July 05, 2005

Sports/Leisure Rant!

Ah July, the bliss of no sports aside from baseball to course through the airwaves. Why should we make this blog an exception? With the All Star Break looming, let's take a look at the divisions and see who's on top and who can expect to stay there.

AL West

Starting here because I know the least about it. Bartolo Colon leads the Angels to the top of the standings, but the Rangers have a great lineup and have held their own through the season. I really don't see much changing here, so let's say Angels win the division.

AL Central

The White Sox are leading the division by a wide margin, but keep an eye on the Twins. Johan Santana is not a pitcher to doubt, but Jon Garland at 13-3 is nothing to sneeze at either. The Sox have more power, but the Twins field the ball better. While pitching and defense wins championships, Chicago's up 8.5, and I doubt the Twins can make that up. Keep an eye on the Indians, too -- if anyone can run off a streak of wins, it's them.

AL East

The hotbed. Sox and Yanks took a back seat to the Orioles for most of the season, but Boston is back on top and New Yrok is closing in (though still in third). This promises to be an exciting finish and will get a lot of attention in the media, especially with the Wild Card likely to come out of the Central. I'll spoil it for you, though. The Orioles trade for the pitcher they need (Schmidt) and sit atop the East at season's end, despite yet another heroic comback from the Sox led by Schilling.

NL West

The Giants suck. Not really, I just wanted to raise Jay's blood pressure a couple notches. Then again, I just looked at the standing, and I'll leave it at this: they're not having their best season. With only one team above .500 (San Diego), this is the division that a team can make up a lot of ground quickly, and if Bonds ever gets back in the lineup, then they may have a chance. This is my go out on a limb (WAY out in this case) of the season, but I think Bonds is waiting to come back until he's in top form, and when he gets back on the roster, he gives SF the juice (ha!) they need to win the division.

NL Central

The Cardinals are in this division, and up 11.5 games. I'd say more, but it'd be REALLY boring.

NL East

All right, here we go. Every team at or better than .500, and Washington (yep, Les Expos) up by 4 and a half.

Before we go any further, can I just say that I'm sick and tired of hearing it's the first ____________ in Washington in 30+ years EVERY TIME THEY DO ANYTHING! That got old right after the first home game in 30+ years, then the first home win in 30+ win, the first home loss in 30+ years, the first drunk yelling obscenities in the stands in 30+ years, the first 20 minute wait for a beer in 30+ years, blah blah blah. They've been doing it for FOUR MONTHS, the latest being the first game on July 4th in DC in 30+ years. Good Lord.

Anyway, the bad karma from that alone should kill their chances of winning the division, but methinks Atlanta may overtake it on their own steam. They're 46-37 without three of the five pitchers in their starting rotation, plus they're missing Chipper Jones. They've done it with rookie replacements and Andruw Jones finding his swing on a hot streak to end all hot streaks. But the main reason for this surge? Bobby Cox, Bobby Cox, Bobby Cox. Frank Robinson deserves a lot of credit for how well the Nationals have done, but Bobby Cox has done just as much with a roster that's far more depleted that the Nats. They'll over take them this month with the return of a pitcher and Chipper Jones, and hold on for their 14th straight division title.

That's how baseball will end up. More sports later.

Let's get the dust off the ol' blog....

Ever had a long stretch where not much in the news seemed interesting? I think I'm in a rut like that, or maybe I'm just a little more apathetic than normal in my ripe old age.

Take the Tom Cruise 'fiasco'. The guy makes movies -- usually good movies. Because of this, he gets a lot of interviews whenever he does anything remotely interesting, such as making a movie, dating someone, or passing gas. On one such occasion, he makes a fool of himself discussing mood-related drugs, psychology, and whatnot. His feelings are based on his religion, which some call crazy and far out in its tenets. I'm not one of those people, because I believe a Jewish man (born from a virgin womb) could turn water into wine, as well as walk on water, before he rose from the dead three days after being crucified. I'm not trying to push my beliefs on you, the reader, but to those who aren't Christian, that seems pretty weird, so far be it for me to criticize someone else's religion. But that's another blog. Well, maybe.

Anyway, back to Cruise. He says these things on national television to Matt Lauer, who apparently didn't realise that he was there to, um, PROMOTE A MOVIE. How we went from weird space aliens to postpartem depression is beyond me, but I didn't see the interview, only the most shocking parts that the media lets me see. So now Tom looks like a complete ass when he should be celebrating the release of a blockbuster movie and his recent engagement to Katie Holmes, whom he'd been dating for nearly 17 minutes before he proposed to her. Then Brooke Shields gets into it by writing a letter about how Tom is wrong and should be hated for what he said because she suffers from postpartem depression, along with (cheap shot related to recent lack of acting deleted, but, man was it funny).

And while some people are getting up in arms about this, I really don't care. It's what he believes whether he's right or wrong, and there's not a whole lot we can do to alter what he believes in. Arguing about it is fine, but it doesn't really change anything, aside from raising the blood pressure of those involved in the discussion. What upsets me (but not really all that much) is the timing of this. I know that he's getting a lot of interviews now, so statistically it's the right time for it to happen, but it seems like it only helped get the word out about the movie. Ever notice that celebrity scandals usually happen right as they're about to release something? Paris Hilton (the walking controversy) and Nicole Ritchie had problems just as a season of the Simple Life was about to start, and lest we forget the Hollywood Equation: Hugh Grant + L.A. Prostitute = Nine Months publicity!!

I know it's a lot of words to say it (which may negate my whole point), but I don't care. It's people being people, the only difference being that this time they did it in front of millions of other people, and I've got too much to do to worry about something like that. And, yes, Kingdom Hearts IS something to do.