Small point to make here....

So, Madison Square Garden in NYC actually calls itself the World's Most Famous Arena.

Blah blah blah....I bet more people actually know where Wimbledon is, or Wembley, but whatever.

My actual point of contention with MSG is this. If you're such a great and wonderful arena, then WHY does the basketball floor for college games have the NBA 3-point line painted on it? Would it be that hard to have a separate floor for college games? It's freakin' New York, where tickets are all a hundred bucks each, anyway.

The Big East tourney is coming next week, and I'm sure, there'll be white and blue lines separately painted. IT LOOKS STUPID, and makes the college game look secondary and unimportant.

The Futurama reference in the future to "Madison Cube Garden" is very inspired!

The madness is coming....

Some rambling here about how NCAA tourney pools are scored.

Does anyone understand why scores go 10-20-40-80-160-320 for the final?
Why isn't this just 1-2-4-8-16-32?
Why artificially inflate scores by a factor of 10?

Once at my old job, the owner wanted to run a tourney for the women's pool. She decided to make every game worth 2 points. TWO....not one. WHY?!

Anyways, I usually run a men's pool. And I've got an awesome scoring idea to reward those who pick upsets. (Based on this being me, years ago.....knowing the good teams to pick early, and then getting screwed later.)

I started it as 5-10-15-25-40-65....Not quite the Fibonacci sequence at work, but each round is worth the sum of the previous two. It definitely rewards early rounds versus later rounds.

Then the bonus points for upsets is done as

difference in seeds X round number.

This works well....and you can even get lucky. Like, if you've got a 3 beating a 7 in the sweet sixteen, but they actually beat the 2....then you get extra points for the 3 being there, even though you had them winning an easier game. (Of course, you didn't get the 7 over the 2 in the second round.)

What can suck is if you had a 14 over a 6 in round 2.....that could be 16 bonus points! But if the 11 beat the 6 in round one....then the 14 beating the 11 is only 6 bonus points.

Anyways, there's usually an extra 50 points or so if you're good at calling upsets.

So a few years ago, I scaled back the regular points by 20%.
4-8-12-20-32-52 for the championship.
And sure enough, the first year I did that, I squeaked by with the title.

I've won twice in 11 years of running it. Last year, despite 0 final four teams. Of course, nobody had final four teams last year, so it was actually over before the final weekend. George Mason, though...the bonus points....
11 over a 6 in round 1 = 5
11 over a 3 in round 2 = 16
11 over a 7 in round 3 = 12
11 over a 1 in round 4 = 40

Anyone got any good scoring systems?

Memories of DJ

Okay, time to reminisce on the late Dennis Johnson...

1. The DJ poke....that move where he's squared up against someone, pokes their dribble behind them, and runs around the guy and makes the steal. This STILL works against the average clown in a pick-up game.

2. Game 4, 1985 finals....Celtics too injured to really compete with the Lakers, but DJ nails a 20 footer to win it at the buzzer in LA and tie the series. One of my high school friends lost power with a minute left in the game, he had to scurry to a car radio in his driveway to hear it.

3. 1986 finals, the post game show on the radio....he did a pretty funny Johnny Most impression while being interviewed. Not as good as Gerald Henderson's 1984 "Henderson stole the ball!" but still very funny.

4. Those passes to Bird just underneath the hoop, where even on TV you can't believe it goes by the heads of two defenders turned the wrong way, and Bird gets a lay-up.

Too bad his Hall of Fame vote next year will have to be a sympathy vote.

In the altered words of John Cougar Mellencamp

Puking, "to me, don't sound like all that much fun."

So it's not dying, but it wasn't much better. Somehow I was infiltrated with the same 24-hour bug that got my daughter and wife. Only instead of just stomach issues, I decided that I needed to remove previously-eaten food voluntarily....

ya know the 5-finger comb? this was the 2-finger ipecac....

Hopefully it doesn't make me a bulimic. I think the bug led to gastroparesis. Wednesday noon, I was puking Tuesday's dinner. hamburger. The worst was earlier in the morning, bringing back the flavor of rumple minze that flavored my hot cocoa from the night before. Chocolate is naturally bitter, so it's not a good complement for bile.

Anyways, my first taste of Pepto ever, although it was store-brand, and some Motillium, and today I'm as good as new, sorta. Still not hungry....

Fantasy baseball

I don't mind letting anyone from my fantasy baseball league (Dan Shan Fan) on yahoo know that I'm a fantasy virgin. Talk about feelin' the peer pressure! Well, we'll see how I do. If nothing else, I'll pay even more attention to the articles on ESPN. The best blog is Buster Olney, but I like reading Jayson Stark's stuff most of all, since he goes for the Useless Info.

I have no overwhelming interest in fantasy football. Fantasy baseball at least seems like it can auto-pilot itself, except for keeping an eye on starting pitchers, if we're doing a head-to-head where we want 2 starts out of a guy in a certain week.

And besides, there's no cash riding. Of course, that would increase my devotion to knowledge. Like when I win March Madness and Football spread pools.

One game that always seemed cool was MLB.com's "beat the streak", where you have to pick a guy every day, and string together a hitting streak that way, with different players. I'd like to see something similar involving an ERRORLESS streak. Pick a guy NOT to make an error that day. Imagine getting screwed over in a game like that!

Goin' to PA

This should be a fun weekend. My niece Madeline is getting baptized, at my sister-in-law's hometown church. So they fly from Tampa, my family has to drive 6 hours, and her family gets to roll out of bed 10 minutes before Mass! Nice....

The most fun, of course, is being on highways I've not driven on before. I was on I-80 years ago when we went to State College in high school. Too bad I have to drive, the girls get to watch Electric Company videos in the back seats.

This winter sucks!

So great, it's cold finally after being 60 degrees for most of December and January. No real snow, though. We were supposed to get 7-12 inches, but no, we got 2 inches with another inch of crust on top of it. Snow pot pie, in my front yard. (Contains no actual pot)

On the bright side, I got a day off with impassable roads yesterday. I actually got to iron my shirts for the first time in a while. Of course, since I wear sweaters all winter long, it's no big deal, since I can wear t-shirts under a nice sweater. But the shirts were wasting away in my laundry basket. Pants don't need ironing if you grab them right from the hot dryer. Well, except for the Gap khakis....those things look like they're made out of crumpled wax paper. Nothing gets them wrinkle-free.

Alas, back to the world of annual 401(k) testing....

Cherry Coke Zero is out!

Oh this is just about the best news of the day!

Yes, I do like regular coke flavor over cherry, but cherry is the only fruit flavor to coke that has ever really worked. Lemon sucks, lime is just freakin' weird. But cherry coke is awesome.

And now they've got it tasting like coke zero, instead of diet coke.

How much happier could I be? I snagged a 20-oz. bottle this afternoon to go with some spicy thai potato chips (another awesome product, by the way, by Kettle brand chips)....

It's now officially "highly recommended".

Cold days

So, I was thinking of having some friends over for croquet in the snow. That's gotta be a reason to drink hot cocoa spiked with Rumple Minze, because nobody else has the stupid gene to try it. I was thinking getting balls buried in snowbanks, or whizzing them along the icy crust, could add a fun intrigue to an otherwise warm-weather game. Plus, the poison ivy in the woods isn't an issue. My guess is something shatters in the cold. Like a tibia.

The other thought would be to freeze the front yard into a rink, but I think you're supposed to buy a liner for that to do it right. I suppose I could drive over to Buccigross's house from ESPN, that's pretty close, and he showed pictures of his home rink in his latest column. I wonder if he gets sports fans stalking him like that....ya gotta figure more regular guys would wanna hang out with him, compared to Berman's villa (wherever that is).

groundhog day

I don't think I grew up learning the exact specifics of this day.

I was told, if Phil sees his shadow, there's 6 more weeks of winter, otherwise winter ends at its regularly scheduled time. But that's 6 and a HALF weeks, so I didn't see what we were saving there.

Anyways, my all time best name for a band has to be

The Philutawney Punks.

I'll play bass if anyone wants to start it up! Well, as soon as my hyperextended pinky finger heals. Unbelievable how important it is...This wouldn't have been a problem if I'd restrung my first guitar to play it lefty, like I should have. So I play righty, and my shooting hand with the dislocated knuckle ends up being my fret hand.

Musings after the weekend.

So my ex-wife went to get my daughter's ears pierced. As though 8 were some magical age.

Nobody seems to have come up with "Bush league" to describe Reggie Bush's pointing at the Bears. I'm stunned Joe Buck was silent about it, honestly. That's a lower-class move than a little fun Randy Moss mooning! :)

Se7en was an awesome movie. Finally watched it on DVD.

Strangers with Candy was NOT awesome at all. But every few minutes it would save itself from being turned off completely with something funny. That was an accidental buy on demand last night, I only wanted to see the preview, and Erika misunderstood me. More Nick Tortelli would have been better.

Because Versus is only available on the set with the cable box for expanded service, I couldn't watch the NHL all-star game outside of the family room. I alone could have raised the ratings another two-thousandths of a percent.

My fingernails are at near-record length....and I'm getting hungry.

King's Cribbage is an interesting game, for those who play cribbage. It's like Scrabble.

Futurama!

I can't believe the fans are getting this brought back! But at Comedy Central? What up with that? Anyways, like the Simpsons, only smarter and with better plots.

I wonder if Bill Cosby has another round of Fat Albert in him.....that would be interesting. Completely out of left field, too....but hey, maybe he needs to pay someone off for something. I'd give it a shot watching it. Only this time, they can't be kids any more. How about the gang as a bunch of old mean in their 50s....Weird Harold, strung out on drugs. Rudy, doing time....Fat Albert, happily married in a nice house. Dumb Donald, going for prostate surgery. Russell, working on Wall Street. Some good, some bad....and if you're not careful, you might learn something before it's done. Hey hey hey!

I bet nobody reads this

Someone over on Shanoff was saying it was a shame that all the commenters don't have their own blogs. I've read like 5 of them....it's not like all the blogs are quick links that we can see all at once. And I *know* Shanoff (sorta), so responding to his blog makes a little more sense than saying something to a stranger.

"You don't know me, but then again, you don't know football either!!"

That's not cool, right?

Anyways, happy new year and MLK Day. The holidays are officially over now, huh? People say happy holidays, which ones do they mean, specifically?

Go Patriots!

Another thing...

The "Gordon line"....

That's the line in a movie where they state the title, especially in a movie where you're not sure what the film returns to. For instance, a movie like Batman, where they said the name Batman a million times, wouldn't count.

But when Doc Brown says, "This Saturday night, we're sending you back.....to the future!" Well, that's the classic example of the Gordon line.

Popcorn Squid

Hey, I want to get this on the Internet, so that we can prove I invented this term.

Popcorn squid is my new pet name for calimari. How is it NOT like popcorn shrimp or popcorn chicken?

Remembering the zone...

Ah, Monday night was one of those all-time athletic accomplishments you always remember.

Like my first little league home run, opening day 1984.
Stripping a runner of the ball as he came around the end and taking it back to the house in Nov. '87 at the park before Thanksgiving.
Scoring 21 points in a row for my team in a college pick-up game in '91. (5 in the first game, then we started over so I scored our first 16 in the next game)

Monday after almost 3 hours, stealing a cross-court pass to go in for a layup, and hitting 2 deep jumpers, including the game-winner, to go from down 17-16 to a 20-18 win (play to 11 but win by 2).

It's just weird the way with the game on the line, I could make my shots as though I had a new level of focus to them. A little "get out of my way, boys" attitude....weird because I *never* shoot that much or even try to establish myself as a primary option. Plus I'd been exhausted and front-rimming everything.

Oh well, it's that level of focus that resonates after you're done....like, wow, I elevated when I needed to! Probably just one more thing I learned by watching Larry Bird when I was a teenager.

So of course, the school's closed for 2 weeks....and the next time I play I'll probably shoot 1-for-10 again.

WEEI listeners

I'm saddened to say this, but WEEI listeners are really freakin' stupid. Like a bunch of meatheads. I really like Dale and Holley because they're able to calmly refute idiotic claims. The Big O by himself isn't too bad, but he lines up with guys like Pete the Meat and worse, Smerlas....ugh. And then it just becomes a big shouting fest. The morning guys are a little snide and snotty, but at least they confront stupidity well. Oh well, I suppose we all care, and that's the important part.

Sports

Allen Iverson....any team close enough to the top isn't going to assimilate him in well. Teams he'd assimilate in well with probably suck already (like the Celtics, I admit it.) It seems so long ago he was a cute little waterbug for Georgetown. Ricky Moore knew how to shut him down, though!

2 games out of first place in the football pool. The airways are getting tigheter!

Oh wait, that's my cold. Pseudoephedrine kicks phenylephrine's ASS!

The Diceman Cometh. Thank goodness. I bet he doesn't get stuck with 100 pitch counts. Guess it wasn't a ploy to stall him from ending up in NY. Nyeah! Of course, he'd better not suck. How soon until Dunkin' Donuts makes a sushi bagel sandwich or something? Pahk the cah, as Schilling learned.

Michigan was #2, but the purpose of a playoff is to eliminate teams. Michigan was eliminated by losing to OSU. #1 doesn't have to beat #2 to stay champion.

BC wants Kevin Gilbride? Wow, how soon until UConn is the best football team in New England? Heck, how long until UMass is the best football team in Massachusetts?

I need to buy hockey tickets this season. Even if it's for a game on Long Island. Tickets should be easy enough to score....

Hoops in Oxford is going well. I take the insulin pump off if I'm on skins, but leave it in when I'm on shirts, since the shirt keeps people from pulling the tube out.

Santa's Village

Nothing worse than an amusement park being MOBBED in late November. That's what happens when it's a beautiful day in Northern New Hampshire. We only got to go on a few rides because of the lines. The lines were shorter in August two years ago, for God's sake! And of course, I had let Erika wear my coat so I was chilly the whole day.

The rest of Vermont was nice, but again, it woulda been more fun if it were 30 degrees with six inches of snow on the ground. Then we'd have just been dealing with skiers, I suppose. Maybe Erika and I will retire up there, it's so purty all year around! And close to Dartmouth, that helps, too!

Vermont

I wonder if it's going to snow this weekend in Vermont while I'm there with mom, dad, Erika, and the girls. Last time we had Thanksgiving up there we got 10 inches of snow. This of course means extra clothes to pack in case there is a blizzard. Should be fun, as long as the house mom and dad are renting comes with cable to watch the games on.

I don't understand the allure of Detroit getting the Thanksgiving Day game every year, especially since they play indoors in such a sterile environment. If it were 40 degrees and raw and a little muddy out there, now THAT would be a cool tradition.