More on Johan

MetsBlog is reporting via the Minnesota papers that the Mets are expected to sign Santana to a 6 year, $130 million extension. While long-term contracts to pitchers generally aren’t a good idea Santana has to be the exception, even moreso given the situation.  I’m still in some disbelief that they actually got arguably the best pitcher on earth while retaining Fernando Martinez and Mike Pelfrey. Big props to Omar Minaya for holding firm and not dealing away Fernando Martinez while bringing the Mets their much-needed ace. I didn’t comment on the rumors here because I didn’t want to join the goose chase, but I’m glad it’s done and I am once again excited for baseball season. The Mets have made by far the most important move of the offseason and one that makes them a legitimate World Series threat. The Milledge debacle seems a distant memory now.

Also, special thanks to Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner for talking Hank out of wanting to be daddy for a day and trading Phil Hughes. Couldn’t have done it without you, guys!  Speaking of the Yankees:

“I think the Twins realize our offer is the best one,” Steinbrenner told the Daily News in a telephone interview. “I feel confident they’re not going to trade him before checking with us one last time and I think they think we’ve already made the best offer.”
- Hank Steinbrenner, January 3rd

You can thank the Mets for preventing more Red Sox and Yankees douchery than we’ve already been exposed to. Apparently, Johan’s first choice was the Mets, as MetsBlog had made clear for some time and a fact which WFAN would lead you to believe isn’t the case.

I am looking forward to Johan’s first start against the Phillies which is still months away. I will take him and Pedro over Cole Hamels and that punk Brett Myers any day of the week. I think he’s going to have a huge year in New York and I think he’s the perfect Phillies killer – a lefty that can neutralize Ryan Howard and Chase Utley. Think of it this way, for only an extra $10 million they’ll have upgraded from Tom “got one out in the most important game of the year” Glavine to the pitcher that leads all baseball in wins, ERA, and strikeouts the past four seasons. Not bad.

There will be more on the Super Bowl later in the week as well as the other stuff I promised myself I’d write about some time back. This has been an exciting few weeks to be a Mets and Giants fan, for sure.

The greatest sports week since 1994?

Pending a contract extension, the Mets are prohibitive favorites in the National League in 2008.

It’s up to you now, Eli.

Stony Brook parking vigilantes.

I saw one of the most pathetic things I’ve seen in my four and a half years at this university yesterday. While accompanying a friend of mine to his car we spotted what he had dreaded when he parked in the Computing Center lot: a woman giving him a parking ticket. The odd thing was that this woman was not a university police officer; rather, she was a somewhat important university employee (I read her badge but I will not repeat her name here) who worked at the Computing Center, which my friend had parked at because he was running late for class. We walked up to the car as she was writing the ticket and finished writing it right in front of us, even as it was obvious we were going to leave the premises. There was no warning, no leniency. This woman was on the warpath and nobody was going to park in her building’s lot. She handed us the ticket and walked off, apparently satisfied with herself that she had just penalized a student $30 for what amounted to a minor inconvenience for nobody in particular.

One wonders what possesses a university employee that isn’t a police officer to take the time out of her day to be vindictive enough to write a ticket for a student’s car, especially when it’s clear the student was parked there temporarily. Apparently, the salary that is in part subsidized by that student’s tuition payments isn’t enough to satisfy her, nor is the fact there are no shortage of options for faculty parking near the building in question. It’s already stupid that exorbitant $30 tickets are handed down to students now, given the disastrous parking situation on campus, but at least Campus Police get paid to enforce these things. A university employee with (I would hope) better things to do? That’s just adding insult to injury.

In the interest of full disclosure, I actually received a $30 parking ticket myself a couple of weeks ago for parking in a faculty lot, but at least it was handed down by a police officer and not some overzealous faculty member.

Before I conclude this post, I wanted to present you with one more reason to root for the Giants this Sunday, other than the euphoria a championship would fill me with. Beat New England!

Hello, world of political blogging.

My first post, “The Wacky Adventures of Hugo Chavez”, is officially live!

http://liberalseatcanolis.wordpress.com/

Enjoy.

It begins…for the last time.

Monday is the first day of the last semester of classes I will ever take. At least, that is, until five years from now when I hate my job, realize I can’t change anything about this mess of a world, and come back to school to become the broke history professor I always wanted to be.

Liberals Eat Canolis is live! Sort of. Check http://liberalseatcanolis.wordpress.com/ for updates.

Coming soon: an article on the copious amounts of Mets merchandise I own and also one on the ridiculousness that is my apartment in Stony Brook. Does the story involve a crazy landlady? You bet!

Finally, I read today that Hugo Chavez suggested a military alliance against American aggression consisting of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Dominica. That’s right, I’m talking about military powerhouse Dominica, a nation which I’m not sure could successful invade Aruba. I’m not Captain America or anything but I found the idea of those countries forming some kind of anti-US answer to NATO pretty funny. Also funny about this story: Hugo Chavez continues to be fucking batshit.

Gas Gauges and Revelations

Driving to work this morning made me realize how much I appreciated having a van whose fuel gauge is accurate to about a quarter tank. It’s exciting! It adds some uncertainty to an otherwise rather mundane routine. Accelerate to top speed? The fuel gauge goes down one-eighth. Rattle to a halt at a red light? Magically, the 1/8th it just lost reappears, and then some! I never know if I’m on the verge of running out or if I’m safe to go a little bit longer. In a related story, if you see a cherry red minivan stranded on the side of Nicolls Road, stop by and say hello. It’s probably me and I’m probably shit out of luck.

Also, I’m not doing my part to help the Earth, because I think I drive the only 4 cylinder vehicle in the history of the world that gets about 5 miles to the gallon. It might be more fuel efficient to drive a riding mower to Stony Brook. Not caring about this are the owners of the goddamned Hess station near school that I go to fill up at seemingly every other day. 

Finally, I wanted to say that there’s a minor dissapointment every morning when I wake up, see 7 e-mails in my inbox, and realize 6 of them are about a sale on baseball caps, computers, video games, or computers with video games about baseball cap companies on them. I’ll hold onto that 7th e-mail, though!

On a lighter note…

I wanted to once again express my admiration for the good work of one Cap’n Crunch and his crunch berry growing enterprises. Carry on, ye hearty sailor!

Football, politics, canolis, and more.

More most of the 2007 season I thought the Giants were a pretty decent but flawed team with an inconsistent, flaky quarterback. In the preseason I thought they would struggle, then revised that after a few weeks to “probable playoff team that will get bounced in the first round”. Their combination of running backs managed to adequately make up for Tiki Barber’s production and the defense was markedly better than it was the previous season thants to a new coordinator, but they still lost to the really good teams, still made some of the same fatal errors the Giants dissapointments of the past had. I don’t talk about the Giants as much as I do the Mets here but they were my first sporting love going back to Lawrence Taylor and Phil Simms, and I distinctly remember being very upset when they lost 44-3 to San Francisco in the 1993 Divisional Playoffs.

Needless to say when Lawrence Tynes missed two field goals in the 4th quarter I was sure they were finished and was wishing they had lost by three touchdowns instead of putting me through the misery of going through all that just to fall short. However, Corey Webster intercepted Favre in overtime and Tynes somehow made his third (and longest) attempt and I pretty much exploded with joy. They had defied the odds one more time and won. Somehow. And hey deserved it – they had outplayed the Packers and managed to escape the “typical Giants loss” we’re so used to.

They’re huge underdogs against the Patriots but I put nothing past them anymore. Why not one more upset? They could’ve beaten them a few weeks ago and they could beat them in Arizona in a week and a half. After the myriad dissapointments of my sports fandom, why not one inexplicable run to a championship? Either way, I’ve never been prouder to be a Giants fan (the 2000 team came out of a weak conference and got bulldozed by the Ravens – they didn’t win three games on the road or beat two teams as good as the Cowboys and Packers), and I think the entire team should be commended for this playoff run. I understand this is an unusually optimistic commentary for someone who’s as cynical a fan as me, but hey, whatever. Let’s go Giants.

There is a new project that I’m going to be involved with soon which is called “Liberals Eat Canolis”, a blog where Alicia, Kerry, and I get to spout off about politics (something I’ve generally avoided doing here). That name is in no way ironic – we are liberals who enjoy a good canoli. There will be more information coming soon but I hope you check it out when it’s up and feel free to let me know what you think (that includes feeling free to argue with me, because I enjoy arguing with other smart people).

I briefly considered sharing a ridiculous recent tale on here but I have chosen not to for fear of repricussions and because I think I’m done rehashing it. Let’s just say that I have an incredible ability to get into absurd situations that I wish would go away. Maybe next the next time I get involved in something like that won’t be so ridiculous. Also, I am being as vague as possible. Kudos if you don’t know specifically what I’m referring to and can figure it out.

And on that note, it’s time to write my L.E.C. bio. Will I avoid the phrase “single and ready to mingle”? Stay tuned!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Hey Luke, here’s the post:

GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interesting Conversation

Person: Where is Costa Rica?
Me: It’s in Central America.
Person: What? It’s in South America?
Me: No, Central America…like Nicaragua, El Salvador. It’s on the Pacific coast.
Person: Oh…it’s by Spain?
Me:  No, it’s south of Mexico.
Person: Oh, so it’s by Mexico, like South America.
Me: Yeah, sure. It’s supposed to be lovely.

My background in geography never ceases to be useful.