The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Well, I finally saw the video today of the lovely Friday night game between the Pistons and Pacers. Boy, that was pretty ugly. The players should have shown restraint period and not gone into the stands. In most sports, they can have security remove someone for being a pain or so I thought — going up there was just plain wrong. Also, the amazing security that let a fan onto the court was just top notch — must be Congress running the security there or something.

Tonight on ESPN, they were talking about removing courtside seats. Well that’s a dumb idea — there’s huge money to be made there — and besides, you may have noticed– the guy wasn’t exactly in the front row — maybe 10 up, which is even more frightening.

So Artest is gone for the season, of course he’ll appeal and get his sentence reduced to 5 games becuase that’s how the NBA works. Then again, maybe it was all planned so he could spend a lot more time promoting his rap album. After all, now he has cred I guess. Hey, if you have a contract that says “if you test positive for alcohol 3 different times, you’re gone” like the Celtics had, and then they cut the guy, the NBAPA sues and wins (well a settlement was reached).

I want to file an FCC complaint for this! Give me jugs anyday over this stuff. Stupid TV.

Well, well well, that whole ‘unified Republican’ thing is right out the window. The house speaker, not wanting to have house democrats vote with republicans in passing sweeping reform, decided to kill the bill instead over the weekend. Apparently some Republicans didn’t like the idea of the Pentagon losing control. Oops.

Let me repeat this: even though the bill had support on both sides, the speaker killed the measure becuase Republican supporters would need Democratic help. Well, if that’s not unification, I don’t know what is!

On the Sunday morning shows, all of the senators/reps on there were complaining that they had to vote on this 1,400 page bill in order to allow the US Government to continue spending. Everybody and their brother added crap to it, but rather than take a break and read it, everyone voted for the bill anyway. Pretty embarassing when you read it after the fact and find out you just approved a law to let “chairmen of the House and Senate appropriations committees, or their agents, to examine the tax returns of any American.” Non-mainstream blogs say that “Rep. Ernie Istook (R-OK) was the source of the offensive IRS snooping provisions”. Of course he was re-elected. Nice job family values people! I almost wish this would become a real law. That way everyone in Government can find what all those “reverends” and “churches” make that all voted for Bush. That would be fun!

Oh well, luckily cooler heads have prevailed and there’s no way this will become law. Nice to catch it after the fact. Maybe you also declared war on some other country in the bill as well. Thanks for reading the bills before voting on them. (And yes, EVERYONE is guilty, no matter the party line).

Well, last nights show really, really sucked. I don’t think there were any laughs at all in that show. Weekend Update needs to be fixed and fast. Sorry to sounds sexist but the two women format just isn’t working. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an audience that quiet.

Well, there was a part where they weren’t quiet–at the end of the show, when the whole cast says their goodnights, they pulled a surprise. Instead of the good night, we got Bono running back to the stage with U2 and they played “I Will Follow.” During the song, Bono gave a lady a lap dance and hugged Amy Pohler…I think both the cast and the audience were shocked. It was pretty darn cool. It would have been cooler if when Bono said “1 more” and the band started playing, we would have been able to see it. SNL signed off at 1:00 AM, and tough toodles. Boo NBC. I could have done without Access Hollywood for another U2 song.

This Sunday is Pats less, so it’ll allow me to watch other teams, clean up the bathroom, hopefully recover from this minor flu bug I have and move on for the big holiday weekend. I haven’t seen very many sales — I did see $5 off all $19.99 games at Toys R Us, so if you want to get College Hoops, that’s a $14.99 brand f’n new game. I’d be all over that.

Definitely not me. I’ve seen a lot of hype (IGN, GameSpot) about this thing and you know what? This is the first time in a long time (well since N-Gage at least) that I’ve been totally uninterested in a console launch. My Tapwave has a better screen resolution and it also has a better PDA. And it has bluetooth. Now, if that friggin’ Madden would come out for it (they said November, still waiting…)

They are launching a bunch of new game including an interesting new racing game, however, it’s available by SD card only and not by download, which uh, buh–loows.

I just got back from my daughter’s Sponge Bob move. Ummm boy, aside from David Hasseloff, my overall feeling is that there’s 90 minutes of my life I won’t get back. It was not very good. Or I am old, and it could be that.

My first impression is that the game is much, much better than last year’s game. Althohgh 2K4 had its moments I just couldn’t get into it. I’ve only played two games on default settings but both games were a blast, complete with a lot of free throws, few blocks, the CPU ran man to man defenses, and I shot under 50% both games. Woo hoo.

As the Bucks I beat Mizzou on a last second shot by Tony Stockman and I lost to UCLA by 12. While I admit that I miss the Freestyle control of NBA Live, the animations here are pretty good and it certainly plays more like a college game thsn an NBA game. Also, even playing on 10 minute halves the scores are low. If you want “realistic” scores I suggest bumping it up to 15 mins.

I also had a chance to test late game AI. Tell me what you think:

OSU is up 1 against Mizzou with the ball and about :50 seconds to play. The Mizzou coach decides to foul me 3 times in a row (with its best player no less) to force me to the foul line. Two thoughts on this:

1) Bad coaching. You don’t foul down 1 point with just under a minute to go. You try to play tight defense, force a turnover or at the very least defend the 3. A 2 point basket doesn’t kill you.

2) At least the game recognizes the fact that it was late in the game and it needed to do something. I don’t agree with what it did but at least it didn’t act like there was 10 minutes to play.

Aside from this, I really enjoyed the games I played and cannot wait for our tourney to start.

We’re in week 7 of our league and we have two teams available.

A regular blog reader, Shamrock, has vanished off the face of the planet and has abandoned the 4-2 Bengals. And the Rams owner quit after an 0-6 start. If you want to take over either team leave a comment or send me an email. And if you are reading this Shamrock, contact me if you want to hang onto your squad.

Thanks to one of our readers who was kind enough to send over the Virtual Bartender on a Friday night. Whatever you do, don’t ask her to kiss. Or type in Luke Skywalker, or pillow fight. Otherwise, it may get graphic and unsuitable for those under 18.

OK not really. Still, my wife almost cost me my ESPN NFL Blog league game last night. Playing the 3-3 Bears (I was also 3-3) this was a key game as we’re both on the borderline for a playoff spot. The score is 14-14 in the 4th quarter. I complete a 30 yard pass to Antonio Bryant on 3rd and 8 to keep the drive alive. Another 3rd and 7 pass to Winslow moves the chains again down to the Bears 7 yard line. 3rd and goal from the 5 and William Green catches a swing pass, shakes off a LB and dives in for to go ahead score.

Woo hoo.

1:45 to play and here comes Dawson for the extra point. Then my wife enters the picture. She’s sitting next to me and says “don’t miss!” as she says that she grabs the controller…forcing me to shank the extra point.

She cakcles. I stare at the screen that now reads 20-14. I inform her, “Oh laugh it up..you better hope I stop him. Seriously, you should become a rabid Browns fan right about now.”

Another cackle.

Of course the Bears begin their march. Two 3rd down conversions later and they’re at midfield with :55 seconds to play (plenty of time in this game). 3 plays later and it’s 4th and 1 at my 40. He hands off to Jones and Kenard Lang smothers him in the backfield to secure the win..and my marriage.

My 7 year old daughter’s birthday party is this weekend. We’re renting out a movie theater and getting all the free popcorn and soda you want. There is a catch — the movie is at 10 AM. And she gets to pick the movie. She picked SpongeBob. Ugh. I was hoping for the Incredibles, but no such luck. Oh well, I’ll be making the noble effort, or something.

In other kid-friendly news, Amazon delivered the Pee Wee Playhouse collection to my house yesterday — two full volumes plus the Christmas special. The Mrs. didn’t think it was appropriate to show my kids. I had to explain that the playhouse was very kid friendly, but of course there’s no bleeping rating to prove this on the box. Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was just awesome for it’s time. Yes, Magic Screen could use a little help these days, but any show with a secret word and a video phone and Phil Hartman is pretty darn cool. So help me convince her that it’s ok to show. LOL. She must think it’s like desperate houseives at Monday Night Football or something.

Just curious what you like for baseball movies. My first ones that come into my head are Major League and A League of Their Own. I never got as warm and fuzzy with Field of Dreams, I mean it was good but I don’t run over to watch it. Major League (the first one) is always worth putting on.

Interesting post here. Not really surprising internally, but very surprising when it’s said publicly. Of course, geeks like myself say “that’s horrible, I’m not going there again” and that’s exactly what they are probably trying to do — the average Joes aren’t going to be reading that article anyway.

Just saw that Manny Ramirez is going to be on the cover of MVP 2005. Just lettting you know.

…is in stores. I should have it tomorrow (maybe tonight if I can get away for a bit) and I’ll get impressions posted ASAP. You’ll also want to check put Bill Harris’ (my body double) Dubious Quality blog (see sidebar). He did a lot of slider work on last year’s game and I’m betting he’ll do the same again. Early reports sound favorable but I trust sports reviews and first impressions like I do the FDA.

The tourney will be held later on once everyone has had a chance to play the game. More on that later.

Hey come on, it’s been two weeks. CNN today has an article about John Kerry keeping $15 million in the bank. Well that’s important to have, especially if you knew you were going to lose in 2004 and need it for 2008. Hey, John, I got news for you: the chances of me voting for you for anything ever again are 0%. And if this really is true, the chance is now -10%. Really, really stupid move.

In other stupid move news, I hear that they’ve passed new rules that allow a house or senate member to be indicted for a felony but let him keep his post. How nice. Funny, when the Democrat from IL was indicted how Republicans passed a rule to make him resign, but now when the shoe is on the other foot, it’s ok? Republicans are saying it’s for ‘political reasons’ that he’s indicted. I don’t know about you, but if you’re on a Grand Jury, you don’t say “umm, ti would be great if I could get back at this guy”. Complete BS. Impeachment for blow jobs on the other hand, well I think that might have been political.

Kudos to ABC for making something pretty stupid into a mammoth event. Even if they got fined, they’ll be happy. America are suckers once again for even talking about this crap. Yes, that includes me.

Speaking of ABC, Lost is just an amazing show. Every episode is a ‘holy shit’ episode so far, reminds me a lot of the early Alias shows. And now, ABC announced that Alias will be on right after Lost starting in January. Very cool.

I haven’t played many sports games recently. Ms. Pac Man on Xbox Live arcade is taking up most of my time. Yeah, I’m lame and likey the old school…..the game isn’t even very good graphically compared to MAME….