Sean B. Fitzgerald It doesn’t go something like this, it goes exactly like this.

29Mar/101

Video of the Day

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Screw you, this song is awesome. No you're gay. Tell me you aren't at least tapping your feet now. Forget you!

27Mar/100

Fantasy Baseball Live Blog, among other things.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm seriously slacking with these posts. A lot has been going on in my life. I have a job and a car and I have to pay bills. I mean, these are things that no one else has to deal with. So it's understandable that I haven't been updating this little old blog of mine as much.

That being said, this post will be enormous. I'll try to kill eight birds with one stone. I'll be live blogging my fantasy baseball draft which is set to begin in five minutes while at the same time discussing my night out, thoughts on food, love, and allergies. You know, the usual.

I won't time stamp each little tidbit because it's really annoying to constantly look down to the bottom right corner of the screen before every paragraph. My eyes just can't handle the strain. A dash (-) will suffice. Deal? Let's go.

-Let's see. I have the fifth pick. Eh. Obviously I would have loved to have the first pick. Mr. Pujols himself can carry a fantasy team just as well as he carries his own team.

-Pujols, Mauer, Ramirez, Rodriguez. I could have easily taken Utley, Kemp or Braun. But I decided on Evan Longoria. No fooling, he's going to be a super-stud. A fantasy juggernaut.

-I did little to no research in preparation for this draft. I'm essentially doing this blind. I know who's good and who's not, but I'm clueless on sleepers or reliable pitchers. This is going to be interesting.

-2nd round: Ian Kinsler. Full disclosure. I just made my first two picks from the comfort of my toilet. Hey, when nature calls, you have to answer. Even if it means placing the laptop on your bare legs as you taken care of business.

-3rd round: Zach Greinke. This draft is going a lot quicker than expected. It's nice when everyone actually shows up on the proper time. Too many times I've sat through 2 hour drafts just because a few guys decided to ignore their draft and not have the decency to put it on auto-pick. (This is clearly nerd talk)

-Remember that time when I said  I was never going to bars again? Well, I lied. But the sentiment still remains. With music that loud, how am I supposed to speak to girls? I'm not going to yell at them. Which is exactly what I end up doing when I'm at a bar. "WHAT'S YOUR NAME?!" "WHAT?!" "DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL?!!!" "THAT'S CRAZY!" And I can't dumb myself down enough for the vapid conversations that take place at these establishments. Look, I would love to get to know you, but telling me about your roommate makes me want to put myself in a sleeper hold.

-4th round: Jayson Werth. Solid fourth rounder in my opinion. Super reliable. Hits for power and steals a decent amount of bases.

-5th round: Johan Santana.

-6th round: Nick Markakis. Jesus, spring is here. Currently, I'm sitting at my dining room table with a pile of used tissues that's nearly covering my monitor. My nose is a leaky faucet. My lips are dry, my eyes itch and I'm sneezing every thirty seconds. All because a flower sprouted in my backyard. I wish it were winter. Just kidding.

-7th round: Carlos Pena.

-8th round: Adam Jones. I'm liking my team so far. A lot of power, speed, and a solid 1-2 punch. I have no catcher or relief pitchers yet. Those are late round pickups anyway. Got to stock the shed with some ammunition, yaknowwhatIsayin?

-9th round: Joakim Soria. Screw that philosophy. Soria is a relief stud. Low ERA and WHIP and converts saves, bottom line.

-10th round: Elvis Andrus. Ever go a whole day without eating? I wanted to try that today. Just liquids. I've been slacking big time on my diet. Last night I had a few Italian combo sandwiches. That's right, a few. And God are those delicious. Throw roasted sweet peppers on anything and I'll talk dirty to it.

-11th round: Rick Porcello. He went to Seton Hall Prep. I went to Seton Hall University. So I felt a connection.

-12th round: Russell Martin. Doesn't Martin look a lot like Russell from Survivor? And holy crap! They have the same name. Creepy. By the way, if you haven't been watching Survivor this season. Shame on you. It's The Sopranos and The Wire rolled into a honey wheat wrap and stuffed with roasted sweet peppers. It's that good.

-13th round: A.J. Burnett.

-Can you believe I went to bed before watching the best game of the tournament? And of course it was called by Gus Johnson. I'm literally kicking myself. I guess the highlights will have to do.

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-14th round: Brad Hawpe. I can't bring the laptop back in the bathroom, can I? Once is ridiculous. Twice is...what? Flat out unacceptable, right? Screw it.

-Live from the bathroom here. I really shouldn't do this. Not because it's disgusting. But because of where I'm putting the laptop. It's super close to my no-no area. That can't be good. I know that technology has improved over the years, but I'm not 100% certain that I'm not microwaving my balls right now.

-15th round: Leo Nunez.

-16th round: Rafael Furcal. These are more or less the garbage rounds. But some would argue that these late round players can separate the men from the boys fantasy-wise. I disagree. Call me crazy, but I just don't think Jeff Niemann will decide this fantasy season.

-17th round: Mark Buerhle. Are there really six more rounds of this? Man. I got things to do today...kind of.

-18th round: James Loney.

-19th round: Michael Wuertz. I don't even know who this guy is. But he had a .95 WHIP and 102 K's last year. Good enough for me.

-Skip to the end.

-20th round: Todd Helton
-21st round: Justin Duchscherer
-22nd round: Jermaine Dye
-23rd round: Randy Winn.

Oh Thank God. It's over. That was far too long. An hour and a half. Now what usually happens is that I barely update it and I end up in dead last by the third week. Fantasy baseball is like homework.

22Mar/102

Site News

I really suck at this whole blogging thing, don't I? I mean, I barely post anything. Not to mention, I suck at writing. It's 90% videos and pictures. So I'm basically taking credit for the hard work that other people did. When I post a video, I'm saying "I like what THEY did". Not what I did.

I think I have permanent writer's block. Which is also known as laziness. Because anyone can write anything at anytime. I could easily write 1,000 words on the NCAA Basketball Tournament, but I would have to do actual research. I can't just rely on who won and lost off the top of my head. I would have to open another window, type in E-S-P-N-.-C-O-M and hit enter. WAY too much work. I'd rather not do that and post another Temper Trap song. Because those guys are talented.

I've also found a way to increase my laziness by incorporating a podcast into this already word-suffering blog. Speaking of which, Luigi and I will be recording Episode 2 of "Let It Marinate"* tomorrow night. We'll be introducing new segments such as "Why does Luigi's car smell?" or "How about this weather, huh?" So if you're suffering from insomnia, hit play and before you know it, you will no longer have that affliction. But seriously, we'll try to keep it light and interesting. Not to mention thought-provoking. Because as the great Karl Pilkington says, "if I got you thinking, I've done my job". And it couldn't be more true. I just hope to impart some of my wisdom (or lack thereof) on to you and you can pay it forward per se.

*I'm really considering changing the name of the podcast. It's totally nonsensical and devoid of any real thought. We really just went with the first quasi-catchphrase we accidentally uttered. I'll have a brainstorming session in my head as I doze off to come up with a new one. Maybe "Sean and Luigi" or "Luigi and Sean". How about "Sean with Luigi" or Luigi featuring Sean". Jesus, I have no imagination.

21Mar/100

Video of the Day

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17Mar/101

Seton Hall Fires Bobby Gonzalez! Yay!!!!!

HOORAY!

15Mar/101

Two in a Row!

"We won a game yesterday. If we win today, that's two in a row. If we win tomorrow, that's called a winning streak. It has happened before"

Don't look now, but the Knicks of New York have won back to back games. On Saturday, newly acquired Bill Walker led the team with 23 points in a rout of the Dallas Mavericks. And tonight, David Lee had 16 rebounds as the Knicks took care of business against the Philadelphia 76ers. With a record of 24-43 New York has the same chances of making the playoffs as I do starting for the Lakers. But it's still nice to see some fire coming from a team that is essentially waiting until July 1st. That's the date of the start of free agency. A date when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, among others can stop tip-toeing around the subject and make a decision as to where they would like to spend the next few years of there lives.

Knicks general manager Donnie Walsh has done a terrific job shedding contracts in preparation for offering two players max contracts starting next season. Currently, the only dead weight being paid next year is Eddy Curry, who will receive checks that will total $11,276,863 for sitting on the bench until his ass grows around it. The worst part about it? It's a player option. So you know he'll take it. And of course I won't fault him for it. If a team was stupid enough to give you money for pretty much disliking the game of basketball, take the money and start counting it.

Now no one knows whether or not LeBron and/or D-Wade will be in a Knicks uniform next season, so New York needs to start preparing for the worst. Which quite possibly could be Rudy Gay and Amare Stoudamire. If that turns out to be the case, they need to address who exactly will fill out the rest of the team. It will be interesting to see where David Lee will end up in 2011. I'm sure the Knicks would love to keep him, but will they be able to match any offer a team provides even after utilizing their cap space in max contracts.

If David Lee comes off the table, New York has three promising young role players in Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallanari, and Bill Walker. And as I prepare for the worst (Gay and Stoudamire), I would not be upset with a rotating starting five of Chandler, Gallanari, Walker, Douglas, Stoudamire, and Gay.

The last ten years of Knicks basketball has left me so disgusted that I ache for an 8th seed next year. Here in New York the sentiment has been LeBron or bust. And although I believe that the Knicks have a better chance than any other team to land him, they cannot put all their eggs in one basket. They need to look to the future with what they have on the court now. Bill Walker was greatly over looked in college due to the fact that he had a knee injury as well as playing with Michael Beasley at Kansas State. Toney Douglas was the ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2009. And Wilson Chandler has averaged 15 points and 5 rebounds all season.

I look forward to next season, not just for the free agents, but for the current team moving forward.

14Mar/100

Thoughts on the 2010 NCAA Tournament Bracket

I'm filling out one. Just one. In the past I would spend hours filling out dozens of brackets to end up at the perfect one. And inevitably I would second guess myself nineteen times and end up ruining my chances at picking a winning bracket.

Not this year.

About five minutes after the final teams were announced, I sat down at my kitchen table and chose a winner for every single game. I based my decisions off of the last four months of watching games (mostly Big East). Like everyone else, I haven't the slightest clue how talented some of these teams are. Robert Morris? Sounds like a nice guy, but I don't think he can beat West Virginia.

Some thoughts:

  • Duke (as a #1 seed) clearly has the easiest bracket. Which is ridiculous considering the fact that Kansas was hands-down the best team all year and they have one of the better #2 seeds in Ohio State in their bracket. Quite frankly, Duke didn't even deserve a #1 seed. West Virginia deserved that. This is all meaningless of course because Duke will no doubt choke in the Sweet 16. They always do.
  • Is UNLV a #8 seed every year? It seems like it.
  • I'm looking at a lot of first round upsets this year. Keep an eye out for #12 Cornell over #5 Temple, #10 Missouri over #7 Clemson, #13 Siena over #4 Purdue, and #10 St Mary's (Ca) over #7 Richmond.
  • I can't be trusted to fill out these brackets because of my unwavering love for the Big East. I'm pretty sure I have all eight teams making it to the Sweet Sixteen. That's right, I have half of my Sweet Sixteen teams being Big East teams. I don't care that I haven't paid much attention to the other conferences, the Big East Conference is the best, end of story.
  • My Final Four: Kansas, West Virginia, Syracuse, and Villanova. See? Three Big East teams. And you can't talk me out of them. That being said, I do have Kansas beating West Virginia in the championship. Collins and Aldrich are and will be unstoppable when it matters. If ANYONE beats them, it would be a huge upset. And knowing my luck, Lehigh will rout them in Round One.

One final thought. I'm immensely disappointed that Seton Hall did not make the tournament. But, they didn't deserve it. They blew their chance against Notre Dame in the second round of the Big East Championship. It's 8:58 right now and in about five minutes I'll find out exactly where they will fall in the N.I.T. Hopefully it's a 1 or 2 seed. We'll see.

Stay tuned.

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13Mar/100

Let It Marinate: Episode 2

 

Hooray! We did it! And by "we" I mean "Luigi". He finally figured out how to post our podcast onto my site.

Anyway, like I said, it's horrible. I greatly recommend NOT listening to it. Naturally, since we're only two episodes in, we're a little rusty. Hopefully, over time, we can improve and limit our mumbling. Our greatest obstacle is avoiding inside jokes. It's so easy to start talking to a close friend and before you know it, the conversation ends up like this:

Me: You know how he was like (makes face)

Luigi: Yeah yeah, just like that time we...

Me: Exactly! Remember when we met those girls...

Luigi and Me: TOASTER STRUDEL!!!

See? Totally incomprehensible to anyone not on the "inside" of the joke. So we'll do our best to avoid that.

But like I said, it's not great. It's not even good. But if you'd like to waste 40 minutes of your time listening to idiots ramble on about God knows what, by all means hit play. In this episode we talk about Chat Roulette, The Ricky Gervais Show, and the Oscars. Among other things. Enjoy.

13Mar/100

Video of the Day

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I've listened to this song about 36 times in the last day or so. I have to give credit to my sister for posting it on her Facebook. Wouldn't have known about it otherwise. She recommends songs to me all the time and she has about a 25% success rate. It's low, but when she hits it, she hits it.

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11Mar/101

More Site News

Please excuse the lack of posts today as you see, Luigi as well as myself just recorded our second podcast. And it's terrible. But not horrible, which it was last time. So yes, there's an improvement. We mumbled a lot less, we spoke in complete sentences and we were even partially coherent.

Currently, Luigi is trying to figure out how to post the podcast directly onto THIS site instead of onto my Tumblr, which nobody follows (not even me). He says it's easy. Which means he could do it now but he'd rather not do it ever.

Anyway, I'd like to talk about sports on this podcast but Luigi knows less than nothing about sports. Seriously. I could mention baseball off-the-cuff and he would completely go cross-eyed. We need some sort of special guest. Someone who could actually hold a intelligent conversation about March Madness or baseball in general. I'll look into it.

I'll be back with regular posts tomorrow and hopefully the podcast itself. Until next time.

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