HopsGuy

Remember that Yankees-Red Sox one-game playoff in '78? I was 8. I saw Yaz's HR at one bar, then my dad took me to another bar and we saw Bucky Dent's game winner there. I spent lots of time at bars when I was a kid. Get this - my dad's friends would give me a few quarters and I'd get cigarettes out of the machine (matches too) for them. BSEE degree, Army commission, running a business. Yup, dad ruined me.

Whoa, your 40th? Here - have one of these to celebrate.

You're thinking of 61*. On a related note, there's evidence that Manute Bol may have been the source for the phrase most often heard on the playground courts: "My bad."

Lots of Buffalo references in that show. Isabella Hoffman's character was named Megan Russert and was supposed to be a cousin of Tim Russert. I recall Ned Beatty's character (Stan Bolander) waxing poetic about the resiliency of the Bills, but I can't find a reference. Good stuff.

Simon sent Levinson his book "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets". Levinson worked to get it developed for TV. Wiki

Manute Cruise from SNL [Caution: Contains traces of Hutsell]

Q: You know what the most prolific father in Bills history* is doing today? A: Time. *Travis Henry

I remember Billy Crystal saying he made "My Giant" with Gheorghe Muresan because he was inspired by a conversation he had on the set of "The Princess Bride" with Andre the Giant. Andre said something like "Giants and Little People are screwed; we all die young."* RIP Manute. Nobody can accuse you of not trying. *Looked all over and I can't find evidence of this, so take the appropriate salt grain.

On IMDb, it has him listed for 20 episodes. I guess that's not really concrete, unless he's got some sort of Sam Simon deal.

I thought, "How could he do that to that little girl who idolizes him?" Highlights depression, doesn't it? Anyway, I thought the bouncer's line was pretty good: "I'm from the state of Texas, ma'am," Arnie says. "No disrespect? But y'all got a defective work ethic down here."

That was my favorite Looney Toon of all time, and that's sayin' something.

"Wish Somebody Would Care" this past Sunday was tough. Saw it coming a mile away, but still didn't think it would happen. Gonna be even harder to watch the season finale. Glad the roof is getting fixed at Gigi's, though.

When I first saw speculation of this go across the crawler, I thought "This is crazy. He just won the batting title two years ago. He's in a slump. He'll come out of it and it will be fine." It reminds me of my guy, Mike Schmidt, who hit two HRs in his first two games in '89 at Wrigley. He retired 2 months later on Memorial Day because he said he when crushed a pitch, it wasn't making it to the warning track. When they go, they go fast.

They were looking for a buyer. Apparently, they found one. Now look for other copy-cat, user-generated marketing campaigns to sprout up. Stojan was a visionary.

Originally he went to Fox Sports. A story went around that he photocopied his first paycheck and faxed it to Dan Patrick with a note telling him that there was real money to be had elsewhere. From wiki:

View it from the corporate side: If the anchor achieves the personality that guys like Craig Kilbourne & Keith Olbermann did in the 90s, when the contracts end you'll be bidding higher for their services. Fox gave Olbermann a Haynesworth-type contract. ESPN said, "Hey, people will watch the highlights on SC just as long as we have someone competent reading what's happening. Let's make them all the same so we can plug and play." Now the show not only has anchors, but tons of folks in the field and more people on set to give their analysis. Sure, there's more people to pay but no one is breaking the (now huge) bank. If Mark Schlereth is gone to the NFL Network, ESPN just plugs in Teddy Bruschi and moves on. I don't follow the ratings, but I would think ESPN is doing just fine with SportsCenter these days. On a related note, the Worldwide Leader is really trying to determine where resources are best allocated these days (just like everyone else). 2 years ago, hardly anyone knew anything about Facebook or Twitter. Now not only does everyone* know those platforms, they have apps for them on their smartphones. How you get your highlights/sports analysis might/will change in the next 5 years. Everyone is lining up for the new, new thing (my apologies to Mr. Lewis). *Hyperbole, but you know what I mean.

I read a piece last year about how ESPN has moved in a direction so that the anchors on SC are less, how shall I put it (?), notable. With the exception of Hannah Storm, the anchors all seem to look alike and are difficult to differentiate. There's a reason behind this. It makes ESPN more of the brand rather than Kilbourne, Olbermann, Dan Patrick, etc. The personalities are found on the other shows (Wilbon & Kornheiser on PTI, Rome, Cowherd & Beadle on SportsNation, etc). Beadle's own show would probably be a better move for her, IMHO. I love the fact that she used to be engaged to a bull rider. That's fantastic.

Veronica Corningstone Ron Burgundy: I'm gonna punch you in the ovary, that's what I'm gonna do. A straight shot. Right to the babymaker.

My guess is that Muslims will point at this and declare that God does not like graven images. Headlines you'll see on this: "Holy Smoke!" "Jesus!" "It's Good!"

Good on, Nick. Cheers! /Did I do that right?

Formulaic, lazy writing. You know these folks had no respect for the audience when they expect us to swallow that whopper. I mean, a 17-year old girl is going to spend the summer in Europe following U2? Puhleeezze!!! Actually, I enjoyed the scene with the Armenians. "You don't remember me. We spoke on the phone two days ago. I told you I would find you."

Rivers wants to be more of a "front man", so Pat has taken on more guitar.

Buffalo native & Weezer guitarist, Pat Wilson, is wearing a Sabres t-shirt. /That is all.

The main sponsors for the "Partnership for a Drug Free America" are... you guessed it, the pharmaceutical industry. Good thing they stopped taking money from "Big Tobacco" and the alcohol industry in 1997 because (they were told) it looked bad. Nineteen Ninety Seven! Criminy! I was almost a decade out of high school and I remember "This is your brain on drugs."! Awesome. Bill Maher (bless his misguided little head) made a great point about how when it comes to drugs, the pharmaceutical companies are the pushers and the government is the mob that wants its cut.

That's the Irish for you. "I'd play rugby, but I don't want people to think I'm a wuss. Let's figure out something where we're sure to injure each other."