Pirates Trades

At today's baseball trade deadline, the Pirates made four separate deals. I really don't have problems with any of the four trades individually. I even like Xavier Nady, formerly of the Mets. Maybe he and Jody Gerut can compete for an outfield spot next year or Nady is the Pirates new first baseman.

The big disappointment of the day for me was that the Pirates didn't get Ryan Shealy of the Rockies (now of Kansas City). The second biggest disappointment for me was that, excluding Nady, the Pirates traded 5 players and didn't get any position players, just pitchers. What the Pirates really needed was a power hitter who is major-league ready or a prospect in AA or AAA. Oh well.

Oh, my biggest fear of the day: Oliver Perez (who is only 24) will become an amazing pitcher again.

A Cultured Sean?

I talk a lot about TV and sports, but there is a different side of me that I don't share very often. I have a little culture in my life once in a while. In fact, in the past week, I attended an art festival and went to The Kennedy Center for a performance. OK, so based on this picture below (my favorite from the festival which I'm probably not allowed to show so I better say it is from Agoo Art), I'm not quite ready for the art world.



As for The Kennedy Center, we saw the Reduced Shakespeare Company perform "The Complete History of America (abridged)." Very, very funny. I highly recommend seeing them if they ever tour in a town near you. Not exactly Hamlet, but I'm still going to consider myself cultured (at least this week).

Nothing To Write About

I've hit a rut. I want to post something insightful or thought-provoking (well, at least funny), but I've got nothing. There's nothing to write about for my usual subjects:

Pittsburgh Steelers - Training camp starts in just a few days. I really don't want to write about the rookies the Steelers have been signing.

TV - There is nothing on! I don't care about the most talented person or wannabe lead singer or comedian. The TV shows this summer seem worse than ever. At least Flavor of Love 2 will start next Sunday.

Pittsburgh Pirates - They keep losing. Maybe they can get some good prospects in trades.

Middle East (Israel/Lebanon & Iraq) - These are topics that I actually have something to say but it just depresses me. I heard today that the U.S. has been in Iraq longer than we were in World War II.

My job as a Soccer Referee - I haven't done any games since a June tournament and won't do any again until late August or Labor Day weekend.

The Metro - It's a little less crowded in the summer and I haven't had any problems lately.

I guess I could talk about my ultimate frisbee team, but I don't know if anyone would be interested. It's also too early to write about fantasy football.

I'm open to any suggestions about what I can write. Have any other bloggers out there had similar problems with having a guess I can call it writers block?

How To Not Get Elected

David Dickerson is one of 18 Maryland candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the Senate currently held by retiring Senator Paul Sarbanes. Dickerson is definitely going to be one of the 17 that loses.

First, according to Washington DC station WJLA, he is unemployed. How many unemployed Senate candidates have ever won?

(This is from the Baltimore Sun) Second, according to court documents, Dickerson's wife met Dickerson (who is currently 43) "in Latvia when she was 16, and they decided to "wait to pursue each other" until she turned 18. She told police that she married him in Latvia in June 2005 and came back with him to the United States in November, after she had become pregnant with their child, court records show." This doesn't seem like an electable person.

Now on to the serious stuff..."Dickerson was arrested Saturday and charged with second-degree rape, a fourth-degree sex offense, and second-degree assault, according to Baltimore County police and court records." I am not trying to make light of this at all. What is wrong with this guy? If this last paragraph is true, he should forgot about the Senate and start thinking about jail.

In his defense, Craig Kadish, Dickerson's attorney, said that Dickerson's wife is mentally ill and is "creating an entire story of things that never happened." OK then...so if the allegations are not true, the candidate will be known for having a "mentally ill" wife who he "met" when she was underage (and 24 years younger).

I guess this is a way to get name recognition?

Links of the Week

Searching the web for something to read? Here are some suggestions:

Two articles by ESPN's Bill Simmons, AKA, The Sports Guy: His search to find an English Premier League team and new fantasy football rules.

What do I have in common with Marlon Wayans? Find out here.

Apparently, "the average blogger is a 14-year-old girl writing about her cat." I guess I'm not your average blogger.

Go Dolphins?

I received this e-mail today, which is nice except for one problem, I'm not a Dolphins fan. Certainly I like the Dolphins more than other NFL teams since Jason Taylor went to my high school and Dan Marino is from Pittsburgh, but they are not targeting the right person. I will give the Dolphins credit...having your tickets delivered by a cheerleader or former player would be very cool. Although I'm not so sure that Kirby Dar Dar would be happy going to houses when no one is home. I wonder if this is what Oronde Gadsden is doing this these days.

New Referrals

Once again, I’m “borrowing” this idea from Sarah, who has a referral posting every Friday. These are real searches (usually from Yahoo or Google) that people used to find and visit this place:

ROGAN'S PIZZA ITHACA & Rogan’s Pizza and Subs (two separate searches)
Great pizza especially with blue cheese dressing. Even better at 1:00am. I still don’t understand why they closed. Rogan’s was a goldmine.

what happened to new york from flavor of love show on vh1
I can’t tell you, but Flavor of Love II is returning in August! There’s a good chance I’ll mention the show again (like in August)

troy-mcclure "Selma" tom-cruise katie holmes
Apparently, I was not the only person to see the connection

"for maximum value" diapers FMV
Yuck. You can buy 12 FMV hot dogs for 99 cents. I wouldn’t trust the quality of their diapers.

Dr. Scholl's Gellin Commercials
I’ve talked too much about this already.

zidane butt
I wrote about Zidane’s head butt in the World Cup final; not about anything else (besides his bald head).

sports illustrated posluszny spider
No idea.

McDonald's Breezewood PA
Breezewood: a traveler’s oasis! The McDonalds there had a renovation within the last year. It looks good but very busy July 4th weekend.

keith rural
Congratulations on his wedding to Nicole Kidman!

yao ming character in bourne supremacy with same as name as nba player
You mean that they’re not the same person?

"famous ithacans"
If you search this on Google, I’m the only result! I guess I'm the only famous ithacans!

Still Serious

but on a completely lighter topic. I've mentioned this before, but I hate the Dr. Scholl's commercials. I don't care if your having a melon, gellin' zinfadellin, whatever. I'm sure that the company and advertising company is happy to know that I remember the product, but please make it stop. Stupid Mrs. McMillen with her eyes that are wellin'.

Serious for a Minute

I've been away from civilization the past 48 hours with no access to the outside world. I'm back now and have been trying to get caught up on the news. It seems like things are getting worse between Israel and Hezbollah. Several questions here (and feel free to provide comments):

What was Hezbollah trying to accomplish by its ambush of the Israeli soldiers in which they killed three soldiers and captured two others?

How does isolating the entire country of Lebanon by bombing the Beirut airport and major highways help Israel in getting the soldiers back?

There's a lot more to ask, but I'm tired and will try to catch up tomorrow morning.

World Series of Pop Culture

I wrote in February that I would be the perfect candidate for VH1's World Series of Pop Culture. I take that back. As much as I would like to believe that I have vast knowledge of useless information, I am really struggling with many of the show's questions. There was just a question about what 70s rock band was featured in an episode of What's Happening in which Rerun was going to tape the band's concert (or something like that). No idea. Feel free to guess the answer (without searching the internet).

I just did very well in the category where you have to name the actor who was in the three named movies. Maybe there's still hope for me!

All About Pittsburgh

As I'm typing this, the baseball All-Star game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh is about to start. Besides Jason Bay and Freddy Sanchez, I actually don't really care about the game except that it is good for the city of Pittsburgh. A few quick notes:

* They just had an 18-year-old try to win $1 million by hitting a ball of a tee in an attempt to hit one of three targets about 200 feet away. Even if you didn't see it, just by my description you can tell that Taco Bell was not going to be giving away $1 million.

* Great ovation for Freddy Sanchez! We like Freddy. David Eckstein is laughing because he knows no one will be cheering for him following Freddy.

Completely changing the subjects...

Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O'Connor was recently (very recently) diagnosed with lymphoma and started chemotherapy today. From what I've heard, he's in the hospital while this really would be his time to shine as Pittsburgh is getting national attention with the All-Star game. We all hope that he has a full recovery.

Because of O'Connor's cancer, I learned that the Pittsburgh City Council President, Luke Ravenstahl, is 25. For any Pittsburgher out there, who is he and how is a 25-year-old the City Council President of a major city? I'm not saying that it is a bad thing; just curious how it happened.

Final World Cup Post

I take back what I wrote comparing Zidane and Mark Messier. I don't remember Messier ever taking his stick and swinging it like a baseball bat to hit an opposing player during the Stanley Cup playoffs. (For the hockey fans out there, please correct me if I'm wrong.) The story of today's game isn't that Italy won; it is Zidane's head butt to the Italian player's chest. Zidane's actions were not as fierce as Kermit Washington's punch of Rudy Tomjanovich (NBA) or Todd Bertuzzi's punch/assault of Steve Moore (NHL). It was just done on the world's biggest stage at a crucial point of the game in Zidane's last game of his international career. For non-soccer fans out there, this would be the equivalency of pre-comback Michael Jordan punching an opposing player in Game 7 of the NBA Finals in his last game. Unbelievable!

Congratulations to Scott for winning the ESPN World Cup Pick'Em. I finished in last out of nine. Thanks to everyone who participated!

World Cup Final

Two thoughts on today's Italy-France World Cup Final. First, is it just me or does France's Zinedine Zidane remind you of Mark Messier when he was on the New York Rangers? Maybe it's because they are both bald and that they both are/were captains and led their teams to victory at/near the end of their respective careers.

Not sure who to root for today? Here's some advice. Do not cheer for Italy just because you think it will make the U.S. look better for tying them in the first round. It won't make a difference. Back in February, we had a Super Bowl party that was planned well before we knew the Steelers would be playing. There was an acquaintance who cheered for Seattle (in a Steelers home!) because he felt like it would be better for his team, the Washington Redskins, because they lost to the Seahawks in the playoffs. Stupid argument! (Plus he was very lucky that I didn't kick him out.)

Emmy Nominations

Dan already shared some thoughts about today's announcement of the Emmy nominations, but I wanted to give my two cents.

* Congrats to Grey's Anatomy on its 11 nominations! I'm still curious to see how it will do on Thursdays this fall.

* Do you have to be under 16 to know anything about High School Musical? I was in a high school musical. Did I get nominated? It received 6 nominations (although I can't tell you for what categories).

* Do you think the folks at The Daily Show (3 nominations) are buying drinks for the folks at The Colbert Report (4 nominations)?

* Congrats to How I Met Your Mother (underrated show) for two nominations! Upon further review, the nominations are for Outstanding Art Direction For A Multi-Camera Series and Outstanding Cinematography For A Multi-Camera Series. Nevermind.

* How did Kevin James get a Best Actor in a Comedy series nomination? Jason Lee from My Name is Earl deserved the nod over James.

Thanks IMDB

I was watching "Fargo" last night and thought that this guy looked really familiar. Thanks to IMDB, I confirmed that I knew him from one of my favorite shows, Prison Break. Turns out that John Abruzzi is not his real name; it's Peter Stormare. And he's from Sweden. Who knew? From IMDB, I also remembered that I knew him from "The Frogger" episode of Seinfeld. However, I don't remember him from "The Big Lebowski."

Celebrating People Eating Hot Dogs

Just what the founders dreamed of when the United States was founded...competitive eaters having dozens of Nathan's hot dogs in Coney Island. I shared notes of last year's competition here. I'm guessing I could probably use these same comments this year. My prediction: Kobayashi wins again with Joey Chestnut finishing 2nd and Sonya Thomas in 3rd. Can I bet this as a trifecta somewhere?

Penguins Sign Former Defensive Player of the Year

I rarely discuss the Penguins in July, but the team made a move today that I wanted to mention. The Penguins were in search of a solid defenseman, so they signed Mark Eaton. You may know Eaton as the bearded seven-footer (maybe 7-4") pictured, who led the league in blocks four times and was selected to the all-defensive team three times. I'm not sure how he's going to do on ice skates and he's a little older now, but he will certainly bring a defensive presence to the Pens.

For details about the "other" Eaton, check out the Penguins press release.

Pirates Lose!

We made the trip to the Burgh this weekend and attended our first Pirate game of the season. As usual, the Pirates lost. Even though Pittsburgh gave up 9 runs to Detroit, the best team in baseball, the Pirates still had a chance to win. Actually, I'll go as far as to say that they should have won. The Pirates had bases loaded with one out in both the 7th and 9th innings but could not tie the game.

While at the game, I sat in front and met a Pittsburgh celebrity...Kraig Koelsch of IrateFans.com. IrateFans, a web site created by a few disgruntled Pirate fans that love the team and PNC Park but are tired of losing and are not big fans of the owners, has been featured in the Post-Gazette and WPXI over the past few weeks. Now IrateFans can boast about being featured here on Sean's Ramblings!

As another frustrated Pirates fan, you will notice that I have added IrateFans and Mondesi's House in the links section on the right of this page. If you haven't already, I encourage you to check out the sites.