Phillies

I used to be the commissioner of a Rotisserie baseball league in college. I was a baseball freak. I collected cards. I owned APBA. During the 1993 season when the Phillies went to the World Series I went to at least 10 games that year. I've been a Phillies fan since 1980 or so. I've been to Camden Yards and Fenway. For God's sake I used to sit on the can as a kid and read the baseball section of The Guinness Book of World Records. I loved Mike Schmidt growing up even though I was a die hard Steelers fan. Why does this matter? Well, the Phillies are about to be the World Champions and I can't even watch a complete game. I haven't watched one yet! Not against the Brewers, Dodgers or Rays. I watched most of some, 3 innings of a few before falling asleep on the couch. I even changed the channel on Sunday to watch True Blood and Entourage on HBO even though I could have DVR'd them. True Blood is starting to take the place of The Sopranos for me....filling a void of good television. Tonight's game will be easy to watch - maybe only 3 innings. You want to know why I love football so much? Just try to watch an entire baseball game. The strike lost me. I'm not back yet. If my own team in the World Series can't bring me back, I guess I never will be fully back in the fold.

Tony Still Kickin'

That's right.....

suck it, people who thought the fade-out meant he was dead......

Secret Message For Phil?

So, last night as I was doing some late night office work, I dialed up Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" on iTunes. Along with the positive message of the song and all the good nostalgic reasons for using it in the finale of The Sopranos - a certain line jumped out at me and whacked me in the head:

"Working hard to get my fill..."

fill? Phil? hmmmmm. I think it's probably just a coincidence, but a cool one at that.

The Sopranos: Series Finale Autopsy Report

How fitting. The music playing when the credits roll is something I always look forward to. Tonight, there was silence. I love the ending. It said so much with saying so little. As Tony almost played 2 other songs at the diner, he finally settled on Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", one of my favorite songs to sing along to. The way Chase made you jumpy at the end, by Meadow having a problem parking, by the trucker looking at Tony, by the other stranger walking past Tony, by the two African American guys coming in (Tony is a known racist)....Chase was showing us that life goes on for Tony, but can he ever relax? Danger is around every corner with every stranger that he doesn't know. People at the top get whacked, it's what happens. He knows it, he said as much to Bobby while fishing and heard Bobby's voice before falling asleep saying "you probably won't even hear the footsteps". I thought Meadow would walk in right after a hit on the family and survie. Then I thought there would be a robbery and Tony may try to intervene. Then, I thought maybe a robbery and Meadow would walk in and scare the guy and get shot. I was on pins and needles for the last 2-3 minutes. Good stuff.

Tony believes he's on a lucky streak and I think that's why he's not that upset about the possibility of getting pinched by Carlo's information. He was right about one thing - he was afraid Christopher would get caught with drugs and give him up. As it turns out, it was Carlo's kid. Same theory, different delivery. Only one thing upset me a little during the episode and that was AJ's car blowing up. I really think they did that just for last week's teaser. That was pretty weak at best. Uncle Junior got a great sendoff and should win an Emmy award for the way he played the part coming down the stretch. Agent Harris likes Tony, more than he wants to admit. I wonder if he requested a transfer so he would never have to put him away? Did he request a transfer? I can't remember. Anyway - the Arabs story didn't get resolved - I guess we'll have to wait for the movie. Maybe in the movie my original prediction of Meadow being on a case that involves Tony will come to fruition? I had a big bowl of ice cream to give Tony a proper sendoff. Maybe I'll have to buy the DVDs and watch 13 episodes every 2 years, just like real life. I really thought maybe Paulie and Tony would get hit at the end sitting outside. That scene reminded me of the very beginning of the series. I also thought as he was in the back yard the ducks might come back. Nada. I did catch AJ quoting his grandmother again with the "drama" comment directed at Tony. That's Chase's way of letting us know that Livia ruined Tony, who in turn may have ruined AJ. They had Tony saying "Poor You" a few times this season as well.....another Livia quote. I enjoyed the episode as well as the season. Good writing all around. I'm glad Phil's head caved in like a melon. It's HBO - they should have shown it.

The Sopranos: Week 8 Autopsy Report

Instead of rehashing the entire episode, I'm going to lay out what I think is going to happen next week during the final week of the season and series. Late last season I thought Meadow would get righteous and be part of a court case against Tony. Well, that didn't happen. I thought before this year started that AJ was going to die....and it almost happened, but didn't...at least not yet. I guessed correctly that Christopher wouldn't make it out of the season alive and was right about that, but after Bobby and potentially Sil got whacked this week, that wasn't really going out on a limb. I also predicted that Tony would end up in prison, which still may happen. What this goes to show you is that David Chase is so good - somebody that watches - no, dissects - each episode (sometimes twice) has no idea which direction the plot will go next. There are so many ways the series could end. I have two half-baked theories remaining. I'd like to get them both down and dated so I can say "Ha! I TOLD you so" if it happens, but I'm starting to wonder if that's anything to brag about with only one episode remaining. Theory Number 1: Paulie Walnuts has been playing both sides for several years. Several items support this theory. There was the Ginny Sak joke that made it back to Johnny courtesy of Paulie. Paulie even went to Johnny in NY and offered his services but was then offended when Sak had little idea of who he actually was. Paulie was crushed when nobody came to his mom's funeral and somewhat vowed revenge. He is always hurt by Tony who shows him little respect...remember the portrait incident with the horse. There was another time when Tony told Paulie not to touch the son of the late garbage tycoon after his mother's pleading and Paulie disobeyed him immediately and roughed him up and shook him down. Why? Did Paulie know he had an ace in the hole in NY? Now think about this...... when NY decided to take out Tony and his crew, the first name that came up for consideration was Paulie and that idea was immediately shot down. Only Tony, Sil and Bobby were to be hit. They said they would then deal with whomever was left. Paulie perhaps? Interesting. Didn't Paulie seem a little miffed when the order was given to hit Phil? Why? Was it just because he didn't want to start a war, or because he knew he was going to run things if Phil got to Tony first? Again, interesting. Maybe Paulie helped botch the hit on Phil? Here's the interesting theory - what if while Tony is sleeping in the safe house, Paulie climbs the stairs and puts a bullet in his head? It could happen. I don't think fans would cry foul either....some groundwork has been put down for this theory. I'm sure there are many more things that could be added to this list. The second theory has to do with Agent Harris. I have a feeling he hasn't made his last curtain call yet. What if Tony reflects on his life and he knows more about the Arabs than he originally let on? What if he goes to Harris and says he wants out? Could Harris get him a deal if he rolls over and gives up Phil or any other information? I don't think Tony is a rat, but he is desperate right now. He may choose prison over getting killed, but it just doesn't seem like him. Maybe he's been collecting evidence for just such a scenario to save himself and his family? I know that's a lot of question marks for one theory, but to generalize it - I think he could go to Harris for help. The crazy thing is, on any other tv show, the fact that Harris got transferred to Homeland Security and Tony gave him info about the two Arabs would be foreshadowing. There is no way that issue would not forward the plot along. However, on The Sopranos, look how many times it's happened in the past; the Russian getting away from Paulie and Christopher (well, maybe?), Melfi getting raped and countless other dead-ends. What does it all mean? If AJ isn't involved somehow in the finale, then why even drive him to suicide near the end of the run? We've seen a vindictive Janice before, maybe she will explode? It's still in the realm of possibility that Tony has had enough and he'll just swallow the mouth of the gun that Bobby bought him and pull the trigger. I know one thing, on Sunday night at 8:55 when I dish out my bowl of ice cream and turn out the lights to forget about everything in life for a while, it's going to be hard to face the fact that this show is ending. I've said it before and I'll say it again - taking time with your family out of the picture - once you hit a certain age in life the number of things that you really, truly enjoy start to decline. What really makes you happy? What do you look forward to? I look forward to my yearly football weekend in the fall with Still A Dog featuring guest appearances by Still A Dad, Big W and Cornbread if I can swing it. I look forward to watching every play of every Steeler game every year...no matter if they are 5-11 or 13-3. Bill Cowher re-ignited my passion for Steelers football as college and all the distractions there were ending for me. Here's to hoping Mike Tomlin can build on that and keep the fire burning. It's only going to take one Rooney to fall too far from the tree and then football for me may end up where baseball, basketball and hockey are right on my priority list (somewhere around 111, 137 and 82 respectively). I look forward to being alone in my own house so I can turn the music up to 9 and play along on my drums without getting yelled at. And finally, I enjoy the heck out of watching the finest show ever made for television - The Sopranos.

No Sopranos?

Man. Sunday night, no football, no Sopranos and no Entourage. What's a guy to do? We just came back from a cookout and I was all ready to get into my Sunday night routine.....only to be let down. They started this run on Easter Sunday...they can't show a new episode the Sunday before Memorial day? Fugghetaboutit.

The Sopranos: A Slanted Review 3

Episode 3 of the second half of the last season was very dark with a lot of mixed messages. Plus, I never know if I'm reading too much into what I see or if I'm right on with what David Chase wants us to think. There were only three story lines in this episode and one was rather short. Phil Leotardo felt disrespected by Doc and took him out - consolidating the NY family to one power - himself. We saw that one coming from a mile away. The second story line belonged to Uncle Junior. Junior was feeling like his old self and had a mini-mob running inside his facility. He would sign 8x10's of himself for an orderly who was selling them on ebay, and in return the orderly would get him supplies and snacks to sell at his poker games and look the other way while the games were going on. Junior had a protege of sorts with a younger Asian patient who clearly worshipped him. He watched in fascination as Junior whipped the ass of an ex college professor for getting in his face. The more he watched Junior in action, the more aggressive he got. After the fight, the doctors changed Junior's meds to try to control him and he finally gave in and "got in line" with the facility's program. This disgusted his young protege who then attacked Junior in a fit of rage after Junior chastised him for interrupting singing hour at the home. Seeing Junior conform pushed the kid over the edge. To me, this short story seemed like a microcosm of Junior's relationship with Tony. He taught him everything and then felt betrayed by him when he took power of the NJ family. Instead of this playing out over 25 years, it played out in a matter of weeks. It also showed the devastating effects of his disease that he could run an operation like a poker game and be the don of the facility, and then moments later he can't remember anything. The third story involves Tony and Paulie Walnuts. A guy they whacked together (Tony's first) over 25 years ago and hid is dug up on a tip from an informant. Tony and Paulie pack up and go to Miami for a few days in case they have to leave the country in a hurry. While on the trip, Paulie gets on Tony's last nerve. He won't shut up the entire trip and leaves a trail of stories (to anyone who will listen) on the way down and once there that Tony starts to worry about. They hook up with Beansie who is in a wheelchair thanks to Richie April. Paulie again starts telling stories to hookers and Tony worries when he even mentions some names and places. He has a heart-to-heart talk with Beansie where he is finally convinced (for the time being) that Paulie is just lonely and his legacy is his stories and reputation as a badass. After almost starting a fight before getting a deal signed with some Cubans, Tony has seen enough and asks Paulie to go deep sea fishing. Paulie rightfully so has flashbacks of them killing Pussy on a similar trip. He even dreams about Pussy that night. Tony confronts Paulie again on the boat about tipping off Johnny Sack about a joke Ralph made about Ginny. Paulie denies he did it (though he did) and even though Tony has thoughts of putting the old man out of his misery - he doesn't. In the end, I read it as he just wanted to see Paulie a little nervous. He's thinking if he can put it in Paulie's head that he could be whacked - maybe he'll straighten up and quit annoying Tony so much. The two stories of the elders kind of parallel each other as Tony learned under Paulie as well and is now disgusted with him - much like Junior's protege. The weird thing in play is how Chase has made us believe in 2 out of 3 episodes that Tony could have taken out both Bobby and Paulie - two of his closest partners. It's been alluded to that mobsters end up dead or in jail and you can see that Tony is getting paranoid to some extent about his own people. Even Carmela made mention that at the age they are at - should they still have to live "like this" referring to Tony going on the lam for a few days. This episode didn't further my theory that T will end up in prison except for the fact that the feds were looking into a 25 year old murder to try to tie Tony into it. In the end, the murder was hung on Ritchie April so Tony could return to Jersey.

The Sopranos - A Slanted Review 2

Week number two, of the second half of the last season (geez!) saw New York boss John Sacromoni pass away. He didn't get whacked, he died of cancer - which is the same way Tony's old crew boss Jackie April died in season one leaving Tony to take over. It was quick and ugly. I still find it hilarious and would love to know the reasoning behind the story of John's wife being so overweight. I remember they got into her food addiction in one episode where Johnny Sac came home and found her eating a candy bar hidden in the washer. I wonder if she used to be really thin or if John married her as horizontally challenged. He always looked so tailored and she always looked so cheap. It didn't seem to make sense visually, but that's another reason to love the show. I'm guessing it was easier to keep women on the side and get away with things when the person at home may be afraid of losing you and their lifestyle. Anyway, with Sac gone, the New York family needs to come up with a leader. Phil doesn't appear to want it due to his age and health and Doc kills Torch before he can take over. Tony begs Little Carmine to take control and fill the vacuum but he's not interested either. Tony does not want to report or share anything with somebody that he doesn't know or at least respect. He wants to deal with a known entity. As the episode ends, Phil is with crew members and family for the celebration of his dead brother's birthday (which is weird!). He makes a passionate speech about the Leotardo family name and how it was changed at Ellis Island from Leonardo. The angrier he gets, the more he turns his anger towards Tony and especially Tony's cousin who murdered Phil's brother. If you remember, Phil was going to torture and kill Tony B but Tony Soprano got to him first and killed him to make peace with NY leaving his body for Phil to find at the old farmhouse. We're lead to believe that Phil is going to get very violent and take revenge on Tony's family for what happened to his brother. They cut to Tony hugging Christopher at his kid's baptism. They could be foreshadowing Phil killing Christopher, but Tony isn't very happy with Christopher right now either. I'm sticking with Tony ending up in jail to end the series, and Christopher probably won't survive - but I'm not sure if he will be killed by NY or Tony himself. I can't see Tony killing him and if he does, it will leave you with the impression that he was a ruthless killer - as much as they try to represent him as a family man outside of his business. He's already killed Tony B, Big Pussy and recently fought with long time friend Bobby. His mother tried to kill him and so did his uncle. Why would we assume that Chase wouldn't end the series with more inside killings?

The Sopranos - A Slanted Review 1

I've heard some conversations from friends and coworkers that they thought the first installment of the last nine episodes was boring with the notable exception of their fight. I couldn't disagree more! I thought it was very thought provoking. The fact that the feds picked up the gun charge leads me to believe that my prediction will come true and the series will end with Tony in prison. He even foreshadows it a bit when he tells Bobby while fishing that it usually ends in prison or a coffin for guys like them. Christopher still may get whacked as Tony also voices his displeasure with his heir apparent to Bobby. Some other things I either picked up on or I'm reading too much into: Janice's parenting style. She talked the entire episode about parenting and how their parents caused them to be who/what they are - yet she really does no parenting herself. She has her nanny do almost everything while she barks out orders. Something else I picked up on was Tony urging Carmela to tell Janice the story of the child almost drowning in a pool. Since they have a house on the water and Janice is a worrier by nature, I think Tony did it knowing that the thought will eat Janice alive. later in the episode she flips out that the girl is in knee-deep water with Carmela. They were also setting us up to worry about what Tony was going to do to Bobby after the fight. They left together, drove down a side road, Tony making the comment about turning the air conditioner on since Bobby was sweating, Carmela & Janice both nervously looking at their watches....even though Carmela defended Tony when Janice was hinting at his temper and vindictive nature. As it turned out, Tony turned to more of a psychological solution to the problem. Years ago he would have beaten or killed Bobby for sucker punching him. Now, he asked Bobby to murder someone to get a better deal on stolen drugs after Bobby just discussed with him the day before that he's kind of glad he never had to kill anyone in the line of duty. Bobby's dad didn't want him to carry on the family tradition of being an exterminator, and Bobby was also fearful of all the new DNA testing that can be done. How appropriate then that as he shot and killed the target, the guy ripped off a piece of Bobby's shirt, most definitely containing DNA evidence. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. There was some talk on the pier from Carmela about how they almost bought a summer house and they mention the mansion that Bobby & Janice live in (that Tony got from Ginny & Johnny Sack) a few times as well. Maybe Tony is a little jealous of Janice and he's now going to assign Bobby some more serious tasks and whatever happens happens. If Bobby gets nailed or killed, I can already hear Tony yelling at Janice "You asked for this, you wanted him moved up!". I think when this show goes off the air, they should hold a funeral for good television.

HBO Crew Buries Officiating Conspiracy

I caught this week's edition of HBO's Inside the NFL last night. They did a superb job of talking about the supposed "bad calls" in the Super Bowl. They started the program off by numbering the bad calls, showing each in slow motion and then dissecting exactly what happened on each play while giving their own opinions of whether they thought the call was good or bad. For those of you who don't know, the show is hosted by Bob Costas and the panel includes Dan Marino, Cris Collinsworth and Cris Carter. I've beaten these calls to death and I don't want to go through each one again, but the only one they all agreed was a bad call was the low block by Matt Hasselbeck. On the holding call to Locklear against Haggans, they split 2-2. On the other 3 suspect calls, all 4 agreed the refs made the right calls. Furthermore, the NFL released a statement saying they thought the officiating was on the money. Remember, it was just 3 short weeks ago that the NFL released a statement saying the Troy Polamalu interception should not have been overturned. The NFL will speak out when it feels a bad call was made.

Watching this show gave me a tad more insight into the game. It allowed me to see what Matt Hasselbeck saw when he threw the pick to Ike Taylor. Joey Porter had a relatively quiet game with the exception of making a pursuit tackle on Shawn Alexander that saved big yardage. I think he finished with 3 tackles. However, Seattle game planned for him so thats good in a way because it freed up other players to make plays. Since the Steeler rushers and blitzes had trouble getting to Hasselbeck who was going with 3 step drops and quick passes - LeBeau started rushing 3 and dropping 8 into coverage late in the game. On the pick, it looked like the ball just floated from most of the angles I saw, but the HBO show clearly pointed out that it was Joey Porter that caused the pick. He was at the line of scrimmage and then he drifted back into a zone to take the passing lane away from Hasselbeck. Not expecting to see Porter there, he had to float the ball over Porter to drop it in to his man. He put too much on it and it was picked by Taylor after sailing over the intended receivers head. Porter didn't get credit for that and it was a beautiful call by LeBeau.

One of the other things brought to light was that Hines Ward pushed off on one of his catches as well. Can't remember the exact play, but it may have been the shoestring catch. Collinsworth asked him about it in an interview and I think Hines explained that he didn't extend his arm - but he had a huge smile on his face while explaining the play.

All in all it was a good show. I especially liked how they stopped the Roethlisberger TD and drew a red line where the plane of the endzone started. This should have been on the front page of every newspaper's sports page on Monday as it was a really good look at where the ball was. Madden should have asked for the replay to be stopped so he could draw on the screen while the game was in progress. I still feel that the calls were like any other game and everything was simply magnified by the media throng and all of the casual fans watching who don't really know the rules of football. Just my two cents.