Tuesday afternoon musings...
With a win tonight , our Detroit Tigers can guarantee a .500 season! Back in April, I thought I could be writing that sometime in late September, but in August? Am I dreaming? Someone pinch me!
Neifi Perez is going to be the starting 2nd baseman? I can get behind him as insurance, as a back up. But in the lineup every day? Am I having a nightmare? Someone pinch me!
Justin Verlander's performance last night was one of a major league stopper. There hasn't been a true "Stopper" in Detroit since Jack Morris. No, Bill Gullickson and Jeff Weaver were not stoppers. Verlander's was a beautiful performance to watch, and we're going to have the pleasure of watching more of the same for years to come. I'm getting all misty here...
I'm sure that when the rosters expand, Chris Shelton will be called up from Toledo. But will he have a position, other than as an extra bat off the bench? Which is another way of saying that Sean Casey has been a prime time pickup for the Tigers. 16 RBI in 20 games, with a knack for the clutch hit? No one expected that kind of production. Was there a more impactful addition to anyone's else's roster made at the trade deadline? You could make an agruement for Bobby Abreu solidifying the Yankees' outfield, but other than that, who's been better than Casey? Not that I'm saying to pencil in Casey as next years 1st baseman, not at all. But for the rest of this season, it's Casey at the bat, and he's patrolling 1st.
Is anyone else thrilled that the Yankees - Red Sox series is over? I could have sworn that no other games were being played in MLB over the past 4 days. The Worldwide Leader continually force feeds us the notion that so-called Yankees - BoSox rivary was a national obession. First, a rivalry requires the other team to win occasionally. Save for the 2004 playoffs, how often have the BoSox won? Some rivalry. Michigan - tOSU is a rivalry. Texas - Oklahoma is a rivalry. Browns - Steelers is a rivalry. Bears - Packers is a rivalry. But the Yankees - Bosox? A more fitting description is that the Yankees are the hammer, Red Sox are the nail. Secondly, the Worldwide Leader often forgets that major league baseball is sometimes played west of the Hudson River, and south of The Big Dig.
Oh Lord help us all, Madden '07 hit the streets today. My thoughts? Yawn. I'm the definition of an adult casual gamer. I do own a PS2, but I don't play obessively or play online. Why get my ass kicked online by some trash talking, obsenity spewing 13 year old who plays the game 12 hours a day? Not exactly my idea of fun. I don't buy a game the minute it's released, let alone pay full retail. Still, I do own a modern Madden game, (I'm not counting the Madden games I had for the Sega Gensis. Ah yes, the days of running Barry Sanders every play, winning 100-0 and gaining1000 yards of total offense. But I digress...) that being Madden '02, which I bought at a huge discount when the 2003 version hit, which is how I normally purchase games. I only buy new when the price drops to a level I consider sane, or otherwise used.
I will admit that I have played Madden in franchise mode for several hours straight (I was home sick, OK?), so I can understand the obsessive love some people have for the game. And no, I'm not a Luddite, as I do own a more modern football game, NFL 2K5, which was released, new, at less than half the price Madden went for at the time. NFL 2K5 was a great purchase for the value recieved, damn shame EA and the NFL killed it with their monopolistic licensing agreement. Which leaves us with Madden, or nothing. I guess this makes me a cranky crumudgeon, but why the need to buy the same game every year? Let alone wait in line, to have to supposed pleasure of paying 50 bucks for incremental improvements at best, and it can be easily debated (Hit stick, vision cone?) that they aren't worth the price of a new game. Not evey damn year, anyway.
Then again, I miss playing Galaga and Centipede after the chicks shot me down at the bar. I may be a Luddite after all...
Galaga? You're showing your age, Al.
ReplyDeleteTwo more wins in this series and we can start shopping for AL Central champion T-shirts and saving our nickels for playoff tickets. The Tigers schedule in September is a joke and Chicago and Minnesota have six games against each other. Let's put this thing away now.
Not that I was questioning Dave Dombrowski's aptitude, but the Sean Casey acquisition has him looking brilliant right now.
ReplyDeleteAnd nothing restores defeated manliness at the bar like pounding and slapping the "fire" button on Galaga, my friend. NOTHING.
I raise my pilsner in toast to you. (Well, I will later. It's kind of early right now.)
I may be showing my age Brian, but you have to admit, as Ian and LSG have, that Galaga is one of the best video games ever. I could play it for hours... I do have Galaga for the PS2, so I can get my fix, but I'd give John Kruk's remaining nut to have a working arcade version.
ReplyDeleteI'm also glad to see the last few wins have given you more of a sense of peace...
There was nothing more deflating that getting shot down at the bar, which is why I had more of my fair share back of pounding beers and video games back in the days of Member's Only jackets and mullets, Ian! I wasn't as slick with the opposite sex back then. ;-)
I am a Madden fan, but not to the point I camp out and take days off of work. I usually wait until around Christmas to pick up a copy of the newest version, but then it is usually down to 20 or 30 bucks. I also have a copy of Galaga for the PS2, a must have!
ReplyDeleteThe sports dude lives!
Last year I let Madden fool me into thinking the Lions were better than they actually are. Yah, about those stats they came up with for players? Pure crap. That or I'm pretty good at the game.
ReplyDeleteI want to buy 07, but I also want to get a 360 and don't feel like re-buying the game... besides, isn't it, like, baseball season until sometime in (late?) October?
-Kurt
MackAve
Agreed on Galaga. Probably one of the top five video games ever. Galaxian was a pale imitation at best.
ReplyDelete