(from a May 16th, 2007 post I made)
I thought about posting on the whole Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson double header death yesterday or even the fact that today is Lushie’s birthday. Instead I’m focusing on an article I read this morning that has me furious. Ian Snell… grow up.
From today’s Post Gazette – “In a bizarre 24 hours for the Pirates’ enigmatic starting pitcher, Snell approached management late Wednesday to request a demotion to Class AAA Indianapolis because of “too much negativity” in Pittsburgh about his performance, specifically from the fans, media and even independent bloggers.”
Before I rant let me point you to Ian’s stats this year – Won 2 Lost 8 with a 5.36 ERA. He’s in the 2nd year of a 3yr 8.6Mil deal. Ian has, in 6 seasons, posted ONE winning season. He has a lifetime ERA of 4.75.
Ian, you whiny spoiled brat. You have been given the gift that millions of boys wish for when they pick up their first baseball. You get to make a living as a Major League ballplayer. To blame the FANS, you know the people whom your employer wouldn’t have a business without, for your emotional state is not only an insult to myself and other Pirate fans but shows your immaturity and lack of respect. Face the facts,you are not a good ballplayer. If I was to perform well below average with my employer and then put blame publicly on our customers I would get fired. I wouldn’t get sent out for rehab or to have sunshine blown up my butt, I would be fired. Count your lucky stars that you are even in the organization.
You complained in 2007 and you’re doing it now in 2009 about “negativity”. You are a professional athlete. If you cant take being a public figure then turn in your glove now and find someone who’s willing to give you a hug and tell you the bad man will go away. You are in Pittsburgh. We are a city and fan base of bust your ass and suck it up to get the job done workers. When a business fails for 16 consecutive years you have NO room, ZERO, ZILCH, to place blame on anyone but yourself.
I’m done with you Ian. Do me and the Pirate fans a favor. Leave. Your contract is being wasted on your five cent head when it could be used for players who don’t make excuses and want to be here.
I have to give Teaspoon credit, he has good taste in presents and I made out for my first Father’s Day. My day started with sleeping in until 8am (if you’re a parent you can appreciate more than 4 straight hours of sleep with a newborn) and waking up to a little man popping me in the face with his fist. Teaspoon and Lushie handed me a bag with the above contents inside. Pearl Jam “Black” t-shirt and Gorge box set CD’s along with The Price Is Right and MLB 2K9 video games for the Wii. Out of everything it is the card is what I will treasure forever. Lushie managed to get him to squawk for a few seconds and capture it on one of those recordable cards.
Teaspoon and I spent the day watching the US Open on the couch while flipping between the Bill Murray marathon on AMCHD. My problem with the marathon is they wasted time with showing the bomb of Ghostbusters 2 when Groundhog Day would have been more fitting. The day ended with this feast Lushie prepared…
2lb Ribeye steak with baby bella mushroom, asparagus, mashed taters with carrots and a side of shrimp cocktail. Oh yeah, ate like a rockstar. You can see the rest of the pictures over at my Flickr gallery. Thanks Teaspoon and Lushie for making me the world’s luckiest dad! I can get use to this every year 
4 months ago today I was laid of from my job of 10+ years at Ericsson. That next day I started something on You Tube that I had every intention on updating daily. I created the Unemployed Utensil as a way for me to cope with life without work and fill that void during the day while Lushie was at work. I was on a roll that first week until February 28th came and changed my life forever. The arrival of Teaspoon. Fatherhood consumed my time and UU got pushed back. I wouldn’t say it was a FAIL since being a dad is a full time job but I may revisit it soon since I’m still seeking employment.
At first I was going to keep this as a private project but now Studio B needs some activity and I have plenty to vent about. I’ve been playing with an intro that I may add and also have toyed with a podcast for dad’s. I’ve seen many for mom’s and women but very few for dad’s. Something else to add to my list of cool things I want to do this summer.
Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/unemployedutensil
so git up and git git git down
What the bloody hell was that last night? Seriously NHL. Last night’s awards show was not only a suckubus but an insult to hockey fans. I wasn’t expecting the greatest and best awards show of all time but last night was more of “wtf is THIS?”. It was the public access of awards shows. As I posted on twitter last night… “NHL Awards is on VS cuz not enough strippers for Fox, too french for ABC, too many big screens for NBC & CBS really wants you to see NCIS”
First off the awards. I think Ovechkin gets more credit than he deserves. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good player but when you have 528 shots and only record 110 points that shows to me that you’re a spaz who can’t pass. If Happy Gilmore had that many shots he would score too. Meanwhile Evgeni Malkin has 112 points on 290 shots and lead his team from a 10th seed on 2/5 to the 4th seed less than 2 months later. Do the math. That is the sign of Most Valuable Player. Someone was snubbed as MVP. I know the award doesn’t have to do with playoff performance but getting your team there does. Geno was all around a better player.
Secondly, someone new to the game has NO idea what these awards are about. A montage of the award and maybe a picture of it would help over a scaled down version and hack Hollywood presenters.
Now for the entertainment. Whomever hired Chaka Kahn should be shown the door. Not once but TWICE we had to put up with her bad American Idol performance. The look on the faces of the crowd explained it all as a collective “WTF” was shown.
Dear NHL, the RedWings and Pens gave you a gift with one of the highest rated cup finals of all time and you failed on capitalizing on the momentum. This isn’t a foo foo la la cute and cuddle me sport. Its fast paced, tough and gritty. It’s metal, not washed up 80′s pop. Fix it.
There were rumors for days that a huge storm was coming our way but I honestly don’t think anyone took it serious. Then there is myself (and Uncle Crappy I found out from this post) who loves severe weather. Part of this stems for me from growing up in Erie, PA where you will experience 4 seasons in one day. I know people exaggerate in Pittsburgh about the phenom but it is true up on the lake. I saw it. When you think about it what else do we have to do besides obsess about weather and gas prices?
On Wednesday Pittsburgh was slammed by a couple of storms which brought on flooding, high winds, hail and mass hysteria. The areas of Westmoreland County, Turtle Creek, Forest Hills, East Pittsburgh and parts of Monroeville were hit the hardest. Friends of mine in the areas all reported minimal damage with one having 4 inches of rain in his sun room. As a weather geek this was the super bowl for our area. I watched KDKA’s coverage for 4 hours. You’re reading that correctly, I watched a Doppler for 4 hours… in HD! Oh yeah buddy!
Floods and I have a history together. When I lived in Bellevue we had massive flooding in 2004 and 05 due to hurricanes with he last basement bath coming in 2007 shortly after we moved to our new residence. This one was due to sewage lines and not flood waters which turned out was a blessing. The cleanup sucked and we lost around 10k in personal belongings but found out that our insurance didn’t cover natural flooding. If you are a renter you’re basically screwed when mother nature comes calling. I called my insurance agent and got the “good farking luck” speech.
Back to watching the news, I did find some humor in the clip that showed a Bellevue cop scolding a resident for driving through the flood waters which almost swept her car away. Why is it funny? She’s the drunk girlfriend of our old neighbor who stole the backhoe to go grocery shopping and put a non-working toilet on his porch. See why I miss Bellevue. It’s the people.
Weather report for Friday is more rain so Lushie and I are getting our basement ready just in case. Most of what we own are in plastic storage bins but it’s my electronics I worry about. Do you know how many years of dumpster diving it took me to collect this stuff! Though I don’t think Lushie would mind if some of these computers were tossed.
Last night sickpuppy and myself were invited to check out Beer School at the Cabaret in Theater Square. We haven’t made a big announcement yet so consider this your early heads up… we’re hosting the September session! Since we are hosting it was only fitting that we attend the session before us so we can have an idea what is going on.
First off, I can’t believe I have not attended one of these before. Then again with everything that has been going on this past year, free time isn’t exactly bountiful. The evening was incredible. For your $35 ticket you sample 4 beers, get an education on beer and also listen to a speaker. This session was Beer, Baseball and Brats with Robert Dvorchak from the Post Gazette and Tony the Beer Guy from Vecenie Distributing.
While reviewing our 4 beers (Bell’s Oberon, Erie Brewing Derailed Ale, Mama’s Little Yella Pils and Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA) Bob kept us entertained with stories covering the decades of service to the local Pittsburgh sports scene. The food for the evening was bratwurst on a pretzel roll with a vinegar tater salad. INCREDIBLE!
When the night was over we spent some time in the Backstage Bar which is located just outside the theater entrance. Decent craft beer selection but we were introduced to a Penn Dark with a shot of Starbucks liquor. Oh yeah, delicious is putting it lightly.
Check out Beer School if you get a chance and remember to support the local arts.
Had to keep this short as all of Pittsburgh is being flooded by an act of God.
more later…
Who’s that dead sexy guy at the 1:45 mark? I think he’s also mentioned here in today’s Beaver County Times.
I arrived at Station Square shortly after 8am yesterday morning and met up with Stoosh on my way over. The weather couldn’t have been planned more perfect than sunny and temps in the high 70′s/low 80′s. Granted the parade didn’t start until 12pm we wanted to make sure that we had the perfect spot.
Here are some teasers from the day I took with my Nikon and Blackberry:
(click here for the full album on Flickr)
The Penguins displayed once again why they are a top notch organization. The parade was fantastic and players took time to walk along the fences thanking fans. An estimated 375,000 fans showed up for the parade which is roughly 25,000 more than for the Steelers bash in February. Anyone who thinks hockey is a dead sport or is a passing fad needs to spend some time in the City of Champions. For the first time in Professional Sports history a city has a Stanley Cup and Super Bowl Champion in the same year.
Following the parade I met up with Jim and Scott for after parade beverages and grub on the patio of Palomino’s and then outside 1902 Tavern followed by a quick trip to the new KDKA HD studios which went live today.
It was a great day for hockey!
Lushie and teaspoon gave me an early Father’s Day Present today…
When Teaspoon was born the Pens were on the outside looking in on the playoffs. Local media left the team for dead and refocused on the Super Bowl Champion Steelers offseason.
No team can come back after losing the cup finals the year before and make it past the 1st round… The Pens did
The Pens won’t beat Philadelphia, Washington or Carolina… they did.
Detroit won games 1 and 2 and the media said it was over… Pens came back to win games 3 and 4
Detroit won game 5 and the media said it was over… Pens won Game 6
No one outside of Penguin nation thought the Pens could win game 7. NHL.com’s store already had Back To Back shirts printed and Detroit planned their parade… at the end of 60 minutes the Pittsburgh Penguins were Stanley Cup Champions.
Pittsburgh is once again the CITY OF CHAMPIONS
Today I’m recording in “Studio A” all day/night so you’ll get my thoughts on Game 6 tomorrow. Know how hard it is to do voice work when you spent a solid 3 hours screaming? Yeah I’m a little sore.
http://www.vimeo.com/5067882
This is a collection of reactions to the video I had posted about titled “I Am A Craft Brewer“.
