The last time…

May 19th, 2012

Last night, the Pirates were almost no-hit by Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers. No shame in that, Verlander is probably the best pitcher in the game today and has already thrown two no-hitters in his career. Josh Harrison broke it up in the 9th inning. Verlander was two outs away and one strike away from putting Harrison away.

So yeah, the Pirates avoid the no-hitter once again. There have been some close calls the last few years, but the Pirates keep getting that one hit, like they did against CC Sabathia a few years or against Matt Cain earlier this year.

Here’s the last time for each club:

Cubs: 1965

Pirates: 1971

Phillies: 1978

Cardinals: 1990

Athletics: 1991

Mets: 1993

Red Sox: 1993

Dodgers: 1994

Rockies: 1996

Angels: 1999

Expos/Nationals: 1999

Yankees: 2003

Giants: 2003

Diamondbacks: 2006

Orioles: 2007

Brewers: 2007

Rangers: 2007

Astros: 2008

Royals: 2008

Padres: 2009

Reds: 2010

Marlins: 2010

Braves: 2010

Rays: 2010

Tigers: 2010

Blue Jays: 2011

White Sox: 2011

Indians: 2011

Twins: 2012

Mariners: 2012

Good News, Everyone!

May 5th, 2012

1. The Steelers Get Tebow’d. Playoffs suck so far.

2. The Penguins choke against the Flyers. Yeah, playoffs really suck for my Pittsburgh teams, with any luck the Chicago Bulls can pick things up this year.

3. The Bulls are down 2-1 to the 76er’s. Oh shit. Rose and Noah are gone. I thought for sure they’d be the team most immune to sucking because they’re not from Pittsburgh.

4. This can only mean the Pirates are going to make the playoffs and suck at them! So yeah, I will take some awful playoff baseball from the Pirates!

Pirates thoughts.

April 25th, 2012

1. The Pirates offense is terrible. Good thing they can pitch. They have tied the Major League record with 18 games without scoring or giving up more than five runs. Hard to believe they gave up 20 runs in a game two years ago.

2. The 1965 had the national league record at 16 games. They started the season at 9-24. They went 81-48 the rest of the way to finish 90-72. They won 12 in a row to get started, so they were 21-24 after 45 games.

3. The announcers said that when they talk to other teams announcers about the Pirates, they say that McCutchen is the most exciting player they never hear about. I think that’s nonsense. My uncle Danny said he just wanted to see McCutchen play on Easter Sunday. But yeah, we can blame the ESPN Yankees Red Sox propaganda machine for that. Seriously, they act like there are only two major league teams. And so good players out the Northeast get ignored. Just ask Todd Helton or Ichiro…

NFL Uniform Rankings. Or how I got bored at lunch and made a stupid list.

April 20th, 2012

1. Oakland Raiders. Black and Silver. Cool looking logo. Overall, it’s a great uniform that is easy on the eyes and the two colors go together perfectly. Too bad they’ve mostly sucked for the last decade. With Al Davis gone, maybe someday the Raiders will be back on top when it comes to playing football too.

2. Green Bay Packers. Green and Gold. Really, the first two are almost interchangeable. I give the Raiders an edge because their colors go together better than Green and Gold. The Packers uniforms have remained unchanged for a long time and should stay that way.

3. Pittsburgh Steelers. Black and Gold. There’s a good reason the Pirates and Peguins went with Black and Gold eventually too. It works. And yes, I’m biased as hell here.

4. Dallas Cowboys. White and Silver. It’s always kind of weird to see the Cowboys in their blue uniforms because it just doesn’t work at all, because the white is hella better.

5. Chicago Bears. Blue and Orange. Pretty much the top 5 are all a tie. The Bears uniforms have remained unchanged for a long time because they work.

6. Indianapolis Colts. Blue and White. Another uniform that looks pretty much the same now as it did when they played the Jets in the Super Bowl or the Giants in the 1957 NFL Championship game. But yeah, why mess with perfection?

7. Detroit Lions. Blue and Silver. Again, a simple uniform design that hasn’t changed much for a good reason. Basically, they’re not as iconic as the top 5, but maybe a few Super Bowl wins would change that?

8. Cleveland Browns. Orange and Brown. Another one like the Lions that hasn’t changed much even when the team came back after a three year middle finger absence from Cleveland. Maybe more championships would make it more iconic…

9. San Francisco 49er’s. Red and Gold. In 1991, they announced a new logo in a press conference. A huge fan backlash resulted in them announcing the next day that they changed their minds and keeping the SF logo. I never liked the white pants or how they made slight changes during the late 90′s and 00′s. Returning to the classic look was a good move on their part.

10. Miami Dolphins. It’s hard to make teal a good color in a uniform. Somehow the Dolphins pull it off.

11. New York Jets. In 1997, Bill Parcells was able to switch the uniforms back to the original Jets look, which was a great idea. The Jets uniforms of the 80′s and early 90′s sucked. They just looked like the Eagles, only slightly different.

12. Arizona Cardinals. They’re kind of like the St. Louis Cardinals, they’ve gone with red and that’s all their doing. So yeah, good job not putting in blue or yellow or something stupid.

13. Carolina Panthers. I heard that Al Davis tried to sue the team for using black and silver in their uniforms. Yeah, teams should be able to copyright colors. But really, considering that it’s a bland mid-90′s uniform it could have been worse.

14. New York Giants. I kind of miss the old Giants uniforms they wore when they won the first two Super Bowls. The uniforms they wear these days are pretty bland.

15. Kansas City Chiefs. They’ve stuck with this uniform since they moved to Kansas City in the 60′s. I guess it’s okay, but I never really thought it was all that great. Sort of looks like an Iowa State uniform…

16. Washington Redskins. Red and orange. Nobody wore it worse than Steve Spurrier. And really, the last time the uniform looked cool was when they were beating the Bills in the Super Bowl.

17. Buffalo Bills. Red, White and Blue. Wow, that’s an original color concept!

18. New England Patriots. Red White and Blue. Um, did I just say original? Well, at least it’s an upgrade over the bright blue they wore in the late 90′s or those horrible Red uniforms they wore in the 70′s and 80′s…

19. Houston Texans. More Red, White and Blue. Seriously people, there are other colors, this isn’t Major League fucking Baseball for cryin’ out loud! And their bull isn’t as cool as a fucking buffalo!

20. Jacksonville Jaguars. I guess it’s okay, but really what’s the point of getting too attached to this uniform when the team might be moved eventually anyways.

21. St. Louis Rams. They had a top 10 uniform until 2000 when they fucked with the perfectly good colors and made them all dull and 90′s-ish. For some dumb reason, they haven’t changed it back yet. I bet they will eventually.

22. Atlanta Falcons. Red and Black. Somehow, Atlanta can’t even get this good color combination right.

23. San Diego Chargers. I always thought their uniforms looked like something they dragged out of the USFL…

24. Philadelphia Eagles. Notice where I put the Steelers? Yeah, did you really expect me to a team from Phuckadelphia in the top 20? No, you shouldn’t have. But yeah, a wing with dark green. I didn’t know eagles were green…

25. New Orleans Saints. They’re the team that took the Steelers color concept, changed the color tone and did it wrong.

26. Denver Broncos. For some reason, they’ve never been able to make a good Broncos uniforms. My first thought at seeing the uniforms in the mid 90′s: Change it back. Really, they should. Not that it’d be a huge improvement.

27. Cincinnati Bengals. Sort of the opposite of the Browns. The same colors, just a stupider look…

28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They’re this far down on the list because they can never be forgiven for the awful orange and yellow uniforms from their first 20-ish years in the NFL. Current uniforms are better, but it doesn’t make up for it.

29. Minnesota Vikings. Purple. Yeah, purple. How manly can we look wearing purple?

30. Tennesse Titans. Oh, light blue and dark blue. With a big T on the helmet. Remember when they were in Houston and had a cool oil derrick? That was awesome. this is just lame.

31. Baltimore Ravens. More purple and black and an angry bird on the helmet. Plus the overall suckiness that is the Ravens.

32. Seattle Seahawks. These guys are serial offenders. Really, first they had terrible uniforms at the start in the 70′s. Then they overhauled it and made it slightly worse. Now they’ve done it again and made it even more worse. Really. At least the Buccaneers are trying to do better. Can’t say the same for the Seahawks.

Baseball again….

April 9th, 2012

So it’s time for some baseball again. I think the Pirates will be okay, if the pitching holds up and they can get timely hitting. They’re not gonna hit a ton and they aren’t gonna be great pitchers. But if they can do both okay, they’re gonna be okay. I think they can win 75-83 games if everything goes right.

So here’s my predictions for the final standings:

AL East: Rays, Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, Orioles

AL Central: Tigers, Indians, White Sox, Twins, Royals

AL West: Rangers, Angels, Mariners, A’s

NL East: Phillies, Nationals, Marlins, Mets, Braves

NL Central: Cardinals, Pirates, Brewers, Reds, Cubs, Astros

NL West: Diamondbacks, Giants, Rockies, Padres, Dodgers

To be fair, I have no idea about the NL West or the AL Central. I’m picking the Braves to finish last because I just have a feeling they’re gonna be awful this year and for the foreseeable future. I just don’t think they’re gonna be good for quite a while. And I’m giving the Pirates a boost because I’m just sick of picking them to suck. And I’m gonna say that they get in to the playoffs as a Wild Card.

Overall, looking forward to another fun season. As long as any team not named the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Cardinals, Brewers, Rockies, Braves, Mets, Phillies and Reds don’t win the World Series.

Stupid item of the day.

March 28th, 2012

Apparently there’s a Supreme Court case about “Obamacare” today. I’ve never given much thought to it because the government is doing a lot of things much worse than “Obamacare”, like that whole segment of the government invading and destroying other countries and of course the Drug War police state in this country.

But that hasn’t stopped some people from writing stupid shit like John Cassidy did for the New Yorker.

Where does this power begin and end? In the famous 1942 case of Wickard v. Filburn, the Court said that the federal government’s authority extends to any activity that “exerts a substantial economic effect” on commerce crossing state lines.

The case involved Roscoe Filburn, an Ohio farmer who wanted to grow more wheat than he had been allotted under quotas introduced during the Great Depression to drive up prices. In deciding against Filburn and in favor of the Department of Agriculture, the justices pointed out that the actions of individual wheat farmers, taken together, affect the price of wheat across many states. That is what gives the federal government the power to limit their actions.

Under the Wickard v. Filburn standard, the individual mandate is clearly constitutional. If ever there was an industry that crosses state lines, it is health care.

It’s hard to believe that anyone would seriously use Wickard vs. Filburn to justify a law, no matter how reasonable the law is. Wickard vs. Filburn only happened because FDR and his administration decided the best way to fix the economy was to drive up food prices while most of the country was starving. They did this by placing quotas and destroying crops/livestock. But even worse was this idea that one farmer growing more wheat would somehow affect all prices around the country. Using this logic, the federal government has been able to interfere with any sort of private activity because anything could affect the prices all over the country. Of course raising prices did not end the Great Depression, World War II did. Well, the war ending did. But that’s something else.

A few years before the case was heard by the Supreme Court, FDR said:

Are we going to take the hands of the federal government completely off any effort to adjust the growing of national crops, and go right straight back to the old principle that every farmer is a lord of his own farm and can do anything he wants, raise anything, any old time, in any quantity, and sell any time he wants?

Yeah, we can’t have that. Tom Woods over at Mises.org tells the truth about Roosevelt’s attempted destruction of the agricultural side of the economy.

Interestingly, shortly after the Supreme Court declared the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) unconstitutional in early 1936, the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Economics reported that in the case of cotton, farm income would have been at least as high and perhaps even higher in the absence of the AAA. The following month, Cornell University’s James E. Boyle argued in the Atlantic that among other things the AAA had been responsible for the joblessness of at least two million souls, especially sharecroppers and other farm laborers.

News day.

March 21st, 2012

So let’s see here, first the Broncos have traded Tebow to the Jets. Putting him in New York City, I cannot imagine that will end well for him. He’s probably the most overrated QB playing right now. Yeah, he beat an injury plagued Steelers team, but the next week, got manhandled by Brady and the Patriots. And the Patriots were the best of a bad lot of AFC teams this past season.

Then there’s the whole Sean Payton/Gregg Williams thing. I think a year suspension is a bit much, but it’s not my decision. Williams is probably done for as far as his career is concerned. Of course the real question is if this bounty thing was so bad as to warrant a one year suspension for a head coach, why the hell didn’t Belichick get anything for the whole spygate thing? Really? Oh, they lost a first round pick and $250,000, plus Belichick got fined $500,000. But that’s it. If Goodell was consistent, Belichick would have been out for a year as well. Makes me wonder if Robert Kraft intervined on his behalf. Or losing the Super Bowl after a 16-0 season was bad enough?

Finally, Xavier Nady is a Nationals minor leaguer now. Once again, I’m so glad the Pirates didn’t listen to Bobblehead Smizik. I mean, why didn’t the Pirates offer him a big money long term contract in 2008? Because he wasn’t Andrew fucking McCutchen, that’s why.

Manning to the Broncos?

March 19th, 2012

So. I guess that Peyton Manning is going to be Bronco.  Personally, I think that he’d be better off going to the 49er’s, they have a better defense and they got a pretty good offense as well. The Broncos are pretty average and now they’re probably a 10 or 11 win team. So yesh they’ll probably win the division a few times and then they’ll have to pay Manning a lot to be ineffective.

LIke the new iPad. It’s cool in all. But it’s hard to type with. I’ll either get used to it or end up throwing it against a wall….

11 years of posting shit.

March 16th, 2012

Like 11 years ago today, it snowed a lot and it sorta pissed me off. Today it’s like 75 out and sunny. So yeah, 11 years. Kids born on that day are 11 years old today.

But FedEx fucking sucks. So like I can go pick up the new iPad tonight after 5:45 and before it closes at 6:30. Yeah, right when I’m working. If they were open until 7:30 or 8:00, then that’d be cool. I guess I’ll have to do it before 2:00 tomorrow afternoon and stuff.

The FedEx driver was an idiot. We were all working less than 150 yards away. Stop by, get a signature and leave it at the door. How fucking hard would that be? Really? Instead when nobody answered the door, they left a note and took off. Ugh. So yeah, the awesomest part is that the only time I’ll have to get it is during the Pens game tomorrow afternoon! Fuck yeahz!

Stuff, stuff and more stuff.

March 12th, 2012

Some things I’ve thought of lately:

1. Pirates signed Andrew McCutchen to a long term contract. That’s awesome. I thought they would at some point. I think it’s a win-win situation for both sides. Probably more for the Pirates than Cutch. It’s something they should have been doing with Bonds, Bonilla and Drabek instead of taking them to arbitration every year. But that was a different, much worse ownership group.

2. Rush Limbaugh’s comments on Sandra Fluke. Rush was being stupid, name calling is fucking weak. Rush’s big problem is not taking the high ground very often. Of course if he did that, he’d probably lose listeners. Meanwhile, if your parents can afford to send you to freaking Georgetown, why not bother them first for some birth control? Or maybe the guy you’re having sex with? If I was with someone who wanted the pill, I’d be willing to pay half. I’m having sex too, ya know. Anyways, Georgetown shouldn’t have to pay for birth control and neither should the government. If your company/organization wants to shell out for birth control, good for you.

3. The Colts are really starting over again. I think it was a bad idea to let Manning go. But hey, they won a Super Bowl with him and probably could have won two. But yeah, they’re done for at least a couple years. I doubt Luck or Griffin, whomever they pick, will be as good as Manning.

4. Penguins are gonna win the Stanley Fucking Cup. Fuck yeah!

5. Chicago Bulls are gonna win the NBA Finals. Fuck yeah!