Opening Credits: Jay-Z ft. Memphis Bleek - Hand it Down (Intro)
(Music starts at 1:16)
Yesterday
The NFL season officially got underway last night and the game itself may have been the least interesting thing for me. While my hatred of the Cowboys and mere dislike for the New York Giants probably ensured there was no way for me to get too into opening night, the level of my indifference still surprised me. Perhaps some is still some "head trauma hangover" from the events of the offseason, perhaps its just that I would have been left rooting for the lesser of two evils. Regardless, this is the least excited I've been for an NFL season that I can remember. We'll see whether the 49ers-Packers match-up on Sunday gets me in gear.
What's been interesting me for the past few days is this whole referee lockout and exactly what type of clusterfuckery we're going to be in store for while the league tries to squeeze a couple more dollars out of their 9 billion dollar cash cow. Andrew Brandt has a good primer for those who are unfamiliar with this issue, but the gist is this: over a difference of less than 1% of the leagues yearly revenue, the league is locking out its regular officials and employing scab referees whose experience ranges from getting fired from the Lingerie Football League to refereeing 6-man youth football. If you want to read some horror stories of whats gone on so far in the pre-season with the scabs, Deadspin.com has this whole thing well covered, especially these posts by Tommy Craggs, and Minnesota Vikings Punter Chris Kluwe.
This is just the NFL being the bully again and it disgusts me. The pre-season proved that the regular refs are whatever they're asking for compared to the clowns they have filling in for them, but the league wont budge. Now some teams are going to get screwed by these scabs in a real game, that counts towards the postseason, and its going to get ugly. Think the replacement refs looked over matched officiating pre-season games the players didn't even care about? Just wait till the games get going in earnest. I'm hoping for as much evidence of egregious incompetence as possible, so the league will stop screwing around, give the real refs a fair deal and the world can get back to real football.
Today
In April, if you gave me 10 guesses to figure out what team would challenge the Yankees for AL East supremacy this year, the Orioles wouldn't have made the list. Mid-season realignment would have seemed more likely than the Orioles contending, but its September and here we are, the Orioles only 1 game behind and welcoming the Bronk Bombers into Camden Yards for 3 games in early September. Considering that statistically the Orioles aren't good at ANYTHING (seriously, they're 13th in MLB in slugging percentage, and thats their BEST ranking in any of the 8 major team statistics), its hard to think that they'll keep this up, but I'd love to see them do it. The Yankees losing is always fun, and watching a completely out of nowhere team like the Baltimore Orioles be the one to do it is even better. Birdland, my support is with you.
Tomorrow
The A's just got swept by the suddenly relevant again Angels, while the Giants have lost 2 out of three to the less than intimidating Arizona Diamondbacks. Both squads are going through some issues with their pitching staffs, and the A's bats have gone silent on top of that, only scoring 5 runs in the 3 games against Anaheim. Both teams need to get well this weekend, but for different reasons. The A's have 3 against the Mariners, and with their closing schedule being so brutal, they need to stop the bleeding now or this scuffle could turn into a full on tailspin before you know it. The Giants, on the other hand are playing the dodgers and enter with a 4.5 game division lead. Sweep the Dodgers and the race is over, and even 2 out of 3 pushes it to 5.5 with 21 to play which is a pretty steep hill to climb. 2 out of 3 the other way though and the Dodgers are feeling pretty good, especially with 3 head to head with SF to finish out the season, and a sweep all of a sudden puts LA right up in that rear view mirror with the Giants leaking major oil. Obviously every game is important, but this weekend for both bay area teams could signify the start of a run to the playoffs, or a tailspin into disaster. I'd prefer the former myself.
The Closing Credits: Talib Kweli - Fly Away
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