Baroness at the Middle East on Saturday Night

Baroness will be coming back around again this Saturday (11/21) at the Middle East in Cambridge. People get sick of us plugging no band but this one, but I am unphased. In a perfect world, this would be the highest grossing tour in history. I can honestly say that there isn't a show I can think of that I would see over them. Obviously, you should be there.

I Didn't Fill Out a Bracket - So What?

When I was younger I used to follow a ton of sports, leagues and events closely - NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA Football, NCAA Basketball, the NCAA Baseball Tournament, high school sports in Worcester, Massachusetts, the Olympics (summer and winter), world championships. I even tried to keep up with the NHL, even though hockey never quite clicked with me. But then I got older, got a job, and I could not keep up with everything. I found myself gravitating towards the Patriots and the Celtics. The former because the NFL is so easy to follow and the C's because I'm fascinated by the NBA.

Well all of the sudden it's 2009 and I didn't fill out a bracket. Not one. And the NCAA tournament has gotten to the point that seemingly everyone else did. Initially I was honest and admitted, "I just didn't get around to it." People were borderline offended. Other mocked me. I got into a few arguments about it. It's not that I didn't mind the jokes about my manhood or lack thereof. Rather I was annoyed by the assumption that I was somehow not a sports fan. It was as if my credentials were on the line. Really? Consider the following.

I watched every game of the 2006-2007 Celtics season. I bought a round for some people in Cambridge, England who didn't even follow the NBA when the KG trade was announced. Three days ago I dressed up as this guy. I'm probably going to help out with a JV baseball team a few days a week because I like throwing BP and hitting fly balls. There was a point where I was the self proclaimed best NBA Jam player in the world. I just knocked the ROOMOFZEN's T and his "Nobody Beats the Wiz" out of the fantasy basketball playoffs. Okay you got me. This was just an elaborate plan to drive home that last point. And I don't care if T stopped playing weeks ago and had injured guys in his lineup. Nor do I care that I'm going to get bounced this round. Nobody Beats The Wiz? Cobra Kai beat the Wiz. SWEEP THE LEG! PUT HIM IN A BODY BAG!

Bush with a side of Mayo

I simply cannot resist the temptation to comment on the latest O.J Mayo "fiasco." You can read about it here and here. If there’s one thing in sports that angers me more than athletes breaking the law, it’s people and institutions which take advantage of kids to make money. The Mayo case gives us a perfect example of this phenomenon and people like Guillory and Johnson are flat-out reprehensible people.

ESPN describes people like Guillory as “middlemen" or "(people) who develop relationships with high-profile athletes with the goal of delivering them to a sports agent when the players turn pro.” ESPN calls them “runners” but I call them con-men. These people exist for the purposes of leeching off talent and serving the interests of people or groups without their target's best interests at heart. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why these guys are “helping” out star players. Johnson, one of the runners, “admitted that he hoped to profit more once the player made it to the NBA.”

Basically they found a budding star without a role model and proceeded to take advantage of him for financial and personal gain. What makes this story so tragic (and angering) is that Mayo didn't have a father or at least someone who could give him sound advice. Instead Johnson and Guillory took on the role of a father figure, yet their interests were not pure at heart.

The irony in this situation is that instead of being a high first round pick with guaranteed money, Mayo will probably fall to a lower pick on "character concerns" than he would have otherwise (note: edit based on Jim's comment that the NBA only has two rounds...shows how much I know). His pay-day will be a third of what it probably could have been, and it's all because two older guys took advantage of his youth and poor decisions; instead of helping him, they hurt him.

Mayo isn’t a victim, either. He could have walked away from these guys. Mayo is either incredibly stupid or morally bankrupt, or both. ESPN writes that, “Guillory was an L.A. event promoter who also played a role in the suspension of a USC basketball player in 2000.” Why would Mayo, assuming he knew about Guillory’s role in this prior suspension, willingly take on Guillory as an advisor? So Guillory could advise him on how to get suspended And what about Johnson, the other runner? He had a prior for selling cocaine! Sounds like someone you can trust, right? What the hell was OJ thinking when he associated himself with these guys?

The other option is that OJ was greedy and took the bribes from the people giving him advice and guidance. But who enabled this greedy behavior through favors and money? The runners certainly didn’t have money so they had to get it somewhere. It turns out that sports agencies are in the mix – what a surprise, right? Sports agencies use these runners to preemptively sign talent – they’re in it together for mutual exploitation of someone with poor judgment and a lax moral compass – and after enough favors are spent, they get the contract. ESPN.com writes that:

“Over the course of roughly three years prior to the start of Mayo's freshman season at USC, BDA Sports provided Guillory with about $200,000, some of it through an account set up at Citibank.”

Guillory spent those funds on Mayo in the hopes that once he made it pro, he would choose BDA. What’s to say BDA can’t pay Guillory for this relationship, too? Everyone wins, right? Everyone gets a piece of the pie!

Wrong. Everyone suffers.

The Babcock Report: Capitol Punishment

Photo Courtesy of the Babcock Archive

I made the 530 mile trip from Newburyport to Gaithersburg, Maryland this past Tuesday and I have been planning a "Greetings from.." post but decided instead to roll it into my latest Babcock Report. Sometimes these things just come together. Anyway, my first several days down here were uneventful...I managed to catch a nationally televised Celtics game along with Deep Impact, which was playing on Showtime. I actually watched the whole entire movie, even finding myself emotionally invested in the film at a few pivotal moments; namely when Elijah Wood comes riding up to his teen-bride on a dirt bike and rides her and her baby sister to safety only moments ahead of a devastating tidal wave. I'm not recommending this movie, in fact I am not even why I am admitting that I actually watched it. Sometimes you do strange things when you're living in a hotel by yourself in Maryland.

Needless to say, I was really looking forward to the weekend. I put in a long day at work and got into bed early, planning to get an early start and hit all of the token Washington, D.C. tourist attractions. I took the Metro into the city and began walking around aimlessly (I think its the best way to see a city, I can't bring myself to climb my ass into one of those Duckboats). I must've walked a good 20 miles, and I have an ankle blister and the rough-night-in-prison limp to prove it. It was a beautiful day and the city was full of similar tourist types. I haven't been in DC for quite some time. Some of you know that on my last visit to the city I had the distinct pleasure of spending a short stint in a local jail cell after I was hit with an (alleged) open container infraction down at the waterfront. A couple of highlights from that evening included standing by helplessly as Police officers removed a 3 x 5 index card from my cargo shorts that contained a list titled "Worst Athlete Wives" and contained names such as Brenda Warner, Left Eye (not sure if she was actually married to Andre Rison, but close enough) Jason Kidd's wife (I wasn't sure of her name), Adrian Balboa (She never deserved Rocky and it was clearly her fault that their son was a huge pussy), along with a couple of others that escape my mind now. I'm not sure if they found this list amusing or if it made them want to kick my ass. Long story short bail was set at $10, and the next morning I removed the index card from my plastic bag of belongings (shoelaces, etc...) and promptly threw it into the trash.

Since there was about 40,000 other people who had the same idea as me walking around the city I didn't actually go into any buildings or museum, I stuck to the exteriors avoiding lines and possible awkward conversations with other out-of-towners. It was all around a satisfying experience and made me feel somewhat productive. I ended the day with a great Cheeseburger at Clydes, a nice sports bar/restaurant next door to the Verizon center. Capitols fans were starting to pour into Clydes and the surrounding area in preparation for the nights game (which the Capitols won, securing a playoff berth). The only downer of this portion of my day was sitting next to some douchebag who talked too loudly to his friends (three chicks) about three girls he was dating at the moment. The girls, "Punk rock Chick", "Insane lady", and "Former figure skater girl", were all apparently really into this guy, despite the fact that anyone within a 20 foot radius would immediately know that he was a complete tool. I tried hard to watch the Magic-Cavaliers game on TV but couldn't help hearing about his dates (all deriving in some manner from Craigslist personal ads), detailed analysis of the goodnight kisses of each, and how he has decided that he should purchase some new pillows and sheets now that he is dating seriously. Later on I saw this guy in the street trying to scalp tickets to the Capitols game, I wanted to kick him in the shins, but alas, I was also attempting to keep a low profile.

Later in the evening I had the pleasure of meeting up with Ballgame, fellow ROOMOFZEN blogger and all around badass. We watched the final four games and engaged in various excellent conversations. Topics included NBA Jam on Sega Genesis, the most bad ass brands of Malt Liquor (Olde English was held in extremely high regard by all parties), why football is taking over as most popular sport in America, and the evolution of Rock and Roll from Black Blues musicians through Zeppelin and the Stones and the incredible role the Beatles played in transforming rock and roll, popular music, and recording techniques. We also discussed how rock music had generally gone downhill since the 90s, and how badass that period of time was in music. Then this one guy mentioned that he was a fan of the Killers and our music conversation came to a screeching halt. Meanwhile the girls segregated themselves into another room (why does this always happen?) to talk about purses, or perhaps something more intellectually stimulating.

It had already been a great day, but much to my surprise the best still lay ahead. We got back to Ballgame's girlfriends house and it soon became evident that we were going to need to eat something. That's when Ballgame gave me a nod and said, "I know exactly what you need.", and boy was he right.

Heaven on Earth? Quite Possibly.

It is going to be hard to describe how amazing the experience of Steak 'n Egg Kitchen was at 1:35am this morning. To start off the place seats about 12 people inside, and when we got there it was already packed. Being an experienced patron Ballgame immediately noticed a few newbies who were not pure of heart and scared them off by saying that the wait was probably "at least a 1/2 an hour". They left and we walked in, all business. The waiter took our order as we stood against the back wall (approximately 2' away from the 12 seated patrons already inside when we got there. I was feeling saucy so I went with the signature Steak'n Eggs, with french fries and a side of biscuits and gravy. Just as our order was ready two seats opened up for us like clockwork. "Controlled Chaos" Ballgame called it, and he assured me that things always had a way of going as smoothly despite the fact that it is a 24/7 diner with approximately 30 square feet of eating space. I left wholly satisfied and determined to return again. It will not be an experience soon forgotten.

Serving up "Awesome" 24/7

As far as sports go, I couldn't be more excited to watch the NCAA championship game tomorrow night. I had Memphis and Kansas meeting in the finals in my bracket with Memphis winning by 4. These two teams were clearly the best on the court last night and the fact that they both play uptempo on both ends of the court sets the stage for a very exciting game. I have to give the edge to Memphis due to Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts; both these guys were getting to the rim at will last night and are almost impossible to defend 1 on 1. I also have a soft spot for John Calipari, and would really like to see him get a championship. His "Refuse to lose" campaign with UMASS was the last time that a college team in the Commonwealth really had a legit shot at the title. I just really like the style of basketball that both of these teams play, and they both seem to be playing their best ball of the season right now. You really couldn't ask for more out of a National title match up. Vegas has Kansas as a 1/2 point underdog the last time I checked, which speaks to the parity in this game. I can't wait.

One reason to smile.

The Red Sox just got swept by the Blue Jays. Am I worried? No, it is way to early to be worried. It is unfortunate to get swept by anyone, especially someone who will most likely be near the top of the American League at the end of season. But, at the same time I just can't get myself too worked up about baseball with the NBA playoffs only 6 days away. I'm just all about basketball right now. The silver lining of the Red Sox situation is that JD Drew had bounced back from his back injury and has been hitting the ball well. I'm sure that back in Boston people are saying that he's only hitting well now because it doesn't matter. I just have a good feeling about him this year, I think he's going to come into his own and have a very productive season.

Rock and Roll.