T.O. and the Hammy

I guess I should weigh in on the T.O. mess in Big D.
America's favorite hamstring is acting up and making Jerry Jones look like a fool.

Some speculate that he won't make the cut for the Cowboys, that they'll go after Branch, but let's be serious - Jones will not allow him to leave like that and Owens will sink them.
The Cowboys should be a playoff contender, but the off field distractions are about to make the Tuna's head explode.

My buddy gave me the best analogy ever for T.O.
Owens is wasting his talent away, that's like a dude with a 14 inch member not doing porn.
In the end he's just screwing himself.

Weird Stat of the day

Tomo Ohka.
That's weird enough some would say, but the Pitcher decided this week to hit lefthanded for the first time in his career.

So what does he do?
Goes 2 for 2 with 3 RBIs (plus another run scored on a catcher's interference).
How bad is the NL, that this can happen?

Return Home

Today was the drive from Niagara Falls to home, so not much time to have anything happen.

But of course, these days can be full too.

The day started as bad as it can with the worst shower ever!
The thing would have hot water come out the bottom but when the button thingy was pulled for the shower the water would be warm and get progressively colder. As an added bonus the water pressure would fluctuate.
So of course I would press the button and the water would burn my feet, then pull on it again.
Repeat this about 10 times and that was the fun I had.

We went for breakfast at the Happy Wanderer.
This is a German restaurant that was never open, at least 4 previous attempts have been made to eat there. But I'd heard good things.

Inside was like turn back the clock, with old pictures and postcards everywhere. The boy, who looked like Frodo Baggins, gave us a seat and I assumed he was the waiter.
A few minutes later I looked up and almost fell off my chair.

There was a girl, nay an Angel, that appeared before me. She seemed to be out of my dreams, and my brain shut down for a good 5 seconds.
She was wearing a traditional German dress that stopped above the knee and hosiery that went up to there. She wore her hair up in the style that is reminiscent of every Bavarian image I can recall.

Of course I choose to think she's Dutch and I will call her Betje (or Bettie).
It was the second time in my life that a woman has rendered me speechless temporarily (the piercing gaze of a young Polish woman several years ago was the first).

So all of a sudden, the day seemed much better.
I went to Niagara-on-the-Lake for a quick drive-by and then headed home.

A good trip, all in all.

South Bend - Day 3

What a boring day.
Not only did it rain most of the time, but there was little to see.

We did stop in South Bend to see Notre Dame again. This time I was able to get a picture of touchdown Jesus, very cool.
For those of you not as familiar with Notre Dame Football, the figure on the right can be seen from the stadium, through the goalposts - hence, Touchdown Jesus.
(Buzz is standing on my car which is on the street where the Stadium entrance is.)

There was something I forgot from yesterday. Going from Downtown Lansing to East Lansing and the MSU campus I took Kalamazoo street.
At one point there was one of those pedestrian overpasses.
Bloody ridiculous.

This street was pretty much one lane each way, think Main Street Markham North of 16th or St-Laurent Street in St-Eustache near the Flea Market ... I was the only car on the street. Who was the genius behind that?

The only other city visited today was Toledo. Home of the Mud Hens.

Small town, like a crappier smaller version of Louisville.
But that's okay.

I also drove through Cleveland, Erie (I did stop for Steve & Barry's - a store where everything is 6.98, crazy!) and Buffalo.
I'm now in a crappy motel in Niagara Falls (everything was booked for some reason).

Back home tomorrow...

Day 2 - Chicago

Day 2 started in Lansing and we then made our way out to Chicago, via Gary, Indiana.

Lansing is the capital of Michigan, so of course Buzz wanted to see the State Capital building:

But of course the main attraction in Lansing is MSU in East Lansing.

Here's a picture of the stadium:

We left Lansing and were on the long road to Chicago, knowing there'd be a stop in Gary of course.

But I saw a sign nearing Battle Creek that mentioned Kellogg and something called cereal city.

I thought it would be good for a laugh, but it was splendid in all it's awesome tackiness!
See the picture ... Inside is a cornucopia of Kellogg's past and present, all the original characters like Smaxie and Dig 'em. All the different Tony the Tigers. Oddly, there was little to see with those demented elves, Snap, Crackle and Pop (I guess after the beating from the Keebler elves they're laying low).

Back on the highway, which had too many long stretches of nothing and construction I see a sign announcing the Chocolate Garden. I started having images of houses made of chocolate and chocolate landscaping ... think Homer's dream.

This is what I found:

Not exactly the utopian paradise I anticipated.

I need to be honest. The only reason I wanted to see Gary, Indiana is because I heard it's a crap-hole. I've seen East St. Louis, I've been to Flint. This is supposed to be the other in the top 3 worst cities.

I was not disappointed. Main Street (as pictured) was deader than Flint's. The houses in the side streets were often abandoned to the vegetation, or had boarded up windows.
Not a pretty sight. You wouldn't want to go to any of the bars we saw ... scary!

What's weird is that US Steel (which sponsors the Minor league team - how did they get that?) and Mittal both have huge working operations there. Why is it so poor?

Finally we were back on the road to Chicago.

Gorgeous skyline, with America's tallest building. Why does the water look so good? I would have thought it would be unbelievably polluted. But it looked good enough to swim, and there were a few beaches along the way.

By this time I was sooooo hungry. I got to see Soldier Field and Comiskey and just wanted to eat at Gino's.

We get there (finally - there's 2 but they are no help at 411) and there's a sign that says it's closed for renovation. I don't even get a chance to ask Frank what do we do now. As I turn around a wonderful woman (an Angel? - she was cute, as I remember her anyway) tells us to go to the other one and gives us impeccable directions.

15 minutes later we're seated at the famous Gino's East.

It took forever to get our food, but we should have known, when this is the sign above the bar:

The Cheese and Sausage Deep dish arrived forty-five minutes later (we got there at 4:30) and it was delicious.

It was just so different than anything we're used to.

The cheese was on the crust, followed by the sausage patties and the sauce on top (so a reverse order). Very tasty.

We then went to Wrigley and headed back East. We're staying in Laporte for the night.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Have Fun!

Day 1 Pics

I forgot to mention that when we finally got to our room last night ... Someone was already there, and what was being done to the bathroom was not very hospitable ...
We got a different one.

Here's some pictures.
The dammed tunnel:

Buzz in Detroit:

These 2 pictures are part of 2 sections of the Christmas store in Frankenmuth, there are 12 in total (sections) ... The store is friggen huge.

A Bavarian inn in Frankenmuth:

Talk to you soon...

Frankenmuth - Day 1

Yesterday was the first of our mini road trip.
It started in the morning and I need to say one thing.

Holy crap Ontario is boring!

That stretch of 401 between Mississauga & Windsor has nothing. It took all my will power to not crash my car into the ditch. Sweet fancy Moses.
When we finally arrived at Windsor we noticed we had the option of taking a tunnel across to Detroit. Boy that was a bad idea.
I got into the line to pay the toll and then realized I was in the wrong one - I did not have 4.00 in coins. So I needed to move over and a kindly person was letting me in, however they shut down all the lanes.
What the ...

After about 15 minutes they finally let us in. Good times!
We saw a little of Detroit, very small core.
Saw the old home of the Lions and then went to Flint again.

It was the city's festival ... At least 50 people were downtown on Saturday afternoon!!!! Happening place!

The purpose of the trip was upcoming - Frankenmuth.
Oh Baby!
I was expecting a tacky suped up version of Flint. Boy was I wrong.

But not at first. The first thing you see is the World's largest Christmas store. Sweet baby Jesus that was frightening.
My travel buddy Frank almost passed out. It took about 30 seconds before he started freaking out. There was a distinct possibility of him dropping to the ground in an epileptic fit.
The place is beyond huge and after a few minutes I was starting to get a little anxious. The place has an unholy vibe, strange because there is religious stuff everywhere.
Sweet mother of God, I was trapped in the seventh strata of hell and couldn't find what I wanted.
We escaped but were never to be the same.

The rest of the town is completely different. My favorite so far of any city (smaller ones - nothing can compete with New Orleans). It has a distinctive Bavarian feel, many Inns, restaurants, chocolate and cheese shops.

I ate a Wiener-Schnietzel at the brewery - Delicious, really, really great. I recommend it!
Then Saginaw had nothing to offer and it took forever to find a place to stay, finally finding one in Lansing - no vacancy ... but luckily a few miles down we were in luck.
More tonight about day 2...

Have fun!

Big Papi

There was a recent discussion by the Sports Guy about who's more clutch: Big Papi or the Basketball Jesus?

This might seem like blasphemy to some, but he raised interesting points. I wanted to summarize some of it here and add my own 2 cents.

There's been a debate about last year's MVP selection for a year now. A-Rod is seen as not as clutch and only got it because he plays 3rd base and is not a DH.
A-Rod allies will point that his average and OPS with runners in scoring position and 2 outs is better than Papi over the past 2 years.

But this is flawed because Ortiz comes up big in big moments.
Dusty Baker has the most walk-off hits in Major League History (25). Now consider that to get one of those you need to be at home, and have an opportunity to be at bat.
In the past 16 months (Since the start of 2005), he's come up 13 times with the chance for a game-ending plate appearance and made an out only once (and he ended up winning that game in the 12th inning).
He has 15 walk-off hits in 3 years (less than that really) with the Red Sox. 10 behind the all-time record.

This does not take into account the 3 in the 2004 ALCS (a record) or all the times he won it on the road or in the 7th or 8th inning.
That is ridiculous. You expect him to get a hit now.

One more walk-off hit this year (he has 5) and he breaks the all-time single season record.
Since he joined the Red Sox in 2003, he has 15 walk-off hits and the rest of the team has 19 total.
Since Aug. 1, 2004, Ortiz has hit 21 home runs in 138 at-bats in Late-Inning Pressure Situations (no other player has more than 13).

That's domination. I don't care if he doesn't play first base more often ... Who's more valuable?
Even Yankee fans would agree now that A-Rod is not the MVP.

One last thing - Ortiz is so clutch that he has a signature move for when his team crowds the plate after another winning HR. He tosses the helmet rounding third and leaps onto home plate.



Another glaring mistake in my greatest actors list:
Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

He has the most memorable roles in terms of quantity - Boogie Nights, Happiness, Flawless, Talented Mr. Ripley, Capote, Punch Drunk Love (which spawned it's own video for his character), Owning Mahoney, 25th Hour, State & Main ...
My top 5 are probably Flawless, Happiness, Almost Famous, Love Liza & The Big Lebowski.
Add Twister, Magnolia, Red Dragon, Scent of a woman ... and others

What a list!