12th Level Bloody Sock of Mithelhelm

Here's my best case scenario for this Magic/Cavs series: the Cavs blow out the Magic in games 6 and 7, Stan Van Gundy gets canned, and the two Van Gundy brothers take over the starring roles in the upcoming Michael Strahan sitcom. The Van Gundy brothers are hilarious. Last night, we learned that Stan can, in fact, do math, when a reporter asked if he would treat game 6 like it's game 7. Stan decided, instead, that he would treat game 6 like game 6. (Can't find the video.) I'm sure the NBA would miss the Van Gundy bros, but at least FOX would miss Strahan, too. So that's sort of a toss-up, but then the title of the show would be much more genuine. Plus, we would (probably) get a nice Kobe/LeBron series to see who really is David Stern's best puppet.

Ryan Ludwick finally comes off the DL today. I think he's been healthy for some time now, but the restrictions of the 15-day DL didn't allow his return until now. Evidently, both he and Ankiel will be "in the lineup," which I assume means they're starting. That makes tonight's game a pretty important one for the Cards. It sucks that I have Matt Cain on my fantasy team. Otherwise, I'd root for a blowout. As is, I'm hoping Ludwick provides all of the offense in a pitcher's duel. But then, I've pretty much lost this week anyhow, so I guess I can just pull for the Cardinals without much dismay.

I've been trying to shakeup my fantasy roster with a trade, but our league is pretty wimpy about that sort of thing.

Watch this transition:

Speaking of baseball, Curt Schilling owns a video game company called 38 Studios, which I just learned yesterday. I guess Schilling has put together some pretty big names in the video game development world, and he's added to his stable with the acquisition of Big Huge Games. This is potentially awesome news, if only 38 Studios would actually produce a game. So far, they have one quality start but no complete games.

Ah, puns.

Big Huge Games was owned by THQ, who alongside Volition, are responsible for Saints Row and the forthcoming Red Faction: Guerrilla. Guerrilla is ordinarily a game I would review for the paper, but considering it comes out Tuesday and I'll be in (or on my way to) St. Louis starting Wednesday, I might not get to it. I still try to hold onto notions of timeliness with my reviews, even though I don't know that my paper cares much for kairos. The first Red Faction game really solidified my love of FPSs.

The next chapter of GTA IV DLC is called "The Ballad of Gay Tony." I can't imagine that will cause any controversy. Kotaku has already tried to make the expansion politically relevant. And failed miserably.

The Goode Family finally premiered Wednesday, after Wipeout, an Austin favorite for obvious reasons. The Goode Family was far, far less disappointing than Sit Down, Shut Up has been. In fact, it was actually considerably funny. I'm not a big fan of the son Ubuntu so far, though. It's kind of strange to think that FOX has literally donimated the network primetime animated comedy genre for 20 years now. Perhaps that's starting to change.

The Fight Night Round 4 demo is evidently "live" on Xbox Live today. So, I'm going to go check that out.

QotD:

Should Manny Ramirez be an All-Star?

My take: If the fans are dumb enough to vote him in, then yes. The All-Star game is in a weird liminal space since it's "the fan's game" that just happens to determine home field for the World Series. Obviously, baseball put the All-Star game in this awkward position, so I don't think the league has the right to complain when complications from that maneuver arise. I would genuinely dislike seeing Manny as a starter, but I'd just understand it as a relatively harmless flaw in the system. There are worse problems in sports.

The Fantabulous Fiftieth Post

(Yes, this is my fiftieth post on the blogger blog.)

While I was watching the Orlando/Cleveland game last night, I decided that the NBA should just redefine what a foul is. Here's why this would work: the referees have already done this, possibly in some secret back room meetings, but more likely just through 60 years of setting and resetting precedence. So the root of the "referee problem" isn't that refs are bad at their jobs; it's just that they redefined their jobs without telling anybody else, like the players, the coaches, or the fans. By reexamining and rewriting the rule book, the NBA could eliminate this confusion pretty easily and provide some much needed transparency as to what the hell the refs are actually doing out there.

But instead of a vague suggestion, here's what I consider a legitimate solution: hire a statistics firm that knows absolutely nothing about basketball, like Elias Sports Bureau, but not them. Have that firm watch every NBA game for a period of time, let's say five years, and document every blown whistle, in terms that a non-basketball fan would understand and agree with. In this way, the NBA could examine where the 60 years of precedence have taken the rules without having that precedence as a contamination of the stats.

Based on my (obviously biased) NBA viewing, here's a sample of what I think the new and improved rulebook might look like:

A defensive player will be assessed a personal foul in the first 46 minutes of regulation or in the first three minutes of any overtime period if

1. That player reaches in to hit a player, who has possession of the ball, between the elbows and the wrists.
   
2. That player jumps over the back of a player who is taller than him, either in rebounding or trying to block a shot.
   
3. That player uses his hands or arms to hit or push a player, who is in the act of shooting, in any of the following locations:
   
   1. On the arms between the shoulders and wrists.
   2. On the head, but only if the hit involves that player moving his arms more than 20 degrees.
      
   3. In the torso, but only if the shooting player has his arms raised and is not moving forward at the time.
      
4. That player uses his body to move underneath or otherwise ends up underneath of a player who is in the act of shooting or dunking all over everybody.
   
5. That player, having moved in the last two seconds, blocks the progress of a player who has possession of the ball and is
   
   1. Behind half court.
      
   2. Probably going to shoot the ball in the next few seconds anyway.
      

A defensive player will be assessed a personal foul in the final two minutes of regulation or in the final two minutes of any overtime period if

1. That player's team is winning by any number other than three points, and that player performs any of the actions listed in the previous section.
   
2. That player's team is winning by exactly three points or losing, and that player uses his hands or arms to touch a player who has possession of the ball and is
   
   1. Running away from that player at full speed.
      
   2. Huddled along the sidelines with the ball in a standing fetal position.
      

An offensive player will be assessed a personal foul if

1. That player has possession of the ball and runs into a defensive player who has not moved in the last two seconds, only if there are no other defensive players within two feet of that player.
   
2. That player has possession of the ball and lowers his shoulder into the chest of a defensive player for more than two seconds.
   
3. That player, while spinning with the ball, uses his elbows to hit a defensive player above the shoulders.
   

A player will be assessed a technical or a flagrant foul (Do we really need both?) if

1. That player throws the ball in the air or at the ground with any emotion other than sheer jubilation.
   
2. That player performs any action that could be used to beat up José Canseco in a mixed-martial arts fight. Those actions include the following:
   
   1. Leg kicks, a la Dahntay Jones to Kobe Bryant.
      
   2. Elbows to the head, a la Anthony Johnson to Mo Williams.
      
   3. Full-on punches, a la any late-game defensive rebound by a frustrated Dwight Howard.
      

Obviously, that's just a sample of what the new rulebook could look like. At least it's a start.

But there is a lot more to try to get to in this blog.

Speaking of NBA rules, Bryan and I instituted our own NBA Live rule, probably over a year ago. We agreed that if any player blocked another player who is at least a foot taller than him, his team automatically wins the game. It hadn't happened after probably hundreds of games and a few close calls, but then I used 6'2" Jordan Farmar (who is listed as 6'1" in the game) to block 7'3" Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Bryan immediately admitted defeat, and we started playing Punch-Out!! with Charles.

Speaking of video games, the much-ballyhooed Modern Warfare 2 trailer finally premiered during Sunday's Cavs/Magic game and is now all over the interwebs. I'd dub it mediocre to fair as a trailer. It shows a lot of non-gameplay footage, which isn't exactly rare for a video game trailer, especially this soon. But it also shows maybe 10-15 seconds of footage from the last game. Kind of strange. Even so, every time I watch the trailer, I get more excited.

My house watched the NCAA lacrosse championship Monday, mostly because our long-time buddy Brad was around, and he played lax in high school. It turned out to be one of the best finishes I've seen in sports all year. It's really not getting enough credit, especially the goal to tie the game with 4 seconds left in regulation, which ended up #3 on Sportscenter's Top 10 behind a basketball play and the goal to win the lax game in OT. Surprisingly, I've convinced Bryan and Jenny to watch two different lacrosse games in the past couple weeks.

The Cardinals are still pretty much pitching their asses off. Pineiro's three earned runs on Sunday was really a shocker. Their staff has only given up seven runs over the past eight games, but the team has still managed to lose two games, partially because the offense kind of sucks without Ankiel and Ludwick and partially because nobody will pitch to the offense of Pujols.

The Tar Heels baseball team is ranked #4 overall going into this oddly designed College World Series thing that starts Friday. I feel like four might be a little bit of a disappointment to this team that could have been the best in the nation.

Another exciting sporting event starts today: the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Watch it. Trust me.

Matthew's been writing about Jake Peavy a lot. I feel like the Padres need to trade him at some point, but I wonder if they'll get any useful offers before the trade-deadline rush. Matthew also, evidently, changed his Xbox Live gamertag and wants everybody to know about it. I don't really have any random Xbox Live friends and don't really want them, so I don't know that I'd post my gamertag on my blog, not that any random people read it, except for this one.

QotD:

How was your Memorial Day weekend?

My take: Good. I feel like I fit a lot of stuff in, from winning an NBA Live game with the 1' rule, to getting extremely sunburned on the beach, to drinking about a keg's worth of Yuengling, to watching a bunch of sports, to listening to live music, to planting a blueberry bush. And, also, I slept some.

A gentleman never asks

You know the best thing about the internet: sites and videos with age requirements that only ask that you input your own birth date before viewing. I guess the logic is that people under 18 aren't smart enough to subtract 18 years from 2009 or evil enough to lie about their age.

I was checking out this trailer for Modern Warfare 2, and the site asked for my age before it would show it to me. I lied. I think I said I was born January 1, 1962. I still got to see the video. It wasn't really worth it, though.

Speaking of game trailers, this is the first time I've not been excited about Batman: Arkham Asylum. I've never really been a Poison Ivy fan. Anyhow, the game looks awesome, other than that trailer.

Further speaking of game trailers, I've got a soft spot for LEGO games, so LEGO Battles is potentially something I might be "into." It's a real-time strategy game, which I'm not a huge fan of. I prefer fake-time strategy games like the Civilization series or the Total War series, which mixes RTS and turn-based strategy elements. I've only played one RTS on DS. It was fun enough that I'm excited about LEGO Battles.

I wrote a review of Punch-Out!!, which has one of the most annoying titles to type ever, for the Star-News. The review I wrote is an alternative story form, something that I think one of my professors, Andy Bechtel, pretty much came up with or at least named. Basically, it's a story that isn't written in the more traditional form. I think they're easier to read because they generally break up large amounts of text. It's probably something I should try in this blog. Let me know what you think of the article.

So, yeah, I started with games stuff, and now that I'm moving to sports stuff, I'm ready to stop writing. I knew that would happen. But here's some important stuff:

Bill Simmons pretty much ripped Kobe Doin' Work. Simmons thinks, among other things, that it's disingenuous and that Kobe isn't really as good of a teammate as he was during that single game. In fact, Simmons really hates on Kobe in that article. His predictions of Kobe's post-playing days are hilarious, though.

By the way, the Lakers look very much like losers in this Denver series. They look like they're the road team right now.

The Jake Peavy trade that wasn't may have some scary repercussions. Buster Olney said that Peavy's most likely places to land now are:

1. Chicago Cubs
   
2. Houston Astros
3. LA Dodgers
4. (Wild Card) NY Mets

I'm not sure why Peavy would go to the Cubs, considering he vetoed a trade to the White Sox because he didn't want to leave San Diego. Going to the Cubs would have a very similar locational effect as going to the White Sox. Hopefully, Peavy will realize that and stay out of the NL Central unless the Cardinals magically show up on Olney's list, which they won't.

(But then, Olney is also still picking the Rays to win the AL East. So, he might be a little crazy this morning. He also thinks they might call up David Price soon (Why is he on 79.2% of fantasy rosters?), so I guess we should all meet in Durham to watch him pitch soon.)

But the Cards got their own ace back Wednesday night, and he had an impressive but short outing. And then they finished the sweep of those asshole Cubbies behind a good performance from Adam Wainwright. The Cardinals pitching was pretty dominant in this series, and that was pretty much necessary since they've only scored 14 runs in the last six games. The Brewers scored 16 runs in just two of those games.

Considering Memorial Day is Monday, I might skip a day of blogging. Might.

QotD:

Do you think Kobe is a good teammate?

My take: This question is purposefully ambiguous. I'd say he's a good teammate because he's a great player, but I don't think he's necessarily a nice guy. By the way, ESPN's SportsNation would rather have LeBron on their team than Kobe. No real surprise there.

Bound to rebound

Last night's Nuggets/Lakers game was a good one, until the end. After a back-and-forth battle led by great and nearly identical games from Melo (39-6-4) and Kobe Bean Bryant (40-6-4), it came down to one of those dreaded three-point games. After Mark Jackson promised me that his cousin Phil Jackson wouldn't have the Lakers foul with the three-point lead, Derek Fisher fouled J.R. Smith as he crossed half court. With less than five seconds on the clock, Smith made the first free throw, which lead to one of the most exciting game-clinching plays in professional sports: a defensive rebound off of an intentionally missed free throw. So, that's what the NBA has come down to now. It's very exciting stuff.

In what may turn out to be a more important LA win last night, the Clippers won the NBA draft lottery. I'm thinking this is good news for the NBA; it'd be nice for the other LA team to be relevant, even if just for a few months. I've seen a quote on Sportscenter that suggests the Clippers have officially admitted to picking Blake Griffin already, but I can't seem to find any corroborating stories online. It's a pretty obvious choice.

UNC players, particularly Ty Lawson, are going the wrong direction in the mock drafts I've seen. It would suck if he and Wayne Ellington left a year early to be late-first-round or even second-round picks. But then, I'd rather they be good NBA players than be high draft picks.

The Cards ended their slide last night with a Joel Pineiro shutout against the Cubs. Here's the fantasy problem with Cardinals' pitchers and the reason I dropped Kyle Lohse this morning: they just aren't consistent. I picked up Lohse shortly after he pitched a shutout. Since then, he's gone 1-3 with two no decisions and hasn't pitched more than six innings. Even Carpenter, who returns tonight, is inconsistent because of his injuries. Everybody oohed and aahed when Bryan picked him in our fantasy draft, but he's only been worth 48 points all year. Speaking of fantasy points, on Monday I had a total of six players worth an amazing 0 points. Awesome.

Even though the Brewers are in first place, I still feel better about a win against the Cubs than I would have felt about a win against Milwaukee. Speaking of Milwaukee, Rickie Weeks is done for the season after injuring his wrist while striking out. That's embarrassing. Talk about adding injury to insult. (I couldn't help myself.)

I've noticed since I've started beefing up my blog, it's been even more sports heavy, though that wasn't the plan. I always start with sports news and then by the time I get to video game, TV, or other news I'm ready to quit writing. Maybe next blog will end with sports news to see how much of it I actually get to.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 released a trailer a couple days ago showing off Deadpool as a playable character. That makes sense considering he's a hot Marvel commodity right now. But what doesn't make sense is why his playability in this game would constitute news. He was an unlockable character in the first Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. I've already played as Deadpool, so what's the big deal.

So it turns out that Sit Down, Shut Up isn't officially dead yet (just too "racy"), and according to Mitch Hurwitz, it gets better and "really funny." That's an odd admission from the show's creator: that the episodes "get really funny." He's tacitly admitting that they aren't now, so maybe he hasn't completely lost touch. I mean, he is executive producing a show starring Michael Strahan. I just really hope he's right about this and that Sit Down, Shut Up does get better in the remaining episodes for this season.

There were some things I wanted to talk about in regards to Fallout 3 and Mass Effect 2 and 3, but I'm getting antsy.

QotD:

What Marvel character would you most like to play as in MUA2?

My take: I wouldn't mind playing as Emma Frost. I tried to think of a character that I haven't played as but is still interesting to me. This is the best I could do.

Brett Writin’ Stuff

Even though I'm on summer break and I don't really have any weekday responsibilities, I still don't like Mondays. There's just something inherently evil about the day after the weekend. I suppose next Monday will be more pleasant though.

Yesterday's game sevens weren't as exciting as I would have liked. They were both 19-point games. Kind of weird. Bryan, a really bored Jenny, and I watched Kobe Doin' Work before he actually did work on the Rockets. It was occasionally entertaining but genuinely informative. It's the sort of film I would really recommend to any young players or coaches who are trying to better themselves or are just interested in the NBA, particularly the San Antonio Spurs, since that's what Kobe talked about most of the time.

The weirdest part of the whole experience was watching a live Lakers game after the fact and not hearing Kobe's voice all the time. I kept expecting his commentary during the game. But alas...

The best game I watched yesterday was the UNC/Duke lacrosse tournament game, which was really disappointing. When I lived in the dorm at UNC, I always had a pair of lacrosse-player suitemates. This year was the last year of eligibility for any of the players I lived with, I think. So, I probably won't know anybody on next year's team, and I was really hoping to see them win a 'ship while I knew at least some of the players. Also, the last time the UNC team beat Duke was like 2004, so that's never good.

The Cardinals had a really tough loss on Saturday. Adam Wainwright made one mistake pitch that cost him the game. Just one. He only gave up two hits in eight innings, but one of them was a home run. Now they have to win tonight's makeup game to avoid being swept by the now first place Brewers. The good news is that they seem to be getting healthier. Chris Carpenter is officially slated to start on Wednesday.

I've heard mostly good things about TV series' futures in the recent weeks, in which those sorts of decisions are being made. Chuck, Heroes, and Dollhouse are all coming back, which means about three hours of my weeks are locked up. Chuck was kind of in the hot seat for a while, but it was one of my favorite shows over the past month or so. There was also, for some reason, some concern over Better Off Ted. I'm super glad that it's coming back. Scrubs has officially been renewed, but I think the main cast members are scaling back their involvement. I'm not positive if that's a good thing or not. Reaper is dealing with a similar situation. Reaper is pretty much the only show that I care about with a still uncertain future. All of my other favorites are coming back for sure.

With the exception, of course, of Sit Down, Shut Up. Sit Down, Shut Up wasn't just canceled; it was canceled with prejudice. That's too bad, really. I just really, really wanted this show to be good. Of course, it wasn't, but I really wanted it to be. Oh well.

QotD:

Top five most important shows that you want to see come back next year?

My take: In this order: 30 Rock, Better Off Ted, The Simpsons, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Chuck.

That was harder than I expected. I'm pretty sure I want either The Office or Parks and Rec back, but at this point, I'm not really favoring one over the other. I feel the same way with HBO comedies, like Entourage, Flight of the Conchords, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Eastbound and Down, and Summer Heights High. I can't believe I didn't list any of those. I guess I was going for essentials while maintaining a decent spread. So, I went with the best show on TV, an ABC comedy, an Animation Donimation show, Sunny and one dramedy. That's my rationale.

90% of All-Stars approve this blog

Ryan Ludwick officially joined 60% of the Cardinals former All-Stars on the DL. (I made that number up.) It looks like Chris Carpenter could be back within a week or so, which would be even better if he could play outfield. After a couple losses to Pittsburgh, the Cardinals lost their first-place lead and are now tied with Milwaukee. At this point, the top four teams in the Central are only separated by half a game, excluding only the Astros and Pirates. It could be an interesting season.

I picked up Hank Blalock to replace Ludwick on my fantasy team. He's had a good couple of days, but they've both been bittersweet. On Wednesday, he hit the game-winning RBI, which, for some reason, is worth ten points in our league. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't put him in my lineup until yesterday. But then the good news is that he hit a home run yesterday. And then the bad news again is that he struck out three times, as well. He's still worth more points than Ludwick at this point.

Both of the remaining basketball series are going to game sevens. And both are on Sunday, which doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm guessing the NBA pushed all games back from Saturday to Sunday so they don't pull viewers away from Kobe Doin' Work (a Spike Lee joint). I'm sure Bryan did one of these when he found out about this movie. I'm not unexcited. I've liked the Spike Lee joints that I've seen so far.

I don't really feel like the Lakers want to win. It doesn't seem like it should be this hard. 75% of the Rockets former All-Stars are injured for the series. (I didn't make that number up.) The Lakers just aren't bringing it, especially not in Houston.

I watched the OT of last night's game 7 between the Canes and Bruins, one of the only times I've purposefully watched hockey. It is really hard to stop watching hockey during the sudden death OT. It's also really hard to start watching hockey when my HD channel wasn't working right so I had to watch in SD. It's hard enough to keep track of the puck in HD.

For the same reason, I didn't watch much of Thursday night TV (because our Time Warner cable service is about as quality as a Carrot Top movie). I'm going to watch Parks and Rec and 30 Rock on Hulu because it actually works.

My review of the new Wolverine game is up on the Star-News
blog. As my first piece in over a month, I wouldn't claim it's my best ever, but it's interesting enough.

Call of Duty 7 is already official. This article suggests that in the future we can replace the use of "years" with "Call of Duty's," since there seems to be a new one every year. I'd be down with that.

QotD:

What standard measurement should we replace?

My take: The cord. Any measurement that holds most of its sway in Canada should probably be reconsidered.

The El Blog

One of my "goals" for this summer is to read more news stuff, so I'm trying to read various online articles for about an hour each morning. I want to clarify that "news" has absolutely nothing to do with politics, to me. So, I'm just reading about sports and video games and maybe some other entertainment stuff. One of the hopes is that it will improve my blogging, since it will be more informed now.

Either way, the first thing I'm writing about today is something I watched on TV last night: the Boston/Orlando game. After a fourth-quarter comeback by the Cs, this game came down to one of those "we're up by three with less than 10 seconds to go, so let's just foul them before they can get a tying three-point shot off" kind of things. So, Doc Rivers and the Celtics didn't let the Magic hold the ball for more than maybe a quarter of a second on any of their final possessions before fouling them. The appropriateness of this strategy may be one of the most pressing issues in the NBA (other than the ridiculousness of referees). I don't remember this being an issue more than five years ago, but now, it seems like every color commentator suggests the foul during any game with a three-point lead. And more and more coaches are starting to listen.

Usually, the debate hinges on whether it's a "sportsmanlike" thing to do or not, and the announcer usually argues that it's a "winning" thing to do. I agree, but it's also one of the worst things to happen to the game since Jordan starting playing baseball. I was watching last night's game on mute because I had to listen to something else at the time, but I would unmute it in between commercials. I ended up having the game muted for probably 10 of the last 12 to 15 minutes because there were fouls and timeouts after every 2 or 3 seconds of gameplay. Most of the times that I unmuted the game, Reggie Miller couldn't even speak a whole sentence before I was muting it again.

I end up watching a lot of sports with non-sports fans. One of their biggest complaints, especially about basketball, is that the last few minutes take forever in close games. In the past, that was just because the losing team was fouling to try to catch up, but if both teams are fouling each other for the last few minutes, even I don't know if I really want to watch that. Of course, none of this would have happened if the Magic had just passed the ball to Dwight Howard.

Speaking of fouling in the playoffs, this seems to be a very physical few weeks of basketball.

The Cardinals got a little bit killed last night. Plus, Ryan Ludwick left the game with an injury, which is bad for me for two reasons, since he's one of my better fantasy batters. I guess we'll hear more news today. If you'd told me at the beginning of the year that a Matthew Leach article would start with "already short on outfielders," I probably would have guessed that he switched teams. The Cards went into this season with way too many outfielders. So, maybe they went a little overboard by moving Skip Schumaker to second and
trading Brian Barton to Atlanta. But then, injuries can't really be predicted, except maybe in the case of Chris Carpenter.

I (fantasy) own both of the pitchers from last night's NYY/Toronto game: Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett. I was really hoping for one of those Zack Greinke games where both starters pitch complete games and the total runs scored is under two. That didn't happen. At least one of them pitched well.

I agree with Matthew that the "Epilogue: Mile High Club" mission of CoD4 is one of the most addicting FPS gaming moments ever. Evidently, he's had more success than I have. The first details about the sequel, Modern Warfare 2, are starting to emerge. There's also been a teaser during the NBA Playoffs about an exclusive preview during the Eastern Conference Finals. Previews of previews are awesome.

It looks like there will be a mode called "Special Forces" that is "in the spirit of [the] Mile High Club" mission, according to Infinity Ward president Jason West. It's also going to be co-op, so that's sweet. But that news only comes as consolation to the news that the rest of the game will not be. I don't understand why anybody still makes FPSs that don't have the combined multiplayer variety of Halo 3 and Gears of War 2. Every multiplayer FPS should have four-player co-op, four-player horde mode, and at least 8-player online mode; it's that simple.

In that same article, Jason West also states that "any good story is on rails." To me, that seems like a completely outdated and close-minded statement, one that I would have never expected to hear from a video game designer, considering that medium has worked without that assumption for years. The fact that games' stories don't need to be "on rails" is probably the biggest advantage that video game stories have over more traditional media.

I also read a few Rock Band stories today, including one about using (Pearl Jam) tracks that were recorded at live shows. That does seem to fit the whole nature of the game, since it sets the band in concert venues, not recording studios. Also, Jenny might be pleased to read about this. I wasn't.

QotD:

If you're team is up three with less than 10 seconds to play, do you foul the other team before they can get a shot off?

My take: Probably. But then I wouldn't watch that segment of the game tape during my video sessions. I'd just skip to my interview after the game because I know I'd want to see that.

So, that's the new and improved blog. I think it's better. We'll see if I can keep it up. It took a long time.

Just call me BISdom

Again, I've found it hard to start blogging again after some time off. I'm hoping to start blogging semi-regularly again, but we'll see.

I love live Sportscenter in the morning. It's so much better than live Cold Pizza in the morning. It's also much better than non-live Sportscenter in the morning. Sage Steele and Hanna Storm just made fun of Josh Elliot for being a Lakers' fan, in light of yesterday's debacle. Elliot responded by ignoring them and talking about Big Baby's last-second shot-and-shove at the end of the Celtics/Magic game. If you didn't see it, Davis followed up his game-winning shot by pushing – probably inadvertently – a 12-year-old or so Magic fan on the sidelines.

Bryan and I were talking the other day about nicknames that pretty much replace real names, like Big Baby or K-Rod or even the Cole Train. I think Big Baby has to be the worst. But that's only because my suggestion of F-Rod hasn't really taken off for Francisco Rodriguez. As cool as that name would be, it might be more embarrassing than Big Baby. I'd say D-Pad would be somewhere near the bottom, too.

I'd put the over/under for Brett Favre returning next year at about 65%. I'd put the over/under on me actually caring at about 6.5%. I will admit, though, that I began to plan a blog that started with a comment about both Bretts coming out of retirement again. But, since his return is unofficial again, I don't know that it really worked. Plus, I didn't really retire from blogging.

The Cardinals' bullpen is still just silly. Yesterday, Ryan Franklin gave up a game-tying 3-2 home run to pinch hitter Micah Owings. I really want to refer to Owings as a "pitch hitter," since he's a pitcher and all. Does that work for you guys? I don't know. Anyhow, the Cardinals' pen is really scary and frustrating right now. My parents' friend Al brought us an article about Dave Duncan from USA Today. Basically, the article raves about Duncan's ability to turn supposedly washed-out pitchers into quality starters, like Kyle Lohse, Todd Wellemeyer, and Joel Pineiro. It even quotes La Russa calling Duncan "the Albert Pujols of pitching coaches." I don't understand why this ability doesn't seem to extend to the bullpen. Frustrating. But, the Cardinals won the game and Chris Perez got his first save of the season, so I guess I can't complain.

While I was writing this blog, this commercial came on ESPN. It reminds me of the Lil Penny commercials, except not as funny.

Since this is my first blog since Matthew started his own blog, I definitely need to give him a plug, just in case any of the few people who read my blog don't already know. It's got a pretty bad name, but it's definitely worth a look. I think he should come up with a daily feature or something, though. Like...

QotD:

What should Matthew's daily feature be?

My take: I'd like a stat of the day or something like that. But I like having some way for my (few) readers to actually get involved, hence the QotD. So, maybe he should go with something like that.