We Scrimmage

My 5th grade team of ninjas have a basketball scrimmage at 1PM. Some team that contacted me through a forum.

Prediction: They will either be -

All 6 ft tall with mad skills, or

A team of put-together kids that resemble a rec team, or

Somewhere in between

Real (league) games supposed to start in two weeks. So we have to be ready.

P.S. - OSSS made Middle School Team.

Halftime

Ughhhh, Nickelback is on now at halftime.

Kill me now.

Happy T-Day

Happy Thanksgiving to all the acolytes.

Enjoy your turkey, your family, your friends.

Already today SoulSlam can see it is the day of the sideline reporter on football. Gonna be a long one.

SoulSlam is cooking his turkey as we speak. Mine will undoubtedly look and taste better!

Winklevi

Watching TV last night I saw a commercial for pistachios starring the Winklevoss twins, aka Winklevi.

Let's get this out there. These guys are tools.

Let me see; come from a very rich family, attended Harvard and make a living rowing a boat, and another living suing facebook.

Why don't you two douchebags come on down here with the rest of us and see how it is?

Tool #1 and Tool #2 on a couch. Get a life, boys.

The Handicap Spot

A lot of things rile me up. But I think one of the biggest is the people who park in handicap spots with no right to do so.

We have a guy in town, let's call him A-Hole. He's retired. Used to be a cop. The kind of cop all the other cops hated. Now he drives around in his big truck. And parks in handicap spots.

Now, I used to see a "red" handicap tag hanging from his rear-view. Red meaning your temporarily handicapped, due to an injury or something. But that tag was in play for about 2 years. Now A-Hole parks in the spot, sans tag. So using my powers of deduction, he no longer has tag. But he is one of the entitled apparently.

And nothing seems to get done. Complain to local PD. Nada.

A-Hole.

Everybody Gets A Trophy

The above-named post is one of SoulSlam's pet peeves. Let me 'splain (kinda long, peeps).

Got word through the grapevine (that's the grapevine that has been around since time began - now called the GV) about a parent comment recently. Let's go backwards.

Like I said in a previous post, SoulSlam is coaching a 5th grade travel basketball team. Had tryouts in October. Now last season, due to the demise of an older team, our program had two teams of 4th graders playing travel, with 17 boys split up. 17 came out, we kept all 17. This year, it was made 100% clear that there would be one team. And a max of ten slots. It's basketball.

So tryouts roll around over two sessions to accommodate other sports schedules. And I get 10 boys total come out. Through the GV SoulSlam hears that a bunch of boys don't want to come down because they might get cut. Which would happen if we had more than 10. All of these boys play in a soccer program which has a no cut policy (to be fair, 3 boys who did come down also play soccer). Now, these boys are 10 and 11 years old, so I don't blame them for feeling like they do. But the parental units...

Look, SoulSlam go cut as a young man. OSSS (Oldest Son of SoulSlam) has been cut as a 7th grader for his MS hoops team. It happens. And as a father, I know what it feels like. A little anger and wonder why. But ultimately, it isn't the end of the world. And may make your child better. We all have heard that Air Jordan got cut in HS...and that didn't turn out too badly. It is nothing to feel ashamed about. And as SoulSlam types, OSSS has tried out as an 8th grader for the MS team again and finds out Monday if he made the cut. He's grown a year, in both stature and skill. Originally he wasn't going to tryout, which made me sad. I didn't want him not to try because he was unsuccessful last year. But he decided to give it a shot and, make it or not, I am incredibly proud of him for trying again.

Anyway, back to that GV. So a parent from my current team told somebody else that we should have kept two team again this year so all the boys (the soccer boys by the way) could still play together, and that we shouldn't cut boys. And truth be known, if a couple had come out they probably would have made roster in lieu of others. But they (parent and child)didn't take the chance and we will never know. And the comment? It's from somebody who thinks that Everybody Gets A Trophy is the way we should deal with today's youth. Which is wrong, IMHO.

As Nietsche said "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger."

True that. Out.

Live from Cooperstown

Sunday AM in Cooperstown, NY; home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Been here since Friday night and the trip back home starts in about 2 hours or so.

If you're a regular viewer to my blog, you undoubtedly know SoulSlam is a huge baseball fan. Majors, Minors, College, HS, Youth...I like watching and coaching the game. So it may come as a surprise to know that I have never been here. For whatever reason. So the opportunity to come here presented itself, so we packed up the wagon (actually the big SUV) and SoulSlam and the Sons of SoulSlam made the journey.

Hit the museum at 9AM when it opened on Saturday. Once inside the first thing that I could think of was how cool I got to share this with my boys. It was a little overwhelming for a minute or two. Then it was wall-to-wall baseball and history and legends and wonder. Only one word to describe this place:

AWESOME

Tattoos: Making Nerds Look Tough?

OK, I've had it with tattoos (SoulSlam has none) - it seems to me that the only people getting tattooed are geeks and people who think a tattoo is cool (hint: it's not).

Look at these shows on TV. While Ami James may look "cool", he is a geek. Same with all the geeks he employs. He's seen as a tough guy, because he is a tough guy compared to the geeks he hangs with. EZ.

The metropolitan movement of being an "individual (hint: you're not) " so you should get some ink is what all people with little imagination and even less chutzpa (ask Ami what it means) think they should do.

So here's where this rant emanates from. Yesterday, I went to GameStop to pick up MW3 for the OSSS (Oldest Son of SoulSlam for you newbies). There was a guy who works there and he's covered in tattoos (I wont call then "tats"). Bad tattoos mostly. Like the ones you put on yourself. And he's rulin' it in the store with all the other geeks, who are also tattooed. It was like a surreal version of every nerd character ever, in one place, acting as if they were anything more than "gamers."

And I'd rather be called the worst epithet in the world than tagged (no pun) as a gamer.

Word. Out.

Low Rent

Word out of Queens is that the Mets have cut 10% of office staff; you know, administrative assistants, graphic designers, basically people who don't come from a pampered life. People who need money to survive. I guess the Wilpon's decided that they would contribute to the unemployment rate now rather than later.

Also in the news, the Wilpon's are offering "minor shares" of the teamso they can raise $20-$30m. Awesome. Why not have a giant yard sale around Willet's Point and raise the money selling off knick-knacks instead. Or, how about you put a freakin' winning team on the field and get some fans into the ballpark!!!

PONDEROUS. And Mr. Joel Sherman has this little tidbit today. Remember my vow. Wright gets traded and it's hasta la vista as a Mets fan.

Basketball

Don't think I have posted anything about the youth basketball doings this year. For travel I only have a 5th grade boys team. We couldn't get enough boys for an 8th grade team and some other factors made us fold that team. Those boys will be able to play in a pretty good in-town rec league, so all is not lost. For a lot of them, 8th grade basketball will be the swan song I think. They also have MS hoops to tryout for.

The 5th grade team is a solid 10. We had two 4th grade teams last year, and this year about 7 boys decided trying out was not for them. So I go with 10, pretty balanced. Couple of boys need to focus more and pay attention. The 5 that played for me are above the curve on drills and plays. The other 5 played for a team that didn't do much in that respect. So they have to catch up, because the SoulSlam train doesn't slow down. We had first practice last night, another this afternoon. I'll keep all you fans posted throughout.

Frenzy (Quiet Start)

The Free Agent Frenzy has begun. Though it's always quiet the first couple of days.

Here's the SoulSlam list of top targets:
Pujols
Fielder
Reyes
Beltran
Sizemore
Wilson
Oswalt
Rollins
Papelbon
Cuddyer

Prediction: Mets will sign nobody on this list.

Annual Hope of Hopes

November 1. Every year aroundabout now I get that feeling...that warm fuzzy feeling...that the NY METS ARE GONNA DO SOMETHING THIS OFF-SEASON!!!

And every year they disappoint me. So this year, I have no hope. I'm essentially ambivalent. So when they sign some back of the rotation starter or career pinch-hitter, I won't be disappointed again.

David Wright hears news that they are bringing in outfield walls and showed up to lend a hand today!