March 27, 2005
-
Here is another Dave update. They arrived in New Orleans about noon on
Friday. They came in over the country’s longest bridge, a 25 mile
bridge going over part of the Gulf of Mexico. It cost $4 to drive over
this thing. He said it was amazing, nothing but ocean on both sides of
him. He said the town has an area that is filled with bars (Bourban St?
the French Quarter? help me out here, people) and they found themselves
at a karoke bar at 4 in the afternoon with about 300 other people, most
of which were drunk. He said the streets were like one big party. They
wound up going back to the hotel, drunk at about 10PM, which I thought
was sorta early, until he told me that they had been up since Thursday
morning. Today, they went to the Six Flags down there, which is about
1/3 of the size of ours. They also took a 2 hour tour of the city and
tonight will be hitting up some of the bars in the area. Should be a
great time for them.I finished reading The Stand on Thursday, and decided that I should
watch the movie. This would be the first time I have watched a movie
after reading the book. I specifically saved today so that I can watch
the 6 hour movie. I have to say, I was disappointed. First off, there
was a lot missing from the movie and a lot that was different. And the
movie was corny and had lots of bad acting. Man, there is no doubts now
about why Molly Ringwold’s career went south………..holy shit does
that chick suck. The plot was good, but even though it was made in
1994, it still seemed like a campy 80s made for tv movie. Now, I’m well
aware it was a made for tv mini-series, in fact, that might be part of
the problem. But, still, like the book, there just seemed to be
something missing, I can’t place my finger on it. My biggest pet peve
about changes from the book to the movie, is that one of the characters
in the book is fat, ugly, and a complete loser but in the movie, he is
thin and actually cute, despite them trying to “ugly him up”. Of
course, they can’t make him TOO ugly. They have to make him tv ugly,
which as we know, is not ugly at all. I just felt they should have
remained true to the book with regards to that.Speaking of books, I have a book from 1997 which lists the 100 best
baseball players of all time. No, Todd Hundley is not on the list. But,
Barry Bonds deservingly is. It lists players weights. Back then, he was
listed at 185 pounds. Now, 228! He is a rail in the picture in the
book. Most of the great home run hitters of yester year were not much
over 200. Sure, Ruth was 215, but just listen to some of these weights
of some of the greatest homerun hitters of all time: Foxx 195, Aaron
180, Mays 180, Banks 180, Musial 175, Mantle 198, Robinson 195, just to
name a few. Now, look at some of todays players: Palmiero 214,
Sheffield 215, Sosa 220, Giambi 230, Thome 246. Most of the older
players mentioned and new players are about the same size. What does
this tell you? Its just more proof that steroids are rampant in
baseball. Sure, some of them might have bulked up naturally, but not
all of them. Look at Giambi. He admitted it. Look at his weight and
compare it to the others. Its almost a smoking gun. And pitchers aren’t
off the hook either. Buehurle 220, Farnsworth 240, Gagne 240, Sabathia
290, shit even Jeff Supan is 220. Here are weights of classic pitchers:
Feller 185, Seaver 206, Grove 190, Span 175, Gibson 195. All hall of
famers. Now, try telling me steroids aren’t taking over the game.
