Bye AJ

Well.  I guess we can count AJ in.  Hot off the press, AJ has signed with those damn yankees.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3765754

it was a love hate in toronto, which i don't personally understand.  i don't think he underperformed, nor did he overperformed.  but for what we paid (a lot), we got.  what we knew might happen when we signed him (injury prone), we got.  what we thought we might get out of him as a healthy starter (guy with unhittable stuff) we got.

we'll be seeing you AJ. and i'll be booing you. but only because you're a yankee now.  its just business.

Winter Baseball

Well, if things work out the way i think they might in the next day or two, you may see a yankees starter rotation of:

Chien Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlain, CC Sabathia, Derek Lowe, and AJ Burnett.

the yankees have ponyed up for CC already, and the rumours are swirling that they are closing in on the other two. money? what money?

impact on the jays for 2009? uh...in the words of vince carter... "it's ova."

Bills vs Dolphins

I was at Canada's first NFL regular season game yesterday to watch my Miami Dolphins take on the Buffalo Bills.

It was a pretty boring game, ending 16-3 and further solidfying the fact that JP Losman is worse than any of the random QBs that Miami had last year. My Dolphins are definitely overachieving this year, at 8-5, but thats definitely deserved given last year's terrible season.

Anyways, the game was OK, the house was pretty full except for a few patches and it was generally fun.

Easily the best moment of the afternoon was the pre-game, during the national anthems. Divine Brown got to sing the US Anthem with no hitches. Then some singer named Kreesha Turner stepped up to sing the Canadian anthem. She started, and my first thought was, damn she has a squeeky voice. My second thought was, man she's singing kind of slow. I started to look around, and there was this odd murmer in the crowd. I guess other people were thinking the same thing. Then, suddenly, at "from far and wide", it appears that the entire 50,000 people decided enough was enough and took matters into our own hands and drowned her out.

Classic.

Here's the video if you're interested. Very brave of her to put this up herself...with comments... good for her. She made my afternoon entertaining, and that's all i ask.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtjxgPTYJ7U

EDIT: she wasn't so brave afterall and took it down. i guess there was too much ridicule in the comments.

anyways, here's another one of the incident. if it goes down, just search her name, and you'll inevitably find one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUl0sEi13eU

Edit: Avery

follwing up, avery was suspended for 6 games today by the league. who knows what his team will do afterwards. i still feel that this is unjustified, and it appears Mary Ormsby agrees. I don't normally even like her columns, but this one hit the nail on the head.

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/548836

Sports Randoms

Sam Mitchell fired. I can’t say anything that anyone else has already said. He wasn’t a bad coach. He certainly wasn’t a great coach. It irked me that he seemed to never have a set play at critical times – like 10 seconds left, after a time out. But either way, the team needs to play better. When Joey Graham is becoming anything more than an afterthought, you are in trouble.
On the new coach… http://www.firejaytriano.com/ (credit to KL for the link)

Rickey Henderson is being considered this year for the Hall of Fame. He deserves to be a first balloter. I’m just happy that they have these funny articles reminding us about just how weird Rickey was.
http://www.faniq.com/blog/The-25-Best-Rickey-Henderson-Stories-Of-All-Time-Blog-15243

Sean Avery suspended indefinitely. This has got to be one of the most ridiculous things in sports. A guy gets a semi-permanent suspension (if not by the league, then his team), for shooting his mouth off? Why do guys get 3 game suspensions for hammering fellow players into the boards, but get indefinite suspensions for talking trash? Perhaps we can agree that the guy is not likeable, but there are plenty of guys who are not likeable in sports. This is yet another reason why I continue to be nonchalant about the circus that is the NHL.

Brian Burke as GM. Not a fan of him. Not since his behavior after the Steve Moore incident. Now HE’s an idiot. But somehow, he comes out as a “hard-nosed hockey man”, and praised as the savior of a franchise that has done nothing to prove that its worth watching years. How strangely the world works. Well OK. Go get em tiger.

Digressing once more. The other Moore brother wrote a book awhile back called Saving the Game. And it’s a good one. About changing the game to make it safer and more exciting than it is. He touches on his brother’s incidents, as well as his own experience in the NHL (before retiring due to too many concussions), but it’s the insight on how the game can be altered, and yet still keep its essence that makes it a good read. If they changed it like this book suggests, I’d probably watch more of it. Somehow I have this feeling i may have blogged about this book in the past...shows how much i read....

I’ve been sitting on the sidelines on this issue. My buddy over on the third floor is pretty pumped up about the fact that this could be history in the making. A party leader who gets trashed in an election, is about 2 steps away from become the Prime Minister of Canada. Stephen Harper, meanwhile, could leave a legacy as being the PM in charge of the longest minority government, followed by the shortest in Canadian history.

Before I begin though, I should disclose, that I failed to vote in the past election. In my own words, this basically nullifies any right I have to bitch and complain about anything governmental until the next election. But I just got married, was going to be out of the country, and just didn’t have the time with planning and all to get to the advanced poll. So sue me. With that being said, I had been on the fence about either voting for the Conservatives or the Green party at the time. My riding went the way of the Reds (which has been the case for every election since I was born, for the record).

Strangely, if you talked to the public before the election, and you asked which party was best equipped to lead Canada through a recession, I think most (I’m projecting here) would say the Conservatives. Dion and his “Green plan”, though ambitious, seemed less plausible, especially without a lot more government money.

So my question is, what has changed so much in the past 7 days, that has led this “coalition” to be formed between the Libs, NDP and the Bloc (aside: what?? The BLOC?). Simple. Nothing has changed. Just the fact that the Libs, NDP and Bloc realize that this is the only way that they can get into power for the next few years, so why not role the dice. They say it’s better for Canadians. I say, its sour grapes. Is it because I’m biased? Could be. But here is the reality. The Bloc will NEVER be able to form a government. They exist to stir up sh*t (for which I am not opposed). The NDP – its possible, but not for a very long time, I would think. And the Libs? Well, they just go their butts handed to them, led by a guy who backdoored his way into party leadership. But it seems they'll do anything to attain the power they crave. Let's be clear - this is not the will of the people, its the will of politicians, doing what they do best. And hey, if Dion can backdoor into party leadership, why not the PM's job too!

Is this coalition the best group to lead a country through a recession? I don’t know the formal rules of a coalition, but I would think that a formal cohesive party at least has an initial lead. A party with a history of fiscal restraint and putting economic issues on the front burner – yeah…I’m thinking they probably have it MORE right than the alternative. That’s not to say that there are problems, or holes to be fixed in the proposed budget. But how about we negotiate with them, and have them moderate their plan, rather than doing something wholly radical, during a time where level heads need to prevail?

Either way, the point is likely moot. Its likely only two alternatives now – election or coalition. Obama they are not. I can't help but feel a little excited, just like Third Floor does, for the prospect of something new and different and turning a political system on its head. At the same time, I'm not sure I want the potential fallout of job losses, and economic disaster for the sake of a little personal entertainment.

Paying our Respects

I came across this ad today in my continued search for deals to furnish my new home.

Am I the only person who is offended by Sears use of Remembrance Day as an appropriate title for a sale? If not offended, at least a feeling that this is a little tacky?

Please don’t get me wrong. I am all for sales. You can have a sale on whatever day you want. But to try to somehow link the sale of vacuums and socks to a day that we are supposed to remember veterans of wartime just seems a little unappreciative and disrespectful.

Some might ask me if I should take this one step further and question the commercialization of Christmas or other holidays, where retailers and business try to capitalize on our desire to consume, but I won’t. It’s already been done. In fact, similar holidays such as US Veterans Day also have sales. I’ll leave that one up to American’s to decide.

But for us, a country that is currently at war (yes, we are at war, and not peacekeeping in the middle east), maybe we should respect our fallen soldiers and surviving heroes just a little bit more than honouring them with 10% off a bar of soap. Nice job Sears. You've given me just 1 more reason not to shop at your stores.

Lest we forget.

Champ

All eyes appeared to be on me. i'd been slagged on countless occasions about not being worthy of my race. to be unable to execute in the clutch. a choker. a disgrace.

no longer. 3-1 in a dominant victory over my nemesis - the machine to win the championship. i was the more aggressive player and although she was game defensivly, i eventually wore her down, going up 2-0 in sets, and not quite closing it out in the third, but dominating the fourth.

that ends my first forray into the world of institute ping pong.

if you're interested, here is a clip from our match...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb4mUcHrRPc

but for the record - LZ is still the real champ, since she beat me the last time we played - 3.5 years ago....

8 8 8

well, its finally here, 8-8-2008, the recommended "lucky day" for a wedding, and the start of another summer olympics, this one, in China, a huge achievement for this country.

i'm working today, so unfortunately, i haven't had the chance to check out any video coverage, though i am sure i will tonight in the re-runs. but i found this photo on the front of thestar.com

ridiculocity.

the question i raise is...

1) could toronto have done better?

2) what will vancouver do to follow this up?

and speaking of vancouver, another huge event is happening right now as well, and the world ultimate championships is ongoing on UBC campus. unfortunately, the finales this weekend will be eclipsed by all this olympic coverage, but if you feel like checking it out, there is a live webcast at http://www.ultivillage.com/. Today, 2 of the top 3 teams USA and Japan square off in a semifinal, and Canada takes on Great Britain in the other. I'm thinking it'll be 1 vs 2 in the final - USA (Sockeye) vs Canada (Furious George), which will likely be far more exciting than watching Archery or Rhythmic Gymnastics (seriously, whats up with that ribbon thing anyways....)

AJ and more Pong

Headed to the ball game yesterday with the boys, and watched AJ pitch the lights out. People are starting to jump right back on the AJ bandwagon, after being on the get AJ the hell out of town and AJ's just a 500 pitcher bandwagon about 3 weeks ago.

Here's the thing. he's ALWAYS been this good. he's always had the ability to strike out 10 guys. what his problem has been in the past is that he suffers from the same thing i do in golf. the blow up inning (hole). he'll pitch 6 flawless, then walk one guy, get pissed, and throw fastballs down the middle and let 4 come across before getting yanked. thats his M.O. so really for me, its a matter of managing him and this flaw (which is not likely to improve - he is who he is). Get him out of there, and don't let him pitch out of jams that he creates for himself. if you do that, you're likely to get 5-6 innings of solid pitching, and a few guys on base that hopefully, your bullpen can get you out of.

personally, i'm still optimistic that they extend him, rather than letting him go at the end of season, but i guess i would understand if they wanted to take that extra cash and give it to some less injury prone, big bat.

with that being said, the main problem is STILL hitting. the jays had something like 5 hits last night, and left a few guys in scoring position. luckily, the pitching was so solid that they only needed 2 runs to take it. but if they want to get back in this (need a miracle now), they're gonna have to do better than that.

as for the ping pong update, i faced off against the machine a few weeks ago. though i progressed, and we had several long points, i fell once more 3-2 in sets, and 11-8 in the final set. tough loss.

i learned that we have both been beating up on our competition by simply outlasting our opponents and keeping the ball on the table. our game was basically a war of attrition, with each person doing their best to just keep it on the table.

today, i faced off again against the machine, who continued to roll through the rest of the roadkill in our division. i was determined to change up the previous strategy, since clearly, it didnt work as well as i would have liked (i.e. i lost). she showed up a little late for the game, and i used the opportunity to hit around with one of the "A" division players. with the extra warmup, i went on to dismantle the machine, 3-0 in sets, with 7 being her highest point total. seemed like she didnt know how to handle the newfound aggression. so it looks like i've found something that works. with just a few weeks left, and both of basically having secured the 2 finals spots, we'll see how it goes when i have less of a warmup in a few weeks.

Basement Ping Pong Update

first of 3 round robins is over. i now stand at 4-1 with 12 sets won, and 4 lost.

after my first match 0-3 debacle, i've come back to win 4 straight and show my asian prowess.

apparently, i ran into a machine in the first match, and she has gone 5-0 with no sets lost.

i'm up against the machine next week, so we'll see if i've actually improved at all.

in other memberco sporting news, i managed to impale 2 of my co-workers last week. one on an errant throw to first, and another on a liner up the middle. luckily we had a cooler full of beer to use as ice packs and/or to ease the pain. at this point, i may not be fired for incompetance, but i'm sure that being labelled "the assassin" by your colleagues can't really be a good thing...ah the softball.....

well at least they did something

jp fired everyone except himself today.

buh bye gibbons, whitt, and denbo. i can't say that the manager and coaches really have anything to do with the players' collective impotence with runners in scoring position, but i guess sometimes, you gotta make changes for the sake of change ... and you can't fire the players.

welcome back cito. what??? welcome back CITO?? AND nick leyva, AND gene tennace?

im a blue jay optimist, but this reeks of a desperation to get back to the glory years by bringing back the coaches of yesteryear.

in other news, i heard that joe carter and devon white are contemplating coming out of retirement.

...sigh...at least they didn't promote ernie.

let's hope this turns things around.

but seriously jp - if you really want to do something impactful .... no no... not adam dunn.

barry. bonds.

the move

dear JP,

two words. barry. bonds.

regards,

bullpen larry.

still remembering

we’ve just launched into our summer season of ultimate. and it still seems somewhat strange, somewhat surreal. its been almost 5 months since we lost Kat tragically. Last season, we wore the patch on our jerseys, to remember and honour her, and we still wear those same jerseys this season.

Oddly, the place I now work, experienced an eerily similar tragedy a few years ago, and you can still see how talking about it still hurts them a little. it hurts me just the same. Strange how the world works.

some weeks, our memories are triggered by a throw or a familiar field or of course injuries. how our team comes together, and seemingly knows too well what the procedures and protocol are.

every week, I look at the roster, I look at my teammates, and I get the feeling, like maybe she’ll be back next week. But she won’t. She’s gone. And all we can do, is remember, and honour, and play hard, and enjoy it, just like she did.

we miss you kat, and we won't forget. disc in.

Ping Pong

So today was the start of the company Ping Pong...err....Table Tennis tournament. I was "assessed, and thrown into the "Lower Intermediate" pool. That's 1 from the lowest of 4 pools.

Its been awhile since i last played...I recall getting annihalated by LZ in a grudge match a fw years ago, and before that it was at WCRI in university.

Suffice it to say that, despite my chinese heritage, i got trounced in my first round robin match. 9-11, 8-11, 6-11. i think i need to spend less time in my office and more time in the garage...err...table tennis arena...

Jays Rant Cont'd

the struggles continue for the powder blue's. in three games, they have given up a paltry 3 runs TOTAL. simply spectacular pitching by Halladay, McGowan and AJ Burnett. i think its pretty clear, that when healthy (big when), we have one of the best rotations in baseball - to go along with one of the best bullpens in baseball. sure scott downs hiccupped a few games ago, but who doesn't. the simple matter is that we gave up 3 runs total and LOST 2 out of 3 games.

eckstein and stewart have been clear disappointments so far. both were brought in for their bats, giving up defence in hopes of getting more guys on base for rios, wells, and thomas/lind to drive in. well...eck is batting .248 and stewart is at 0.203. eck's OBP is at .325 and stewarts at .304. not so good.

to be fair, everyone sucks right now, except scott rolen. but he just got back from injury, so maybe he didn't get the memo about making sure that when we get guys in scoring position, we should strike out or loft a shallow harmless fly ball and leave guys on base.

if we're gonna do anything this year, we need to start hitting in bunches. i applaud gibby for trying some things - switching the lineup, hit and runs etc. during times like this, you have to try to manufacture some runs, and rely on the pitching staff to hold the fort. hopefully, the slump won't last forever.

retro friday's today vs the white sox. go powder blue!

some sports randoms

the raps are done for another season. things that i ponder about the season that ended and the season to come:
- its nice to see kapono found his mojo back for the playoffs. i wonder if we'll see that next year. he's much better when he slashes and drives a little bit instead of standing around in the corner. i still think he was a great pickup.
- ford and calderon. enough has been said by others. this is not the issue to me, but if it helps to get a guy who can rebound (consistently) by trading one of these guys, then they gotta do that.
- with garbo back next year, does he start. does moon start? someone else?
- rasho's great for what he is, but we need someone who can rebound, night in and night out.
- will we get anyone of any value in the draft? i say we take the guy with the highest avg rebounds per game when it gets to our turn. whoever that is, just take that guy. whats the worst that could happen? oh right, hoffa....
- in my mind, sam mitchell ain't the problem. they just need some toughness, and did i mention, rebounding? maybe charles oakley is available.

- i now spend more of my time reading and thinking baseball (even with the hockey playoffs going on).
- when are the jays gonna score some runs for halladay. it seems like they've been unable to score when he's on the mound for the past 2 years. the only reason this guy is not a 25 game winner is because they can't score more than 1 run a game for him. brutal.

Going once....going twice....SOLD (but not to us)

linda and i have started the house hunting journey in greater earnest now. we've seen about 20 houses in the past 2 week or so with minimal luck so far.

we did enter one bid on a nice bungalow. we were squeaked out by another bidder though. they decided to bid $130,000 above our price. good for you. enjoy your bungalow.

the search continues....

Some notes about Memberco.

As you might know, I recently left Old Archaic Telco. for a new role at Memberco.
It’s a pretty exciting time, as I get to do some things that I haven’t done before, and overall, I think I’m going to like working a lot better at the new place.

Here are a few observations about Memberco during my first week here:
- it’s a small family. Completely different than Telco. Strangely, I took a tour of the building and literally met every single person in the organization (5 floors). I think I met more people on my first day than my entire career at Telco.
- I got my office back! When I left for Telco, one of the things I had to give up was having an office. Now I’ve got one again. Though its not a “window” office, there’s plenty of light, and I get a little privacy. I missed that.
- Another thing I missed was just light (both natural and artificial). Telco.’s building was a dungeon. Drab and depressing. Memberco, in contrast, has a nice atrium with a skylight, and lots of light everywhere. Much easier to work in.
- My computer is from the dark ages. Well, not quite, but circa 2001 or so. I’ve already pitched for a new one. We’ll see. Oh yeah, and it’s a desktop. Haven’t had one of these since…..well…EVER, since I started working….i guess I won’t be taking any work home!
- People act like people. They chat, they have fun, they go to lunch. Ahhh…that’s refreshing. Don’t ever underestimate culture.
- Free fruit juice and apples! As hokey as it sounds, it’s a really nice perk for that afternoon hunger attack.

Overall, I think I’m gonna like my new home. :)

Lets Talk Some Ball

First baseball blog of the year. And as the reluctant accountant, its only appropriate that I’m inspired to write by the signing of the Alex Rios and Aaron Hill contracts in the past week. For those of you who aren’t in the loop, the Jays have been pursuing a Rios extension for quite awhile now, and it seemed inevitable to be completed. So its not entirely surprising. The Hill signing came as a bit of a surprise to me. With that being said, I’m in agreement with the general media consensus, that these deals are great moves for the Jays.

The jays now have a solid core of players locked up into contracts that expire at the same time (Halladay, Burnett in 2010, and Wells, Rios and Hill into 2014). Sure, the contracts are somewhat backloaded, but it’s all about AVERAGE salary, since there’s no cap in baseball. Any good accountant knows that. In the end, these guys have all been locked into current market value contracts, and if their production continues on par, they’ll be ahead by 2014. The one exception to this is Burnett, BUT, I could argue, that this turnaround of the franchise would not have been possible without a gutsy signing like Burnett. At the time, no one wanted to be here, so we had to overpay to get what we wanted. Burnett was the best available that year, and we got him. He still shows potential, and IF he can stay off the DL, his stats will turn around.

But back to the main point. What makes me really happy about these signings is that the Jays are taking the initiative by signing quality players, who have their heads on straight. Don’t get me wrong, if the Jays could go out today, and get themselves an A-Rod, I don’t think you could argue about it. I’m even of the believe that Barry B in a Jays uniform could be a pretty decent thing to do. But there is something to be said about the signing of players (both by the Raps and the Jays), who are both solid players on the field, and great guys off the field.

Hill was interviewed after the signing and, when asked to comment on his contract, and the general belief that he signed a contract that undervalued his worth, he said something along the lines of (paraphrasing) “the money that was offered was right at what we were looking for. Sure, I could have gone year-to-year, and maybe gotten a little more, but how greedy can you be”.

And that’s pretty darn refreshing to hear.

Laughter is Contagious

Some of you may have heard this already, but it appears to be making the rounds. Made my stomach hurt this morning.

Just have a listen. Trust me.

http://www.chumfm.com/MorningShow/bits/march24.swf

Juno

im not one for movie reviews. frankly, i dont read them in the paper because i dont think the reviewers know their heads from their asses.

i watch movies for many reasons - sometimes for the cinematography, sometimes for the cool action scenes, sometimes for the actors / actresses involved, and sometimes just for a plain old laugh.

in the end, i go to enjoy myself, and to be entertained, in whatever way that may be. i find that your typical movie review tends to forget about that, and gear their review towards the movie snobs - the 1% of the public that feels like every single movie made needs to be a work of art.

at any rate, i saw juno this weekend, and for what its worth, i thought it was really good. if you go and see it, you can be your own judge.

Someone's got the case of the.....

just got into work about 30 minutes ago and had to vent a little. i'm not one to complain about public transit, but i thought i would share with you my route this morning.

woke up late, after hitting the snooze every ten minutes for about and hour and a half. got to the bus stop and hopped on my trusty viva. 20 minutes later, i was about a block from the bus station...grr...traffic accident. what can you do....

get to the ttc station and we sit at finch for 15 minutes...delay at eglinton...passenger assistance.....we teeter along, making additional stops along the way as it seems like there's just some backup from the delay....then another....delay at st. clair.....passenger assistance.....ok...finally past st. clair....phew!

oh wait....get to college, and the doors open...all you here is some chick yelling....then....ttc dood comes into our car and goes into the booth....require passenger assistance....apparently, this chick assaulted some older dood (prolly 50-60?)...his nose was cut up a little....so a little curfuffle as the chick ran away....

anyways, finally got in.

morals of the story:

1. maybe i shouldnt snooze so much in the morning, so i dont look like an ass getting in at 10am
2. expect delays. transit is no different than cars....things happen....its just part of your commute....if you don't like it...walk....or live closer to where you're going...
3. i hate mondays....

on the bright side, its almost lunch time....

The Way I See It

Sitting in a meeting, and reflecting on my coffee cup...

The Way I See It #283
The most important thing in life is to stop saying "I wish" and start saying "I will". Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.
-David Copperfield (yes, the greasy magician)

"I wish" i could see it that way. "I will" try.

A New Day!

its a new year, and i haven't posted to the old blog for quite awhile.

i've been told on and off over the past year to update the blog, and just haven't gotten around to it.

some events over the past week have led me to not only blog about it, but change the name of my blog, and the overall outlook of things for 2008. time to turn a new page, and maybe even have some hope.

despair be banished! bullpen is back!