Filed under: General | Tags: Baseball, Boston Red Sox, C.C. Sabathia, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers, MLB, Money, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Payroll, Salary Cap, Sports
Asides from steroids, this is why baseball is flawed.
The nonexistence of the salary cap.
A salary cap needs to be put into baseball, so that smaller market teams aren’t stepped on year in and year out. Asides from the Tampa Bay Rays from this past season, what other small market team has blown away the league over the past ten seasons — the Florida Marlins, certainly, but the 2003 World Series was that, one and done (I said 10 years, so the 1997 World Series in which the Marlins won is void.)
C.C. Sabathia, after a year where he was traded from the Cleveland Indians to the Milwaukee Brewers during the trade deadline in August, has stood up to his contract year and is bound to receive some lucrative money, from either the New York Yankees, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Angels, and Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Brewers, Angels, and Dodgers are offering Sabathia approximately $100 million.
While the New York Yankees, the franchise in the league that wields the highest payroll in baseball, is blowing the said bids out of the water by offering Sabathia over $137.5 million (the current record deal that was given to Johan Santana by the New York Mets last off-season) so he will play in the Bronx, wearing pinstripes.
Go ahead. Let the Yankees spend rapidly. Even though they haven’t won a World Series since 2000 and they missed the playoffs in 2008, the myriad amount of money that’s being thrown around is pretty nauseating. I love baseball as much as the next person loves the sport, but it’s ridiculous to have to put up with these inane headlines every year about some team trying to screw another.
Not to mention every ’screwing’ involves either the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, or [Boston] Red Sox.
Filed under: General, Satire | Tags: Blogging, Comedy, Funny, Humor, Ignorance, Life, People, reading, Satire, Video Games, Writing
I wrote this back in April (but I edited it a little bit.)
Y’know what drives the thousands of hair pegs off my arms? People who say they dislike reading. It’s like listening to a bunch of cats scream at night — it’s annoying, harmonious and monotonous. It’s the same thing all the time with no revelations to add to the same excuse. “Oh, I don’t like reading because it doesn’t interest me.” What about it does not interest you? You read every single day. Whether it’s from an advertisement, stupid horse excrement-esque things you read on the bottom of television screens, or obviously from what you read on the computer. If you still believe that reading isn’t for you, then you must be incredibly illiterate or incredibly stupid.
But don’t worry, bucko, it’s not indelible!
Y’know what may surprise you about me? I’m not an advocate of video games. Sure, I play every now and then (once every three to four months maybe). I have an Xbox 360. I have an Xbox Live account. I only play when one of my friends asks me too — and that’s not often, though it’s the time that I play that hinges my decision over what game and what mood I’m in. Video games bore me to death; they’re predictable. The same thing in almost every genre in that said genre’s category that you’d predict from it. I never got anything out of video games. Maybe quick fingers to use on keyboards to type (but still yet I don’t even type correctly — I only use three fingers on both hands each; my thumb, index and middle finger — and I’m an avid user of that middle finger, buddy), but who cares, y’know? I never got anything instilled in my mind from it. Maybe the intermittent excitement, but what else? Senile enjoyment, probably.
Man, I probably sound like Hitler and video games are Jews (OK, that was a comment that could turn me into a polarizing figure around here, so take it with a grain of salt and not of anything insulting).
Call me a nerd, but I’m a 6′3, 198 lb. muscular dude. Even then, I’m not a huge athlete even though I’m a big time sports fanatic. My Mom is 5′6 and my Dad was 5′7 but somehow I managed to pull off a height of 6′3. Magic, y’know? What kind of 6′3, 198 lb. muscular dude enjoys reading books vicariously over video gaming? ME, BABY! It’s me, it’s me, it’s the un-nerdy 6′3, 198 lb. muscular dude in your face, ya see. (Idiotic rhyme, re-read it again and you’ll understand it. . . hopefully).
So, y’know, there’s something for everyone to read. It just takes a little effort — you’re not too allergic to effort are you, self-proclaimed ‘reading haters’? Let’s hope not. Step aside from the norm and be a little more productive in your own life why don’t ya?
Be more like Bekki and I, read a lot and augment your lexicon with every opportunity. It’s not hard. It’s actually very entertaining.
Filed under: General | Tags: Blogging, books, Boredom, Boring, Boston Celtics, Games, Grand Theft Auto, reading, Video Games, World of Warcraft, Writing
Video games bore the holy mother-canucker out of me. They are repetitive. Plain and simple. Most games relate to each other in so many senses that if they were anymore alike, you could peg them for being the same game.
I like playing sports games occasionally, but I’m terribly bored by a week after playing a sports game because it begins to become repetitive. The only reason I’m even amused by sports games is because they can mimic real life situations (if you use adjusted sliders to the gameplay settings). (SIDE NOTE: Try repeating those sentences aloud three times fast, because yes, I know, my use of ’sports games’ seems to be a little superfluous, but I’m reminding those hardcore video game players, just because their attention spans suck.)
Games like World of Warcraft, Halo, Grand Theft Auto (though, I did love Grand Theft Auto and managed to play the heck out of IV for a week or two), Guitar Hero, and Rock Band command people’s lives. 50 years ago, kids’ time was consumed by exercise and knowledge. Now it’s consumed by candy and button mashing.
I guess I’ve grown out of video games, and have found that there’s much more that I could spend my money on. A video game can’t keep my concentration for more than 45 minutes, no matter what it is.
I would rather read a solid, formidable book than play video games. If you’re a Boston Celtics fan, what’s better than reading about how John Havlicek and Bob Cousy were the main catalysts of the 1957 Boston Celtics or how Kevin Garnett picked up the 24-win team in 2006 to a 66-win season that subsequently landed championship number Seventeen back to Beantown on June 17, 2008?
Or what’s more interesting than reading about two people who met on the website Yahoo! Answers in the Books and Authors section because of the overrated ‘Twilight’ (by Stephanie Meyer) series, subsequently falling deeply in love with each other?
If you’re a video game fan/addict, that’s no problem — I’m not bashing what you like. I’m only telling you my thoughts on why I don’t play them and why they bore me.
Video games are fun. . . for about a week. Then everything becomes trite and overplayed. I become uncouth playing online and begin to excessively yell expletives at opposing players because the game will start to bore me.
My bore from video games started years ago, actually. Probably in 2005. I would play one game for 30 minutes, then take an hour break, then play again. It couldn’t keep my concentration.
I thought I had ADD or something.
Then, in 2006, I read “T.O.” by Terrell Owens and “Now I Can Die in Peace” by Bill Simmons, and I started really, really getting into reading. I couldn’t stop. I developed an inner-affinity for words and how they were interlaced together. I lost myself.
There’s also a study out that shows you burn more calories in one hour reading than in one hour playing video games. You would think otherwise, but because your mind is working at a torrid pace and your eyes are constantly on the go, you burn more by reading. Cool, huh?
I must be the only guy in the world at 17 who doesn’t give a flying flip about video games. Certainly, they’re fun for a day or two, but the boredom settles in. Reading never does that. Not to mention video games aren’t going to get you a career unless you know somebody that knows somebody in the field, and even then it sucks, because if you’re a game tester or designer, you have to go through the strenuous process of playing God-awful games.
Reading is strength. Writing is power.
Do what you want.
I’ll read.
