This is the fourth edition of the column, which is a a blatant rip-off of (1) Pat Forde's "40 Yard Dash" column that he pens during the college football season. (He also does a college basketball one, but it is his pigskin one that coaches, players and fans anxiously wait for each week.) Of course, our version comes with a twist. Instead of 40 things pertaining to college football (Forde's runs the gamut from coaches and players to cheerleaders and college bars), ours is 22 things pertaining to...well, whatever is on our mind at the time. As for the name of the column? It honors (2) Andrew Toney, the single greatest under-6'4"-offensive-threat in history of the NBA.
We have always been skeptical when hearing commercials for (3) Stubhub.com. Always figured it was a gimmick and little good could come from it. Then a family friend moved his two court-side seats for game two of the NBA Finals. The price tag? A cool $5,000. Which, by the way, was deposited into his account in two days. Then he mailed the tix.
And so it was a few weeks ago that we were looking for (4) Phillies tickets in August. So onto Stubhub.com we logged. We lingered for several days, monitoring the action. There were 12 seats, good seats (good seats!) that we had our eye on. Finally, four of them got scooped up. An hour later, we closed the deal on four of our own. Three days later we had the tix! Their face value is $50 a pop. We got them for $77 each -- a markup for $27 a ticket. So we ponied up an extra $108 to get the four tickets. However: 1. It's totally legal. 2. We didn't have to worry about hoping some sleazy scalper had four good seats for us the day of the game. 3. The whole transaction took less than five minutes.
Summary: We love Stubhub!
Summer is notorious for terrible television. Yet, we somehow have come across a show worthy of DVRing, (5) My Guys on TBS. It's a blatant attempt to copy (6) Friends, and it is nowhere near as good. Knowing that up front is key. Still, it is a cute comedy about a group of, wait for it...friends. Four guys and one gal. And most of the show takes place in a coffee house
While you digest (or have the potential to digest) countless hours of NFL coverage every day, does anyone else remember when the only show on during the week was (7) The NFL Today? Our man (8) Brent Musburger was the host. He was flanked by ex-Eagle (9) Irv Cross. (10) Phyllis George was the token hottie who lobbed the softest of questions during player interviews. And (11) Jimmy the Greek gave Brent the inside dope and then predicted the outcomes of the games.
It was great stuff. We looked forward to it more than the Sunday games themselves.
Of course, now it would look like something from your local community access channel.
And that brings us to (12) NFL training camps. When we were growing up, hardly anyone went to watch them. We would go and see maybe a few hundred other people, tops. The players and coaches walked right past you to get to and from the fields. Nothing and no one (except your own fear) prevented you from walking right up to them thisclose and asking for a picture or autograph.
We once had five minute a conversation with (13) Craig James of the Patriots. And get this -- he initiated it. (He saw our brother wearing a Phillies shirt and James' brother (14) Chris James was the starting right fielder for the Phillies.) Another time, we walked up to (15) Dick Vermeil of the Eagles and got an autograph. Our father was there and called out, "Hey, Dick. Can I get a picture of you with my son?" The Coach politely said sure, stopped, put his hand on our shoulder and smiled. To a 12-year old boy (not to mention his 36-year old father), it was a thrill. We are pretty sure that photo is still on our father's desk in his home office.
Now days? Fans attending the camps number in the thousands. Said fans are also roped off from far (far!) from the players, coaches and practice fields. Understandable. But, still, a definite bummer.
Speaking of our father. Growing up, we always poked fun at him for listening to music that was (at least) 20 years old and wondered why he never listened to (16) modern music. He basically said his music was good enough and that he did not have the time, energy or inclination to discover new music. That always made us laugh.
And so at the ripe age of 40, we trudge into the basement every morning to hump the elliptical trainer. And what music do we listen to to help pass the time? The same music we enjoyed 20 years ago. Our kids, heck -- even our wife -- make fun of us. But you know what? We have neither the time, energy or inclination to discover new music. We enjoyed it 20 years ago. We still enjoy it today.
Does anyone out there remember (17) Statis Pro Baseball? We were about 12 when we stumbled into it while at (18) Toys R Us. Greatest baseball game ever created! And yes, we would prefer it to playing 2K8 on (19) PlayStation3. The only problem is, we must be in the minority there. For they stopped making the game nearly 10 years ago. We still have the original board and "fast action" cards. The problem is you need updated player cards every season. We found some fellow geeks on-line who made their own cards and ordered a set a few years ago, PK (pre-kids). Still the same great game. And now we are thinking that next summer we will order new player cards and introduce the game to our 6-year old sports fanatic. We are guessing that, just like his old man, he, too will love the game.
(20) Danny Ainge won a title last season because the Celtics had high character guys (minus Fat Boy Pee Pee, of course) who bought into a team concept and defense-first attitude. (Well, and because his best friend (21) Kevin McHale gave him Kevin Garnett.) But this summer Ainge has flirted with such bad apples as Corey Maggette, Darius Miles and Chris Kaman. Makes us think (yet again) of (22) Quint in Jaws: "I don't know, Chief. He's either really smart or really dumb."
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