B-dub

Sunshine Underground, Athlete and Selecter today at the Godiva festival.

Thought Athlete's first album was brilliant, the second one not so much. Haven't kept up with them since.

I didn't catch the earlier rounds, but how did the Czech Republic do? You'd think with Rosicky in the side, they'd be pretty tough to beat.

Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Westchester, and most of Long Island are solid Villa.

Staten Island is hard-core Blues.

North Jersey is mixed.

VP

Stamford Bridge

Wembley (new)

Upton Park

White Hart Lane

The A's? Or is yellow their primary colour? I can never remember which are the home and alternates in baseball they wear them all so often!

Yup, forgot about them. I'd say it's more green than yellow, based on their caps, both home and away.

And the Giants are 2-0 in Super Bowls played against teams that also wear red-white-blue. And they were the underdogs in both games; and the US was at war with Iraq at the time both games were played. And that's just off the type of my head. Oh meaningless trivia...

You know it just occurred to me that there aren't any baseball teams that wear green as their primary color, but there are three in the NFL (Packers/Eagles/Jets) and at least two in the NBA (Celtics, Bucks).

Carlos Beltran became the 8th met to hit 3 HRs in a game (all of them being on the road too) last night in Colorado. Really carried the team with so many starters out injured/rested.

Very happy for him, and for the season he's having so far. He's had a lot of bad luck the past couple of years with injuries, and the club's mis-management of those injuries hasn't helped. And I think he's a caught a lot of unfair criticism from the fans over the years.

The game made me think about a time in the late '80s when Darryl Strawberry hit three at Wrigley Field in Chicago, the last of which I think hit the center field scoreboard, which was and is some ridiculous distance from home plate, like 450 feet or something. The thing that I remember most was the Cubs fans giving Straw a standing ovation as he rounded the bases after the third home run, which I thought was classy especially considering the Mets and Cubs were big rivals in the old NL East during the '80s.

I'm not usually one to hate on a band simply because they happen to be commercially successful (as many indie snobs do, and you know who you are). Having said that, there was always something just a little too polished, a little too professional, and a little too radio-friendly about the Foo Fighters sound for my taste; but i still find myself humming their songs to myself every now and again.

Regardless, I'm a little sick of this recent media blitz (in the US) that's accompanied their new album. The new documentary about them (and other spots) seem to be popping up on cable tv every day lately.

From those listed, Nirvana. I generally liked them while they were still around, but their music hasn't aged well IMO. If the guy doesn't shoot himself, they're a footnote.

Aside from that (and I'm sure it's been mentioned already) the Sex Pistols are the first that spring to mind for me. Musically there wasn't much there, and the punk phenomenon would've still happened without them.

If you change "overrated" to simply "well-known bands that I don't like", you can throw in Pink Floyd, Genesis, and any number of bands.

He could have been in the US for the Browns last game today, but he was in England with Villa.....says a lot to me.

Watch the Browns get spanked in a meaningless game? I don't think that was a tough choice.

Unrelated, but it was odd how the announcer still thought it was Petrov and not Albrighton who made the cross, even long after it had happened.

Giants game pushed to Monday night due to weather issues in Minny.

Story

In '83 he was also drafted by the Yankees to play baseball, and chose to enter their minor league system instead of play for the then-Baltimore Colts, who were a shambolic franchise in those days. Don't remember how he landed with Denver but I know his baseball options (and the negotiating leverage it afforded him) had something to do with him avoiding playing for the Colts.

I'd definitely put him top 5. He didn't have much talent around him in the '80s but still manged to get them to three Super Bowls. (He had a much better supporting cast on the 1997-98 championship teams.)

Yup, always nice to see the Yankees get eliminated, but not as much fun since they won it last year to get the monkey off their back. I suspect even Yankee fans aren't as upset with this as they were with the playoff losses of 2002 through 2007.

Division Series fixtures

You can say "schedule" you know. They'll know what you mean.

Regarding the Mets ... Jeff Wilpon is such a piece of crap, his father is not much better, and this organization has been nothing but a disgrace for the past 10 years. The fact that Minaya and Manuel kept their jobs this long tells you that these people are cheap, delusional, and, at the end of the day, care a lot less about winning than Mets fan do.

Having said all that, I hope Wally Backman gets the manager's job.

i don't like that Barber is on the list. for a start, i don't think his body of work puts him in the same class as Simms, Taylor et. all and, just as importantly, he ended his career making a lot of dumb/unfair/self-serving remarks in the media ripping Coughlin and Eli, and continued to do so during the 2007 season (after he retired) as an "analyst" for NBC. and as the Giants were making their Super Bowl run, it was clear he didn't want the Giants to win it all, the year after he retired, and have Manning and Coughlin (the two guys who he basically said were crap) win the Super Bowl and get the glory. I always thought Tiki was a big phony, more concerned about his public image and his media career after football. wasn't surprised at all when it came out that he cheated on his now-ex-wife while she was 8 months pregnant with twins.

and another thing .. Barber was a big-time fumbler most of his career and only shook it off after Coughlin took over and taught him a new way to hold the ball. and still Barber ripped him in the media time and time again.

You had to love the "we want Feagles" chant after the blocked punt.

A win is a win but we weren't that convincing. I'm a little worried about Kevin Boss's injury as we've no depth at TE.

I'm not exactly jumping up and down over Houllier, but I am enormously relieved that Curbishley, Bradley, and Sven were not hired. (Crap-Unqualified-Crap, respectively).

No Bradley fans eh?? Wouldn't want him managing the Villa as he has no Prem experience...but didn't he manage the US to the top of the Group???

Yeah, but the other teams were crap so it's not really saying much. (I know that sounds like a wind-up but the more I think about it, it's true.)

Relieved he's not coming to Villa (although I don't think he was ever seriously considered, and rightfully so); but disappointed that the US won't be upgrading. Then again we (the US) don't really play any meaningful games again for another two years so it's nothing to get too worked up about yet.

I like your choice in teams.

Never got to go to Giants Stadium, hopefully will get to the new one at some point.

Was at Giants Stadium many times for a variety of events over the years (soccer, US football, concerts). It certainly hosted many significant and historic events over the years. Having said that, it truly was a crap stadium in every aspect (location, accessibility, aesthetics, etc.) So, suffice to say you didn't miss much. I'm sure the new stadium is much better. Will see it for the first time this Saturday.

i'm going to the Giants-Steelers game this Saturday. eager to see the new stadium. will try to post a few pics afterwards.

(and it will still be Giants-not-Jets Stadium as far as I'm concerned)

Not sure if this name has been floated already, but I believe Carlos Quieroz (sic?) might be available. I know Portugal weren't impressive at the WC, but he was an assistant under SAF at United and you'd like to think some good rubbed off.

He still has half a season to put it right, but it's safe to say that Jason Bay has been a big disappointment so far. Fans are really starting to turn on him now.

With Pelfrey struggling and Dickey starting to come back to Earth, it's imperative we get another starting pitcher. I'm reading that a deal for Ted Lilly of the Cubs is in the works.

I think Klinsmann will get the job. He almost got it last time, has a home in LA, knows the players, and would introduce new training methods, and bring with him probably more tactical savvy then Bradley. My only concern is that he might be too much of a nice guy.

He was considered a few years ago and interviewed with Gulati. Seem to recall that Klinsmann wanted control of the whole setup, not just the senior national team, and had strong opinions on how the whole sport is run in the US from youth development on up, and wanted to make big changes. Gulati (and his ego) didn't want to give him that much control and talks broke down. Bradley was the fall-back hire. Would love to see Klinsmann get the job but I think that bridge is burned.

Hiddink is the only other name on that list that I would get excited about. He managed Australia, who are no better than us, plus the tax situation here would be more favorable for him than in Europe and most parts of the world, so I don't think it would be impossible.

1990 was also the first time most if not all of the World Cup was shown live in most of the Far East and the USA (up until that point the final and a few knockout games on weekends would be shown)

Not sure that's right. The earliest World Cup I remember was Spain 1982, and most of the games (including group stage games) were on the Spanish language UHF Channel 41 in New York (i.e., Univision, although I think it was called something else back then). Maybe this was only in the New York area and other major cities, but they definitely showed most of the games live.

The same was true in Mexico '86, but the Final (Argentina-West Germany, which was one of the greatest games ever IMO) was on ABC.

I remember that TNT showed some of the games in 1990, and believe it or not they actually cut away to commercials during the games; guess they just couldn't grasp the idea of a sport with no time-outs back in those days.

I would think that a decent team wouldn't get taken to penalties as often as England have...

Yes, but a crap team wouldn't even get to the knock-out stages of tournaments often enough to fail at penalties. And once you are in the knock-out stage, you also need to be good enough to not get beaten after 120 minutes.