Hello,
While I'm excited about how good Atlanta, Boston and Pittsburgh are doing in MLB, when all is said and done my favorite team is the Los Angeles Dodgers. My second favorite team is probably the Cubs. I'm wondering how bad things will get for the Dodgers and the Cubs before things start to improve. Currently of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball, Chicago has the 29th worst record. They're winning percentage is .398. The Dodgers are a bit better. They have the 27th worst record and they're winning percentage is .420. The five worst teams are:
30) Houston Astros: .341
29) Chicago Cubs: .398
28) Kansas City Royals: .414
27) LA Dodgers: .420
26) Baltimore Orioles: .429
As a Dodgers fan the longer we have to deal with the McCourt alleged ownership, the longer it will take LA to recover. I wish he had already been told that he need to sell the team, it would be nice to see a light at the end of the table. However we haven't reached that much needed milestone yet. This season is unimportant now, this season's team won't win anything. It seems the players know and have accepted that. Are they even trying any more?
Once the Dodgers get a new owner, as long as it's a properly financed owner, they can begin to rebuild their entire organization. The Dodgers cupboard is pretty bare in talent now. I also hear the minor league system is in rough shape. The Dodgers are going to have to go the free agent route to become more relevant. But there's no guarantee that will make them significantly better. I'd just urge the Dodgers to stay away from injury prone players. Once they get injured they tend to be a lot more prone to injury in the future. All the Dodgers have to do is look at their own Rafael Furcal. He has missed so many games in his Dodgers career so far. By my rough estimation he's missed 33% of his games in his Dodger career. So far this season he's played less than 25% of possible games. And the Dodgers are paying him $13 million this season and injuries have forced him to play a lot less games than are possible.
I would love for either the Orel Hershiser and Steve Garvey group or Mark Cuban to buy the Dodgers. The first two people mentioned are former Dodger greats who would bring instant credibility back to the Dodgers. After McCourt has turned the Dodgers into a laughing stock, they desperately need some credibility. And Mark Cuban has shown that he's willing to spend the money to get the type of team he wants. I never thought the Mavericks would ever win the NBA Title. But with Cuban's money and surrounding himself with smart people, the Mavericks won last season's title. And honestly how hard is it going to be a better owner than Frank McCourt?
I don't know what the answer is for the Cubs. Even when they spend a lot and have relatively good managers, they just never seem to get over the hump. I thought Alfonso Soriano was a great signing when the Cubs got him. I expected him to be a game changer, a player that could put the Cubs into the World Series. Since he's been on the team, they haven't even been close. He's had some highlights, but for the most part he hasn't delivered as much as expected. He's getting paid $19 million for his .260 batting average.
Also the US Women's World Cup team lost to Sweden yesterday 2-1, which means they finished second in their group. What does that men for the ladies of America? They open up the World Cup knockout round by playing the powerful Brazil team. Brazil features Marta, who many people consider the world's best player. That game is going to start about noon EST on Sunday. That game makes me very nervous.
Quick reviews, about a month ago the Arctic Monkeys released their latest CD, "Suck It And See". Not only is the title sophomoric but the music is less than inspiring. It's hard to believe that a band that started out so hot has become so mediocre. The Arctic Monkeys went from this song:
This is one of the best songs, if not the best song, on "Suck It And See". It's an okay song but nowhere near their first few songs. This is "Brick by Brick":
I took a break from Brady Udall's "The Lonely Polygamist" and started reading Ted Bell's "Warlord". I read what the book was about on it's back cover. It sounded like a terrific book. However after reading the first 33 pages last night, I've come to a different idea. So far this is not a good book, in fact it's been very disappointing so far. Dare I say boring. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue to read it, it's that bad. Thankfully for the library so that I didn't spend any money on it.
Last night's "American Idol" Season 10 tour started in West Valley City. Pia Toscano debuted her new song "This Time". Obviously the following video is from a cell phone so the sound quality is very low. "This Time" will officially will released on July 12th.
Besides the crappy sound and "Blair Witch" camera work, what do you think? I actually like it somewhat. I'm going to wait until I hear the actual song, before making a final judgment. I'm so glad she didn't sing another ballad. Isn't Pia looking gorgeous? I do wonder why this song wasn't released earlier. It had to be known that this song would be all over youtube as soon as she sang it live.
Salt Lake Tribune (www.sltrib.com) writer David Burger reviewed last night's first stop on the "American Idol" tour. Some of the highlights of his review: "The contestants that showed the most star power, stage presence and vocal chops were Stefano Langone, Casey Abrams, Haley Reinhart and Pia Toscano.
No surprise that Scotty McDreary isn't listed in the above sentence. Even though he "won" "AI", he rarely showed either stage presence or star power. If you want every song to sound the same, then he was your man, uh boy.
The following paragraph is exactly why I had no desire to see the "AI" tour: "The show tries to be all things to all people, so you heard R&B from Jacob Lusk, jazz from Abrams, country from runner-up Lauren Alaina and rock from James Durbin. Yes, it is karaoke, and considering the price, a rather expensive night of karaoke."
As soon as I read Jacob Lusk's name I didn't need to read anymore. In fact I think my hell would be 24/7 Jacob Lusk "singing". I'd also question if James Durbin really sang rock. Did he also do his terrible screeching, something he stole directly from Adam Lambert.
But I think of all the things David Burger wrote, this is the most telling: "Just cut the running time, please — some of us have to work the next day." First of all it cracks me up he complains about the length of a concert. For most concerts the longer the better, but I'd agree that 3 hours of the Idols would be a bit much. A great concert is a concert I don't want to end, no matter how little sleep I get the next day.
themusicaddict
No comments:
Post a Comment