Sonny Gray will look to lead Vanderbilt as the Friday guy in 2010.
I’m quite excited to be out in Los Angeles this weekend for the first live college baseball I’ll have seen since last May’s disastrous series loss to Todd Raleigh’s Volunteer team (a weekend which caused such concern over the illegal bats used by the Vols, that composite barrel bats are now illegal). Anyway, enough of my loathing of all things Orange in baseball, the Black and Gold of Vanderbilt got going over the weekend and it was a dandy. The Commodores played host to the Niagara Purple Eagles, but were far from hospitable on the diamond.
Behind a strong pitching performance from the King (Sonny Gray), the Dores easily took the opener, 9-0. The bats then really woke up with a 16-2 thumping on Saturday, complemented by a solid start from Taylor Hill. Sunday was bloody with the Dores laying into the Purple Eagles with 25 unanswered runs after Niagara jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Big Jack Armstrong had some tough luck and was a little wild as the starter.
On Tuesday, Austin Peay came across town to the Hawk and gave Vandy all we could ask for. They threw a former weekend starter named Vicini who was coming off of an injury plagued season. He was healthy, shutting the Dores down through 6 before giving way. Chase Reid, Richie Goodenow and Russ Brewer were all really dominant for the Dores on the hill and Andrew Giobbi won it in the 10th with an RBI single, for a 2-1 win. Not quite the dominating performance of the weekend, but it’s sometimes nice to just get a nail biter win, especially before a top flight tournament against three NCAA caliber teams, including a showdown with the top pro prospect in NCAA baseball (UCLA’s Gerritt Cole).
The past week was the first look at some key newcomers, such as Mike “#YAZ!” Yastrzemski, Regan “Little Flash” Flaherty and Connor “I Don’t Have a Nickname Yet” Harrell, the three freshman leading the battle to fill the outfield spots vacated by Steven Liddle and Jonathan White. My thoughts on them and the rest of the team follow the jump in this, my Vanderbilt Baseball Preview for 2010. Read more…
Dear LOST, please make sure Claire looks only like this.
On their Twitter feeds, Damon Lindelof and Carleton Cuse implied we would be in for a tour de force when we revisited the brother and sister duo of Jack Shephard and Claire Littleton, played by Matthew Fox and Emilie de Raven… mmm… Emilie de Raven.Pause for a few minutes to reflect, and then convince self that it’s creepy to pause any longer… ok… back up again… back to the Quick Hits.
Anyways, I actually wasn’t as impressed with de Raven’s turn as Danielle Rousseau 2.0.First, one should never attempt to make Emilie de Raven not hot.You’ll fail, and just make us mad.Second, Emilie de Raven may be fantastic to look at, but she actually just doesn’t have the acting chops to pull of true crazy.Her hut scenes with Jin and the prisoner Other were carried by Jin and the need to promote the storyline; however, throughout it was a bit hard not to compare (and not favorably, at that) de Raven’s performance next to Mira Furlan’s Rousseau.
The most intriguing aspect of Claire’s crazy was her being convinced (apparently by her “friend”) that Aaron was being held by the Others at the Temple.This driving element was directly at odds with Rousseau, who had given up on Alex being alive – despite the fact that Ben was leading the Others and had been the one to kidnap Alex.
24 has been pretty standard relative to prior seasons, so far.
I’ve been a bit delinquent in my 24 reporting. I watching the 22:00 and 23:00 episodes last week but didn’t report in the initial thoughts. A shame that is, because the second of those two episodes included the perfect exchange of 24 dialogue. Jack Bauer interrupts a call between the President and the head of CTU to inform her that he, as he does every season, needs to cut a complete immunity deal with a terrorist mastermind to obtain information that is certain to prove useless in the grand scheme of things.
Notwithstanding the efficacy (or failure) of Jack’s negotiation tactics, relative to his torture tactics, Allison Taylor could not have been happier to speak with him, commenting that she was [paraphrasing] “Sorry it had taken so long for her to speak directly with [Jack] on the phone.” This comment absolutely sums up 24 in one simple soundbite.
The Sniper Twins are a New York-based sketch comedy / music video due originally from Austin. Their first videos are after the jump and were absolutely awesome. Although they initially popped onto the larger scene with “Computer Friends”, I thought of them today thanks to getting a Chop’t Salad and being reminded of “Salad Wrap.” Anyway, I looked them up and they’ve launched this new video called “Chocolate Shop.”
“Salad Wrap” and “Computer Friends” are after the jump. Read more…
"The Substitute" focuses on John Locke in the parallel universe and the MIB on the Island universe.
Well, last night’s edition of LOST was easily my favorite of the early season and perhaps the best episode since “The Constant”, in my opinion. Perhaps it is solely because it revolved around the Island’s most intriguing character. Maybe it was the insight into the Jacob – Man in Black struggle. Maybe it was just the minute details of a life changed in the parallel universe. One way or another, it added up to awesome.
We got to see some familiar faces, such as Peggy Bundy (Katey Segal) as Locke’s formerly lost love Helen. Her steadfast dedication to John is a reminder of the hurt she felt when she decided she had to leave him (this occurred in the first couple of seasons, maybe the second, because John remained fully obsessed with tracking his father). The most notable Helen moments involved two acts: the second was her tearing up Jack’s card and giving up on the idea of destiny and fate at John having run into a spinal surgeon. The second, more intriguing one was that she suggested they get married “shotgun” style with only her parents and John’s father in attendance. Two “whoa”s there: 1) Helen is preggers? and 2) John and his father have a relationship? If Locke and his father aren’t at loggerheads, then what led him to be a cripple?
Also intriguing was the fact that John seemingly went on his walkabout and presumably was allowed to — based on the fact that he missed his whole conference and was in Australia for a week. [Apparently I'm wrong about that, it was noted in the episode that he was not allowed on it.]In the prior universe, John was not permitted to board the walkabout bus and was shuttled back to Sydney for an early departure on 815. I’m not quite sure what to make of it. I’m going to have to rewatch with that in mind.
After a one week hiatus, Phil from Save the Shield and I have put together our picks for Conference Week 6 of Southeastern Conference Hoop.
There’s really not a whole lot new this week. The pecking order at the top of the SEC has been set with Kentackalackey on top, Vandy in second and Tennessee in third. State, Florida and Ole Miss are somewhat fungible in the second tier, while Arkansas and South Carolina are the last two SEC squads with even a fraction of a shot at an at large bid.
Anyway, Phil’s and my picks are after the jump.Read more…
Sometimes, something is just so outstanding you have to post it. In this case, it’s a stop motion, humorous history of everything which appears to have been painstakingly and patiently recorded using flipbook style drawings. For the author’s sake, I hope he really used a computer program.
In any regard, check-i-check-it out, from Youtube user DispleasedEskimo:
I’ve been buried under work, so I haven’t had the chance to really produce much content on here. Ran across this interesting infographic, though and thought I’d pop it on through.
I’ve been a bit under the weather the last week and have gotten way behind in doing updates. As a result of said illness, my fam decided to push 24 this week to a double dose next week. Hopefully there will be more of naughty Chloe next week for my 24 Quick Hits. I do plan on doing LOST Quick Hits after tonight’s episode, but I’ve been delinquent in doing the SEC Power Poll with Phil from Save The Shield. Finally, I hope to get back to doing LOST Recaps. Next up is the Jeremy Bentham episode which I do really want to write about. Hopefully I’ll do that this week.
Anyway, to get away from my dreariness and the update central, here’s the fun stuff I found on the interwebs this morning. All in the form of cartoon, with one outstanding video, to boot.
Modern Warfare 2 is at its best when the war comes to US soil.
I have a bad habit of buying a video game, playing it a few times and then just letting it sit idle… to be played on those rare occasions where my brother and I feel an intense desire to snipe. Our games of choice have tended to be the military based shooters, though the initial renditions of the Call of Duty family of games really lacked in on-site co-op gaming (AKA, I don’t have XBox Live).
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 differed from its predecessors in that it was engineered with the co-op gamer in mind. While I initially played this in full-on brother snipe mode, I just finished the single player campaign version and felt I ought to give it a simple review.
family of games really lacked in on-site co-op gaming (AKA, I don’t have XBox Live).
differed from its predecessors in that it was engineered with the co-op gamer in mind. While I initially played this in full-on brother snipe mode, I just finished the single player campaign version and felt I ought to give it a simple review.