Vic Sage

well i watch MOULIN ROUGE at least once a year. so i'm going to see this.

sharpie wrote: Based on EL Docotorow's "The Book of Daniel." Movie didn't make much of an impression on me, book was better. Actually, DANIEL, with Timothy Hutton, was based on that Doctorow book. Like RUNNING ON EMPTY, they're both about the children of radicals, and they were both directed by Sidney Lumet. But RUNNING ON EMPTY is based an original script by Naomi Foner (maggie & jake gyllenhal's mom).

yeah, that didn't seem like an affectionate "well done!"... more like "eat this, ya punk!"

Sandy, on 'Spin, in today's News: �It�s no secret Jordany has had a slightly different approach to some things, there is a certain level of tolerance that we have... I hope he doesn�t exceed that level..." �I am not sure anything ultimately will hold him back... He has a great deal of talent." "In most cases, talent is only realized if it is nurtured and developed, and that can be done by an organization, but it ultimately has to be done on an individual basis as well. I am hoping Jordany will continue to mature. He has, I think, made progress. Hope he continues to do so on that front.� Translation: "If this kid doesn't straighten up and fly right, we're going to have to dump him."

With regard to that letter, and the responses to it: On one hand, i think they're right that fans tend to overstate their own suffering. They romanticize it, so it becomes a badge of honor. If a team is not just bad, but historically bad, then to be a fan of said team shows the depth of your character. Now, Met suffering cannot be the equal of Cubs, Red Sox, or even Cleveland, in that department. There are franchises without ANY championships to their credit. There are franchises which are grotesquely under-supported by its own fanbase even when they're successful. There have been teams that have suffered actual tragedies. The Mets are none of these things. They've either won or been to a NLCS or WS every decade of their existence (the current decade excepted, but so far incomplete). They've made a lot of bad trades, but some good ones. Have their been devastating injuries? sure. every team has them. but not disproportionately. What we do have is our early history. We started so bad, so HISTORICALLY bad, that our badness has still not been equaled. And after 7 years of that badness, we won a WS, thus creating the "miracle mets". But that's a history of triumph over adversity, not awfulness. Yeah, i'm as guilty of the "oh woe is me, i'm a met fan" shtick, but i'm aware that it's shtick. I wouldn't switch places with a Cleveland Indians fan for all the combustible sludge in the Cuyahoga River. I think, aside from the 120 losses in 1962 and a few bad trades and injuries, the team suffers mostly from being in the same city as the NY "27 rings" Yankees. If your yardstick is the winningest franchise in all of sports, of course you're going to look bad. We're like the hot chick's younger sister, stuck with glasses and braces. She's actually kind of cute, and when she gets the braces off and switches to contacts, she's pretty hot, too, but nobody notices and folks still think of her as hot girl's dorky sister. But dorky girls need love too, and as i was told by an upperclassman in college, ugly girls give the best blow jobs.

FUCK YOU, KOEHLER ROCKS! sorry, i get carried away. we're not used to any sports accomplishments at SBU.

These are the fans that are always whining about "what is the plan?" Ambler!

Crowe's use of music in his films is consistently good --

and don't forget the fact that he's utterly incomprehensible in post-game interviews. That has a sort of "Chico Esquella" charm that i would miss if he were gone.

Gee - 3.50 Buck - 2 Baxter - 1 Parnell - 1 Wright - .75 Hawkins - .50 Lyon - .50 Rice - .25

Harvey and Niese, And then we should cease!

Harvey 4.5 Davis 2 Duda 2 Rice .50 Parnell .25 Buck .25 Murphy .25 Wright .25

The 3rd trailer makes me want to gather an elite team of nerds to perform a Seal Team 6-style operation on Warner Bros offices to steal a copy of this film. Who's in? say nothing. stay where you are. when you hear the phrase "thunderbirds are go", head for Hollywood. There's a guy there, putting together a team. Some of us will die, of course, but in Hollywood the black guy dies first, so i'm ok with the plan.

Edgy MD wrote: Lucas Duda, you look like a more camera shy version of Brad, Tim Allen's mulleted son from the once-ubiquitous Disney show Home Improvement. Somebody noticed this out there and got a picture of the kid in a here-they-are-now photo. That's me, behind the lady in the pink sweater.

Wright 2.00 Murphy 1.50 Valdespin 1.25 Niese 1.00 Davis 0.25

[u:1e65zptx]Hitters:[/u:1e65zptx] * Davis - Another 1st half slog... what is this dude's deal? not enough rest in the off-season? doesn't hit in cold weather? sucks a big one? what? But nothing to be done... maybe give more ABs to Turner, at least until July. * Tejada - His speedless, punchless bat is made more stark by his atrocious defense so far this season. But we have no serious alternative on the roster. Where have you gone, Quintanilla? Met nation turns its lonely eyes to you... oo oo oo. * Cowgill - other than that opening day slam, he's been virtually invisible and a drag at the top of the order. Valdespin should be our CFer. * Nieuwenheis - has looked utterly bewildered at the plate since spring training. Baxter should get any ABs otherwise going to Cap'n Kirk and Kirk should be at AAA trying to figure out his swing. [u:1e65zptx]Pitchers:[/u:1e65zptx] Every starter not named Harvey and Niese, and every reliever other than Atchison (and, to a lesser extent, Rice, Parnell and Lyon). Especially damaging are: * Gee - meeting my low expectations for him; * Hafner, Laffey - what you see...; * Burke, Edgin - Both terrible, but I still have some hope for them; * Hawkins - Put the old boy out of his misery already. When the return of guys like Marcum and Francisco seems like a light at the end of the tunnel, it's a deep dark tunnel indeed. Overall, the team is scoring more than I thought, but (outside of Harvey) pitching as badly as i feared. Both are likely statistical anomalies based on small sample sizes, but its still irksome. Bring up Omar Q for the bench, send down Kirk (cowgill and Baxter give us sufficient OF backup, with Valdy as the CFer); Drop Hefner for McHugh; When you bring back Marcum, send down Laffey; when you bring back Francisco, send down (or cut) Hawkins. Then at least the team will be watchable, even if not competitive for any kind of post-season play.

there is a rundown scene, and its very good. In fact, all the base-running scenes are realistic, believable and the best moments in the movie. Those ridiculous leads off 1st that he took, those running starts of 2b, those unheard of breaks for home -- they were all so clearly his way of saying "eat this, you honkey motherfuckers!" or the 40s equivalent thereof. And Bozeman does shine as an actor/athlete, totally convincing as both.

you wrote it better.

ok performances, well crafted, but its the kind of picture where people say "Jackie, you're going to change this country", and he looks off into the distance, awaiting a future just over the horizon. It's all so noble, and liberal-minded, and well-intentioned, it functions more as civics lesson than compelling storytelling. And its the most obvious of hagiographies, making Robinson a secular saint, and the intergration of baseball a legendary act right out of THE NATURAL. There's even a scene where some boys are chasing after his train, after he's done some heroic deed, and he tosses one of them a ball. As the train pulls away, he puts his head on the track and announces "I can still hear him!" I really missed the Randy Newman music there. By the way, the kid grows up to be Ed "the glider" Charles (Mets content). Chadwick Boseman is terrific as Robinson, and Nicole Beharie as his wife, but they are both so saintly and sanitized, its hard for them to be human beings. Harrison Ford's Branch Rickey is sort of gruff and over-the-top at first but he grew on me. Still, the complicated relationship between Rickey and Robinson, with Robinson in later years resentful and angry about the way Rickey exploited him for press and profits, is entirely absent. In fact, there are no complexities of any kind... just complexions. Just black and white. But the world wasn't any more like that then than it is now. One also has to wonder about this kind of myth-making when Larry Doby was playing in Cleveland that year, too, starting a few months later. Where's his halo? The baseball action is ok, but the movie cares more about what goes on in between the pitches than it does what goes on between the lines. The movie does come alive, however, whenever 42 gets on base and starts screwing with the heads of those racist pitchers. You get the sense that this was the only way he could fight back, so he was going to make the most of it. Ultimately, its the kind of movie your glad your kid will see, but better if your wife takes him.

Harvey - 5.0 Byrd - 1.25 Turner - 1.25 Murphy - 1.0 Cowgill - 1.0 Tejada - 0.5 Wright - 0.5

Murphy - 2.50 Wright - 2.25 Buck - 1.5 Valdespin - 1.0 Byrd - 1.0 Tejada - 0.50 Baxter - 0.25 Atchison - 0.25 Burke - 0.25 Laffey - 0.25 Neise - 0.25

wacca wacca! thank you, ladies and germs! I'll be here all week! Try the veal... and don't forget to tip your waitresses!

why can't the Mets ever draft one of these guys? it reminds me of when the Knicks purposely skipped over St. Johns' Ron Artest to take Fredric Weis. well maybe not, but you know, lets get a local school feeding our minor league system. There'd be alot of support if a kid like that made it to the show in Queens.

is that an offensive-type league?

Fair enough.. my intention was to identify him as the only prospect that could possibly make a major impact, but, as you point out, i didn't say that originally.