Best DC Blog Nomination

I have been away for a few days and returned to discover that I have been nominated for the “Best DC Blog You Couldn’t Quit for Lent” award on Best DC Blog. Not only was I nominated, but I somehow made it through the elimination rounds (probably by flying under the radar) and have advanced to the finals. I am truly honored to be nominated and also curious to know who nominated me.

Anyway, even if you’re like me and don’t celebrate lent, you can still go to Best DC Blog and vote for me (Sean’s Ramblings). Polls are open until Saturday at 6:00 pm Eastern time. Vote early and vote often!

Slugging

Even though I have lived in the DC area for almost six years, I finally feel like an official resident. I take the bus to the Metro everyday to get to work, which generally takes out 55 minutes door-to-door. Since I was attending the Pens-Caps game last night, I decided to drive to work. (After 8:00pm, my bus runs only every half-hour making for an extremely long commute home.) When I have driven to work in the past, it usually takes about an hour and twenty minutes since I-66 is HOV only in the morning. So yesterday, I went to my bus stop, rolled down my car window and asked if anyone wanted a ride. I had two takers, Jim and Julie. It was a bit of an awkward ride, but we made it through by talking about traffic, Metro, the weather and restaurants. My total drive to work ended up taking about 35 minutes.

While I’m sure that some of you outside of the DC area may be amazed that I picked up strangers, this is actually very common around here. There is a website dedicated to slug lines and slugging. I definitely don’t want to do this everyday, but it is nice to know that I have the option. Plus, I feel like I made it through a right of passage of living and working in Northern Virginia/DC.

Penguins Clinch Playoff Berth

For the first time since the 2000-01 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to the Stanley Cup playoffs! This makes me happy. Attending the Penguins-Capitals game last night and watching the Pens win also makes me happy. In January, the Capitals took a 4-0 lead before the Penguins came back to win 5-4. Last night, the Penguins only spotted the Caps two goals before scoring four consecutive goals and hanging on for a 4-3 win. Here are game summaries from the Post-Gazette and Washington Post. Still no comments on the Caps' blog On Frozen Blog about the game, although they have already started to talk about the off-season and next season.

There is a 100% chance that I’ll be writing more about the Penguins and the playoffs over the (hopefully) next few months.

Motown Philly Back Again

As part of my 2006-2007 sports adventure, I traveled to Philadelphia on Saturday for the Flyers-Islanders hockey game. Here are some notes from the trip:

* Even though I listened to CDs on most of my drive to and from Philly, I heard Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” three times on various radio stations. Can you say monster crossover hit?

* Of course, I also heard Toto’s “Hold the Line” (love isn’t always on time) twice, so maybe they are making a comeback.

* Philadelphia fans have a reputation as being some of the roughest and toughest in sports. From my sampling of one hockey game in Philadelphia, I was disappointed. There were a lot of fans dressed as empty seats. To be fair, the Flyers are terrible this year, plus it was an early game. I will give credit to the fans who booed the team with about 2 minutes remaining as the Flyers could not get the puck out of their zone.

* The song that played when Flyers came out for their warm-up: Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend.” This seems like an extremely random song. Actually, since many of the players are Canadian (like Loverboy) maybe this gets them pumped up.

* I had a cheese steak, and it was good.

* The Flyers showed a feature on the scoreboard of Simon Gagne and his Lamborghini. It seems to me that a Lamborghini would be a useless car to drive around Philadelphia. There are a lot of narrow streets and he could never go that fast driving on I-95 at 4:30pm on a Thursday evening. Does Gagne take the Lamborghini to the grocery store?

Next on the sports trip:

Tuesday: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Washington Capitals at the Verizon/MCI/Phone Booth

Wednesday: Boston Celtics vs. Orlando Magic at the “new” Garden.

In case you were wondering, the Islanders won 4-3.

Confusing Names

Congratulations to Jeff Green who scored 22 points and had 9 rebounds against North Carolina yesterday in leading Georgetown to the Final Four. Amazingly, Jeff Green also finished sixth in NASCAR’s Food City 500 in Bristol, Tennessee. That is a terrific day and much more impressive than Tony Stewart driving in the Indianapolis 500 and a NASCAR race in the same day.

According to The Washington Post’s Steven Goff, Fred will soon be a member of D.C. United. Fred currently plays for Melbourne, but a deal should be finalized soon as Australia signs the international transfer certificate. Technically, his name is Helbert Frederico Carreiro da Silva, but like many Brazilian soccer players, he goes by a singular name, Fred. During the World Cup, I wrote that Fred has the best name in sports, so the fact that he is coming to D.C. United made me very excited. However, it turns out that the Fred who played for Brazil in the World Cup is Frederico Chaves Guedes. This Fred plays for the French club Lyon and will not be joining D.C. United. I declare that there cannot be two Freds. The first Fred can keep his name, but the second Fred must be called Fred II or Right Said Fred.

A Useful Kevin Federline

Are you tired of the same old search engines like Google and Yahoo? If so, there's a new way to find information on the web: Kevin Federline. That's right, there is a search engine called Search With Kevin where you can search the web and win prizes such as a Kevin Federline CD, autograph, or T-Shirt. Apparently, you can also Search With Hinder, Wynonna or Meat Leaf. It's nice to see that Hinder has something to fall back on in case they do not have another hit.

My Argument with a 16 Year-Old

Since its inception last June, I have become a regular reader of and commenter at Mondesi’s House. Another person who comments frequently is a 16 year-old named Adam, who is a Penn State fanatic. Adam’s comments over the past month have been increasingly frustrating as he writes ridiculous things about Penn State’s basketball team such as expecting the team to defeat Ohio State in Columbus even though Penn State lost 11 or 12 straight games and that Penn State looked like a lock for the NIT after starting off 9-4 (with “impressive” wins against UNC-Greensboro, Morgan State, Long Island and Maine and losses against Stony Brook and SE Louisiana). If Adam was just being optimistic, even if delusional, about Penn State hoops, that would be fine by me. I still think the Pirates could be good at the beginning of every season. However, he generally ends each comment attacking Pitt.

For the NCAA Tournament, Mondesi created a tournament group. After I predicted two days before the tournament that VCU would defeat Duke and meet Pitt in the second round, Adam wrote a message directed at me saying that “Coach K is not going to lose to freaking VCU in the NCAA Tournament. Watch some college basketball and get your head out of you Big East Ass” and that Pitt could not beat Duke. After Duke lost, Adam wrote that Duke was only a 2-person team and that VCU was the real deal. Naturally, I called Adam out on the hypocrisy. The response: he called me a moron. I tried to take the high road saying that instead of writing that he was wrong, he instead threw insults my way. That seemed to stop the comments…for about 4 hours. After Pitt defeated VCU to advance to the Sweet 16, Adam started a new rant stating that Pitt fans should not be satisfied by beating two mid-majors and if they lose to UCLA, Dixon should be fired.

This is the point when I stopped. I came to the realization that it’s just not worth arguing with him. Even if I win, all I can say is that you bested a 16-year-old, so I really can't win.

I also realized that it is a good thing I did not have the internet at 16. I could easily have been Adam getting in arguments with fans of the Atlanta Braves or Cleveland Browns.

Fantasy/Rotisserie Baseball Advice Needed

It is that time of year again. Over the next few weeks, I will spend hours reviewing my fantasy baseball teams, searching through fantasy baseball magazines and websites and creating (or not creating) draft strategies. As I have written here countless times (I could probably count the number but I don't feel like it), I have never won a fantasy baseball (or football) league despite being in one league since 1992 and beginning my fourth year in another. Therefore, I think I need to change my strategy. In the past, I have relied only on fantasy magazines, free portions of websites and written notes. This year, I am thinking about using spreadsheets and actually having a computer at the draft. Plus, I am considering signing up for a fantasy/rotisserie website.

This leads to my question. Does anyone out there have any websites they would recommend? (Please note that I realize that some of my league mates read this site, so I understand if they do not want to reveal their sources.) There are dozens of websites out there like The Talented Mr. Roto, RotoTimes, RotoWorld, Ultimate Fantasy Sports, etc., etc, and many seem fairly expensive. I have no idea where to start. Any advice?

Movie Trivia

Today’s challenge is to name actors who are in two sets of movies with at least three films in the series. For example, Harrison Ford starred in both the Indiana Jones and Star Wars series. There are a few easy ones out there and others that may be more difficult.

There is only one rule: the actor must have been in all three movies of a series, not just one or two. Feel free to add your list of actors (please include the films) in the comments. Just to save you a guess, although Steve Guttenberg acted in at least three Police Academy movies, there were only two Cocoons and two 3 Men and a Baby films.

I’m not sure if this qualifies as trivia, but should give you something to think about on a Monday.

Ben Howland & Jamie Dixon

If you live in Western Pennsylvania or follow college basketball, here are a few things you are going to hear a lot over the next few days:

- UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland used to coach at Pitt.

- Pitt’s basketball coach, Jamie Dixon, was an assistant of Ben Howland.

- Jamie Dixon and Ben Howland are good friends.

- Ben Howland’s daughter, Meredith, attends Pitt and stayed with the Dixon family at some point.

- The Post-Gazette’s Shelly Anderson is a visionary (read the last two sentences).

- Jerome Bettis is from Detroit. Oops, that is a flashback from something I heard a lot last year.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, UCLA and the University of Pittsburgh will meet in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

To celebrate, I will be outside as a soccer referee for nearly four hours this afternoon. That's right, even though the expected high is 37 today and there is an inch or two of snow on the ground, the soccer tournament must go on. The competition will be played exclusively on all-weather synthetic grass fields, so apparently, the tournament officials want to prove that snow and cold count as "all-weather."

Here is a message from the tournament's website:

While the playing conditions are certainly not ideal, the field surface is firm and traction is adequate. Hopefully players will enjoy the unique experience of playing in our wintry conditions this weekend.

The kids may enjoy it; they play for an hour and can go inside between games. The referees will be outside for nearly four consecutive hours.

Players should expect the fields to have a coating of snow. Dress appropriately. Referees will be lenient on warm weather clothing that does not present a safety hazard (ex. scarves, exposed hooded sweatshirts, etc).

If the tournament is stringent with referee uniforms (like nearly every other tournament I have participated), we will be wearing shorts. Hats are also frowned upon.

Sorry for all of the complaining. I just want to stay inside this afternoon, drink hot chocolate and watch college basketball.

Name All 50 States

Click this link if you think you can name all 50 states in 10 minutes. Please complete this without searching the internet or looking at maps. I was able to finish with 1:12 remaining, although I had 49 states done with about 6 minutes left. (The missing state is in the comments section. Do not look until after you finish the game.)

I found this quiz through Rinsem's Rink.

Band Madness

Everyone loves brackets, but let's say you're not a college basketball fan. Well, here's an alternative: the website Band Madness "is a March-Madness style, single elimination tournament of pop/rock bands where the winners are determined strictly by fan voting. There are 512 artists from various decades and genres."

This is one huge bracket! Anyway, you can go on and vote for your favorite bands. Some current match-ups include: The Beatles vs. Big & Rich; Tenacious D vs. Cat Stevens; Run-DMC vs. Moody Blues; and Monkees vs. Wolfmother (this last one is no contest - you can't stop Micky, Michael, Peter and Davy!).

I learned of Band Madness through Deadspin, so I thought I would give them some credit.

Early NCAA Tournament Thoughts

* I’m 1 for 3 in my tournament picks thus far with Davidson losing to Maryland and Texas Tech falling to Boston College. Good start, Sean! At least I picked Louisville correctly.

* Stanford, thanks for showing up. For all the people (like me) that thought you did not deserve to be in the tournament over Drexel and Syracuse, you proved everyone right.

* Conversely, no one thinks Arkansas belongs in the tournament. Even though I agree, I think they will play with a chip on their shoulder and defeat USC in the first round tomorrow night.

* I saw that Metro had a system-wide delay this morning and reading about Arjewtino’s commute confirms my belief that I picked the perfect day to take off work.

* I am devastated. Applebee’s used the chorus from “It Takes Two” (one of the greatest songs EVER) in its commercial for Pick ‘N Pair where you can choose a sandwich and salad (or something like that). First, Panera has had “U Pick 2” for years. More importantly, that song should not be used in an Applebee’s commercial. I hope Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock are getting paid a lot of money.

A Dream Comes True

Today, March 15, 2007, I took the day off so I could sit on my couch to watch hours of the NCAA Tournament. I write this every year, but the first four days of the NCAA Tournament are some of the best days of the year. While I enjoy the beginning of the NFL season, the NCAA Tournament combined with baseball’s spring training, for me, represent the start of spring. Plus, there are 48 intense games in 4 days that include teams that I support, teams I want to lose and upsets that you do not have in every other sport. Think about that for a minute. If the Arizona Cardinals defeated the Indianapolis Colts during week 14 of the NFL’s regular season, that is an upset, but not entirely unexpected because they are all professional athletes. Now if a small school such as Valparaiso University with a student enrollment under 3,000 hits a shot at the buzzer to defeat a large SEC school like the University of Mississippi (enrollment of 17,000+), THAT is an upset.

On today’s schedule:

Maryland vs. Davidson
Georgetown vs. Belmont
George Washington vs. Vanderbilt
Duke vs. Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Kentucky vs. North Carolina

At some point, I’ll meet my wife for lunch to make up for sitting on the couch all day. Plus, I’ll watch more games on the computer including Pitt and Wright State for the late game.

In case you were wondering, my Final Four picks are Florida, Kansas, Georgetown and Texas A&M. Unfortunately, this has no chance of happening since the Sports Guy also picked these teams for the Final Four.

Fame

It seems like only yesterday that I wrote about the issues with our car and the "Maturn" dealership. Actually, it was Monday. Anyway, my story was picked up the website Jalopnik which has the tagline "Obsessed with the Cult of Cars," and I had 190 hits yesterday. That is a new record breaking the previous record when I was featured on a West Virginia University fan site for writing about Kevin Pittsnogle.

Here is the link to the “Blog Hoonage” where I am one of the featured links. I have no idea how (or if I should) respond to these comments:

Wow! News flash, the automotive service industry is corrupt, and you will pay alot to "fix" your car unless you find someone you trust...
I do have a small portion of sympathy for those who refuse to learn mechanics on their own.

AND

Wellll... that and, it's not unlikely that his car was at the timing belt and water pump service point. And those aren't cheap (or easy) to do. Is the second mechanic he took it to going to fix it for free if/when the belt pops or the water pump fails and the motor is a big paper weight? The dealership would likely be expected to if that happened shortly after they worked on it. So it's easier for them to say "this needs done" versus paying out the nose later to fix a problem they didn't cause.
That's not to say that shops don't "upsell"; they most certainly do, the jerks. But just because one shop recommends more service than another doesn't mean that's what's happening.

Publish or Perish (not Robert Parish)

I have decided that I want to be an author. Specifically, I want to write a book. One big problem: I have no idea what to write. Fiction – I am not creative enough to pull this off. Non-fiction – I do not have the time to devote for interviews and research. Auto-biography – My life is not exciting enough to cover more than a magazine article. Plus, I’d be extremely wary of any magazine that wants to publish my auto-biography. You may be thinking to yourself, Sean, why don’t you write about your passion? Excellent suggestion. I could write about Pittsburgh sports; however, an Amazon search of sports books with “Pittsburgh” in the title has 3,106 results. I am passionate about fantasy sports, but there is already a fairly established market out there, and I offer no fresh ideas with the possible exception of tips on how to lose every single year.

Until I figure out my great novel, I’ll be here. If you have any book ideas (and I use it), I will give you a mention in the acknowledgement section.

THE PENS ARE STAYING!

Woo hoo!! Here is the Post-Gazette's article. I do not understand why this story did not lead Good Morning America. This is obviously the biggest news of the day!

What a way to start the day!

Car Repairs

Last week, we took our car to the dealership to fix the windshield wipers and to get an oil change. In its review of the car, the dealership (I do not want to give the car company name but it is a name of a planet and rhymes with Maturn) found that the water pump and belt needed to be replaced. Along with a few other things they found, the grand total of repairs was $1,350! The car is barely worth that amount. Therefore, I took the car to a local mechanic who is a family friend of a friend. After looking at the water pump, belt, etc., they determined that the only thing that needed to be replaced was the idler pulley (whatever that is). They said that the water pump and belt looked fine. The total of today’s repairs: $182.45! That’s quite a difference.

A few things. First, the new mechanic will be getting a lot more business, while the Maturn dealership, well not so much. Look again at the prices again. Instead of looking into buying a new car, we can now wait and try to save a little more money. I don't know about you, but we know very little about car repairs, so you put so much trust into professionals. I feel violated, although it could have been much worse. We could have paid $1,350 and been in even more debt.

Question of the Day

Where have all the Paula Coles gone? (And did she find her John Wayne?) Yippee Aw, Yippee Yea.