--Kanye's new single, "Diamonds Are Forever (Sierra Leone)," sucked. The remix, however, is brilliant. It's the same song, but Kanye totally changed his lyrics, plus added some dude named Jay Z on it. It is awesome to listen to a rap song talking about diamonds--not because they're sweet, but because thousands of people have lost their lives in Sierra Leone due to the diamond black market. Pretty damn cool. And the sample (from the theme song to the James Bond movie of the same name) really grows on you.

--It is not a question of if, but when: does Henry Blanco get into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, or second?? (He took Javier Vazquez 11 pitches, then went yard with Macias on base to make the game 2-0) Here's a sentence I never, ever would ever have guessed would be typed: Henry Blanco is tearing the cover off the ball lately: .357, 2 HR, 6 RBI and a 1.022 OPS in July.

--Frank Thomas is officially out for the season. Tens of people worried where power is going to come out of the White Sox' lineup.

--Who does Tony Clark think he is? He's hitting .327 with 16 HR and 52 RBI??? Huh??

Who is this guy? It makes me happy knowing that the athletic department has done another bang up job of hiring coaches. This guy started out coaching girls golf in West Texas.


LINCOLN - The search for a new pitching coach at Nebraska ended Tuesday with the arrival of a figure familiar to longtime fans of the NU program.
Former Kansas coach Dave Bingham accepted the position, vacant since Rob Childress left June 22 to lead Texas A&M. The 56-year-old Bingham, a fixture on the regional baseball scene for more than 30 years, most recently coached in college at New Mexico in 2004.

But his college experience after 1995 is limited. Bingham handled the pitchers two years ago at New Mexico for coach Rich Alday, a former college teammate from Emporia State. The Lobos finished 26-29 with a team earned-run average of 6.85.

Well Done Steve, Keep up the good work!

I don't care how this game turns out (it's 12:40 am, and in the top of the 10th); I can't handle Dusty. This product sums it all up for me.

They are my favorite team.

When are teams going to realize that you DON'T pitch to Neifi Perez in clutch situations???? Nice hit to tie up the game, dawg.

Even nicer, though, was the hustle and slide by Ronny Cedeno (#11) to win the game after a sac fly by Jeromy "man, was I wrong about this guy" Burnitz. All props are due to Neifi for his heroics over the last two days, but Cedeno should be out there playing everyday. He can hit, he plays hard, and is a good fielder. Oh, and he's really fast. But Dusty can't let go of his boys. How Cedeno and Matt Murton (without either of them tonight, the Cubs lose) don't play everyday is infuriating. We signed Perez and Todd Hollandsworth as backups. BACKUPS!! Not everyday guys! You've got two kids who are Major League ready at their positions (and I think are potential All-Stars), and we sit them in favor of Hollandsworth...who was 5-27 over his last 32 AB's.

When does Dusty's contract run out again?

what's Bobby Newcombe up to these days? I saw this in the Nebraska Alumni magazine--he's an "enrollment specialist" for the University of Phoenix. For those of you who don't know, the "University" of Phoenix is an online, kind of college that anyone can take classes at. The guy who started it is a multi-gagillionaire now, and Shaq is pursuing his PHd there.

I don't know, I just thought this was hilarious. Am I a bad person?

That's my dawg! Grand Slam in the 10th inning. Amazing. This weekends Cubs-Cardinals series was everything you hope for in a big-time rivalry (yes, there are rivalries besides the Yanks-Sox). Division arch-rivals, one having to win to keep their playoff hopes alive, the two best hitters in baseball, clutch hitting (Aramis Ramirez is having one hell of a second half), decent pitching (after giving up those three home runs and that double to Grudzy, Prior only allowed one more hit over the next 4+ innings), and, of course, exciting finishes.

Dusty has been called out a whole lot for keeping Neifi in everyday instead of letting Ronny Cedeno play--myself included--so you've go to feel good for Neifi getting to be the hero. Congrats, dawg.

Oh, I'm sorry...it looks like someone just lost their administrative rights. Enjoy your "freedoms," bitch. Edited by your czar and master, GA Hill.

So I was bored the other day and starting looking up stats and found that Cub pitching is not the lights out dominating pitching that Wrigleyville would try to lead us to believe....here is what I found.

The stats go in this order (A) First Year In the Bigs (B)Starts (C)Wins (D)Loses (E)Win%


Kerry Wood A. 1998 B. 174 C. 70 D. 53 E) .569

Mark Prior A. 2002 B. 84 C. 37 D. 19 E) .661

Roy Oswalt A. 2001 B. 130 C. 76 D. 35 E) .689

Sorry it's hard to read but the main point is that I don't know how much I have heard about how dominating Wood and Prior are. It's ridiculous and annoying how everyone on the Cubs team gets so overhyped, I think this is why I hate them. Honestly, Wood has been pitching 3 more years than Oswalt yet he has 6 less wins. Oswalt came into the league 1 year before Prior and has more than doubled his wins. Oswalt has 46 more starts sure, but he also has 39 more wins. But when I hear overrated these are the two at the top of my list.

We have had over 6,000 hits on the ol' blog! That is incredible! Our readership must be reaching new heights.

(That, or it is the people that write on this check it 10 times a day. I'm guessing it is probably that one. However, if you are not a contributor to this site, leave a comment and let us know! I want to know how many others check this site--I'm setting the over-under at 10.)

from EZT yesterday. I don't normally want to post e-mail forwards, but I thought this was really funny.


A Colorado family of football supporters head out one Saturday to do their Christmas shopping. While in the sports shop the son picks up a Nebraska jersey and says to his older sister, "I've decided to become a Husker fan and I would like this for Christmas".
His big sister is outraged by this and promptly whacks him round the head and says, "Go talk to mother".

Off goes the little lad with the Nebraska jersey in hand and finds his mother. "Mom?"
"Yes son?" "I've decided I'm going to be a Nebraska fan and I would like this jersey for Christmas".
The mother is outraged at this, promptly whacks him around the head and says, "Go talk to your father!"

Off he goes with the Nebraska Jersey in hand and finds his father. "Dad?" "Yes son?"
"I've decided I'm going to be a Nebraska fan and I would like this jersey for Christmas".
The father is outraged and promptly whacks his son around the head and says, "No son of mine is ever going to be seen in THAT !"

About half an hour later they're all back in the car and heading towards home.
The father turns to his son and says "Son, I hope you've learned something today?"
The son says, "Yes, Dad, I have."
"Good son, what is it?"
To which the son replies, "I've only been a Nebraska fan for an hour and I already hate you Colorado bastards."

In case anyone didn't already know, Sarah and I are moving to Chicago in two weeks so that she can go back to school. Anyway, we are going to be in Omaha this coming Friday (the 22nd) to go out one last time with anyone who would like to join. We don't have a plan yet. O.C. and I will try to figure something out later in the week, but it looks like we will get to town around 7-8 ish and go from there. We look forward to seeing anyone who would like to come.

If you guys are looking for something to kill the rest of your friday with, go to www.bandtoband.com It's kind of like the six degrees of separation with Kevin Bacon only with bands. Unfortunately, there aren't many Rap or Indie bands included on the site.

Well, the doctors finally cleared me after the MIB birthday debacle. Thanks to all those who came and visited me in the hospital. I just wanted to put down some random thoughts now that I can actually post on the blog again.
1) Coldplay is awesome and we're not arguing about this. Anyone who says contrary will receive a ticking package in the mail.
2) The semi-new single from Gorillaz, "Feel Good, Inc." is really good. You can go ahead and argue with that one Pete.
3) Golden days are here again with the arrival of NCAA 2006. Of course, the MIB has already won one national championship and a heisman (he plays on junior varsity). And he should be simulated through the next millenium by Saturday. Despite his total disregard for the integrity of the game, there are some really good additions to this year's installment. The new race for the heisman lets you concentrate on playing the actual games and improving a single player. Also, in-season recruiting in dynasty mode is pretty sweet. Finally, the new spring camp drills are fun mini-games that don't take a half hour to play. Give it a check if you want, Goods you can go ahead disregard all of this.
4) GA Hill was actually right about that MF Doom CD. He's still THE COOLEST MUTHA FUCKA AROUND. (YOU AND YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT CAN EAT A DICK) OK, what in the fuck is going on with the Supreme Court? One second Rehnquist is going to step down, and then he's not going to. Wasn't he supposed to be dead by this point? And now the GOP is asking O'Connor to stay on for another year. Doesn't Bush want to appoint a new justice? It's not like its that big a deal, you're trading conservative for conservative. The only issue this could affect is abortion and they would never rescind Casey v. Planned Parenthood because abortion is an institution in this country now. Too many people depend upon it, which is kind of sad in a way. My stance: Souter and Ginsberg should step down because they're idiots who could hold much more sway within the Court if they could simply decide which issues they are going to hardball. Instead, they just want to go against the Big Bad Four on every issue, so Kennedy gets the deciding vote in every controversial case. And don't get me started on that fence-sitting, "the facts determine the outcome" jackass. The Supreme Court should never decide a case on facts, their job is setting law, not having different outcomes dependent on the facts.
6) Nerd warning. I'm going to geekout just a little bit more than I already have. On September 13, Square-Enix is releasing a new CGI movie called Advent Children on DVD and UMD (PSP). I watched the trailer last night and it was unbelievable how much the characters looked like living, breathing human beings. Everyone can disregard this one.
7)Finally, Dr. D-Bag (aka Paul) wants to organize a trip to Costa Rica next summer. Normally I would just tell him to go fuck himself, but this actually seems pretty cool. Just keep it in mind for a good trip for all of us to take, aside from the annual Phoenix "72 hours with a average BAC of .264" family vacation. Another thought I had was going to see the new World Cup of Baseball that Selig is humping like a Rick in heat.

Well, have a good weekend in accordance with the prophecy.
Big Boi: Rookie - Professional Drinking Circuit (PDC)
[G AB HR RBI SLG AVG]
24 56 1 17 .423 .220

--This is from the other day, but I am pretty sure I don't need Anderson Copper seeking refuge behind a building in a rain slicker pointing out pieces of flying billboards to understand the verosity of a huricane. Can we just keep the news anchors behind the desk during a huricane, they have a hard enough time reading the tele-prompter when they don't have crap flying 100 mph past their heads. They evacuate those areas for a reason jackass.

-- Congratulations to hockey. I know that I may be in the minority, but I am actually looking forward to another hockey season.

-- As if I dind't already despise the Twins enough, what with them being a division rival with the White Sox and the fact that they are Paul's favorite team, but now they have Brett Boone to boot. I hope he strikes out in more home-run derbies (oh wait, he would have to make an all-star team again to do that) and does more cocky bat flips after hitting towering fly balls to the second baseman.

-- According to an employee, the Best Buy in Lincoln is the biggest seller of NCAA Football games in the nation. Must be because there is only one store in town it is a big football area.

--You should all give the band Calexico a listen.

-- I know as an American I should be sympathetic to Britain, with 9/11 and all, but the news coverage on these bombings in London and the outcry around the world seems a little overboard. Terrorists (insurgents) are bombing innocent people everyday in Iraq with numbers that at the end of the week far excceed the casualty numbers in London, and these stories are just blurbs at the bottom of the screen or buried on page 4a of the paper. Don't get me wrong it is horrible act and I feel for the people, but maybe the world should start paying that much attention to what is happening in Iraq.

--Rumor is that the White Sox may try to acquire Joe Randa. I know O.C. will be with me when I say that would be awesome. He has the kind of "give it all you got," working man's ball player attitude that the white sox are feeding on right now.

-- I am actually looking forward to the upcoming college football/husker season. Mainly because I am leaving Lincoln. I think being in Chicago, and getting away from the "fans" in Lincoln will actually make me a bigger supporter. The last few years in Lincoln have tarnished my opinion of the team, not because I think they have made bad decisions, because I don't, but because the fans are increasingly less tolerable. Some of the B.S. that has come from the mouths and pens of these people is ridiculous.

Anyway, just thought I would just thought I would spill a little onto the ol' blog. It seems a little lack luster lately.

CNN.com/Money Magazine just released their 2005 Best Places to Live list. Omaha was a contender, along with Lincoln and Papillion (Papio was a finalist). They took the national averages of several different categories and compared the city they were analyzing to the average of their "Best Places" list. Here are a few:

Omaha Best Places Avg.

Average Income $49,737 $68,160

Average Home Price $125,177 $316,665 (!)

Student:Teacher 15.30 15.37

Personal Crime Risk 130 69 (This was suprising, as the higher the #, the worse crime is)

Restaurants 1,892 3,431

Bars (w/in 15 miles) 361 241

Museums 1 10

This is a subject that Pete and I have discussed many times--we always felt like you could take any exit, whether it be off I-80 or I-680, and arrive at a bar in less than 5 minutes. We thought this was entirely reasonable and correct--now we have the data to back it up. There is one bar for every 1,340 people.

Lincoln's bar numbers were lower than I figured, but then again, when you have one bar for every 1,711 people, you're doing pretty good to scale. So I compared that to other Big XII schools:

Lincoln: 1711:1
Norman, OK: 2,278:1
Austin, TX: 3,963:1
Lubbock, TX: 5,568:1
Waco, TX: 2,365:1
Iowa City, IA: 1,224:1
Boulder, CO: 1,497:1 (and oh my God, the average home costs $366,051 there--who said that there were a bunch of rich, spoiled hippies that go to school there?? Where would someone get that idea?)
Columbia, MO: 3,004:1

Not suprisingly, the only places that beats out Lincoln are Iowa City and Boulder--if I'm living in Iowa, I want a bar everywhere I look, too. As far as Boulder goes, that must include Hukkah bars, too.

The other amusing statistic was that Lincoln holds a dubious title--one of probably 5 cities in the country (the other four are probably North Platte, Scottsbluff, Fremont, and Norfolk) where the 2-5 year home price gain is actually declining at a -3.44 percent clip. Yikes.

NCAA Football 2006 comes out tonight, and Big Boi and I are planning on going to buy it at midnight.

We did this same thing last year and you wouldn't believe how many losers like us there are. Literally hundreds of people were in line shelling out 50 bones to play this game eight hours before everyone else. We just happened to be the oldest dorks, so we went to the bar next door and drank and waited for the line to die down.

In a related story, the fact that the both of us have been laid before is a miracle.

If you're not hooked yet, chew on this:

"No, I can't make it to the party, it's anal sex night at the Gold household. Now if you would excuse me, I have to go punish my wife."

--Ari Gold, Hollywood agent

1. Chuck Klosterman's new book, "Killing Yourself to Live--85% of a True Story." It is (predictably) fantastic. Very funny, particularly the part about how he meets up with some friends who now live in Minneapolis--he goes into a tanget about how he forgot how great Midwestern power drinking is, and how people in New York have no idea what "drinking" is.

2. This isn't new, but get MF Doom's "MM..Food." The guy is easily my favorite underground MC. I've mentioned this to anyone that will listen, but I liken him to a really smart ODB.

3. As mentioned in Pete's post, go see "Batman Begins." I'm totally blank on his name right now, but the director (of "Momento" fame) does a fantastic job of developing Bruce Wayne--you finally see where he learned to fight like he does, and where all his gadgets came from. It's a great movie--there's a lot more to it than fight scenes and things blowing up. Plus the mob aspect of the movie makes it seem a lot more like it could happen, as opposed to, oh, say a Mr. Freeze? Or Poison Ivy? Or that entire God-awful "Batman Forever?" Can we pretend that this movie didn't happen?

I have been trying to find a good time to drop this and after reading todays Sports Guy I feel as if I have it. The lady in my life is next door neighbors with Buddy Biancalana, I know that this website has no Royals fan base what so ever, but this is the same man who held down the short stop position the very same year Kansas City won the State Championship (aka World Series.) I have been promised that some time I will get to not only see but wear the World Series ring the next time he takes it out of the safety deposit box.

Since no one posts on here anymore, I will throw out a few random comments to amuse myself:

1. Corey Patterson's demotion to the minor's is the first thing I've seen about the Cubs in a week that has made me laugh. Oh, what a glorious day!

2. Of course I don't feel bad about Texas winning the CWS pool for me, you a-holes dropped 'em on my lap. I'm happy to report that all the money collected so far has been blown, mostly at The Boats last Sunday.

3. I'm not making the mistake again of missing the upcoming Faint show at Sokol.

4. Dave and Buster's is really fun, especially when incorporating gambling to the drinking, fried app extravaganza and video games.

5. Speaking of food, there is not a better steak in town than the whiskey filet at the Drover.

6. I spent about 50 bucks on football previews this week, and I think that it's imperative we get a 12 team fantasy league going with participants from this blog, I'll volunteer to be the commish.

7. Went to the new Batman Begins yesterday. Thought it was fantastic. I would give it a solid A to A- on the Entertainment Weekly scale.

You can respond if you did read this.

Dear Cubs Fan,

This is reality, how ya doing? The reason for my post is to let you know that it is time to give up. Even with D-Lee completly outplaying himself you are still in 3rd place in the NL Central and slipping. Did you know that the Astros have a better record than you???? Oh, its true. Even though they have started 7 different rookies this year, they still have more wins than your veteran squad. But I guess there is always next year....well actually your team is just going to be getting older....hmmm....well there is always 2012. Best of luck with your immanent fire sale of old players, and god bless.

Your Friend,
Reality (aka MayfieldSucks)

are the Oakland A's. These lovable future junkies are giving .500 something to be frightened of. Who'd a thunk that after a 5-20 May that Oakland would be only a handful of games back in the AL Wild Card race. No they won't win it. Probably won't come that close. But in the words of every Royals and Cubs fan on the planet...wait till next year. And I'm serious about it. In two-three years, the A's will be better than they were in their early 2000's Big Three stretch. Rich Harden, Joe Blanton, and Danny Haren are all locked down for a while at bargain basement prices. Chavez and Bobby "Don't Call Me Bing" Crosby will hold down the left infield till 2010. Former Longhorn Omar Quintanilla will be next year's 2nd baseman. Big Dumb Dan Johnson from Coon Rapids, MN and the U of Nebraska has almost twice as many walks as strikeouts in his month in the show. Okay, I'll reluctantly give the Cubs or Yankees Mark Kotsay, but I will survive and so will Oakland. We also have Nick Swisher who, for better (mostly) or worse, is the more athletic second coming of Jason Giambi in the clubhouse. Dude's already got three new tatoos this season. Cool. All of that's great, but do you wanna know who I am really excited about? No? I'll tell you anyway and you'll thank me in a couple of years for introducing you to Daric Barton. Acquired in the Mulder deal from St. L, this kid is 19. He can play C, 1B, Corner OF. Oakland will find a spot for him by September. He spent a month in Single A and put obscene numbers. Was called up to Double A, where since the middle of May he has hit .489. No not .389 like Derrek Lee. One hundred points higher than that. Yes, it is Double-A pitching, but the way the A's are swinging their shitbats, I would really appreciate someone hitting over .300. I tried telling him that over the phone, but he would not return my calls. Neither will Peter Gammons. But Steve Levy did.

Is our political divide in this country officially at the tipping point??

George Soros, a billionaire who has given money to Democrats and liberal-interest groups, is putting together a bid for the Washington Nationals. Tom Davis, R-Va., weighed in on the issue:

"I think Major League Baseball understands the stakes," Davis told Roll Call. "I don't think they want to get involved in a political fight. I don't think it's the Nats that get hurt. I think it's Major League Baseball that gets hurt. They enjoy all sorts of exemptions from antitrust laws."

What???? This can't be serious, you say? Well, it is.

What the fuck does being liberal or conservative or red or blue have to do with commerce in this country? George Soros is a billionaire. He wants to buy a baseball team. That's it! No politicizing here. Does Barnes & Noble ask me what philisophical camp I come from when I buy a magazine? No. Because I have the money to pay for it, they give me the magazine. Pretty simple concept. Me reading Complex magazine does not depend upon what my political leanings are. Same thing here. A really rich guy wants to buy something that he can afford. So give it to him!

This is sickening.

(Here's the link.)