Saturday, February 27, 2016

Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Steal My Sunshine" by Len

It's impossible not to feel happy when the beginning of Len's 1999 hit Steal My Sunshine comes on.  That's always a good characteristic for a song to have.  The track was featured in the film Go from the same year.  Quick sidebar--Go is a highly underrated movie that's much more intelligent than it looks.

Len's third album You Can't Stop the Bum Rush (pictured) had one other solid single, Feelin' Alright, but was mostly a disappointment considering the catchy-ness of their first (and only) hit.




Friday, February 26, 2016

Did ESPN.com listen to me about their terrible box scores?

Last weekend I discussed how ESPN.com changed its basketball box scores and removed a lot of useful information.  This was the junk that was available:




Just a few days later, the box scores changed again to much more closely resemble what they used to be:




Yeah, I know this is maybe the most boring thing ever to many of my readers, but I spend a lot of time looking at NBA box scores--the fact that ESPN.com used three different versions of them in the span of a week is bizarre.

I'm just going to assume somebody in charge over there read my complaint and tried to make amends.


Thursday, February 25, 2016

This extremely pleasant movie trailer is actually super, super creepy


Take a look:


On the off chance you don't know what The Purge is, here's the trailer for the original:




Wednesday, February 24, 2016

This ABC ad tells you the Oscars are on Oscar Sunday (in case you forgot)

I know the Oscars are always on a Sunday, and I remember that it's usually around this time of year.  But, sometimes I forget exactly which Sunday it is.  Is it Super Bowl Sunday?  Is it Easter Sunday?  Well, thanks to this commercial, I now know that the Oscars are in fact on Oscar Sunday.  Thanks ABC for clearing that up for me (make sure to turn up the volume on the Vine).





Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Why do you get to advance the ball with a timeout in the NBA?

As the Celtics were in the process of making another furious last-minute comeback Monday night, they played some great defense after a made basket and tipped the ball out of bounds in the backcourt.  The Timberwolves had just four seconds left (out of the eight allotted) to move the ball past the halfcourt line.  Unfortunately, Boston lost the opportunity to force a turnover when Minnesota called a timeout that allowed them to advance the ball and inbound from the frontcourt (here's a video clip of the play on NBA.com).

Why should a team's defensive efforts go to waste just because the other squad calls timeout?

Something similar occurred two weeks ago during another Celtics nail-biter in Milwaukee. With one second left, Greg Monroe scored to put the Bucks up by two.  You would think the game should be over, except that the Celtics had a timeout that allowed them to advance the ball.  Because of this, they were able to attempt an easy pass to Kelly Olynyk underneath the basket.  Olynyk got fouled and made two free throws to tie the score.

At this point you might expect it to go to overtime, but the Bucks had a timeout left as well (still with one second on the clock).  They advanced the ball by virtue of that timeout, and were able to draw a foul themselves on the other end with 0.6 seconds to go.  After Milwaukee hit one free throw, the Celtics were now out of timeouts and obviously weren't able to do anything in the final 0.6 seconds (here's the full rundown of that fourth quarter with links to click on the videos of each play).

But my question is, shouldn't that have been the case all along?  The game shifted twice in literally the last second just because both teams were able to advance the ball with timeouts.  Why does that rule exist?  What's the point?  Wouldn't it be a lot more fair for everybody if the ball always just stayed where it was?  Is there something I'm missing here?  Why did they ever create this rule in the first place?

When the other team scores to go ahead with just a second or two left, you should have to pull off something miraculous like the famous Duke/Christian Laettner play in order to win--not just some junk like we saw twice in one second in Milwaukee.


Monday, February 22, 2016

Why can't the Red Sox plan to have two "starting" catchers?

Swihart left, Vazquez right.
Christian Vazquez (now 25) won Boston's starting catcher job in 2014.  Last year, Vazquez got hurt (he had Tommy John surgery) and 23-year-old Blake Swihart took over the role.  Now there's a "battle" between the two long-time top prospects in Spring Training 2016.

My question is, do the Red Sox really need to chose?  I don't think there's an issue (other than figuring out what to do with veteran backup Ryan Hanigan).  Catchers are not everyday players.  On average, most regular backstops play about 100-110 games per season.  It seems to me there's an easy solution:

Split the 162 down the middle and it's 81 each.  Put Swihart at DH for 20 games or so when 40-year-old David Ortiz needs a day off, and that's 101 starts for both young catchers.  Problem solved.  Or at the very least, begin the season with that plan and see what happens.


Sunday, February 21, 2016

Awesome Old Movie Clip of the Week: Both swordsmen aren't left-handed in 'The Princess Bride'

It just came to my attention that Saul Berenson (Homeland) is Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride).

My mind was slightly blown.

I also can't believe I've been watching Homeland for years and had no idea the actor's name is Mandy (Patinkin).  In honor of this shocking realization, here is one of my favorite scenes from The Princess Bride:




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