Stuff, and This Week's Contest
*Big, big breaking news today: Bill Mueller is quiet. Who knew?
Actually, the big news today is that Richard Seymour signed with the Patriots for 2005, ending a rare New England holdout. Foxsports.com broke the news last night, but it was deemed unworthy in some quarters because it was "only an Internet report," which was a valid excuse for dismissing Internet reports in 1997.
*Dave's World Official Tennis Correspondent Bucknell Jared, fresh off a trip to Alaska, writes:
Chile -- sweet piece on entrance music, but what about the death toll
of the closer? I'll have to do some more research, but I wonder ...
while it surely wasn't the first instance, did #99 Rick "Wild Thing"
Vaughn popularize it all with his dramatic late-inning entrances in the
original Major League? The closer music is key, because this is the guy
that is supposed to slam the door shut with authority. The tune should
strike fear in the opposition and send chills through the crowd. But I
reckon you need to either a) really earn a stellar tune; or b) look the
part and be half-way decent. I'm sure this has been catalogued before,
but these guys definitely get solid marks for their selections,
performance, and/or look of a closer:
Trevor Hoffman, Padres - Hells Bells, AC/DC
Mariano Rivera, Yankees - Enter Sandman, Metallica
Eric Gagne, Dodgers - Welcome to the Jungle, Guns N' Roses
I'm sure there are other good ones out there, though. I did learn, via a
quick Web search, that Brad Lidge, Astros closer, uses "The Game" by
Drowning Pool. It didn't register on iTunes, but it seems like it could
work. And Billy Wagner and K-Rod should certainly have something hard
blaring. Troy Percival, when healthy (never), is pretty mean looking
and probably warrants some 80's hair band song.
This begs the question, though ... what about the less established
closers? As a fantasy geek, I can attest to the frustration that is the
revolving door of closers. That said, I don't get the Direct TV MLB
Diamond-cutters all-summer fun package like someone I know, so
apologies if these guys actually have something good going. What in
the world do the likes of Brian Bruney, Bob Wickman, and Danys Baez
have queued up? The list could go on and on. Brian Fuentes is maybe the
first good Colorado closer ... does he enter to the Rocky theme song?
Speaking of rocking, did John Rocker have a song?
Actually, he did … he played We're Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister, then Dee Snider came out and demanded he stop playing their song. You'd think Twisted Sister would want any publicity at this point, good or bad.
*T.J. Mopa Njila writes: I say with complete honesty that on Saturday night, amidst my disgust that Manny might be run out of town, I listened to Uri Berenguer on the Spanish Beisbol Network. I know about 10 words of Spanish, but it doesn't matter. I understand Uri's passion and can pick up enough to know the score of the game and basically what is happening at that time. Kind of pathetic … that I find myself listening to Sox games in Spanish.
Incidentally, I feel the same about watching Mexican wrestling on Galavision instead of the WWE. But when Mistico becomes the biggest thing in wrestling since Stone Cold Steve Austin, all those times my readers rolls their eyes and say "Oh Lord, he's writing about Mistico again," will be worth it.
Anyway, time for this week's Dave's World contest. As longtime readers know, Dave's World has given away a wide array of pocket schedules, from the Mariners to the Seattle Sounders to the Seahawks to the Seattle Storm to the Tacoma Rainiers. A similar pocket schedule will go to the person who can best answer in 50 words or less why the general public was able to easily see through Red Sox management's transparent attempt to run Manny Ramirez out of town.
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