Here are some of my favorite quotes of all time:

“The time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining.” – John Kennedy

“To create an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” -Carl Sagan

“I prefer to see the universe as it really is, rather than succumb to delusion, no matter how reassuring.” – Carl Sagan

“Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time.” – George Carlin

“Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.”  – Jim Carrey

What are some of yours?

When I was about 9 years old is when I first realized I was pretty good.  Everyone wanted to play catch with me on my little league team because I could throw the ball farther than anyone.  From there, I became a pretty good little leaguer, and then a very good high school player, and dabbled in some college ball.

I even argued in little league...

Growing up, I always envisioned myself making the big leagues.  Not because I wanted the millions of dollars, or the women or the recognition.   It was just all I wanted to do.  I lived baseball. I breathed baseball.  I would sleep and dream baseball.  I was baseball.

In High School, my team came within 3 outs of winning the state championship, only to let it slip through our fingers.  That night still haunts me in my dreams.  Late at night, when the demons come, I envision us winning…celebrating… only to remember that it was just a figment of my imagination.

After college, I started playing in the ‘semi-pro’ leagues.  Wood bats, pro rules, good competition (usually).  This brought me back to the fun of the game.  I wasn’t trying to ‘make it’ anymore… I was just playing because I loved it, and I was better than almost everyone I played against.

The Dub.

It wasn’t that I was bigger, or stronger, or faster.  I didn’t have the fastest fastball, and I didn’t hit Ruthian homeruns.   I just was able to do everything well, and consistantly, because I had done it forever.   I was always able to make the smart play, or get the important hit.  It came naturally to me.

I remember distinctly the day this ended.  It was in January of 2008.  I was pitching off of an in-door mound to some guys who were taking batting practice.  I was throwing as hard and as accurately as I ever had…which was a mistake, because it was the first time I had thrown all year.

Later that evening, I noticed that my arm felt… different.  It felt heavy and sluggish.  I had never felt this before.

Flash forward to today… almost three years later.   The last three years have been a series of arm injuries.  Pain and general discomfort have made the last few years more and more difficult to play, and I have become less and less effective.

Baseball is still fun for me, and always will be.  But it has gotten to the point where, barring major surgey, I don’t think I can do it anymore.

Is this the end? Maybe.   Maybe I’ll fill in here and there.  Maybe I’ll play softball.  Maybe I’ll even half-ass my way through a few more seasons.   But the little kid inside of me, who played ball in the back yard, has just hung ‘em up for good.

In mid-December of 2009 I was approached by my boss and another colleague to come up with some ‘edgy’ ideas for billboards that would prompt people to visit a website, which we would design in conjunction with the billboards.  The purpose of both the billboard and website campaign was to get people interested in careers in hospitality.

How do you make hospitality edgy?  Usually, I am no stranger to being edgy, but this was going to be tough.  My boss, our President and CEO, told me that he would rather ‘reel me in’ than have to ‘push me to go further.’  So, basically, I had a clean slate to be as edgy as I wanted in my first few drafts of the billboard.

Idea #1:  My first idea was to have a typical stuffy-looking businessman duct-taped to a chair, with duct tape over his mouth and looking like he had been roughed up.   Behind him would be a person in a Chef’s outfit, holding a meat cleaver, and smiling sinisterly.    In big, bold letters we would say “Serve your boss.”

I was “reeled in.” Apparently cannibalism is not something our industry wanted to promote.

Idea #2:  A big, white billboard with a picture of a fork on it.  In big, black bold letters it reads “F–k it.”  At the bottom, we would have the web address Forkit.biz.

This idea was actually a hit, but Fairway Outdoor Advertising relayed to us that it would be doubtful the Department of Transportation would be ok with something that edgy, but “Fork it” would work.

A couple of months later, all of the billboards are now up.  Forkit.biz is now up-and-running, and our web hits show that most of the visits have come from Blackberries or iPhones, meaning people are likely accessing the page as they are driving down the street, which hopefully won’t get anyone hurt.

Nonetheless, I am very proud of this campaign and get calls or texts from friends all of the time that say “hey, just saw your billboard.”

I tell them to go Fork themselves.

Fork You.

All of my windows were closed.  There were blinds, there were curtains…both closed.

However, down a 60 foot hallway and through another room, there is a tiny 4 or 5 inch section of glass window atop my front door.  It just so happened that this window aligned directly with my face, somehow…even though it was not directly in my line of sight.

One beam of light made it’s way through that window, down the hall, across the floor, and sat right on my face…and was bright enough to wake me up.

This light source was 93,000,000 miles away.  That’s six zeroes.  93 Million miles away and still bright as fuck.

This inspired me to think….damn, the sun really is bright.  It’s 93 million miles away and you still cannot look directly at it for any length of time without some kind of eye damage.  That’s fucking hardcore.  Name something else that would be that far away and still cause eye damage to look at (besides Rosie O’Donnell).  Go ahead…try!

Summary: The sun is bright as fuck.

Michael Jackson died last thursday, stealing the thunder from Farrah Fawcett.   I, for one, was shocked that he died, but the more I thought about it, it really shouldn’t have been a suprise.   He was 6’0 tall and 105 lbs.   That isn’t healthy, especially for a 50 year old man.  He had also been rumored to be under the influence of a lot of prescription medications.   Also, you really shouldn’t let pet chimps eat at the dinner table.

I am sad to see MJ go, because I enjoyed his music, but really I am more distressed at the amount of people, not just celebrities, that are dying as a result of prescription meds.   You do not need to take pills for every little thing.   More and more people treat every problem they have with more and more drugs.  Can’t sleep? Pills.  Sleep too much? Pills.  Too sad? Pills.  Too happy? Pills.  Stub your toe? Pills.  It’s getting ridiculous and more attention needs to be paid to this subject.

My prediction for American League MVP was Mark Texeira, and he really has a shot.  Right now he is currently 2nd in the AL in Homeruns (20) and in the top 5 in RBIs.  He also has not committed an error in his first 75 games with the Yankees.

My NL MVP was David Wright.   He currently is leading the NL in batting average, but it looks as if he will miss out on this award to Albert Pujols.   The ‘Amazin Albert has 28 homeruns thus far, including 6 multi-homerun games.

Look for some big trades to start happening soon, as teams fall out of contention.

AL East:

Boston Red Sox

Yankees (Wild Card)

Rays

Blue Jays

Orioles

AL Central

Indians

Twins

Royals

White Sox

Tigers

AL West

Athletics

Angels

Texas

Mariners

National League

NL East

Mets

Phillies

Marlins

Braves

Nationals

NL Central

Cubs

Cardinals

Reds

Brewers

Astros

NL West

Dodgers

Diamondbacks (Wild Card)

Giants

Rockies

Padres

AL MVP: Mark Texiera    NL MVP: David Wright

AL Cy Young: Jon Lester    NL Cy Young: Johan Santana

AL Rookie of the Year: Matt Weiters     NL Rookie of the Year: Kenshin Kawakami

Playoffs: Boston over Oakland

Yankees over Indians

Yankees over Boston

Mets over Dodgers

Cubs over Diamonbacks

Cubs over Mets

Cubs over Yankees

Really, what else needs to be said? You could go five or six episodes without watching (though you never would) and you wouldn’t miss a thing. It was a show about nothing…literally, and nothing has never been so funny!

2. The Simpsons

TV shows dont stick around for 20 years, have a hit movie, and sell billions and billions of dollars worth of merchandise by accident. Though the show isn’t as funny as it once was, it still has its laugh out loud moments, and still is as edgy as ever.

3. The Sopranos

In the finale`, a car backs over a guy’s head. You don’t find that on many shows.

4. Entourage

Kevin Dillon, the brother of famous movie star Matt Dillon, plays the jealous brother of a movie star. Guess he should have that part pretty much nailed, eh?

5. Curb Your Enthusiasm

Just like seinfeld, only with more swearing. What’s really funny about the show, though, is how realistic the conversations are. That’s because they are not scripted at all. There is an outline for the show, and the characters just ad-lib all of the lines. It’s really quite funny.

It used to be quite overwhelming when there would be 3-4 games.   This year, however, there are only two: MLB 08 The Show for PS3, and MLB 2K8 for 360 (also available for ps3).

MLB 08 The Show 

The first game I popped in was The Show.   The first thing I noticed was that you couldn’t edit the minor league rosters without going through a tricky process.   You must enter franchise mode, back out, and then you can edit the rosters.  This means you can only edit the minor leaguers names with the default rosters.  That’s fine for now, but they should patch this.

It should be noted that the player editor/create-a-player is simply insane.  It’s almost TOO detailed.  You can edit everything about a players face, from the shape of his head, to the droop of his bottom eyelid, to the markings on his mouth, to where his zits are.

Next, I set up my jukebox, and got rid of all of the dumb songs that Sony put on the disk, and selected my 8o-song rock/rap/baseball music play list to play while I navigate the menus. Then I began my first game.  Yankees vs. Mets, in Yankee Stadium.

Phil Hughes pitching for the Yankees, Johan Santana for the Mets.   The commentators went REALLY in-depth in describing both pitchers, and their work in the previous season.   Awesome.  Adds realism.

The game started as a real nail-biter.  The gameplay is incredibly smooth at 60 frames per second with great animations. The score was 0-0 into the 5th inning.   Finally, in the bottom of the 5th, Santana left a fastball over the plate and Jorge Posada hit a pop fly into the short Right Field corner in Yankee stadium and just over the leap of the right-fielder for a solo homerun.  The fans went nuts fighting over the ball as a beachball was batted around in the background.   The famous Yankee Stadium siren and bells played as Posada crossed home plate and slapped hands with the other players.  I was pumped.   It was exhilarating…but the fun was just beginning. 1-0 Yankees after 5innings.

In the 6th, Phil Hughes struck out the side, giving him 6 shutout innings, 2 hits allowed and 9 strikeouts.   In the bottom half of the 6th, I decided to warm-up Joba Chamberlain, and Matt Vascurgan, play-by-play man, says “the Big Guy, Joba Chamberlain has begun warming in the bullpen”  Ut oh!

In the top of the 7th, I struck out batter number 10 with Phil Hughes, and a cut scene played that showed fans hanging up 10 K’s on the stadium upper deck, just like in real life!  The play-by-play guys mentioned that it was 10 strikeouts, then showed a graphic with his pitch count.  I was at 103 pitches!   Wow….i’ve never seen a player get to 100 pitches in a video game before….best of all, the game was moving along quickly, still.

I decided it was time for the big-fella….and summoned Joba from the bullpen, who promptly retired the side.

In the bottom of the 7th, i picked up a few base-hits in a row, and Santana was relieved by Pedro Feleciano.  Jorge Posada was the first batter he faced and he promptly deposited his first pitch into the 2nd/3rd row down the left-field line for his second homerun of the game, a 3-run shot making it 4-0.    Cano doubled down the left field line on the next pitch, and then Melky Cabrera ripped one into the left field gap.  I was all over Pedro Feliciano.  5-0 Yankees.

In the top of the 8th, I walked 2 guys  with Joba but got out of the inning unscathed.  In MLB 08 the show, sometimes you walk people.  The umpire will screw you out of some calls and sometimes the ball will sail and you will miss by a few inches.

In the bottom of the 8th, Alex Rodriguez led off with a monstrous homerun into the left field bullpen area. 6-0 Yankees.

That was the final score.     What an exhilarating game!  Since then, I have played 4 or 5 more games and my scores have all been reasonable.  I lost a game to the Royals, proving that in 08 the Show, anything can happen.

MLB 2K8

I really want to love MLB 2K8.   I loved 2K7, especially after they released a patch mid-summer.

The good:

The stadiums are like cathedrals.  They are spacious and look fantastic.   Every nook and cranny is there.  The lighting is awesome and dynamic…they sky of a game starting at 7pm will be fairly dusky in the first inning, and very dark in the 9th inning.

Custom music is there, and it’s awesome.   I play the standard Yankee stadium songs for in-between innings at the ballpark in the bronx.  Other stadiums get city-specific music.   I set up Boston to have only Boston songs play in-between innings.

The Dodgers will have old-school West Side rap between innings.   Washington gets “Born in the USA” or “America: Fuck Yea!” in between innings, and so on and so forth…ads a lot to presentation.

Custom player walk-up music is there, too….and it is awesome, too, except that it applies to all stadiums.  So players will have their custom music in road games, which isnt true in real life.

The signature styles are AMAZING.  Almost every player has one, and the generic ones are improved so much that they look signature.

The new controls are…well…different.   The pitching mechanic you will either love or hate.  I hate it.   It’s hard but I havnt taken the tutorial yet.  Perhaps I will grow to love it.

In the  field I love throwing with the analog stick, and the fielders are very responsive…almost too responsive, as I have run by a couple of balls in the outfield.

The bat sounds are better, but dont match the bat sounds from the trailer.

My main gripe, however, is the framerate.   The game stutters on almost every play.   It will look UNBELIEVABLY smooth and beautiful for 3/4 of the play, and then like utter shit for the next 1/4 of the play and the transition….it is almost a game killer, but I am getting used to it.

Gone are fans trying to catch homeruns….in its place is a new homerun camera.  It’s not for everyone.  I like it on signature-style homeruns, like when A-Rod does his “stand at the plate and watch the ball I just hit the fuck out of with my bat up in the air” or David Ortiz does his thing, or Vladamir Guererro does his.  On those, the cam looks cool.   So do the replays…

but when Derek Jeter his a galactic homerun and throws the bat like a jackass, it doesnt look right.

I have played some close games but it still seems like 2k8 is plagued by too many homeruns.  I am going to mess with the settings when I get home and see how it plays out.  I’ll be back tonight with screenshots.

Here is the overall verdict by catagory:

Graphics:
Stadiums:  MLB 2K8
Crowd visually: MLB 08 The show
Player Models: MLB 2K8
Cloth Physics: MLB 08 The Show
Player faces: MLB 08 The Show
Lighting: MLB 08 The Show (Even though 2K8 has dynamic lighting, the show looks better)

Gameplay:
Score realism:  MLB 08 The Show
Pitchcounts/fouls:  MLB 08 The Show
controls: MLB 2k8
Computer AI: Draw–both seem to be pretty good, so far.

Audio:
Commentary: MLB 08 The Show
Crowd :   MLB 08 The Show
Stadium noise:  Draw —custom music is the only thing saving 2k8 here.

Franchise:
Depth: MLB 2K8  —GM goals, the ability to get fired, hired, etc.
Replay Value: MLB 08 The Show  …you can sim games quickly and advance deeper, faster.

Minor Leagues:  MLB 2K8  — All 90 teams, a lot of fake names for real players (look for initials…almost entire AAA and AA teams are there), and a bunch of stadiums…though the downloadable content hasnt arrived yet, as was promised.

OVERALL:

MLB the Show 08 wins because it is simply a more finished product, and plays a much better game of baseball.   The commentary is insane.  The little cut scenes and things like that are awesome.

MLB 2K8 has a ton of potential, but having to mess with sliders 800 times before I can get the game to play a non-homerun-derby 9 innings of baseball is just too much of a pain in the ass for me.

You see, every night, for the past 20 months or so, he was always there.   At first, he was this hand-sized little cutie that no-one could resist.  Slowly, he became larger than life.  He was enormous.  But he still had the playful heart of a kitten.  And every night, he would lie down beside me.   Having him there helped get me through some really tough times in the past few months.

And last night, it was like I was in a strange place.   My home was a little less familiar.  The winter night was a little colder.  His sister Gizmo tried to help.   She snuggled more than usual.  She layed in melky’s spot for a minute….then she got up and sat by the window.   She’s been sitting by the window almost non-stop since yesterday.   She expects him to come back.  If only I could explain.

So today, on this otherwise useless February day, I am sitting in my cubicle at work.  Mindlessly translating Japanese documents into English, and feeling like part of me has been amputated.