10 things I learned this past weekend

10. Computer crashes blow. Blow big and hard. They're scary, too. When I saw the screen telling me it couldn't boot into Windows, talk about a sinking feeling. You feel almost helpless. My stages of computer grief were:

A. helplessness
B. desperation
C. anger
D. accpetance. 

My PC and I are doing much better now, thank you very much.

9. BACK UP YOUR FILES! I did (My most important, irreplaceable ones, anyway. I still had to re-download and install plenty of other stuff, though), and it saved my sometimes reckless with a PC ass. (And thanks for the Linux tip, MonkeyWrench32. I may just do Ubuntu, but on my older PC)

8. The only Tiger who can hit a backup catcher's 80 MPH fastball is Miguel Cabrera. Sad, but true. Though it was nice seeing the Tigers getting a sac fly

7. Carlos Guillen is plenty worthy of his All-Star selection, he's having a nice season. But Jason Varitek? Hell, Pudge is more deserving. Just another conformation the MLB All-Star rosters are a farce.

6. I trust Joel Zumaya when he comes out of the pen. Save goes for Freddy Dolsi. I can't say the same about Fernando Rodney. Memo to Jim Leyland: For the time being, use Zumaya and Dolsi as the late inning set up men, and let Rodney sort out his issues in middle relief.

5. A Big 10 vs Pac 10 football challenge, as TWFE arch enemy Jerry Green championed in Sunday's News, is nothing more than wisful thinking. Never, ever gonna happen. Thanks to the evil that is the BCS, schedules have become so dumbed down, you may as well call the 3 games scheduled before conference play exhibitions. (Yes, even the Appy State game. That loss goes totally on Lloyd Carr's shoulders, as the Wolverines were so unprepared, it bordered on negligence.)  Anyway, wouldn't a Big 10/Pac 10 football challenge end up just like the the joke that is the ACC/Big 10 basketball challenge? Isn't one guaranteed conference humiliation a year enough?

4. Finding a Shoutcast TV station that does nothing but stream MST3K 24/7 made me forget all about the PC crash. God damn, I love that show. (By the way, I have no specific allegiance to either the Joel or Mike seasons, I find them equally hysterical) Thank God those uber-funny/creative minds have given us both RiffTrax and Cinematic Titanic. They both get the TWFE stamp of approval. Highly reccommended.

3. The Indians gave up. C.C. Sabathia is gone, and more players are sure to follow him out of Ohio. It helps the Tigers in the short term, say the next season or two. But it's up to them to take advantage of that fact. They have one less team to worry about, as the Tigers' window to win is this season and next. Playing .500 ball, though a nice recovery after their horrific start, isn't enough.

2. Corey Magette to the Pistons? I could live with it. Pretty happily, actually. Make it happen, Joe D.

1. Chicago gets the next NHL outdoor game? The always an also ran Blackhawks? Come on, they couldn't give two shits about the Hawks in Chicago. The Red Wings gets jobbed by the NHL again...And again, and again, and again. Has a marquee franchise in any other professional league been trated as shabbily as the Red Wings are by the NHL? They are constantly screwed over in scheduling and travel, yet are expected to carry the entire Western Conference. The Wings have to be the best run franchise in the NHL, as the get no favors from the league office. A worse run team wouldn't have a chance.