Happy Tuesday everyone! I understand that you don't want a fancy introduction today; you just want your trivia. Here you go:
In the spring of 1992, George Herbert Walker Bush was President, the Pittsburgh Pirates were coming off of back-to-back National League East division championships and the Pittsburgh Penguins were about to win their second Stanley Cup title. Meanwhile, I was a high school junior and joined a NL-only/auction/keeper rotisserie baseball league with some friends. Please note that I wrote rotisserie baseball since there was no such thing as fantasy baseball back then.
At the time, we (and be we I mean someone else in the league that was not me) calculated stats by hand by looking through baseball box scores in the newspaper. I think we called the league Commissioner each week to make transactions. The entire league spread out for college but we still returned to Pittsburgh for live auction drafts and maintained correspondence by e-mail. We even hired a guy to do stats for us. It truly was exciting to get weekly e-mails with the standings.
After college, I moved to San Diego but stayed in the league. I wasn't able to attend the drafts, so I must have drafted by phone or via Instant Messenger.
Over the years, the league moved online to Commissioner.com and then Sportsline until the company was bought out by CBS Sports (who still thinks Vance Worley pitches for the Minnesota Twins). With much of the league starting families, live drafts became more and more difficult. Now everything is online, and we can see stats updated live.
In my 23 years in this league, I never won. There were some near misses including losing on the final day of the season one year. I also made arguably the worst trade in league history when I traded Gary Sheffield at the beginning of a MVP-caliber season for Deion Sanders and an ancient Dale Murphy. Yes, this league has been around a long time. I also traded Benito Santiago for a can of Coke. Dave Clark was a regular fixture on my team during the 90s, and I once drafted Roberto Meija who I nicknamed Meija & fries since I thought fajita and Meija sounded similar and why wouldn't you want fries with a fajita?
Now, in the 23rd year, I can finally write that I've won the league. I'd like to thank Russell Martin, Freddie Freeman, Doug Fister, Jordan Zimmermann, Kyle Lohse, Miguel Montero, Eric Young (who the Mets never seemed to want to play), Matt Garza, Luis Valbuena, Addison Reed and even the injured Troy Tulowitzki and Pedro Alvarez for being on my team all season. Maybe the addition of Pedro Tulo to my family was the good luck charm.
With Rosh Hashanah and year 5775 starting Wednesday evening, party today by, um, watching these Rosh Hashanah related videos (and a bonus non-Rosh Hashanah video at the end).
This has to be the only Rosh Hashanah video featuring a guy wearing a Kelcie McCray Kansas City Chiefs jersey. Unless of course Kelcie McCray has his own video singing "All About That Rosh."
Ready to try the Honey Bucket Challenge?
Here's British Prime Minister David Cameron's Rosh Hashanah message. I noticed that he didn't thank the Jews in Scotland for voting against independence.
I see that President Barack Obama plays the friends with Elie Weisel card.
Not only does one of the guys in this video have a great voice, but he can also juggle apples. Now that's talent! He's like the Andrew McCutchen of acapella!
Finally, congratulations to the Pittsburgh Pirates on reaching the playoffs for a second consecutive year! Benstonium put together the Pirates radio call with the final outs. Let's Go Bucs!
1. Why would the Original Hot Dog on the University of Pittsburgh's campus show the Los Angeles Dodgers-Chicago Cubs baseball game on its televisions instead of the Pitt-Iowa football game?
2. Why would the Pitt book store not play the Pitt-Iowa game on the store's radio?
3. Why don't more Pennsylvania turnpike drivers have E-Z Pass?
4. Is it absurd that someone would refuse to have 2% milk with Lucky Charms cereal instead preferring to have skim milk with the cereal?
5. Is the sign "Want a job? Let's "Taco" 'bout it" at the Breezewood Taco Bell a clever way to attract potential new employees?
6. If Pedro Alvarez is healthy, would you put him on the Pirates postseason roster?
7. Is an advertisement on the PA turnpike featuring a picture of Yoko Ono with the question "Would you take energy advice from the woman that broke up The Beatles" effective?
While this isn't trivia, feel free to answer any of these questions in the comments section below.
Don't forget that you can always like Sean's Ramblings on Facebook.
This may be the first time in months (maybe this year?) where I posted five separate blog posts in five days. To celebrate, I have not one, not two, not four, but three videos for your Friday.
While a baby bear on a golf course playing with a flag is cool, I'd worry that Mama Bear isn't far away, so I'd get out of the area quickly.
A dog running into the water? Sure.
Finally, I always liked this Cake song (and video).
There's a car that I've seen in my neighborhood several times, and I've been curious about the meaning of this license plate:
I'm already unhappy with CBS for airing new episodes of the likely to be cancelled TV show Reckless on Saturday, September 13th meaning that I will not win the 2013-2014 Ted Marshall Open TV Death Pool. Now, it's the CBS Sports website that's upsetting me. My longtime fantasy/rotisserie baseball league (more on this in a few weeks) uses the CBS Sports website, which also shows player news and updates. Earlier this week, the website shared the following information about Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Vance "The Vanimal" Worley:
Stop the presses! Maybe, stop the internet is more appropriate. You're in for a treat today as I created my own Trivia Tuesday. Your challenge is to name the first part of the band name (in most cases this is the lead singer) based on the band name below.
For example, the answer for the "The Sunshine Band" is KC.
1. The Heartbreakers
2. The News
3. The Scene
4. The Ants
5. The Range
6. The Furious Five
7. The Flecktones
8. The Tantrums
9. The Vandellas
10. The Family Stone
As always (even though there hasn't been Trivia Tuesday is a long time), leave your answers in the comments section below and don't use the internet for assistance. Good luck!
If you missed this news from over the weekend, Lauren Conrad of MTV's The Hills* married William Tell. I wonder what music they played during the reception.
By the way, my favorite part of this story/post is this YouTube comment from The Artosphere Festival Orchestra's video by Rostislav Bycek:
i am drunk, but this interpretation of Rosini overture is simply great, sexy, and....and, loud
P.S. I'm sure that I'm the only person making a reference to William Tell's name.
* Yes, I had to look up the name of the show. I knew Conrad started her career on an MTV show, but I didn't know which one.
Remember when live blogs were the greatest thing ever? Twitter wasn't really big yet, so you would have a group of friends discuss a game (while using more than 140 characters) and others could see what you were writing and share their own thoughts. Well, we're getting the band back together! Steelers-Ravens live blog tonight at 8:15ish. I'll be a little late since I'm going to attempt to get two kids to sleep before kickoff by myself. I might need Tom Cruise's help since this is going to be an impossible mission.
- Being a parent, you sometimes catch yourself saying ridiculous things. For example, I said "if you light this place on fire, I am not going to be happy" to my three year old recently. He was playing with a feathered-cat toy not far from a lit candle. (Does this entire scenario sound better if I explain that this did not occur at our home?)
- We are in full potty training mode in our house. There have been plenty of successes and also plenty of, well, not successes. If he has a good run of potty success, his reward will be taking a ride with me on the Metro. Yes, he is extremely excited about the prospect of taking public transportation that thousands of people use daily and love to complain about.
- We order food from a Thai restaurant in the neighborhood every few months. The food is delicious, but the restaurant is nearly empty every time I go there. Actually, I have only ordered take-out from the restaurant. It's in an odd location in the same shopping center as a Costco and Home Depot, so I wonder how they stay open. The theory is that they must do a strong take out and delivery business.
- At a restaurant recently, my son entertained himself by playing my wallet. Then he decided to take my drivers license, credit cards, Metro card and insurance card and throw them in the air like LeBron James with chalk.
- Although I am and will always be a Steelers fan, I would not be disappointed by a Miami Dolphins-Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl this season. Yes, there may be some money involved.
- Over Labor Day weekend, my neighbors pulled weeds and covered our "back yard" with mulch since they had extra. I have awesome neighbors.
- We're now more than two-thirds of the way through 2014, and I have still not seen any movies in the theater.
- No one cares about my fantasy football teams, but in one league, I had to auto-draft since I was not available during the draft time. I did not edit any of the pre-rankings, and as a result, I ended up with 4 kickers on my roster. Amazingly, I actually won in that league in week one.
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While this post and most of my other posts are designed to be humorous, I'm fully aware that I'm posting this on a national day of remembrance. Please take some time today to remember the victims of 9/11 and to thank first responders for all of their service.
Can we pretend that the second half didn't happen? Wouldn't you feel so much better about the Steelers if this game ended after 30 minutes? Let's start with the fact that the Steelers defeated the Browns and are now 1-0. This is also the first time since the 2010 season that the Steelers started 1-0. In the big picture, the Steelers are 1-0 and have a win against a division opponent. Woo!
Now, here are my notes from the game:
- The Steelers led Cleveland 27-3 at halftime and outgained Cleveland 364-101 yards and had five plays of 30+ yards. Wow!
- To paraphrase Meatloaf, Antonio Brown would do anything to win a football game, but he won't do that (well he shouldn't have done this):
I was all prepared to compare Antonio Brown's kick to The Karate Kid, but nearly everyone on the internet already beat me to this observation.
- For the second half, I feel like the Steelers coaches probably told the players simply to keep doing what you're doing while the Browns actually made adjustments. Meanwhile, did the Steelers players think the game was over at the half? I feel like the players and coaches were equally responsible for the poor second half performance.
- How much did Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey make for the Lincoln MKC commercial? It has to be 7-figures, right? Unfortunately, he didn't end the commercial by saying, "I get older, they stay the same age."
- Steelers RS Le'veon Bell is good.
- I love the fact that announcer Ian Eagle stated that the Steelers avoided testing Cleveland all-pro cornerback Joe Haden, and then as soon as he stopped talking and the play started, Brown beat Haden for a touchdown.
- I was impressed by Steelers wide receivers Markus Wheaton & Justin Brown. I had low expectations for both of them, but they certainly looked like they belong in the NFL.
- The Steelers offense allowed 4 sacks while the defense gave up 183 rushing yards. Browns rookie RB Terrance West had 100 yards. The team needs to allow less sacks and rushing yards if they want to be successful this season.
- Am I the only one who thinks of the song Broken Wings by Mr. Mister whenever new Steelers punter Brad Wing takes the field?
- I've been a big Ike Taylor defender over the years. Sure, he has trouble catching the ball, but throughout his career, he generally prevents opponents' top wide receivers from having big games. Taylor didn't look good against a Browns team on Sunday without Josh Gordon or any other "scary" wide receivers.
- Good luck to Ithaca College graduate CCH Pounder on her new show CSI: New Orleans. I just wish CBS would promote the show more and give it some exposure.
The Steelers play again in 3 days against the Ravens. 3 days!
P.S. Quote of the day about the Steelers game goes to the terrific writer/reporter Dejan Kovacevic: I’ll repeat my summer-long plea for more Gay. Yes, I'm still 12 sometimes.
h/t Mikey for the video.
I've written about my love of Wegmans many times over the years. Just last week I visited the grocery store three times over an eight day period with my four month-old son. On the first two trips, I walked around the store with a stroller and a shopping cart and received one "you're a good dad/bless your heart" comment for looking awkward having my hands full. During the third trip, I finally figured out that it is easier to shop by placing the car seat directly into the cart.
Anyway, I received the following email from Wegmans yesterday.
Congratulations to me! Although the CW network never actually announced the cancellation of the short-lived game show Oh Sit, the network did not air a first-run episode of this show during the 2013-2014 television season. This means that I won the 2012-2013 Ted Marshall Open Television Death Pool. This makes me a two-time champion and proving that my 2010-2011 season victory was not a fluke. I think this also makes me one of the premier American television observers. This might be my calling!
You may ask, well, what about the 2013-2014 season? If you're so good at picking what shows will be cancelled, smart guy, how did you do this past season? I'm glad "you" asked. I'm currently tied for 7th and will become a thee-time winner if CBS does not air any additional first-run episodes of Reckless after September 8th. Unfortunately for me, although it appears that Reckless may not get a second season, CBS's summer season will creep into September making the show "not cancelled." Maybe I should hope for multiple overtime NFL games over the next few weeks so that CBS decides to preempt the show.
Now you might be wondering how you can enter the Ted Marshall Open. The 2014-2015 season entry form is available now until Monday, September 8th at 11:59 PM EDT. Simply select the shows you think will never have a first-run episode on or after September 7, 2015 on the five major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX & CW). Good luck!
Former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison officially retired over the weekend. While I have never been an NFL quarterback or even played one on the internet, I would think that Harrison would be at the top of the list of defensive players I didn't want to play against. In honor of Harrison's retirement, this is a video of one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history.
Here's more on Harrison from Behind the Steel Curtain and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (particularly in the comments section).
Oh yeah. Harrison did this too.
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