The holiday season is on us and Christmas
Day is almost here, some people are feeling charitable, some not so and
others are in full swing of the holiday season.
For
the Philadelphia Phillies fans it’s been a wonderful Halladay
time. I admit it, I didn’t think the Phillies would be able to swing the
deal and thought that the Red Sox and Yankees would be in a bidding war
for Halladay, it was also my contention that this bidding war
would make Toronto hold onto Halladay till July 2010. How
wrong was I, and I am happy to say I was wrong, the fact that Roy
Halladay even signed an extension for what appears to be below
market value for his talents shows that he has the Christmas spirit and
gave the fans in Philadelphia an early gift…
…Thanks Roy… and a Merry Christmas to
you too, here’s hoping you get your long sought after ring at the end of
the 2010 season.
The Yankees have added some
outfielders and made the team for 2010 just as formidable as the one
that won it all in 2009. The player that didn’t resign though, Johnny
Damon has some time to reflect on what he will do in 2010, in just a
couple of months he has gone from a entertaining fans in the World
Series to the World Wrestling Entertainment, I am guessing this was to
be expected, since he was dreaming of this during the World Series,
using a dominant WWE superstars entrance music when he would come to the
plate during the World Series, if you didn’t know or didn’t hear about
it, he was using the music of Batista from the WWE, apparently
Damon is an ‘avid‘ member of the ‘WWE Universe’. Seen here
with Batista, it’s amazing how small Damon actually appears, almost as
small as his mentality.
I am sure that Johnny
will get to play somewhere in 2010, even if it is in the WWE…
Other little known news items that caught
my eye over the last couple of weeks….
Apple – If you own an Apple product,
beware, it seems that some authorized service locations have refused
warranty work due to the appearance of possible contamination by
cigarette smoke, Yes under the rules laid out by OSHA the residue left
by cigarette smoke is a biohazard, as is talc and calcium. A word of
warning be careful with your laptops, iPhones or any other Apple
product.
Microsoft – Yes you’ve all heard
it, Word and Office will cease to be sold on January 11th, due to a
court ruling, based on some patent infringement for ‘xml coding’, dream
on, it’ll never happen, you know Microsoft will resolve the issue with
time to spare.
Verizon – Tells the FCC the
additional charges added to the ETF (early termination fee) are due to
‘because they want to’ and the reasoning for charges by accidentally
opening a web browser on a phone, without the browser package, are ‘in
the agreement’, ‘if you don’t like it go else where’ that’s when the ETF
becomes more apparent. (just glad I have AT&T)
Santa
Claus – Is in as much trouble as the rest of us, it seems the
economy is even affecting the guy that has the abilities to deliver
faster and further than UPS and Fed-Ex combined. Santa dropped by the
Sun Trust bank in Nashville, Tennessee and made a withdrawal with the
aid of a gun, claiming he needed the money to pay his elves, he promptly
stuffed the money in his red sack and fled, no eye witnesses saw a
sleigh and reindeer though…
Great
Britain has banned the use of Photoshop when used to make models
appear improved in and advertisement and claim it’s due to the product
they are trying to sell, i.e. weight loss, face creams etc.
Some ‘THANKS’ and ‘Seasonal Wishes’
I would like to give my sincere thanks
and seasonal wishes for a safe Christmas and New Year to all the members
of both the US and British Armed Forces serving their respective
countries with honor (honour).
Finally
– Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my
fellow bloggers, eat, drink and be merry, just don’t drive too.
I
leave you all with another special Christmas song, the chorus I have
used for a few years now as a ring tone this time of year, if you
haven’t heard this one it’s freakin hilarious (I think so anyway), it’s
done by an Australian comedian, Kevin Wilson… I tried to find one with
him actually singing the song live, but was unable, this video that
someone put together, I though was kind of fitting. WARNING – The
contents of this video contain language not suitable for minors.
The last few weeks have been a confusing
time for a lot of people, with talks of players going here and there, we
now have to make sense of the moves that have happened and look to see
if teams will continue to confuse with more moves before
spring training places are set.
Its not just baseball that has had confusion,
lets face it if your not already tired of hearing about Tiger Woods then
you should be, it’s so much what happened as the number of women that
have come out of there hiding places to claim notoriety. Woods has been
crucified more than Clinton, so it seems that we hold sports
personalities to a higher standard than any of our politicians. The
media give no consideration to the truth of anything, if a woman that
can place herself in close proximity to Woods at anytime over the last
few years, lays claim to an affair with him or a one night stand then
she must be telling the truth. Lets face it, nothing is 100%, even voice
messages and text messages are no guarantee, anyone with any ounce of
knowledge can fake any type of electronic transmission as easily as some
of these women are sure to have faked orgasms and stories.
I am sure there would be more women
coming forward if only Google was more positive with the search
responses, because what we haven’t heard of, is those women who googled
Tiger only to find there pending claim to fame would be a character from
a cereal maker.
Yes they’re the women who are confused
why the others who actually came forward would want this character on
their resume of conquests.
There’s confusion in the NFL,
Bill Belichick sent players home for arriving late to practice, yep
that’ll teach ’em, give ’em the day off. The Browns
actually beat the Steelers, how is that notconfusing, and if that
wasn’t enough for sports fans in Cleveland, the powers to be decided to
replace the Indians manager with someone no better, in comes Manny Acta,
now there is something very confusing about Manny, allegedly,
according to Roger anyway.
The Phillies, however haven’t confused me
too much, they seem to have gone through the winter meetings with the
kind of laid back approach we are used to seeing over the last few
years. Its almost a mirror of the way Charlie Manuel has led the ball
club to it’s current high standards and it looks as though Ruben Amaro
Jr, is moving in the right direction to get the Phillies back to the
World Series for the 3rd year in a row.
Yes I know it’s only December and spring
training is some way off, and yes, we have to endure the rants and raves
of the NFL before we even see arrivals at spring training camp, but I
have no doubts at this point that the Phillies will be in a position to
make a run at the ultimate goal again in 2010.
So far they have managed to secure an
excellent player for 3rd base at the expense of the Tigers, (Detroit Tigers not Tiger Woods or
Tony the Tiger) the
welcoming back into the Phillies club house of Placido Polanco was a definite
step up, although Pedro Feliz was a good solid 3rd baseman, I believe
Polanco will be better and will definitely produce more offense.
With bench players Ben Francisco and
Gregg Dobbs already proven to be great assets for the Phillies, the
additions of Brian Schneider, Juan Castro and Ross Gload have given the
Phillies a group of bench players that can be called upon when needed
with confidence.
The only confusion would be the lack of
moves to build a bullpen suited to support the strong lineup of
players that are now assembled. Yes, there is still plenty of time, but
players are beginning to become unavailable. I had thought a favorite of
mine may be in a position to return to the Phillies, but it seems the
Brewers have already made a deal to prevent that from happening by
signing Randy Wolf, whom I think would have been worthwhile back
in a Phillies uniform.
The Roy
Halladay saga continues, with pundits still placing the Phillies
near the top of the list of possibles, personally I still think Halladay is too
pricey and will still be on the trading block come July.
It
looks as though Chan Ho Park will move on to another team, since
talks seem to have stalled with the Phillies and Scott Eyre is doubtful.
The Phillies still have issues with Lidge, Moyer and Romero to resolve
with regard to injuries and performance so they need some assistance in
the bullpen that is not already there.
Some
suggestions for the front office to consider…
Joe
Beimel, Kiko Calero, Josh Fogg, Jon Garland, John Smoltz,
Russ Springer and Luis Vizcaino, all of which have their own issues, but
any of them could be of assistance to the Phillies bullpen which was
badly beaten up at times in 2009. Although non of them jump out at you I
think Beimel is a good lefty and can be used in situations left open by
Eyre and Romero.
(Getty
images)
Smoltz is obviously a good
addition to any pitching staff and I think will have a good 2010 given
the chance, he also has the mentality to start or close given the
chance, he is over his injury and showed good stuff for the Cards at the
end of 2009, the others you could almost just pick a name out of a hat
and get something similar from, although some may be a little more
durable than others.
It’s 2 weeks to Christmas and this
time of year that brings back memories and creates new ones for
everyone, some good and some bad obviously, but I hope everyone can
focus on the good ones. For me one there is always one song that makes
me realize Christmas is actual here, it first hit the UK charts in 1973
and is probably the greatest Christmas single in the UK, has been
re-released every decade since then and covered by a number of different
artists over the years. For those who weren’t even thought of back in
1973 here is a glimpse of the number one music show in the UK in ’73
with what were the two most popular radio DJ’s as presenters. Freaky how
times change, but I still love the song.
Phillies look to have completed
plans for 3rd base, although this morning it seemed to still be just a
rumor, in fact the Hot
Stove was reporting the Astros as contenders last night, while today
he was in Philadelphia for a medical, the Phillies fans can celebrate
the return of Placido Polanco.
In a deal that is reportedly
worth $18 million for 3 years, it seems Placido was willing to move to
3rd base to get the opportunity to return to a Phillies uniform.
NO, I didn’t completely lose
my mind, I haven’t forgotten where I live or anything like that, but
this week, where I am means I can see children
from anywhere around 5 years old an up carrying guns, rifles to be
exact, I can also see teenagers and adults, both male and female
carrying rifles. I can see these people trying to hide and keep there
gun toting youngsters quite so as not to be heard or seen.
Where am
I?… Afghanistan… Iran… Iraq…. NO, NO and NO…. I am in fact in the good
old United States of America. If you haven’t already figured it
out, it’s hunting season and this week is gun season, well
here in Ohio anyway. I am told the deer population is high, so it helps
keep them from over running the farmers land and destroying the crops.
Okay I guess I can live with that, here in Tuscarawas County, (pronounced
TUSK-A-RAR-WUS, I think) I am told that the deer population is one
of the highest in Ohio, if not the highest, to the point some land
owners had hired guns out all summer long reducing the deer population.
We get people from all
around, out of state, city dwellers, etc, etc, all coming to try their
luck at shooting a deer. Now I guess it shouldn’t matter where you come from,
when guns are involved you would think time is taken to know the law and
abide by it, plus you would also think that those who choose to go out
into the woods and try to kill a poor innocent little bambi would know
the friggin difference between a deer and other animals or know a live
one from a stuffed one, but alas some tend to arrive completely
oblivious to the fact that there are other people in the world and that they
don’t just shoot at the first thing that moves.
I really don’t care nowadays whether
people hunt or not, as long as they don’t interfere with me, and by that
I mean stay off my land and don’t shoot at me when I drive down the
road. Since most all roads are country roads around here, so they nearly
all pass through the woods and areas that hunters frequent, it’s not
unusual to catch a glimpse of a hunter aiming in your direction as you
drive, even though it is not permitted and completely stupid.
I am however not the only
person who thinks people should learn the rules of hunting before going
out with your brood armed up to the teeth with ammunition and shooting
at everything, while on my daily trek, out and about I saw this hunter
who was cornered by a rather large buck, and the buck was
explaining some facts to this hunter.
This is how it went…..
WARNING…(this
video contains strong language and may not be suitable for minors, even
if they can carry a gun and shoot at things with real bullets)
..and in baseball, it seems
the Yankees and the Red Sox are going to get into a
bidding war over Halladay, although I still think he will stay in Toronto
till July, everything else seems fairly luke warm with no giant
movements, lots of minor league stuff going on and a few options being
had, but as I said nothing major, Billy Wagner went from the Red Sox to
the Braves on a 1 year deal with options, good luck with that
Atlanta…
Phillies News:
Brian Schneider signed a 2
year deal with the Phillies as back-up catcher to Carlos Ruiz, Brian is
a Phillie boy from Allentown, PA. and says he’s happy to be on the team that
his family and friends have been die hard supporters of for many years.
(Getty
Phillies Outside Archive Vault 