MLB Network vs. Baseball Tonight

Too early to make a call on this one. MLB Network is the greatest thing that has happened to baseball since Peter Gammons. The possibility of watching baseball at any point during any day has been a dream of mine since I was 8. Its amazing to think how far things have come. Back then, in order to watch an American League game you had to keep your fingers crossed on Saturday that the game of the week on NBC would show someone from the better league. We usually just got the goddamn Cardinals or the Reds (it was hard to watch the Reds back then...in that god awful stadium they had). When WPIX (I think this is what it was), the channel out of New York came to Evansville we got to see Yankee games. Although I would have rather watched Star Wars for the 36th time than the Yankees, I still watched the game for their opponents. I believe Sportscenter existed in those early days, although I know Baseball Tonight was years from conception. This Week In Baseball with Mel Allen was as good as it got for me back then...
Now, with the Extra Innings ticket and Baseball tonight and now the MLB Network there is nothing else that I really need.
The programming so far, on the MLB Network has been a plus. The analysts and the anchors have been a minus. Mitch Williams and Dan Pleasac are boring me to pieces and I find their input to be the same as someone who stopped playing after their sophomore year in high school. Harold Reynolds and Bob Costas are great additions. Harold Reynolds back form his sexual harrassment hiatus and Bob Costas back in a sport he needs to be in. For as good as those two are they cannot hold a candle to the great Peter Gammons and his 5'1" sidekick Tim Kirkjin for Baseball Tonight. Those two are amazing. If the two sides could somehow consolidate we would be alright. Right now Baseball Tonight has a slight edge, but they still have Orestes Destrade (unlistenable) and a couple other goofs that have no business, being in the business.
Time will tell. Right now if you like quality over quantity you will choose Baseball Tonight. If you like the non stop, all the time aspects you will choose MLB. I will take them both, because it is all great and awesome and I can't wait for the season or at least Spring Training to start.

Mount Eerie Followed By The Revival Of Good Muisc

As I have mentioned previously, good new music has been hard for me to find lately... I have a feeling this is all in the process of changing. There are a number of albums I am excited about. Great Lake Swimmers (3-31) Handsome Furs (3-10), Swan Lake (3-24) and Beirut (I think it is available now or within the next 3 days) are four that come to mind. I went to Vintage Vinyl to buy The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and they did not have it... unfortunately this was not a surprise... I have a problem with buying too many of these albums on Itunes or through Amazon, but sometimes you have too if you can't find them in stores and are too impatient to wait for them to travel through the mail.
Mount Eerie comes up with some crazy shit, but the album Dawn seems to be the easiest of the albums to listen to. Kind of reminds me of Bonnie "Prince" Billy or Sufjan Stevens without all of the musical accessories. I first heard this guy on NPR's All Songs Considered with Bob Boilen. If you haven't listened to this program it is a good idea for you to start. He played Wooly Mammoths Mighty Absence and I loved it. Here is a song I find equally great. Its called Great Ghosts...


Mount Eerie [mp3] Great Ghosts

The Worst Press Conference Until The Next One

Not like I need another reason to think that ARod is a joke, but I got one. His press conference today, which I can only compare to a D+ presentation from a sophomore public speaking class, was without a point. If Alex Rodriguez stayed in bed today watching Sex in the City reruns I would feel the same about him as I do now. He gave 'zero' truthful statements in his address. He looked confused when he mentioned the substance he took..."after reflecting I remember that my cousin and I took bolay (sp????), an energy booster. Bullshit! I call bullshit! So he took an energy booster shot once every two weeks for 6 months in a matter of 3 years. Inaccurate. He should have started out his "read directly off the page" speech with "what I am about to tell you is a complete lie... you know this and I know this... lets just enjoy". I expect that on his page in ( ) were things like (give eye contact now) or (look over at my teammates) or (pause for 20 seconds and make to make it look like I am getting dusty).
First he didn't remember now he says its an energy shot...ha! Might have well said flax seed oil.
I don't give a shit about his legacy. I don't have a problem with him making the Hall of Fame (think Moyer was onto something, just went a little bit overboard). All I want is for him to say "I took anabolic steroids because I wanted to get bigger and hit shit loads of bombs"...
This, unfortunately is just the beginning...104 names on the list. That is going to be a lot of bad press conferences.
Here is who I suspect is on the list-
Albert Pujols
Andruw Jones
Any pitcher that consistantly throws over 100 (Francisco Rodney and all those in the bullpen for the Tigers)
There will also be Dominicans you have never heard of

A Break From Bad Music=The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

I haven't heard any new music lately that I like...even remotely. I don't know a thing about this band and I like it that way. I looked at an article but didn't read it because I didn't want to hear someone say who this sounds like or what they are trying to do. Their name is a little melodramatic but I choose to ignore it because it has been a long time since I have heard a song that is better than average. This song is good and that's all that matters. Vintage Vinyl is no longer in my back yard so now I have to take planned trips to the record store. I have not been in a long time. This song might make me plan a trip. It also makes me think of springtime and that is never a bad thing...

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart [mp3] Young Adult Friction

We are Proud of you ARod...

We still don't have a professional athlete who is completely honest after being caught doing something he was not supposed to. Some deny, some plead the 5th, and some admit, but admit with an out or without complete disclosure. Here are my problems with ARod and this nonsense.
1) He has to admit that he took preformance enhancing drugs. He was caught...on a list...a credible list. He should get no credit for admitting his guilt. If he was not caught his mouth would still be shut.
2) Why is it so difficult for athletes or anyone being grilled (Peter Gammons, for as much as I love him, might be the easiest interview in America) to directly answer the question they are asked. Asked a yes/no question ARod finds a way to go back to when he was 20 or that he just wants to turn the page.
3) So you are telling me that ARod still doesn't know what he took. "It was a different culture back then"...what the hell. I picture athletes lying around the locker room with a bunch of unmarked viles of liquid. They all have syringes and say "hey fill me up with a little of that stuff, lets see what it does."
4) ARod is proud of himself. What a joke. What is he proud of? I am proud that when backed into a corner I take the one and only out...

Questions I would have asked.
At 20 you were arguably one of the top 3 players in the game. Why would you feel the need to take anything. ("I was feeling all kinds of pressure after signing that contract" that is rediculous.)

Basically, I find this whole thing to be the same as all the others. Giambi, Pettite, Knoblauch and now ARod...all admit, but non of them are completely forthcoming...they are/were all Yankees. Not surprising.

Please God don't let Manny be on the list, Please God don't let Manny be on the list.

Funny

The Lonely Island - Jizz In My Pants from universalmusicgroup on Vimeo.

Post College Years (Blind man looking for a light switch)

My post college years have been from 2000-2008 and in those 8 years I have listened to 20 times the number of different musical artists than in my previous 22. Most of this is due to my ability to make money and then spend it on records and cds.

(To list all of the music I have listened to in these years would be rediculous. I will list the bands that stick out in my mind; the ones where my feelings at first listen are far from indifferent)
2000-2002 (Graduate School)--I may or may not be embarrassed that the music I listened to could have been classified as 'emo'.

If the first year of high school wasn't the most confusing moment of my life then my first year out of college definitely was. I was a mess and was in a new city and surviving solely on peanut butter and saltines and spaghetti. This is not an exaggeration. I used to figure out per dollar how much each meal I made cost (2 dollars a meal). I had no money and therefore downloaded music for free on Kazaa and other places like Napster. It was amazing, but I rarely ever had full albums; instead just handpicked songs from all over the place. I periodically run across some old mixed cds I made and they are litered with bands like Alkaline Trio and New Found Glory and Guster and Wheatus-(Teenage Dirtbag) and Dashboard Confessional and on and on. Lots of stuff that has no musical longevity, but at the time I liked it a lot and will remind me of living by myself and eating Spaghetti and marinara sauce in front of the television. It wasn't as sad of a time as I am making it out to be...I just had to make sure all of the toasters and hairdryers I owned were out of the house...I am only 4/7ths joking.
If I remember listening to one album it was probably Bright Eyes-Lifted.
Honorable Mention- Modest Mouse, Evan Dando and Acoustic versions of rock songs.

Late 2002-2004--The Mountain Goats, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Weakerthans

This is when I figured out that I had missed out on a ton of amazing music. You ask yourself how you missed it, but I asked how the hell I was supposed to know about it.
The list is immense.
I started listening to the Mountain Goats after Mitch played No Children to me through the telephone. My life has never been the same...not necessarily because of the Mountain Goats...
Neutral Milk Hotel- In The Aeroplane Over The Sea was a cd I picked up and couldn't believe I had not heard it before. With no college radio around you just have to 'dance with who brung you', as a friend of mine would say.
The Weakerthans- This band was exactly what I would be if I had musical talent and was in a band. Their lyrics don't make complete sense all the time but they make enough sense to make it interesting...
Honorable Mention-Rilo Kiley
2005-2008-Pavement

I missed out on Pavement. I missed the whole thing. The positive out of this is that everything they did was new to me and I loved it. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain-Brighten The Corners-Slanted Enchanted-Wowee Zowee. I recommend to buy them in this order. Stephen Malkmus writes songs made of gibberish that end up being something that is amazing and unlike anything anyone does. I love songs that at first listen sound far from pop, but as you listen more and more you catch some lines that give the song a nice catchyness. That is how I would describe anything Stephen Malkmus does.
How did I miss them?? How would I have heard them! 96 STO did not play Pavement.

There were and are many, many bands that I listen to. And maybe, in a couple years, when I look back, bands like The Hold Steady, My Morning Jacket, Okkervil River, Iron and Wine, and Band of Horses will be the ones I will talk about. Until then, we will stick with these.


**As I looked up the picture to the Fischer Price Record player I had a flashback of listening to two 45's when I was probably 10. One was Glory of Love (Peter Cetara) from Karate Kid and the other was Wildest Dreams by the Moody Blues. I would listen to these songs 10-15 times in a row. I still play them any time I see them on a juke box.
This picture is amazing.