I’ve long heard/told the joke about the athlete that thanked God for letting his team win (and the fact that you never hear the losers talking about how God cheated them, or Jesus made them fumble), but the last game of the NBA Finals the other night got me thinking. Series MVP Chauncey Billups (he of the well-inked biceps) made a comment about how “this is what God chose me to do, so I did it.” It made me wonder if some priest somewhere felt cheated. Afterall, God told HIM to give away all his worldly possessions, live a relatively lonesome life, aside from a few nuns, a couple other priests, and the one weekend a year when he can let his collar loose at the church fish fry. Yet here’s ol’ Chauncey, and God’s role for him is to play a game, get paid millions of dollars to play said game, and then get paid a little more plus a car after God helps him win MVP. That and he gets more tail than a priest could ever hope for, even at the world’s biggest altar boy convention. I tell ya, its just not right!
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In other news, the long-promised photo gallery is on its way! I don’t think its going to fit in with the template of the rest of the site, but that could change soon, anyway, so I won’t miss it. But with it will look sharp and be quite functional. With the help of a few VERY helpful Dreamhost subscribers, and Robert’s tutorial, I installed Gallery. I’d type more, but I’m too busy patting myself on the back. It took awhile to get started installing it, but once I got going, it worked like a champ!
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Just saw more about “the foul ball guy”. He gave the ball back to the kid, AND tickets to a game in the future. Are all you freaks happy? Jeez, I can’t believe this guy is still getting villified for that! Next time, he should make it worth the trouble and rip the kids leg off. As I said yesterday, going for the ball was not wrong, not giving it to the kid after the fact MIGHT have been wrong, but it should never be this big of a deal. I’m almost ashamed that it happened to the Rangers. It has made their fans and broadcasters (including former GM Tom Grieve) look like the real idiots. (When, after the past three games, they’ve proven the REAL idiots are on the field!)
Sticking with sports, another former Hurricane is now with the Blue Jackets, as they’ve signed goalie Arturs Irbe. He had a great run in the 2002 playoffs, got the Canes to the Cup Finals (and held them tough against Detroit in the finals), but then fell apart. Honestly, I think its because he got new pads. He had played with the same pads for years and years, they looked like two dirty pillows taped to his shins. The season after the Cup run, he changed to new pads, and ended up in the lowest of lows, the ECHL. Hopefully he’s got a couple good years in him as a backup here in Columbus.
As for the U.S. Open golf tournament this weekend, I LOVE watching the best in the world struggle to make pars, and be brought to their knees by a borderline “unfair” golf course. That said, no championship should be decided by greens with a safe landing area the size of a dinner plate. Everyone has their eye on the big four (Els, Woods, Singh, Mickleson), and I’m inclined to think one of them will win it (I’m sticking with Vijay), but to go totally random and outside the box, the name Brad Faxon popped into my head. Who knows why. Though much like Mr. Poon, I’d like to see Stewart Cink win it. I stuck with him in fantasy leagues for years, and he came so, so close a couple years back, it would be good to see him get his.