Friday 1/17/25
It wouldn't surprise me if Bill Belichick were to bolt to the NFL, leaving North Carolina in the lurch, were he to receive an offer from an NFL team, which would surprise me somewhat. I say somewhat because all it ever takes is one fool. But I think that's the kind of guy Belichick is--he's not honorable. Plus, he has a history of this kind of thing, as any Jets fan knows. Sidenote: Mike Lombardi is one hell of a toady, isn't he?
It's ironic that Belichick had this act where he'd pretend not to know even the names of MySpace, Facebook, and Snapchat--it's almost impossible to not know those names, even if you don't know what they are because you're an adult who doesn't care about such things--and instead say "SnapFace," and there he is "dating" a woman fifty years younger than he is.
How do your friends treat that subject? Your kids? Because you know they're talking about how gross you are and how gross that is. I understand if it was some brilliant artist and some smart other person and they came together for the right reasons and because they stood out so much from everyone else, but that's not what this is. It's just gross and pathetic.
I'm not sure Mike Tomlin should be the coach of the Steelers anymore. I bet Belichick would rather go there than anywhere else if he rubbed a lamp and a genie granted him a wish.
Odd comments from some of the Celtics lately about sticking together and things of that nature that make me think the locker room issues of previous years are back. A lot of drama of this nature during the Brown and Tatum years.
I can't believe--or I shouldn't be able to--the arrogance of Boston media types in talking about this team at the start of the season. People like Michael Holley treating it like a given that the Celtics would just win the championship again. They are not going to. They'll be fortunate to make the Conference Finals. I see seven or eight teams in that league that can bump them off and it wouldn't be much of a surprise with any of them.
The Celtics' television broadcast is pretty unprofessional and also smacks of arrogance. When broadcasters deploy the "we" in talking about the team they cover, they lose credibility and sound clownish to me. Imagine Vin Scully or Fred Cusick or Ned Martin--or Mike Gorman fo that matter--saying "we" and "us" over and over again? Brian Scalabrine is another one who talked about the Celtics like they could go 82-0 if they wanted to. I'd hear him say these things and think, "You're not seeing this team for what it is, man."
They can still win, but they need to alter their approach. If they don't, they won't. Cleveland beats them right now. The Knicks can beat them. But so can Milwaukee and Indiana.
I don't understand the point of the Four Nations tournament. It's four nations. Kind of a limited victory, no? It also seems exclusionary. Why four nations? Hockey players are from all of these different nations. But it's just going to be this four? Why? And what does winning that do for you? "We were the best of four during that random, limited tournament in the middle of that season for the real thing we do!" It's probably money. Everything is money.
Bob Uecker died just short of his ninety-first birthday. I saw a post that said we all know he wasn't a very good baseball player. Are you crazy? He made it to the Major Leagues and stuck there for a few seasons. Bob Gibson liked pitching to him. Do you know how incredible a player you have to be to make the big leagues? You are normally the best player anyone in your area encounters or can remember. Maybe in your state. People talk about you where you're from. You're so much better than everyone. If you make it to the majors for an at-bat, you were a stud of studs.
I was a regular watcher of Mr. Belvedere as a kid. I like shows like that. Where they take place mostly in one setting where people are gathered. We feel at home with those shows. I'm not saying Mr. Belvedere was great. Cheers was this kind of show, and it was great.
Uecker did well in the 1980s. I don't wish harm on anyone, but if I was to learn that something bad happened to the idiot who sings the Burger King commercials off-key, I wouldn't be terribly upset.
It's like commercials are meant to make you mute whatever device you're hearing them on, like the aim of the commercial is to annoy you past a breaking point. The Liberty Mutual commercials are also that way. If I ate fast food garbage, I wouldn't eat anything from Burger King simply because of those commercials. All commercials are moronic now here in the age of wall to wall idiocy.
But they used to be...droll. They'd pull a smile out of you. My dad was not exactly Harry Humor, but he liked a flash of wit and respected such a display in something like a commercial during a ballgame.
Like that commercial where Ueker is at a baseball game and he thinks he's getting the VIP treatment, takes his seat, and is then told by an usher that he's in the row place, prompting him to remark to the people near him--and the delivery is key--"I must be in the front row," then cut to Uecker by himself--but with his enthusiasm undimmed ("He missed the tag!" he declares, beer in hand)--at the tippy-top of the stadium with no one else anywhere near him.
He did that kind of thing well and it was this unexpected bright spot during a lull in what you had come for and where most interested in, which brightened your day and that you looked forward to seeing again. Now when these commercials come on, I can't hit the mute button fast enough. I don't want to hear so much as a syllable from the off-key idiot. It's not cute, it's not clever, it's fucking annoying.
