Goodbye 2008

New Year's Eve is here and it's goodbye 2008, hello 2009. Went fast I think.

Still at work - somebody has to be here to cover the department. Quiet though. And snowing, again.

So since I will not get on the blog later today - I would like to wish everyone a

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
C-YA in the Niner!

The Day After...

Christmas, that is. I am stuck at work, along with the bare minimum to keep our multi-conglomerate running efficiently. Except for a peer of mine (also chained to his office) e-mailing and calling me, it is D-E-A-D.

How was the holiday for you? My wife and I had a lot of joy watching the kids faces light up in the morning. The older guy has kind of figured out the whole Santa Claus thing, but keeps it to himself so the younger guy can live the dream.

Anyway, Guitar Hero was a big splash - though I could do without hearing Slow Ride for a couple of days. And now that the boys are getting older, they have no interest in traditional toys, preferring electronic ones. Like a good coach though, they both got new Easton Baseball Bats (gotta keep the fire burning!).

And what did Big Daddy X (aka SoulSlam) get? My wife outdid herself this year folks. She tracked down four seats in the 4th row on the 1B side for the April 4 exhibition game against the Red Sox. SWEEET!

Only another 3 hours to go before I get along for the weekend.

'Twas the Night...

Well actually the day, but I'm pretty busy later. Got me shopping done - even in the face of another bad weather day, hope everybody likes what I bought 'em. If not, they can brave the return lines in your favorite stores, and get what they really wanted!

So I'm off the blog for the holiday - and I hope you all enjoy a happy and healthy with whoever is near and dear to you and yours.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Big Tex

They done it again! The Evil Empire goes out and signs another piece of high-priced beef - namely Mark Texeira - aka Big Tex. Great defensive 1B, great OBP, excellent hitter... and no major achievements (aka Post-Season heroics) to brag about. So ponder this Yankee Fans - the Atlanta Braves have enough moolah for a player of Tex's stature (whether the admit it or not) - yet traded him mid-season to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim which is in Orange County on the West Coast of the United States of America (well if your going to have a verbose name, you might as well go big). I'd be wary of that, but that's me. Eight years and $180Mil is a lot of time and money, but the Yankees can ask the City of NY to pony up, maybe.

And Boras (the Slimy) gets to save a little face after the b-slap the Bosox tossed last week.

Anyway, it all reminds me of a gem The Onion out up on line about six years ago. Enjoy the read.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27656

The Home Stretch

For Christmas Shopping (or "Holiday Shopping" if you're PC) - and the great state of North Jersey got a bit of a snowstorm that put SoulSlam behind in the shopping... Sunday night at the mall it will be! Forecast calls for another storm brewing; I will be shopping on the Eve, no doubt!

While we are chatting, let me pontificate on something of interest. XM Satellite Radio has a 24-hour channel dedicated to the mighty Led Zeppelin. Great listen. Check out channel 39 if you are satellite-connected.

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Basketball is in full swing; games for the 4-5 grade boys begin on 1/6. Practice, practice, practice. My son seems to have gained a lot of self-confidence from Baseball and is now putting it to use on the court. My team has a lot of potential - maybe we can do something, but win or lose, it's about fun.

And 28 days (by my count) to indoor winter Baseball training for the travel team. Cannot wait!

Happy Saturday!

The New MLB Network

In case you hadn't heard (or watch hockey exclusively), Major League Baseball is starting a new cable TV network appropriately named the MLB Network.

Original and full-time programming doesn't start until January 1, 2009 - but the channel is up and I HAVE IT.

Cablevision comes through again! Yes. Right now, it's a lot of playoff and season history stuff, but it's 100% BASEBALL, 100% OF THE TIME. Nirvana.

Here's the skinny - Channel 790 on Cablevision HD, channel 400 on IO. SWEEEET!

While I'm posting, here's two more things:

Finished watching the excellent Playing for Peanuts DVD from John J. Fitzgerald. This is the guy who filmed the Irish Baseball Movie. Story of Mr. Wally Backman's managerial stint in an independent minor league coaching the South Georgia Peanuts of Albany, GA. Highly recommended!

And - to anyone out there who may think that stealing packages from houses is a fine way of life; you are scum. If I catch you, it will be time to get medieval. Be warned.

SoulSlam New Look

A little easier on the eyes, don't you think? My new bloggin' look, not SoulSlam his'self. Me, I'm kind of rugged...not quite Ernest Borgnine, but no fancy pants either.

Enjoy.

Anyway, remember this incredible post? Well, Mr. Mickey Rourke's new movie, The Wrestler was released today, and many of the movie review types are:

A. Giving it rave reviews

B. Saying the Mick is an Oscar contender.

Remember, SoulSlam was there when nobody else was. That's called a self-congratulatory pat on the back!

Holiday Blues

It's here! The Holiday Blues are here! Too bad Stevie Ray Vaughn don't play no more!

Crazy people in stores looking for bargains, traffic, traffic, traffic and more holiday-time layoffs than anyone can remember.

Every night, Mr. Bill O'Reilly rants on about the removal of the Nativity and the phrase "Merry Christmas" from the lexicon of the American public. Good work, William.

In NY, the apparent 50 billion (yes billion) ponzi scheme is making the news. Nice bit of holiday cheer there.

So here is SoulSlam on Dec. 16th, nine days away and no gifts purchased yet. See, I don't really hit my stride until Dec. 21 - no matter what. I just kind of wander around stores all cheery-like.

Gotta Go - But HOHOHO!

Wifely Duties

Like not changing my passwords!

Outbidding Yourself

Sorry townsfolk, been out of town, in the Windy City on biz. Good to report that they got the parking lot tollbooth working over at EWR!

Lots 'o' baseball this week. My beloved NY Mets picked up K-Rod and JJ Putz to put a hammer on the 8th and 9th innings. Sorry to see Joe Smith go though.

The other big BB news is the NY Yankees signed CC Sabathia. Now here is the funny part. Originally they offered 6 years, 140 million. The only other team anyone know about is the Milwaukee Brewers at 5 and 100. So what do the Yankees do? They up the offer against themselves to seven years and 161 million, with an opt-out after three years! WHAT WHAT WHAT? Was the big man so not in love with the idea of putting on the pinstripes that they had to entice him in ways unknown in the negotiation process. If he has a couple of great seasons at the beginning, he's opting out - and if he doesn't, the Yanks are stuck with a 7 year deal on a 300 lb man. Nice going NYY!

A Bike

I guess by now most of you have figured out life as a kid is not like when we grew up. Remember the days of going outside and playing ball and running around for hours upon hours, only coming home to eat some dinner and then get outside again. Unfortunately the world has changed. And now kids spend a lot of time on video games, and only playing ball in structured environments, under the watchful eye of parents everywhere. Drive through most neighborhoods, and seeing a bunch of kids playing is rare. Sad but true.

So anyway, how does this correlate to the title of today's submission? Maybe it does and maybe it doesn't. See, about three years ago, we got my son a bike. Pretty nice one in fact. And I taught him to ride on two wheels. Here's a great way to do so: bring your kid, the bike and yourself to a neighborhood ball field. Kids have a tendency to see the infield as safe if they fall, and the curves of the diamond help them with turning.

So he learned, but had no real affinity for bike-riding. And since Big Daddy X (aka SoulSlam) was an avid cyclist (I have a Trek 2300 Road Bike and a sweet Klein Pulse from before they were bought by Trek, as well as some hoopdies) , it was a little disappointing. But everyone has there own interests, and I am not the Pushy Kind when it comes to my sons.

So a couple of nights ago I come home late and my garage is open. I go inside and I see someone has pulled out their bike. A bike that has probably not been touched (except by me) in two years. So I close the garage and don't say a word.
Next day is Saturday (best day of the week!) and my son comes out while I'm doing the man-thing in the garage; sorting my recyclables, picked up my Ariens 10hp Snowthrower from the service guy (special thanks to my bro-in-law for the assist), and getting the Christmas decorations out and in place. And he asks me about the bike. So we get it out, fill the tires, adjust the seat, check the chain, tighten some things that need tightening, and he starts out. Tentatively at first, then faster and faster around my circular driveway that goes around the abode we call Rose Manor. Rode for a hour, then we went to hoops practice for a deuce and then back on the bike for another hour. Sunday rolls around and the kid is riding in the freezing cold after Mass - like a kid who just discovered, well, how great riding a bike is, laughing, smiling and having the time of his life. SoulSlam is beaming!

So the moral of my story: Bikes are good. Ride a bike.

See y'all later.

I Have New Channels!

Wow. Once in a great while, Cablevision gives you a bonus. Not often, but once in a while.

MOJOHD bit the dust, not by any nefarious means - just done as a TV channel. So I was rolling around the dial (hands-up for those who remember when they had dials), and I caught a couple of new channels. Chiller TV and the Sleuth channel. A veritable cornucopia of shows (and movies) I love:

• Homicide LOTS
• Millennium
• Twin Peaks
• Magnum PI
• Tales From the Darkside
• Dark Shadows movies
• Miami Vice
• NY Undercover

Means I might have something to watch when nothing is on (that is a dichotomy).

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In the Baseball department - the countdown is on. Rumors abound about Sabathia; reports about Boras (the slimy) trying to package Texeira and Varitek (since apparently the market for catcher's WHO CAN NO LONGER HIT is not at a premium); the San Diego Padres are trying to unload everyone; and closers are all staring at one team (The Mets). Good times, people.

Taking Candy from Babies

Or is it ball fields from kids? Interesting article a couple of days ago in the Daily News.

Apparently, the glorious Yankees (with 26 Championships, don't forget that!) have basically taken away every ball field in the near vicinity of the "House that Steinbrenner got the taxpayers of NY to pay for" - how's that for community relations?

Best line in the article - "There is great irony that the world's wealthiest baseball club is taking away fields from the poorest community in America," said Geoff Croft, of NYC Park Advocates."

Meanwhile A-Rod is full-on hag chasing, Sabathia can't get another offer soon enough, and the holes in the pitching staff are like a piece of Finlandia. HOT STOVE, BABY.

GM Meeting begin on Monday in Gomorrah, I mean Vegas. Cannot wait!