jensen’s is a small little space which probably would fit about 85-100 kidz fairly easily and last night was probably pushing the lower end of that figure so we all had lots of room to dance (please note that the verb “dance” here is intended to connote the hipster-leg-wobble-and-occasional-head-bob as opposed to say, this). The evening began with a charming little SB based brother-sister acoustic-pin-drop-core-(term-I-just-made-up) tandem named Watercolor Paintings which was a fun way to start the show with JayMay style broken vocals and harp plucking, tongue in cheek lyrics. Fun stuff.
After a wonderfully brief intermission Freelance Whales took the stage and began with “Generator ^ First Floor” and killed it. Five pieces are sometimes unwieldy on stage but with so many instruments (glockenspiel, two keyboards, banjo, squeezebox, besides the obvious and expected) and so many equipment switches between songs there’s always something fun going on. And for reals—for a bunch of white guys (and girl) there’s some serious soul. Describing a band’s sound is pretty passé with everything you’d want to know about a band available online but it’s safe to say they fall into that generally uncategorizable (apparently not a word) indie rock with electric and folk elements that all the kidz these days flip for. Stage presence is clearly not their strong suit as these New Yorkians based the majority of their stage time swapping instruments around as opposed to cracking wise, which is of course fine and all and certainly preferable to idle prater but maybe a joke or two would be nice. Or not, whatever. It’s really the only criticism I can think of. Besides the aforementioned “Generator ^ First Floor”, “Ghosting”, and especially “Starring” destroyed it. They ended the night with a rousing version of “Generator ^ Second Floor” which sent us out into the tragically foggy night and our Mazda 3s, which of course smelled like leftover Chicken Ranch.
While BSlim was taking his family to church on Sunday, those of us with the TS (True Stoke) were out catching some waves. Despite the crazy winds that have prevailed here, the TS crew managed to find some rideable liquid in Shell Beach, CA, where we glided on water like Clyde the Glide. Of course, the winds cause this things called upwelling, which brings the really cold water to the surface and makes you say things like, “Damn — why’s it so COLD?” Faced with 48-degree temps, we bailed after an hour.
A glutton for punishment — but needing excersize since I’m rather whale-like at the moment — I drove from the ocean to the basketball courts for a day of activity only a true bulimic (TB) could appreciate. Proud of myself for doing so much, I’ve rewarded myself with a day of snacking.
I know the sports world is sort of focused on the NBA playoffs right now. And, in particular, L.A. has the Lakers in mind. But while everyone was watching Kobe, the Dodgers quietly sneaked into first place.
Well, technically a tie at the moment. But the Padres won’t be there long. I mean, come on — they’re the Padres.
But the Dodgers — they’re a different story. At the beginning of the season, it wouldn’t have been a stretch to predict they’d be in first place at the end of May. Except with their lackluster start, it sort of is a surprise.
And the star so far is Andre Ethier. The guy’s nearly hitting .400 and right now is a triple crown candidate — for the entire league (11 HRs, 38 RBI). Of course, it’s a long season, but right now he’s looking like an MVP.
***
By the way? I can’t stand interleague play. When it first began, it was sort of a novelty. The Yankees v. the Dodgers. Cubs v. Red Sox. But now I think it sucks.
First of all, it created uneven schedules. If you get lucky and get to play the AL West during the season, you’re probably going to win more games than the team that has to play the AL East. So when it comes playoff time, you’re at a disadvantage for home field advantage.
Also, it was always special when the AL met the NL in post-season — because they never met before then. Now it’s just a letdown — especially if one team dominated the other during the season.
Also, I hate how the league plays on cross-town rivalries. It’s a blatant money gimmick — even if the Mets suck, they’ll draw huge crowds if they play the Yankees. At the same time it pits communities against each other, and there’s often a class component to it. The Cubs fans are much more frat boy/yuppie than the working class south siders — and they both hate each other for their respective ways. Same with the wine-sipping Giants fans vis-a-vis the rough and tumble Athletics crew.
What better way to exploit class differences than to pit sports teams against one another?
Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of posts from WCBias.com guest contributors. Interested in writing a post for WCBias.com? Contact us.
Don't let the Chargers, Qualcomm go up in smoke San Diego.
Talk has been circulating for years about when, where and why the San Diego Chargers should leave Qualcomm Stadium for a new high-tech home.
The good news is that after searching all over San Diego County it appears the only workable plot of land is a small parcel just blocks East from PETCO Park. The bad news is that means the Chargers have to worry about dealing with the City of San Diego.
It was a struggle and a drawn-out hassle to get PETCO built and sadly if this 10-acre location is truly the Chargers only viable option I’d expect much of the same.
The stadium topic once again surfaced after the Chargers released their downtown stadium plan on Thursday. Included was an artist’s rendering of the 62,000-seat stadium and some important financial figures, mainly the expected cost of $800 million divided between the Chargers, NFL and City of San Diego.
Breaking down the financials reveals the expectation the city will be on the hook for $500 million in the form of bonds, the Chargers for $200 and the NFL for $100.
Before screaming foul consider the city currently assumes an annual loss of $17 million to operate Qualcomm Stadium. Not to mention the large sum of cash the eventually vacant 60-acre Mission Valley site is worth.
So far it sounds like a solid deal for everybody involved.
The San Diego City Council has proven to be rather inept at handling even the simplest of tasks, but this needs to be something it does not screw up. This is leaving the voters out of it, who I believe have enough sense to push this project through.
Still failing to see the positives of the project? Look a few blocks west and see the glorious site of PETCO.
This section of downtown was a disaster. PETCO revitalized the area and created a building boom throughout the area. The same should hold true the second time around.
From a football standpoint, San Diego will once again be in the Super Bowl circuit since the NFL has made it painfully clear it considers city climate and stadium luxury when determining a site. The Super Bowl belongs in San Diego – I know it and the NFL knows it.
Oh I nearly forgot priority No. 1 for getting the stadium built – it will keep the Chargers in San Diego. If this plan falls through the Chargers will bolt for greener pastures (L.A. maybe?) and the 3 million-plus of us who live down here will be left with one professional sports team.
So do the right thing San Diego, build this 62,000-seat, $800 million stadium.
Last month, I suggested that LeBron James might be headed to the Bulls, and now suddenly everyone is saying the same thing. So here’s another bold prediction:
Phil Jackson will be his coach.
As Jackson prepares to take yet another Lakers team to the championships, there’s talk that he will face a significant pay cut after this year. Jackson has said that even with a pay cut, his salary will be “ridiculous,” which might suggest he’s above monetary rewards. But whatever. Sure, he doesn’t need the dough. And he doesn’t strike me as a greedy sort of guy. But it’s about respect. If you’re the winningest coach in the league by far, you should be paid accordingly.
And who knows — maybe he’ll donate the money to save the whales or some other cause. That way he can stick it to The Man and help his fellow mammal.
Whales are mammals, right?
My point is, Jacko’s gone after this season. And what better place for him to go but to that other city that gave him so much respect. To the city with the league’s other best player? (Soon to be LeBron).
One thing’s for sure: Jackson doesn’t go to losers. So he’s going to pick a team with a good chance of going all the way.
Oh, and by the way? Last I heard the Bulls needed a new coach.
LeBron + Jackson = happy Bulls fans.
Here is where you pick which game you want to watch
Did I tell you guys I bought a new TV a while ago? I was one of the last people around to finally upgrade and get a flat screen, blah blah blah TV with blah blah blah resolution and blah blah blah hertz. Sounds awesome, right? Right. Anywayz, getting a new TV is nice and all but the big problem is you’re still stuck with the same old crappy programming, right? Of course you are. You could upgrade to digital cable but that would involve a phone call and someone coming out to your house to hook up your new digital cable and the people at Cox iz dummies so that’s out. Too bad you can’t watch out of market games on your new TV without upgrading to the MLB package! OMGosh but with the Roku box you totally can! Let’s investigate!
Here is how you get a Roku box: you have your new roommate move in and he brings it with him. Then you tell him to set it up and he does. Then you turn on your TV and your computer. Then you sign into your MLB account (which you have to buy or you have to have your dad buy it and then you take his password). Then through the magic of the internetz your Roku talks to your TV and then you can watch all of the out of market games (except for the Saturday day games which are all blacked out because MLB was founded after the Civil War and they were scared the Pony Express would disseminate the accounts and descriptions of the game of Base Ball without the express written consent of Kenesaw Mountain Landis and George Washington).
Sadly we did not pitch Clay Buchholtz in our fantasy league today
So where was we? The Roku…the TV…oh yeah so see that little box there to the lower left of the TV? That’s the Roku. My favorite aspects of the Roku are the following: you can chose between home and away broadcasts, virtually every station is in HD and the picture quality is amazing. And did I mention you get to watch Yankee-Red Sox games whenever you want? Look, I know we iz West Coast Bias and we’re all about the West Coast but try watching a Yanks-Sox tilt and then flip over and watch the Dodgers play the Padres. I mean I love the Dodgers and all but it’s like watching Romper Room compared to the ball those two juggernauts are rolling out there. And don’t even get me started on the Rays…that team is so fast and those pitchers are nasty. Flipping between channels isn’t as easy as it would be on your regular TV (takes maybe 30 seconds to go from game to game) so that’s a bit of a downer but to go from the Roku to your regular TV feed (and back again) is just a matter of hitting the input button your remote, so you could easily go back and forth between an out of market game and your local team without missing much at all.
And yeah, Roku will stream some of your netflix and some other stuff too but the MLB has got to be the selling point, right? Right.
Final verdict: 2 thumbs and 1 renob up.
