The Bruins missed a huge opportunity to put the Blues on the mat last night so I guess the gentleman’s sweep is off the table. The difference between a 3-1 series and a 2-2 series is night and day so I don’t love going back to Boston tied. Although I’ll take the Bruins playing best of 3 with home ice advantage.
I was definitely a bit rattled last night though when I saw the St. Louis hype video they played right before the game. Every sport does this when they pull a local celebrity out to do a voiceover for their team, but St. Louis has a goddamn hammer in their back pocket.
An encouraging sight last night was Tuukka in his post game presser with the media because he looked unfazed. As he should, its hard to pin any of those goals on Tuukka really. He was a confident, defiant, snarky asshole and thats exactly what I want to see from my goalie.
“They were desperate…they were the more desperate team.”
Listening to the NBCSports Boston postgame last night they said it was reported that Chara was “advised not to play” but didn’t specify whether that meant if he was cleared or not. Either way it was odd to see the captain sitting on the bench, never getting a single shift in the third period. Granted that puck to the face looked gruesome, I’m not sure why he wouldn’t be given a second of ice time? Concerning to say the least.
I’m really starting to despise this Blues team though. Coming in they were known for hard hitting, but a lot of what we’ve seen over the last 4 games has crossed the line. The Matt Grzelcyk hit, the cross check to David Backes’ face, and not to mention all the flopping. Tarasenko could have won an Oscar for selling that elbowing penalty in the third period, and Binnington looked like the Life Alert lady last night.
Holy shit do the Blues seem to hate David Backes. Did he burn a Missouri flag on his way out of town or something? It seems odd for this Blues team to be taking shots at their former captain every single chance they get and not just clean hard checks either. Can you imagine the Bruins taking liberties on Chara if he were to finish out his career somewhere else?
Charlie Coyle remains King of the South (Shore) with another goal last night, giving him NINE goals in this playoff run. Insane.
Heading back to Boston its great to see Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron starting to get hot over the last 2 games. They started off non-existent in the first 2 games of the series, but you’re starting to see more of the playmaking in the last 2 games that made them the most dangerous line in hockey.
The Blues responded in Game 4 as they looked like a team playing with their hair on fire. The Bruins tried to respond and keep pace, but they couldn’t do it for 60 minutes, they lost their captain and anchor defenseman for the third period, and St. Louis caught some lucky rebounds.
All in all a frustrating game to watch, but I still have faith the Bruins pull this one out. Originally I had them in 6, but I could easily see this series going 7 now. See ya at the Garden boys.
Chirping Blues fans about their new victory song “Gloria” has become a new favorite hobby of mine. Something that has been built up as the end all be all song of celebration for the city of St. Louis. And I would love nothing more than for Boston to stomp out this city yet again and declare prima nocta to claim “Gloria” for ourselves. Get it done boys.
MassLive – This isn’t how Greg Oden saw his career going. The 31-year-old should have been angling for one more long-term contract in what most people expected to be a long career.
Injuries robbed him of that, but not of his passion for basketball. Now the former number one overall pick is focused on a new path: coaching.
“I’m done playing. I helped out at Ohio State for the past three, four years. So I just kinda hit the bug on me,” he told MassLive. “I enjoy working with the players. I enjoy that side of it.”
The pursuit of that coaching career brought him to Boston. He was invited by the team to help out and take the floor with players and to help in their evaluation.
“Just to help out with the pre-draft stuff and see what happens from it,” Oden said. “I’ll take that opportunity from it. It’s the freakin’ Celtics.”
Good for Greg Oden. It’s hard to feel bad for millionaires, but I always felt bad for Greg Oden. The guy was supposed to be a generational talent and was poised to dominate the NBA for years, but his body just broke down before he was even 20 years old. Now he might be back.
In what was actually a grand stroke of luck for the Celtics, they got hosed in the NBA Draft Lottery that year and fell to No. 5, which ultimately turned into Danny trading for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in separate deals that same offseason. As we all know those two moves quickly turned a lottery team into one of the most dominant teams in recent NBA history, which never would have happened if the Celtics had landed the No. 1 overall pick.
Of course there are the conspiracy theorists out there that swear Danny would have drafted Kevin Durant No. 1 overall even though everyone in America had Oden the higher rated player. Danny was fined back in 2007 for contact with Durant’s mom and he more recently swindled Philly and the NBA as a whole when he traded down and still got his guy in Jayson Tatum. So who knows.
Either way, its great to see Oden getting back into the NBA, even if its in a different role than he expected.
Obvious Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t caught up on Season 8 of Thrones yet come back later.
Full disclosure, I know this aired two weeks ago, but my cube life has been consumed with more work than your average bear so lets just roll with it…
After 73 episodes and nearly a decade of television, Game of Thrones came to its long awaited conclusion, after reaching a critical mass in pop culture (to its own detriment) this season.
Name a show that ran as long as Game of Thrones did that ended well. Its not easy to do after years of growing fandom and the expectations that come with it. The Sopranos? I thought my TV died. Lost? Nope. Dexter? *shutters* Hell even Seinfeld’s finale was a disaster.
So a show that started out as a weird fantasy world with politics intertwined into every scene became a media juggernaut and with that came the weight of expectations from not only the diehard fans but now the people that binged the first 7 seasons out of peer pressure just to catch up in time. I did the same exact thing with Lost and it made it so much easier to rip on the show’s missteps and banish it to “garbage tv” when the finale didn’t satisfy my expectations. I think we saw a lot of that this season in Thrones as twitter and Facebook were overflowing with criticism. While I think the show earned plenty of deserved criticism (the goddamn pacing), it also was getting roasted for minutia like a Starbucks cup that nobody noticed until an eagle eye viewer tweeted about it. I’m not here to apologize to disappointed fans, but people need to put their experience into perspective.
You can love a show and criticize it at the same time.
Game of Thrones was an incredible series and probably my favorite show of all time. Thrones has a 9.4 rating on IMDB overall, but the final season was rushed and it will forever bug me how this show could have gone down as the GOAT if they just took the time to work in a few more episodes (or even another season) to properly justify certain character storylines (the Mad Queen) and motivations (Jaimie returning to Cersei).
My only complaint with the final season is that most of the character’s final scenes make sense, but how we got there doesn’t necessarily fit. So lets break down some of the key highlights from the last episode of Game of Thrones.
The shot of Khaleesi with the outstretched dragon wings behind her was just an incredible visual and devilish cinematography.
Jon Snow battled with his love, his honor, and his duty to finally kill Khaleesi and officially become the Queenslayer. Tyrion threw one reason after the next at Jon trying to convince him why Khaleesi needed to die, but even though he knows Tyrion is right Jon can’t bring himself to say it. The only thing that gives him pause is when Tyrion asks what he thinks will happen when his sisters refuse to bend the knee. In the end Jon had to hear it from Khaleesi directly and hear her delusions of grandeur growing as she spoke. Khaleesi, as Tyrion said to Jon, believes she is just and good and is destined to make the world a better place. She doesn’t see it as murdering innocents, she sees it as freeing the people and starting a new world void of tyrants. It kiiiind of sounds a lot like ethnic cleansing as George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones is rife with criticisms of war and what often comes with it. Once he hears the delusions from Khaleesi he knows that she can’t leave that room.
Small criticism here. I know that Jon has been alone with Khaleesi plenty of times and Drogon was laying outside the front door, but where are her guards? Theres not one soldier protecting the new Queen of the Seven Kingdoms? I think that scene would been a little more convincing if Jon had to kill a couple of guards while struggling with his moral guilt, but I suppose its such a powerful reverse course because he has to kill her and *only* her.
In the ultimate irony, Khaleesi never actually sat on the Iron Throne. Tough break.
Visions Are Never Wasted
A+ foreshadowing from the show that became known for never wasting a word or a shot as Khaleesi’s vision from Season 2 of her walking through the Throne room was dead on. Except what we all thought was snow falling for the better part of a decade, was in fact ash.
Drogon Grieves
Drogon melting the Iron Throne was one of my favorite moments in GOT’s long history. Theres a scene from early in the series when Tyrion talks about how dragons were once though to be smarter than people. This was an emotional moment as Drogon senses something is wrong, after Jon stabs her, and flies to the Throne room only to see whats happened before heartbreakingly nudging the lifeless Khaleesi.
Preparing for death by fire Jon readies himself, but Drogon looks at him and then at the Iron Throne before unleashing hellfire on the throne as if to say it was this damn chair that killed her. Pretty brilliant distinction for a dragon to make in that moment.
You want to talk about breaking the wheel, this is how you break the wheel.
Another callback was how they actually decided on the new King because before the episode I was talking with the Mrs. about how Khaleesi never decided on a plan of succession. Back in Season 7 Tyrion tells her about how the Iron Islands pick a leader, how the Nights Watch votes on a leader etc. and she blows him off saying we’ll figure it out once I have the throne. Well they had to break out that plan of secession a lot sooner than Khaleesi would have ever expected.
Tyrion’s Faith Waivers
After following Khaleesi blindly for multiple seasons, Tyrion had begun to waiver a bit in Season 8. He saw the Tarlys burned alive, he learned of Jon Snows true lineage, and he had those treasonous discussions with Varys (before he too was burned alive). Despite all that, Tyrion still felt Khaleesi would “do the right thing.” Well after she went the other way on that one and burned down Kings Landing, Tyrion finally reaches his breaking point when he sees the buried bodies of his siblings underneath the Red Keep. It’s a pretty powerful moment because despite all their flaws, despite the fact that his sister literally wanted him dead, he still breaks down and weeps when he sees what has happened to Jaime and Cersei. They died because of him and breaks him.
I Can’t Believe They Made the Backpack King
In a scene that seemed more Benioff and Weiss than it did Martin, there was a council meeting comprised of the most important lords and ladies of Westeros. There were the Starks, the Vale (including an older Robin Arryn whom the internet got a little too excited about – he’s 18), the unnamed “New Prince of Dorne,” even Yara Grejoy. They all give their thoughts on who should be King, but its a speech from the best actor on the show in Tyrion that unites them all. Rather quickly I might add…
Whether it was a character decision made by the showrunners or a directive from Martin himself I don’t know, but Bran’s transformation into an emotionless (read: sociopath) and largely boring character the past two seasons has been a head scratcher. This massive point in the story would have been a lot more powerful if Bran had ANY sort of character development or at least on screen relationship with any of the other characters. Instead it looks like a guy drawing the short straw to lead the group project that nobody is eager to take on. We never really get a true understanding of why Bran is the Three Eyed Raven, why it matters beyond the fact that he remembers neat history tidbits, or why anyone should really even care. Sure, he is the memories of men, but why does that matter? Why did the Night King want him dead so badly? As The Ringer puts it:
The purpose of Bran’s position as the Three-Eyed Raven, moreover, is only shallowly explained, which seems important when the basis for his assumption of the throne rests on his ostensible role as storyteller. Earlier in Season 8, Bran tells the assembled war council at Winterfell that the Night King wants to kill him because he is the world’s memory. But his predecessor lived isolated from the world, huddled in a cave far beyond the Wall, not sharing that memory with any living human. He’s not the first Three-Eyed Raven, either, Bran reveals, but rather just the latest in a long line of memory holders, The Giver–style. How can we square one Three-Eyed Raven who lives apart from humans and one who rules them, and assume they fulfill the same strategic function?
It is odd for Bran to have gone through so much yet have it mean so little in the grand scheme of things. And I’ve watched enough time travel movies to understand why he can’t just come out and tell everyone what will happen in the future. So when Bran responds to Tyrion’s offer to be King “Why do you think I came all this way?” I don’t really quarrel with that. The people that died to get him there though miiight feel a little different.
Pivoting to perhaps my least favorite character on the show in Bran after years of build up for a sudden twist fell a little flat for me. This is something that required a more thorough build up of Bran’s character and motivations (not someone who literally wasn’t in Season 5) in order to justify. The Ringer again summarized this frustration perfectly:
More importantly, for a show that has disregarded or downplayed so many elements of the fantasy genre since surpassing Martin’s books, the turn to the character most connected to those very fantasy elements at the end underwhelms. If Bran were to become king, why cut him from a full season of the show?
I will say this show is the ultimate when it comes to misdirection. How many times did people mention how Bran was now the Lord of Winterfell only to have the Three Eyed Raven reply he didn’t want it? And how many times did we hear Tyrion and Varys talking about how the best ruler is the one who doesn’t want it? We always thought they were talking about Jon Snow when it turns out it was Bran the Broken.
We all knew Khaleesi had to die one way or the other and I think it would have been a little too predictable for Jon to be made King at this point. So while I don’t like Bran being named King, I would have been just as mad if he did nothing this episode and literally served no purpose for 8 seasons.
It was a little too clean how quickly we went from Jon murdering Khaleesi, to Jon being the Unsullied’s prisoner, to Grey Worm 1.) letting the lords and ladies vote to choose a new King and 2.) immediately listening to Bran because he’s been king for all of 90 seconds.
I will say the show did a great job of wrapping up most of the character’s storylines for better or worse. While the final season was ill paced, every character’s final actions all made sense, just not necessarily how and when they got there. Grey Worm taking the Unsullied to Naath to tell stories of Missandei and retire to a place where the people are peaceful, Arya taking a Stark ship to explore the unknown, Sansa becoming Queen in the North, and Jon going back north of the wall with Tormund and GHOST!
Must have been a tough couple of weeks for the writers to swallow their pride after everyone on the internet ripped them for not having Jon pet Ghost when he left Winterfell. “Just wait two weeks you morons!” Although, after seeing how quickly the Starbucks cup was digitally removed, it would not surprise me if Benioff and Weiss just filmed that scene and threw it in there last minute to appease the masses.
Sansa is and Forever Will be a Boss
They name her little brother King of Westeros, and her first reaction is basically “I love you, I think you’ll be a great ruler, but…No, we are the north. We’ve seen all the nonsense thats come from the seven kingdoms.” Think about it. Sansa’s entire life has been filled with hardships all because of that damn iron chair. Her grandfather and her uncle died at the hands of the King sitting on the Iron Throne. Her father died because he wouldn’t take the Iron Throne from Joffrey (and Cersei). Her brother Robb died trying to avenge their father and overthrow the King from the Iron Throne. As they say, the Stark men don’t fair well in the capital. So it doesn’t matter if the King is her own brother now; the North gained it’s independence, it rebelled against the Baratheons/Lannisters, it overthrew the Boltons, and it resisted Khaleesi. The North will remain independent as it was for thousands of years before the Targaryens landed in Westeros.
I don’t know about you, but I’m turning my attention back to the Game of Thrones books now to fill the hole in my life. I’ve only read the first one so hopefully by the time I finish whats left George RR Martin will have finished at least one new novel. I have to see how Martin decides these same characters get to these decisions or whether they go in an entirely different direction.
Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen’s Short Lived Romance
What made the whole Jon and Dany story feel a bit stilted to me really had nothing to do with the writing or the show runners; the two actors just seemingly lacked chemistry. Especially when compared to Jon’s first love interest on the show, Ygritte, which I guess isn’t necessarily fair to compare since Jon and Ygritte literally got married in real life. But hey thats what actors do; they pretend
You could really feel the passion between Jon and Ygritte and all the trials they went through from Jon taking her prisoner, to Ygritte saving his life, to Jon breaking his Nights Watch vows to her untimely death. When Ygritte was killed at the Battle of Castle Black it crushed Jon Snow and changed him forever. I just never felt that passion between Emilia Clarke and Kit Harrington. Obviously it was a storyline that wasn’t too hard to see coming with their romance, their conflict, and her ultimate death, but I never felt like the two characters really dug each other. It had to just be a chemistry thing too because Khaleesi’s scenes with Khal Drogo and even with Daario Naharis felt very real. I know Jon Snow is the brooding, stoic character from the North, but so was Ned Stark and his early scenes with Katelyn Stark just laying in bed together showed a couple truly in love. So I didn’t truly feel that “love is the death of duty” in the finale of Thrones, but thats not necessarily the show runners’ fault.
What was the point of the Night King at all?
Why did the weirwood trees allow Bran to see visions?
The symbols that the white walkers used to seemingly taunt the children of the forest with; what was that about?
What ever happened to Jaquen Hagar?
Why didn’t Aria ever use her Faceless Men tricks after killing all the Freys?
Why
Soo while no show will ever approach Lost territory in terms of unanswered questions, Game of Thrones left me with a lot of loose threads that I though would have at least been referenced. In the end, this whole GOT world shows us just how great of a television series an 800 page novel can become, but the wheels certainly came off a bit when Martin’s guidebooks dried up. Once he stopped plotting the hows and the whys (and a lot of the dialogue word for word), Bennioff and Weiss lost a bit of the shine. It also will forever piss me off that these two hit the Wrap It Up Box on one of the most successful shows of all time so they could write a couple Star Wars movies.
All in all, Game of Thrones started off strong, became one of the most influential shows in television history, and staggered a bit to the finish line, but will forever be remembered as a series that changed television forever.
PS – Peep the poster for Season 1 below… The answer of who would sit on the Iron Throne was IN FRONT OF US THE WHOLE TIME!
Pro Football Talk – While at Jim Kelly’s annual golf tournament in 2016, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that he felt the Bills need a new stadium in order to remain in Buffalo “on a successful basis.” Goodell is back at Kelly’s tournament this year and his feelings about the stadium situation have not changed. Money has been spent on renovating New Era Field in recent years and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has suggested further renovations may present the “best bang for the buck,” but Goodell remains a supporter of a new stadium.
“I want to make sure this franchise remains competitive and stable,” Goodell said, via Matthew Fairburn of TheAthletic.com.
Bills ownership has discussed a new stadium that would be a “scaled-down version” of new buildings that have gone up or are going up in other cities, but there’s been nothing definitive about their plans at this point. There’s also been no word on how they’d finance either renovating or replacing New Era Field.
Public money is often sought for such purposes with teams using a possible relocation as a carrot to get it. Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula haven’t brought that up, but it doesn’t seem much else is off the table at this point in the process.
Okay first things first. As a 30-year-old man that has aged out of “do anything for the team” fanhood status years ago, any team that is asking for public money to build a stadium can go piss up a rope. I’ve got enough debt I have to pay back for useless things like student loans, so the last thing I need is a bill for some billionaire’s shiny new toy. Maybe its because I live in a mega sports market like Boston where we would all collectively laugh in an owner’s face if they threatened to move the team.
But I digress…
So Roger Goodell has been beating this drum for a while that the Bills NEED a new stadium to be competitive. Umm have you ever been to New Era Field? Because I have and let me tell ya, it would be a travesty to replace what the glorious Bills Mafia calls home.
All sarcasm aside, New Era Field is a pretty legit stadium. It’s surprisingly nice, it’s got a retro vibe to it with the sunken stadium seats and its loud as hell. Sure it’s not going to beat out the Falcons or the Rams new stadium in terms of amenities, but to say the stadium is the reason this team hasn’t been competitive since the 90s is laughable.
Now, Buffalo the city? Maybe put a little taxpayer money towards repairing some of the dilapidated buildings downtown or putting YouTube commenters like this in the psych ward.
Buffalo Man was NOT a fan of my Buffalo review.
So to Roger Goodell I say you are crazy. New Era Field needs to be a museum of the truly crazy football fans of this country, not torn down to build a soul-less, mega stadium for rich guys.
First off its a long read, but if you haven’t already go read Baxter Holmes’ excellent story on the Lakers utter dysfunction. Its nothing short of bizarre that a billion dollar business is run this way. With Magic stepping down as Lakers President, his sniping back and forth with current Lakers GM Rob Pelinka through the media, the owner of the team Jeanie Buss appearing completely checked out, and all other sorts of nonsense, LeBron has essentially become King of the ashes in LA.
Lets start with Magic. After suddenly and bizarrely resigning via a rambling impromptu press conference, more and more details have started to come out. He is described throughout Holmes’ story as having a “striking duality to his personality.” When he was even in the office that is. Some days he would grab ass and work his charm, other days he would blow up on a staffer for booking the wrong rental car.
What. A. Prick. This is a prime example of a boss thats in way over his head, blowing up on employees to make themselves feel like they’re in charge.
This story also drops in on familiar face Rich Paul (LeBron’s agent) who is no stranger to dysfunction and maintains a prominent role in LA. Just as he did in Cleveland, Paul and much of the Klutch team meddled in the affairs of the team on behalf of LeBron to bitch about the coach, the management, the roster and everything else the King didn’t like. And shocker, it sunk the team’s chemistry or at the very least any chance the Lakers ever had at a professional work environment.
This is why people around here have bashed LeBron for years. Not because he isn’t a great player. He is incredible and I watch him play every chance he’s on national TV. But, the guy rocks the boat everywhere he goes and when things go south he cops out with quotes like “I’m not the GM.” It’s why he left Miami. He wanted the all-access pass for his boys (who were on the payroll as official team employees in Cleveland and in LA) and Pat Riley told him to take a fucking hike.
Then theres GM Rob Pelinka who at best is just a space case filling air time with whatever pops into his head. At worst he’s the snake that Magic *buried* on First Take and a guy who lies just to lie. Like this story about the time that Kobe saw The Dark Knight and became infatuated with Heath Ledger. So much so that Pelinka says he arranged a dinner with Kobe and Ledger, except for the fact that Ledger was in fact already deceased at this point in time.
Then theres the blatant lies he tells his own employees. Lies that are very, very easily debunked so you’d have to be a sociopath to just freewheel with stuff like this.
It sounds like Magic and Pelinka deserve each other.
And then theres the Queen Bee Jeanie Buss who sounds like she is running this team like a second semester senior in college. Paying less attention to whats happening in the organization that I would in NBA2K.
Good luck Lakers fans because it sounds like you’re in for some dark days. That is unless another NBA mega star decides they just want to play in Southern Cali and bail the Lakers out of completely mismanaging their team which happens again (Shaq) and again (Derek Fisher) and again (LeBron James).
Either way, dumpster fire was a compliment compared to what this team really is; an unmitigated disaster.
Joey B and Red react to the news that LeBron James and Dwyane Wade will both have their kids transferring to the same high school to play ball together. Time really is a flat circle, huh?
Joey B: Hey Red,
To kick things off, where on the scale of Jonathan Moxon’s Dad – Stage Parents do Bron and Wade fall here in terms of winning vicariously through your, in this case, high school basketball player?
Red:
This is simply LeBron reading all of my criticisms of him and the NBA at large for its way too chummy AAU culture and doubling down on the death of competition. Where’s the killer instinct? Idk maybe its because I was always the smaller, less skilled, underdog on all my teams, but I would much rather be leading my hometown public high school to a state title than teaming up with a bunch of other rich kids to go 82-0. Its not like LeBron Jr. needs the exposure for recruiting either!
Joey B:
Ya you make a good point. What is there really to be gained by going undefeated and beating these teams with 6’1 Centers 148-26? It’s like Bron shot DWade a “hey know what’d be fun text?” text and DWade didn’t have the heart to say “…why?” (There was no way this was Wade’s idea).It’s insane that this concept has trickled down to H.S sports though. Whose next? Would you want to see Matt Stafford Jr. chuckin to Megatron III?
Red:
At least LeBron Jr. didn’t get completely cucked like his dad and transfer to D Wade’s son’s school. But this is how Hollywood became a thing. All the best of the best just moved to one part of the world and claimed it for themselves as the entertainment capital. Sounds great right? Except when it creates a gigantic bubble of entitlement and they’re all worse off for it. Learn some adversity guys, it’ll help you in the long run.
Joey B:
Haha totally. It’s almost like Lebron and Wade are becoming a two-headed Lavar Ball. Our sons are playing TOGETHER. In HIGH SCHOOL. Then in COLLEGE. Then in the NBA.
It would be hysteeeeeeerical if either/or/both didn’t pan out and they ended up on the fringes of Lithuanian professional basketball.
Red:
Man not to go off in a completely different tangent, but Lavar Ball is a FORCE of nature. The man just speaks things into existence. He predicted his son would get drafted by the Lakers, he predicted on Colin Cowherd’s show the dumpster fire we’re seeing with Magic and the Lakers now, and he even had me believing all three sons would play in the NBA together. Well once the Big Baller Brand shoe company imploded I had to take a step back, but you just know Lavar will not stop. As a marketing man, I respect it.
Anyways, way to put mountains of pressure on your kids guys. I don’t really know how good these kids are supposed to be so I could be totally wrong here, but just look at Michael Jordan’s son, who’s name is Jeffrey Michael Jordan by the way because MJ is a fucking psychopath. He played at Central Florida and was never going to live up to his dad’s legacy, but at least MJ didn’t shine a goddamn light on the kid just waiting for him to fail in front of millions of people.
Joey B:
Lavar Ball is a categorical piece of shit. /thread.
But in general, even if the kids are supported and nurtured in the right way, imagine the pressure. I mean look what happened to Vince Wilfork’s kid (not linking to it out of respect, you have google). Even if the parent does everything right, if they were a fucking superstar it cannot be easy trying to grow and thrive in that shadow. Hence why really not a lot of start athlete’s kids have made it.
I can think of Prince Fielder and the Long brothers….and that’s it. Kind of a startling statistic.
Red:
I’ve read rumors about how LeBron wants to play until he’s 40 because it would give him the opportunity to play with his son, assuming he’s actually good enough to reach the league. Sort of like Ken Griffey Sr. playing with Ken Griffey Jr. and hitting back to back bombs. I’m not a huge LeBron fan obviously, but it would be pretty cool to see an old ass LeBron Sr. throwing an alley oop dunk up for LeBron Jr.
Joey B:
Yaaaa I can’t stand him and even I have to admit that’d be pretty cool.
Speaking of which zero percent chance Vlad Jr.’s team couldn’t do with a cannon armed outfielder off the bench. Maybe Sr. can’t hit anymore but they still could be on the field at the same time COME ON.
Red:
Love Vlad, but he aged like a can of beer in my trunk. Guy was hobbling around like he was on stilts by his early 30s.
TLDR; Moral of the blog? Have professional athletes for parents and you’re golden!
Fresh out of Memorial Day Weekend, you’re favorite booze hound is bringing you a new recurring segment about what’s in my cup. From beer to cocktails, straight liquor to the occasional wine, I drink it all. With summer officially underway, I can’t think of a better time to start this up.
So, what am I drinking? This guy:
An old standby in the cocktail world, I’ve found many people don’t know what this is.
THE PALOMA
A classic for many bartenders, I’ve found not many people I hang out with are familiar with this cocktail. It has all the refreshment and summery vibes of a margarita but with less sugar and the addition of grapefruit. I can crush a bunch of these things in the summer heat, and you will too once you try this out.
THE RECIPE
You’ll need blanco tequila, grapefruit soda and fresh or unsweetened lime juice at the minimum for this cocktail. Professionals sometimes use fresh grapefruit juice and club soda to provide the bubbles. Personally, I don’t like club soda and find that grapefruit San Pellegrino or other name brand soda’s work just as well. For an added level of complexity, sub in mezcal for tequila to provide some smokiness on the finish.
Stir together 2 parts tequila or mezcal, 2 parts grapefruit soda, and 1 part lime juice. If you prefer your drinks a little sweeter, stir in a teaspoon of sugar until it dissolves. Pour over ice. Serve in a highball glass, rimming the glass with salt if you so choose. Garnish with a lime or grapefruit wedge.
Right now, I’m drinking my Paloma with Riazul Plata Tequila, Organics Italian Grapefruit Soda, and Realime juice. That’s it. Riazul is one of my favorite tequilas, but does tend to run in the $40-$45 range. You by no means need to spend that much on a tequila in order to make a tasty Paloma. I find Espolon works great in cocktails and is half the price.
Del Maguey products range from $35-40 (Vida and Crema) all the way up to $200 or more (Pechuga).
Fidencio products range from $35 (Clasico) to $150 (Tobala).
For those not familiar with Mezcal, it’s like the Scotch of the agave world. Like tequila, it is distilled from any type of agave, not specifically blue agave like tequila has to be. The agave’s piña, or heart, is roasted to give it a distinct smokiness, which works great in many cocktails that also use tequila. For intro brands, I recommend the Del Maguey and Fidencio lines, which deliver high quality products without being overly expensive. In particular, I’d try Del Maguey Vida and Fidencio Clasico.
I hope you enjoy this cocktail as much as I do! Stay tuned to find out what I’ll be drinking next!
Eater – Celebrity chef, custodian of Flavortown, and bleached hair maven Guy Fieri will at long last have a restaurant of his very own in Boston. Teaming up with Boston’s Big Night Entertainment Group (BNEG), the vibrant culinary personality will open Guy Fieri’s Tequila Cocina in the Hub on Causeway, a new development chock full of retail, office, hotel, and residential space adjoining TD Garden.
Here. We. Go.
I don’t know when Guy Fieri became the Nickelback of celebrity chefs but at some point it became popular to dump on him and I just don’t get it. Sure he has obnoxiously bleach blonde hair and talks like a dude on his 3rd can of Monster Energy before lunch, but Guy Fieri gives zero fucks what anyone thinks about him. Gotta respect that.
Plus he seems like a genuinely good dude who is always getting love from major professional athletes, which always makes me laugh just because of how random it seems.
The No. 1 show on my hungover binge on the couch after a night of boozing power rankings will always be Bar Rescue, but Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives is a close second. It’s like the Phantom Gourmet, but with ATTITUDE. Seriously though, I love watching Guy stuff his face at random hole in the wall restaurants and introduce his pallet to Flavor Town.
PS – I was up at the Smuttynose brewery in New Hampshire a couple of weeks ago and saw an absolute hall of fame shirt on a couple of nerdy looking gentlemen. Their shirts simply read:
Greetings readers. I’ve toyed with this idea for a long time.
You see, Twitter is a wonderous place – if you know how to use it, more on that in a moment. Remarkably, it has managed to be the bedrock for actual communities – loosely-knit but definitively intertwined folks of usually similar background who speak in similar lingos and subtexts and that provide you with a specific and sometimes peculiar angle on things.
With that said all of twitter has it’s ups and down. Sure, you can spiral into an out of control rage if you choose to hate-follow accounts that you know are going to grind your gears. But you can also find a slew of information, news, and updates if you choose to.
I am going to provide you with nothing found in paragraph two. This will be a purely entertainment-based blog. Every Friday I will deliver unto you a Twitter account that you may or may not follow for the chuckles it provides.
Week 1 we have an entry from none other than the community known as Irish Twitter. What makes Irish Twitter awesome, particularly to us across the pond, is that they are acutely and hilariously self-aware. They know that some of the shit that goes down in my ancestors’ country is ridiculous and that they themselves sometimes sound insane. How do I know that? Well they even tweet phonetically in an Irish accent. It’s fucking amazing. Anyway, Irish Twitter’s aforementioned off beat self-aware, and sometimes self-effacing sense of humor is easily digested through the lense of the first ever Twitter Follow Of The Week: Locally Hated ( @JurassicArse ) .
From what I’ve been able to gather, Locally Hated is an education professional who loves to satirize both Irish/UK politics and his local brethren’s way of life.
Took this pic of a sink in a Cavan pub last night, complete with butter knife. A people of strange and archaic rituals pic.twitter.com/eQVd0kXkJ1
The Protestant-Catholic tension that has simmered/bubbled/spilled in Ireland on repeat for years? Check.
Famously, protestants have terrible night vision, so i left the rhubarb on a plate under a box propped up by a stick in my back garden if anybody wants it. Week ruined!
To many Irish people, us Irish-Americans who push our heritage a little hard are a bit grating, but also kind of humorous. Locally Hated is among those many.
He has many, many more tweets revolving around, of course, Irish sports, more politics, his life as a professional and father, etc. But, as he took a shot at us above, lets end with the most stereotypical topic when it comes to the Irish, let’s end with a tweet about drinking.
An absolute martyr to the 32 pints I drank last night in a patriotic act of gluttony
So there you have it folks. The first edition of the Twitter follow of the week. Let me know what you think and feel free to give the lad a follow if you feel like it.
The 300s 