"In a world where lovers often go astray, I'm on the verge of goodbye."
-Line from my friend Becca's MySpace page
Major League Baseball begins the watchable portion of its year now: the post-season. Yankees in, Red Sox out... good times! New York ended up landing Detroit (instead of Minnesota) as a first round opponent; the Tigers had a collapse of epic proportion down the stretch, but with Jim Leyland at the helm and muscle in the lineup, I don't think Detroit is as down as some people might think. More a case of the Tigers relaxing and prepping for the post-season, I'd suggest.
(And don't think I've forgotten the jinx of 2004, either. Not by a long shot.)
The start of the postseason did sneak up on me, though. I usually forget how early baseball starts on day one of the post-season, and this year was no exception. I went to Moe's Southwest Grill for lunch today, and I did a double-take when I saw Johan Santana and the Twins vs. the A's on the TV in there.
TNA Wrestling has been a mixed bag as of late. The company's signing of Kurt Angle was panned by some onlookers, but I think to *not* sign Angle would've been a mistake. Angle is not healthy right now, but much like an injured Steve Austin provided great material on ECW TV back in the day (when ECW was Extreme Championship Wrestling, not WWE redux), I see Angle as having potential to pique the interest of fans. A dream match between Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe down the line could draw some big money.
Samoa Joe is a very talented pro wrestler in TNA.
Of course, to get to that point, Samoa Joe must continue to be protected. I give TNA credit for keeping Samoa Joe's unbeaten streak intact and for making him look like a major player. WWE, with its even-steven booking and backroom politics, would've likely had him jobbing to the likes of Umaga within a month. Now? If things play out as they should, Samoa Joe will take the NWA Title from Jeff Jarrett and (hopefully) enjoy a long, long title run.
Ideally, Joe will be an unbeaten champ ready for Kurt Angle, whenever Angle is healthy to go. If nothing else, Angle's recovery time could be used for a slow build, which in pro wrestling is all too rare anymore. Remember how long ECW teased Sabu vs. Taz before they finally had their memorable match? I'm telling you, anticipation equals buyrates.
On the other hand, the return of Vince Russo to the booking committee baffles me. If you'd failed at your job many times, ruined companies, and been seen as a buffoon and a disgrace to your industry, would you then be re-hired by the #2 company in the country in that same industry? No. But pro wrestling plays by its own rules, so Mike Tenay (who I have always believed was a voice of reason) was removed from the booking committee of TNA and Vince Russo was added to it.
The immediate impact? I don't know for sure if Russo is to blame for this (since I wasn't in on the meeting), but at the last PPV, they had an angle with laxatives in the Petey Williams vs. Jay Lethal match, and an inflatable doll made its way into the Senshi vs. Chris Saban X Division Title match. Hmm, titles made meaningless, unfunny "comedy" ruining undercard matches that should be grooming stars for the future... sounds like vintage Russo to me.
WWE became mostly unwatchable long ago, and in reading this week's Raw TV Recap, I have to echo the sentiments there and stress that I'm a fan of promotions like Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling NOAH, New Japan Pro Wrestling, etc. WWE is low-grade "entertainment" in the loosest form of the word.
You'd think that a promotion would build for TV with a product based on athletic matches. It doesn't have to be as stiff as UWFi from Japan in the 90s, or as wild and non-psychology based as Extreme Lucha, but please at least put on a watchable product that doesn't involve the same stale clichés that are haunting WWE and TNA, and don't insult my intelligence. Is that too much to ask? Is it?
At long last, I am now registered on Facebook. Why did it take so long? Because, until now, Facebook would only allow people with school e-mail addresses and well-known work addresses to sign up. Finally they let me in, but since they've already been pwnd by MySpace, it's not that big of a deal to me.
Hi Lou,
Now you can join Facebook! You tried to register last August, before we allowed everyone to sign up.
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
Actually I tried to sign up long before August, but whatever. Now I'm on there. At a glance it is cumbersome to use, though the picture sharing aspect is appealing (though I'm not sure what's different about that than Flickr.) Because until now it was closed to not-students, I'm the oldest person in my various groups of friends who is on there (Pouncey is a close second, but he was in pharmacy school at Auburn through May of this year, which made signing up easy for him.)
My initial reaction: Facebook is too restrictive and unwieldy, but I do like the standard template versus the way MySpace has pages that end up looking like a kaleidoscope thanks to the bizarre customization possibilities.
Go Yankees. Soon on here I plan to reflect on October 9, 1996, the day that Jeffrey Maier becoming a part of baseball lore. On that play the Yankees got their mojo back and the Baltimore Orioles fell into a ten year (and counting) tailspin. For now, I leave you with a piece of video that still gives me chill bumps, Aaron Boone in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS:
