Perjury Indictment for Bonds

Poor Barry just can't get away from negative press. Now he's being indicted for lying to a federal grand jury. Only a short time ago, the guy who bought Barry's home run record breaking ball at auction put it to the vote what would happen to the ball. The result was to have the ball branded and sent to the Hall of Fame.

Not liking the prospect, Bonds' response was that he would not attend his induction ceremony into the Hall if the ball were put on display. Barry is assuming that he would be voted into the Hall. A big assumption considering the fact that baseball writers are the one who initially vote for inductees. Bonds is not known for his amicable relations with the press. Some have already expressed their opinion on whether Bonds should be in the Hall. I say why not.

If Bonds was juiced, he was not alone. As it is becoming embarrassingly apparent, many players have used some form of performance enhancing substance including some big name pitchers that Bonds had to compete against. So if Bonds did use steroids or whatever, he was still playing on a level playing field. All things being equal he should be allowed into the hall. If he isn't, then maybe some other recent inductees should be taken out and the Hall closed for good, because this generation of baseball players is tainted beyond recovery.

Niner's Simply Suck

The Niner faithful misery just keeps on going. They were shut out for the third time in the last 55 games after going 420 straight without a shut out. Nolan keeps supporting offensive coordinator, Jim Hostler but I think his days are numbered. It's not his fault that the talent isn't there, but when you only manage ONE first-down in a half, then you're not doing a good job. Even bad teams can muster more offense than that.

I don't think Hostler will be fired before the end of the season, but if he isn't the day after game 16, then Nolan should be. To say that Hostler has done a bad job is a compliment. A better description of his performance would include incompetence.

Home Team Traitors

Being a Bay Area football fan has been tough in recent years. The Niners and the Raiders have been mediocre at best and absolutely horrid at worst. But the teams have still been able to maintain some loyalty with the fan base. The Raiders even managed to sell-out yesterday's game early enough to avoid the local-market TV blackout. But that sell-out came at a cost.

It seems that Bears fans bought up enough tickets to make the game more of a home away from home for the visiting Bears. Early in the game, Bears receiver, Muhsin Muhammad caught a pass and the chant of "Muuuush!!! Muuuush!!!" could be heard throughout the stadium. Tough to hear if you're a Raider fan, but at least they got to see the game on TV.

What's more irritating is to have that kind of thing happen even when your team is doing well, contending for the playoffs and even the Super Bowl, and you still hear that kind of chant for a visiting team. What it means is that enough home fans have sold their tickets to the visiting fans to create a significant enough presence to make the visiting team a little more comfortable on the road. In my view, such home fans are traitors to their team.

I remember when the Niners were still very good. There was a waiting list to get season tickets. Every game was sold out. You couldn't get a ticket at face value. And yet, every time the Cowboys came to the 'Stick, you would hear the "Moooose!!!" chants whenever Moose Johnson touched the ball. It used to drive me crazy. How can there be so many Cowboy fans at the stick during a Super Bowl season? How could Niner fans be so disloyal and greedy that they would sell their tickets to Cowboy fans?

This even happened during a play-off game with the Cowboys at the stick!!! Unacceptable!. If you have playoff tickets for your home team, and you sell your tickets to a fan of the other team, you should lose your right to season tickets. Because you are not true fan. You are a traitor who doesn't deserve to be in the same stadium with true faithful.

Bonds Takes the High Road, Sort of

Barry leaped at the chance to insult Bob Costas after his HBO show that featured Curt Schilling and others related to steroid abuse and Bonds alleged use in particular. But Barry chose to stay away from insulting Schilling even though Schilling has made provocative comments about Barry and others on a number of occasions.

A little comment about red paint on socks would have been a sharp (if inaccurate) retort that would have effectively said that Schilling's integrity is no better than Barry's. But we already know that Schilling is not the epitome of morality and teamwork that he pretends to be.

Just ask his former teammates of the Phillies how supportive he was when Mitch Williams came on to pitch in relief of Schilling during the World Series. Covering your head with a towel is a lousy way to show support if you ask me.

Bonds is Still a Thrill

We got to see the Giants play the Diamondbacks (in their gaudy and very non-snake-like red jerseys) yesterday and the G-Men actually managed to score a week's worth (for them) of runs to blow out the D-Backs 13-0. We even managed to walk around the promenade a bit and still stop long enough to see Barry hit a double to drive in two runs.

Later on, word came out that Barry had been voted in by fans as a starting out-fielder for next week's all-star game. So despite all the controversy and rumors, Barry is still thrilling enough to make the all-star game. So at least the Giants got one guy into the game. Starters are guaranteed at least one at-bat in the all-star game. The same can't be said for the 32nd player on the team.

Barry is Crawling to the Mark

Barry is going to need another season to break Aaron's record at the rate he is going. He hit his first homer in 15 days yesterday. That means he'll need another 120 games to tie the record and 135 games to break it. Can the Giants afford another $16 million next year?

The UFL vs. The NFL

There's a new league in town with hopes of cashing in on fans that the NFL forgot. I guess when you have too much money, you can waste it on an idea that has failed three other times.

NBA Draft Lottery Strikes Again

Much is being made of the way three teams vaulted in to the top three slots and pushed the three worst teams including the Boston Celtics out of the running for potential franchise players Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. While I feel for the other two teams that missed out one of these players, I can't say I feel bad for the Celtics.

I'm sorry, but I have no sympathy for the Celtics. Their 11 year run of success practically killed the NBA. Who besides Boston fans want to see one team win the championship every year. It's like feeling bad for the Yankees' recent dearth of championships. Tell it to the Cubs/Giants/Warriors/Knicks/Clippers fans. See how much commiserating you get.

Even after the Celtics released their choke hold on the NBA, they continued to be successful. They even built another dynasty featuring Larry Bird that looked to be getting even stronger when the then reigning champions happened to get the top pick in the draft due to an earlier trade. They used the pick on the "sure thing" player, Len Bias. I think that's the point where their hubris got to be too much for the NBA Gods. I mean come on! You just won the championship and now luck into getting the best player coming out of college that year? Something had to be done. So Bias OD'd on cocaine and died.

Without Bias, their dynasty started to decline with age. They have never been able to really recover from that point. And they don't deserve to. It's because of that physical 80's Celtic team that the "Bad Boy" Pistons developed the rough, dirty style that still plagues the league.

Basketball is not a contact sport, but the 80's Celtics turned it into one. When the Pistons couldn't beat them with skill and finesse, the decided to outdo them physically with goons like Mahorn and Laimber.

So don't pity the Celtics. They made this bed. Now they have to lay in it.

Keyshawn Passes On?

If Keyshawn Johnson does end his NFL career today, he won't really be missed. Johnson has always been a player who was greater in his own mind than in reality. The truth is that he was never fast enough to be big play receiver. He was never reliable enough to be a possession receiver. And though he had good size, he never used to it to great advantage.

His book was titled "Just Give Me the Damn Ball". Well the Jets tried and he dropped it so much, that they preferred to give it to Wayne Chrebet, a receiver who was smaller and no faster than Keyshawn, but he was somehow able to get open and catch the ball when it came his way.

When Keyshawn joins ESPN, he won't even be the best former receiver on their football show. That distinction goes begrudgingly to Michael Irvan.

The Wild Ride is Over

The Warriors certainly impressed with their defeat of the Mavericks, but the Jazz proved too big to beat. The series turned on such little things like missed free throws, lapses in defense and composure, and other little errors. But they added up and cost the Warriors games one, two and four.

The Warriors performed well in all the games except for game five. If they can keep their core together and obtain a true post player, they might get beyond the second round next year. But don't hold out too much hope for the post player. Nellie has an eye for smaller players, but he's practically blind when it comes to picking the big guys.

Are Warriors Mav-elous?

They're up 3-1 against the Mavs. They just need one more win to take out the defending conference champion. If they win, Mark Cuban is going to have a cow. That by itself would be worth the price of admission.

Warriors Woes

So the Warriors handled the Mavs in Game 1. I think Game 2 was a more realistic outcome. It's great that they made it into the playoffs, but let's get serious. 16 teams make it into the playoffs. There are only 30 teams in the NBA. That means that 53 percent of the teams make it to the playoffs. Kinda makes you wonder why they need 82 games to decide which teams make the playoffs. Why not play half the games, take the top 8 teams from each conference, and get it over with already?

I don't like how the NBA playoffs are stretched out these days. Games 1 and 2 used to be played on consecutive days, then a travel day, then games 3 and 4, then they alternate home stadiums for games 5, 6 and 7 which seems stupid in and of itself since both teams have to travel so much if a series extends to 7 games. It's not only expensive, but it's bad for the environment to make the teams travel so much. What's wrong with the 2-3-2 format that baseball has for the playoffs and world series?.

Now they take a day off in between 1 and 2. They take a day or two to travel. Play Game 3. Take another day off. Play game 4. Then another couple of days' travel back again for Game 5 ... wash, rinse, repeat.

The playoffs and final go from mid-April to late-June. The regular season goes from October to mid-April. So the playoffs last almost half as long as the regular season. How asinine can you get? Only Hockey takes longer to crown a champion.

No wonder the NBA has been struggling to regain fan appeal.

Giants Rebound

Thankfully, the Giants aren't as bad as the Rockies after all. It took them quite some time, but they're finally on the winning side of the board. Both Barry's are earning their pay, and all is good in the world.

Well, not quite. The G-Men are only one injury away from disaster. But as long as everyone stays healthy, they're going to be more interesting than the homer watch everyone was anticipating. We'll see how things shape up in June.

Slaying Giants

The Giants are even worst than I thought. 2 and 7 is not how you want to start the season. Especially since all those losses came against division rivals (the Padres and Dodgers no less). It's going to be a long season unless they turn things around real fast.

The Giants are Back In Business

Baseball is here again and the Giants are off to another run at the pennant. Unfortunately, they don't look very formidable in the first two games. Their new ace, Barry the second, got shelled. Barry the first didn't do much in game one. In fact no one did much in game one. They also lost in game two and might have a hard time avoiding a sweep in game three tonight. I don't think they've ever been swept in the first series of a the year. That may not bode well.

Niners are Looking for a handout

It looks like the 49er's plans to move to Santa Clara are about to hit a major roadblock. SC residents will not pay for a new stadium. They've already voted down bond measures to bring the Giants south. What makes the Niners think they'll do any better?

Ta Ta to Tone

I guess the 49ers ran out of second chances when they finally let T.O. go because Antonio Bryant is out on his ass.

I'm a bit surprised they dropped him so easily. After all, when the DUI story first came out, it looked like just another pro athlete getting into trouble and then getting out of it. But for some reason, Bryant is being treated differently. Maybe the Niners want to send a message that the T.O.-style shenanigans will not be tolerated any more. You get out of line, you get off the team. Unless you score a lot of touchdowns of course.

Looking for a Village

As the saying goes, "It takes a village to raise a child". If Clinton and the African proverb are correct, then we need to find our village, because we find ourselves raising our child in increasing isolation. You'd think we had some kind of contagious disease (stay away, they have baby!!!) considering how hard it is to just get people to commit to a short social visit or dinner.

Leslie is especially starved of adult interaction. Two of her best friends have been either traveling or too preoccupied with their own families lately to devote any time to her. Neither of us has any relatives close by. Leslie's family all live out of state, and my nearest relative is my 20-something cousin who is always busy with the things 20-somethings do. So we don’t really have anyone we can call on to baby-sit when we want to go to a movie or just get a break for the two of us.

Leslie had hoped that people in her Buddhist community would be more supportive as well. But it seems that most of them are too busy to even pick up a phone. There are even a few that she thought she was close to who have yet to even see our baby. If Leslie calls them, they're always too busy, or have plans already or say they'll call back and never do. It's very disappointing.

I find it hard to accept some the concepts of Buddhism when I see that the people in her "community" don't really go out of their way to support one another. Most will bend over backwards to assist a Lama and his or her family members, but everyone else it seems is on their own.

Instead of a community, I see a bunch of cliques. There's the Tibetan/Nepalese/Bhutanese immigrant clique. Then there's the lesbian clique, the gay clique, the hippie clique and the punk clique. There's even a groupie clique, or folks who hang on every word of the lama and fall over themselves trying to make sure that the lama's every need is met. Another group is not really a clique since they don't really hang out together. They're people who are so absorbed in their practice, that they eschew any social interactivity lest is impede their progress toward enlightenment. Unfortunately for Leslie, there doesn’t seem to be a new mother clique.

So that leaves us with trying to connect with other new parents without much success. It seems that many new parents are too busy as well. So we're still short of a village. Anyone have any ideas where we can find one?

Stupor Bowl II

I do like being right. On the other hand I didn't really make a pick, but I was happy to see the Colts top the Bears. Grossman had the worst day with the fumble and interceptions, while Manning did pretty good once he got over the interception.

Despite the sloppiness, the game was OK. It stayed close until the fourth quarter. And the weather induced turnovers certainly made each possession interesting, but it won't rank among the best. One redeeming quality this Super Bowl did have was that the game was more entertaining than the commercials.

During many of the blowouts in the past, the ads tended to be the most entertaining aspect of the broadcast. Not so this year. None of the ads struck me as particularly clever, funny or entertaining. Some were just plain stupid and a waste of money.

The biggest loser had to be Coca Cola. Not one of their ads had any spark. Budweiser usually has pretty good ads as well, but only one got a good laugh, the others were just eh. The salesgenie.com ad was the worst. If you own stock in that company, sell now before you take a bath. They just spent $2.6 million to air a late-night TV ad during the Super Bowl. Do you really think they have a chance with that kind of marketing behind them?

Vista vs. OS X

Billy boy would have you believe that OS X is a piece of shit full of security holes that can make OS X computers useless. I think Bill has Mac OS X confused with Windows XP. After all, how many patches does it take to secure XP? Dozens. At least it seemed that way when we recently reinstalled XP on a machine that then needed to download and install Service Pack 2.

After SP2 installed, it took another TWO hours (on a high-speed connection) to download and install the various patches that have been released since SP2 came out. When I installed OS X on my Mac, it took 20 minutes to install and update. That's it.

My Mac has NEVER been infected by spyware, adware, malware, etc. that hi-jacked my computer and lauched a thousand pop-ups as happened with my Dell laptop despite virus protection and spyware protection. I had to rebuild the laptop in order to restore order.

Gates brags about Vista's security and even infers that Apple stole UI ideas from MS. Talk about the kettle calling the pot black! Bill, there a reason Apple sued you guys for infringement when Window 95 launched. Just because you won the suit doesn't mean your product was original.

Finally, Apple ships a complete OS to all customers. They don't gouge users who want to do more by making them pay for a more capable OS. If you want to do everything Vista is capable of, you have to pony up an additional $200.00 from the base package price.

So shut your mouth Billy boy. You're going to make a fortune off the suckers, I mean the customers who by into your deceptive hype. And then you'll take them for another bundle when they discover they need to do more but can't unless the pay for it. Great customer relations dick head.

The Stupor Bowl

Without the 49ers, this Super Bowl is not so super to me. I'm less interested in the big contest because neither team really appeals to me. I've never cared for the Bears. Their one championship has always left a bad taste in my mouth. Their gimmick defense and poorly executed offense vs. the drug addicted Patriots didn't seem like a fair match and it wasn't. That combined with the fact that Ditka was a pompous ass and Ryan an overrated ass, and you can see my problems with that team. This team doesn't really have anyone you can hate, but it doesn't really have anyone you could like either.

As for the Colts, there's not a lot to like there either. They're a team that left their original home for greener (as in greenbacks) pastures and never really amounted to anything since. I suppose their quarterback's story is appealing to some degree. But really. Who cares about a multi-millionaire's struggles on the field?

Most likely this game will come down to which QB has the worst day. Manning has a reputation of choking in big games. Grossman has be off and on all season. I don't think either of them will have a great day. So the last one to make a mistake will lose.

79th Annual Academy Awards

The nominees were announced and now the predictions begin. I haven't had a lot of chances to see many of the nominees, but I might as well take a stab at some predictions anyway.

Best Actor

I haven't seen any of these performances but I'll go with the favorite, Forrest Whitaker.

Best Supporting Actor

I saw the performances by Alan Arkin and Mark Walberg. Arkin definitely tops Walberg, though Walberg cursed a lot more and was mean because he was an asshole. Arkin was just cantankerous. I'll go with Arkin as the sentimental favorite.

Best Actress

Everyone is going for Mirren, but I'm going with Meryl Streep for one reason; Marisa Tomei. When Marisa was nominated for a supporting role, she was in a very tough field. Most considered her the underdog because the other actresses were highly regarded in their craft. But Marisa was the only American. She won.

By the way, if the term actor is supposed to be genderless, why do they have this category. Wouldn't it really shorten the show if they cut the two "actress" awards and just make it a free for all for best actor and best supporting? After all if Meryl Streep or some other nominee insists on being referred to as an ACTOR and not actress, how can she be nominated as an actress?

Best Supporting Actress

Another tough call. I say the two Babels cancel each other out and Blanchette and Hudson duke it out for the gold. Hudson by a knockout.

Best Director

Everyone wants to give it to Scorsese. I want to give it to Scorsese. But the Susan Lucci syndrome is going to continue. "The Departed" was good, but it's basically a remake of a Hong Kong hit. It's also another Scorsese organized crime flick. That's two strikes. Throw in the Lucci syndrome and Martin is out. "The Queen" is the winner here.

Best Picture

"Babel" and "Letters" is out. The voters don't like sub-titles. "Little Miss Sunshine" is charming and funny but nothing too special. So it's between "The Departed" and "The Queen". I think "The Departed" wins.

The Road to Suicide

We saw "An Inconvenient Truth" this past week and I found that it was very well done. Whether you believe in global warming or not, the movie presents compelling evidence that is hard to refute. One thing that really struck me however, was related to the U.S auto industry.

If Gore's numbers about fuel efficiency are legit, then it's clear to me that U.S. automakers are basically committing suicide. According to the numbers in the movie, the U.S. has the lowest fuel efficiency standards of any industrialized country in the world. Even (significantly) lower than China's. No wonder they can't sell many cars overseas.

If U.S. automakers want to sell in China, Japan or Europe, they have to modify existing vehicles to comply with each country's minimum standards. When you consider that fact that fuel prices are generally much higher in those countries than what we pay in the U.S., why would anyone in China, Japan or Europe buy an American-made gas guzzler (by their standards at least)?

U.S. automakers have been fighting tooth and nail against raising the standards to meet those of other countries. By doing so, they continue down a path of fewer sales overseas. Would it be so terrible to raise the standards so that all American-made vehicles can be sold anywhere? Wouldn't it be easier to manufacture vehicles that comply with higher efficiency standards and not have to alter the manufacturing process to create a vehicle that meets some other country's standards? After all, there's a reason Toyota and Honda are doing so well these days. It's the (fuel) economy stupid!

Hall of Shame, Maybe...

But not the Hall of Fame. I'm sure Bonds is only saying this because he'll face the same difficulty getting into the hall the McGuire and especially Rose will. They will all have to come clean one way or the other before they'll receive serious consideration for the Hall of Fame.

Positive Test For Bonds

Maybe it's a good thing that they're still working out the details of that $16 million contract. Barry still insists that he never used any performance enhancing substances. So why was he using uppers? And why would he be taking those uppers from his teammate's locker?

Is this something the Giants should be concerned with? After all, if Barry is willing to ingest some "unknown" substance from a teammate's locker, maybe he does have a problem. They better make sure there are a lot of bail-out clauses in that contract, because it looks like Barry is not going to be around to play a whole lot this year.

Raiders Got Shelled, So Art Gets Canned

What good does it do to say you're not going to fire the coach when you have every intention of doing so? There was very little doubt that Art Shell was going to be fired. Yet everyone in the Raider Nation kept insisting he'd be back. So why lie about it?

The thing is, it's not Art Shells fault that the Raiders sucked so bad this year, last year or the year before. The blame lies right in the lap of Al Davis. This is his team. He calls the shots. He mandates how the offense should play. So why blame Shell for the poor offense that Al put on the field? The only way the Raiders will regain their former glory is if Al Davis steps down and let's someone else make the decisions necessary to build the team into a contender again.

Unfortunately for Raider fans, that will only happen over Al's dead body.