I have outdone myself this time. We just started rolling out some more t-shirts at The 300s and what better to slap on a shirt than the hottest phrase of the 2017 Red Sox season. Dennis Eckersley incidentally started a war with David Price by uttering this one word and setting off the $30M/year starter on an F-bomb filled tirade. Yuck indeed.
So Game of Thrones aired its second episode of Season 7 Sunday night titled “Stormborn” which is an obvious nod to Khaleesi AKA Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen,First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea,Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons. So yea, Stormborn was an easier title for an episode. Anyways lots to break down so LETS GET IT.
House Greyjoy
Lets not beat around the bush, how about that absolute hellacious Pirate Invasion by Euron on the open seas? This guy really is a psycho huh? Starting to see hints of what the actor who plays him said in interviews before the season about how Euron would make Ramsay Bolton look like a little kid. Yikes.
The Greyjoy fleet of Theon and Yara is basically toast. Its like any fleet that leaves Dragonstone is destined to be burned to the fucking ground a la Stannis at Blackwater Bay. We got Theon falling back into bad habits too. It seems like the crazy violent and torturous way of Euron (i.e. ripping out dudes tongues) and his Iron born gave Theon a hard reset back to his Reek days, which sucks. Silver lining though he is alive soo maybe he redeems himself again? Running out of episodes here Theon, lets pick it up.
Half of the Targaryen alliance just burned up on the open seas as the Dornish leader Ellaria and her daughters the sand snakes were all either killed or taken captive. This really screws up Khaleesi’s plan of taking Kings Landing using the Dornish army so she’ll probably be looking for more Houses to partner up with. Lucky for her the King of the North is on his way down to Dragonstone.
House Stark
Jon knows he needs Khaleesi, her army, and her dragons if the North has any chance against the White Walkers, but the last thing the northerners want to do is put their faith in the daughter of the goddamn Mad King. Jon’s point is that they need the mountain of Dragonglass that is under Dragonstone, not to mention the three large dragons that Khaleesi has, if they are to stand any chance against the Night King. But Sansa makes a pretty damn good point saying “Do you not remember what happened to our grandfather?” Long story short – the Mad King once called Jon Snow’s grandfather, Rickard Stark, to come down to King’s Landing and “bend the knee” except when he got there the Mad King burned the guy alive. The Mad King also later killed Jon’s uncle Brandon Stark too. So you’ll forgive Sansa for not being overly excited to send the freshly minted King of the North down south to meet another Targaryen to once again bend the knee.
I think Jon has learned a lot in a very short period of time, taking counsel from those around him and internalizing a lot of what people are saying to him, whether the others realize it or not. One thing Sansa said to Jon recently was that he needs to not be stupid like their father and Rob or he’ll be killed just like them. Pride, honor and really stubbornness to their ways are what ultimately got Rob and Ned killed. So while going to Dragonstone is definitely a risk, holding up shop in the North because of stubbornness is a sure fire way to die.
Something I am stoked to see though is if Khaleesi truly needs Jon Snow to bend the knee. While it doesn’t seem like he has any real aspirations to sit on the Iron Throne, if you remember his days with the wildlings, Jon grew to respect and idolize, really, Mance Rayder the King beyond the wall.
Mance awakened Jon to a lot of things beyond the blinders the Night’s Watch had put on him, among them the fact that some traditions of the 7 kingdoms are arbitrary and ridiculous.
As we all saw, Jon loved a wildling woman, saved the wildlings from Hardhome, literally got MURDERED by his peers for letting the wildlings through the Wall. Is it that crazy to assume a central ideology of one of his mentors sticks with him? We do not kneel. Or is this the Stark stubbornness I just mentioned that derails Jon Snow?
With Jon heading south, Sansa is now in charge of the North and that sound you just heard was Littlefinger’s erection smashing into the table. And Jon Snow knows it and does NOT like it, despite Littlefinger saving his ass with the Knights of the Vale. Jon Snow is WOKE on Baelish.
I’ve been waiting for this moment for 5.5 seasons and I am a fucking nerd for typing that sentence I know. This is a pivotal moment for Arya as we’re starting to witness her blind determination starting to waiver. When she first landed in Westeros she axed the entire Frey clan and was single-mindedly riding towards Kings Landing to kill the queen. Now she sees her direwolf for the first time in years, the same one she had to chase off in season 1 to save her after Nymeria bit that sonofabitch Joffrey. It really is quite impressive they recognize each other after all this time. Doesn’t seem like Nymeria is ready to be anyone’s pet as she’s currently running the goddamn jungle as a wolfpack leader, but I doubt we’ve seen the last of her. I keep telling people this, but Thrones does not waste a second of dialogue and very rarely leaves loose ends (looking at you Gendry).
Oh and Hotpie’s alive too.
BTW, Anyone else notice Arya’s mannerisms now? When talking to Hotpie she is eating, speaking and acting JUST like the Hound. Real short. No niceties. — “Got any ale?”
House Targaryen
Moving on, props to Varys for the most badass speech in his character’s history to convince Khaleesi he’s here to help. I don’t think she necessarily trusts him, but she understands his motives. All she asks is if you think I’m doing a shit job, tell me, don’t sail to Essos and plot a coup.
Olenna Tyrell is still a badass old lady who gives no fucks, asking the Mother of Dragons “Your grand plan was to march down here and use our armies?” The lady is fearless, have to give her that. And I think Khaleesi realizes she can learn a lot in the ways of Westerosi politics from Olenna. “You’re a dragon. Be a dragon.”
House Lannister
Cersei is calling in her bannermen and spin zoning the SHIT out of Khaleesi’s history (murdering the noblemen AKA the slave masters and feeding them to her dragons). She needs everyone to get her back to help fight off Khaleesi and the only way to do that is to play to people’s fears of the Mad King and the Targaryens in general. Without that, people will just flop to whoever they think will win. But Tyrion makes a GREAT point back on Dragonstone, saying they only way to RULE the 7 kingdoms vs just simply conquering them is with help from the Westerosi people themselves. By working with the Houses that already live there they can truly overthrow the regime, not just smash everything to ashes.
Also, laughed out loud at Jamie trying to get House Tarly to be his No. 1 general and Tarly basically tells Jamie to fuck himself. Welp, back to the drawing board Kingslayer.
WRAP IT UP BOX
I’ve noticed a LOT of loooong scenes this season like the Sam bedpan scene in last week’s episode and this week’s scene of Sam removing Jorah’s gray scale, slowly and painfully, not to mention the overly long Grey Worm sex scene. I don’t know if its due to new directors on Season 7, but the pacing feels out of place. Maybe they’re trying to lull us into a false sense of security because with the long, quiet, drawn out Grey Worm scene I was fully expecting someone to get knifed.
Did anyone notice in the GoT opening credits that at the end of the Wall the water is actually frozen?
No need to climb the Wall when you can walk right around it. Not to mention, if Benjen was right, maybe the White Walkers can’t pass through the wall since it was forged with ice and magic, so going around it seems to be a pretty good solution. Who knows though. When Bran was messing around and got touched by the Night King it allowed him to come into the One Eyed Raven’s cave (and murder him) which he could not do before. This also got Hodor, a bunch of the children of the forest and not to mention Bran’s direwolf killed. So good job Bran.
Also in case anyone already forgot Season 7 only has SEVEN episodes and we’ve already burned through two. So theres only just over a month of Thrones left in our lives before another cold, dark winter. Goddamnit, enjoy the ride.
It seems like the topic du jour around the local sports media is whether the Patriots can realistically (or should even attempt it) go a perfect 19-0. Except there seems to be less people talking about if they can do it and more people just straight up refusing to talk about it and saying its stupid to do so. USA Today thinks its doable. But basically every other media personality wants no part of it.
As a Patriots fan, the lack of people that want to go for 19-0 personally offends me.
Guys, I know it brings up bad memories. We almost had it in 2007. It was in the palms of our hands, less than 2 minutes to go and the 07 Patriots would be crowned the greatest team of all time.
If Asante Samuel makes that interception. If David Tyree plays like the insurance salesman he really is, if Rodney Harrison somehow jars that ball lose from his fucking helmet, if the refs actually called holding on the Giants offensive line on that play. The list goes on and on.
That shit used to kill me. Used to. But I noticed something recently. The 07 Super Bowl highlights come on….and I watch them. It doesn’t make me physically ill anymore. I can watch those clips and say ah man that sucked, without smashing a pint glass off my wall like I would have done a few years ago. Winning two Super Bowls since then goes a looong way in healing that pain. Brady’s 5-2 in the SB for christ’s sake. That will always be the most painful loss of my life. I was a freshman in college and my direct roommate was a Giants fan, not to mention half my hallway. So losing in that fashion, surrounded by that many Giants fans in neutral territory as a young, inebriated boyish man, that was a tough pill to swallow.
But like I said, one of the greatest Super Bowls EVER against Seattle with the Malcolm Butler pick to seal the W was cathartic; the greatest comeback of all time against the Falcons in 2016 gave us all our swagger back. You can’t say shit to us. You can’t hurt us.
The Patriots have 5 Super Bowl rings, Tom Brady is a 2x MVP, a 4x Super Bowl MVP, he had one of his greatest seasons ever during the Deflategate saga, and then was suspended the following year only to come back, tear it up and win another fucking Super Bowl. Belichick and Brady are the. Greatest. Of. All. Time. So…what do you get the men who have everything? The only thing left. Perfection
Its the ultimate. Its the only thing left that the Patriots don’t have. And there will always be the Felgers of the world saying we as Patriots fans all have a persecution complex (is it paranoid if its true though?) and theres nothing left to prove. But, tell someone they can’t do something or don’t need something and what do they want? Exactly. We’ve conquered the AFC East, we’ve conquered fan bases in St. Louis, Carolina, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Atlanta, we’ve taken on the league and the commissioner himself and come out with one for the thumb. TB12 is 40 years old and playing better than anyone has ever played the position. Minneaposix™ is the goal, but 19-0 will always be the ultimate.
PS – Plus if the Pats do go 19-0 I can get my fucking t-shirts back stateside.
Yesterday was Monday, so of course I was off my game and missed the Monday morning post. But I was watching a game from The Big 3 yesterday and it got me thinking back to some of my favorite ballers. Not great basketball players in the NBA, but ballers. Guys that you know were kings of the court, dominating one on one, and throwing down hellacious dunks in style. AKA Gerald Green. Lets throw it back to 2007 when Gerald Green won the dunk contest when he was just 21 years old.
“You know, Nick Faldo and I won this thing last year, and I’d like to win it again this year.”
Get your Pro-Am Champions T-Shirt from The 300s today and rep the 1995 champs.
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So after another tough loss to the Angels on Sunday afternoon, the Red Sox announced the promotion of Rafael Devers from Triple-A Pawtucket.
Devers, of course, is the Red Sox top prospect and has been a virtual untouchable in any trade talks since Dave Dombrowksi has dealt so many prospects the last couple of seasons. Devers started the year in Double-A Portland and dominated before getting nominated to Pawtucket on July 14th.
Now, are NINE days in Triple-A a great preparation for the jump to the majors? Probably not. But last year, Benintendi jumped straight from Double-A to the majors and didn’t miss a beat, immediately taking over as the Red Sox every day left fielder. On the other hand, Dombrowski promoted Yoan Moncada straight from Double-A to the majors and he looked terrible. SO, this could go either way, but by all accounts from the local beat writers its more so his defense that isn’t necessarily major-league ready. If his bat is even half decent though, its a major upgrade at third base, especially after just cutting the fat fucking panda. This probably all but ends the Red Sox pursuit of a third baseman on the trade market. Welp, let the Rafael Devers era in Boston begin.
So I saw the news of Ole Miss football head coach Hugh Freeze resigning yesterday and while I thought it was odd, college football coaches are always getting into shit due to violations with the NCAA. I thought nothing of it. Except I didn’t hear WHY he was getting canned. Then I heard an update on the radio this AM and was shocked. SHOCKED.
I misheard the story yesterday and thought The Freeze had gotten fired for calling hookers, not Hugh Freeze. #OleMiss #SEC #CollegeFootball pic.twitter.com/cB6n5lYOyV
— The 300s (@The300sBoston) July 21, 2017
Yes, I thought The Freeze, the fucking guy that is the 2017 version of the racing presidents in DC or the sausage race in Milwaukee, got busted for calling hookers. “The Freeze has fallen a long way after losing that race for the first time in the All-Star game last week, hate to see that.” No, you booze soaked brain, it was Hugh Freeze calling hookers from work, not The Freeze. Whoops. Common case of mistaken identity.
So with the Toronto Blue Jays in town, naturally NESN kept showing the Blow Jays manager John Gibbons on TV and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It finally dawned on me. John Gibbons is Dr. Evil’s henchman from Austin Powers, No. 2. This is the same goddamn guy, no doubt.
Finally had enough of trying to take over the world so he settled for Toronto.
Wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t also post the “Who does No. 2 work for?” scene, right?
ESPN – The Golden State Warriors are bringing the personal seat license to the NBA. Officials with the defending NBA champions acknowledged Wednesday that to get season tickets at the team’s new privately financed $1 billion Chase Center, which is slated to open in 2019, fans will have to pay a fee for the right to buy those tickets…The Warriors would return the money the fan paid for the right to buy tickets after 30 years. That essentially means the personal seat license, which will be called a “membership,” is acting as an interest-free, tax-free loan to the team for three decades. Fans can transfer or give back the license before the 30 years are up, so they aren’t required to commit to the full term, but they won’t get their money back until Year 30.
What. A. Scam. A Personal Seat License? Look as a business this is brilliant. Especially if people are dumb enough (and they are) to pay for this. Oh you want the right to buy tickets in this stadium we just built? Well thats gonna cost you. You need to pay me money for the right to pay me money. Genius.
But as a fan? Fuckkkk that. Again, Im sure the Golden State Warriors will have zero problem selling these in Silicon Valley, but I’m still pissed if I’m a fan. I essentially have to write you a check that you hold onto for 30 YEARS just so I can pay you thousands more per year for season tickets. This is like Ticketmaster on steroids. I despise Ticketmaster for this very reason. They’ve charged bullshit “convenience fees” and “maintenance fees” for years. $15 so I can print out one ticket at home? Kick rocks, Ticketmaster. I’ve been calling shenanigans on them for a decade. And now an NBA franchise is going to take this model and just RUN with it.
But, this is what happens when you have a $400M bill looming. The Warriors, by the grace of tax cap god, were able to fit Kevin Durant under the cap along with Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, plus ya know the other 10 guys to fill a roster. Except what comes with massive amounts of payroll and multiple max contracts? Luxury taxes. What happens when you consistently go over the luxury tax? The League RAPES you on more taxes.
I saw a graphic on ESPN where Brian Windhorst and the crew were talking about how in 3 or so years, with all of the luxury taxes, if the Warriors keep their team together as currently constructed, their overall payroll would be $400 MILLION DOLLARS. Even for billionaire professional sports franchise owners, thats a tough pill to swallow.
So, as usual, might as well pass the buck along to the fan so he’s the one holding the bag. For 30 fucking years.
In this very special edition of The 300s Podcast we breakdown all the Houses, characters, and plot lines of Westeros as Game of Thrones is FINALLY back.
The 300s 