AL All-Star Shortstops - Ripken, Garciaparra, Jeter...Bartlett???

I figured that, as voting winds down for the 80th MLB All-Star Game/Popularity Contest (c'mon people...I love Junior to death, he's one of my favorite players, but - 7th?!?!? The man is hitting .220!), it was about time that I posted my ballot. I mean, what else am I going to do - I can count the number of days it hasn't rained over the past month on my fingers.

American League

1B - Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox (I know Morneau and Big Tex have better stats - but I can't vote for Big Tex, he's a Yankee. And I still haven't forgiven Morneau for stealing the HR Derby last year. As a good friend of mine once opined, you vote for the guys on your team if they're close to the top. Youk certainly is.)

2B - Aaron Hill, Blue Jays (Kinsler is having the best year stat-wise, but I felt like if I voted for him, I was voting too much against Pedroia. Since there was no way I could justify voting for Pedroia, Hill was the next-best option. He's having a breakout year - nearly Kinsler's equal - and plus, he played Double-A ball half an hour down the road in Manchester for the Fisher Cats.)

CEVR Part 2

So here it is, finally - after an extended break, I've finally gotten my act together, crunched the numbers, and figured out what the #1 movie of all time is according to CEVR (Critical and Entertainment Value Rating). But first, a little analysis of the results. As previously stated, The Godfather was the only movie to be on all three lists (Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, and IMDb), while Dr. Strangelove (Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes), Pulp Fiction (Metacritic and IMDb), and Return of the King (Metacritic and IMDb) were the only other movies to be on more than one. Metacritic had 9 movies exclusive to its Top 13, which had an average CEVR of 90.6, Rotten Tomatoes had 11 exclusive movies with an average CEVR of 90, and IMDb had 10 exclusive movies with an average CEVR of 90.3. Among the following list of the Top 15 movies, Metacritic and IMDb both had 4 exclusive movies, while Rotten Tomatoes had 3. Without further ado, the Top 15 movies of all time according to CEVR (asterisks denoting that Metacritic scores weren't available) -

Who's Our MJ???

All the weirdness aside, all the alleged child molestation aside, all the naming his kid Blanket aside - Michael Jackson was an incredible artist. Incredible songs, incredible talent. There's a reason they call him the King of Pop. And while I can't say he's my favorite artist of all time, there's no denying that some of his stuff - especially Beat It, the guitar riff is one of my favorites - is well, incredible. There won't be another like him for a long, long time...if at all.

It got me thinking, as I sat on the couch watching the coverage of his death - "this is what it must have been like when Elvis died." My grandparents' generation's seminal entertainer was Elvis, my parents' was Jackson (the Beatles being the age group in between). And I suddenly had a startling thought - who is ours? And, more interestingly - do we even have one?

Going all Bill James on Movies - CEVR

I love comparative statistics. Can't get enough of them. There's something about discovering how something is better than another thing that I just find fascinating. Maybe that's why I enjoy fantasy sports so much. But that's another story. Tonight (and tomorrow) I want to delve into something else that has statistics readily available online - movies. Friday's release and subsequent warm reception of the Sam Raimi-directed Drag Me to Hell is what got me really thinking specifically about the 3 main sites which track statistics on how good a movie is judged to be: Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, and IMDb.

Drag Me to Hell will certainly not be in the running for any major best-of awards at the end of the year - yet it is among the year's best-reviewed movies to date, holding a score of 82 on Metacritic, a 94% and "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a user rating of 8.2 on IMDb. For those unfamiliar with how these sites arrive at these scores, here's a brief summary.

1) Metacritic takes the average numerical scores given to a movie in a review (and when no score is given, it's approximated)
2) Rotten Tomatoes decides if a review is merely positive and negative - the percent denotes how many reviews are positive
3) IMDb allows users to rate the movie themselves
*For more info, visit the respective websites*

Whoops

So yeah...I kind of forgot about this. School will do that to you. But it's summer now, so I'm going to do my best to keep this going at a pretty consistent rate. It's about time I did. And that's all I've got for now.

Eating Some, Um, "Eagle"

So I couldn't have been much more off in my prediction for last week's game. Instead of losing by 15, we won by 27. The defense looked great, definitely improving on not missing so many tackles - if we make it to a bowl game, it'll be because of our defense. And I owe Chris Crane an apology - he is not terrible enough to warrant the ripping I gave him last week. Yes, he still threw 3 picks and made some questionable decisions. And yes, I wouldn't be nearly as forgiving if we hadn't blown UCF out. But what I really think the kid needed was a confidence booster. It couldn't have been good for his mental morale to struggle so much in the Tech game, both during that game, and at the beginning of this one. Being benched for a few serieses in favor of Dominique Davis -who had the crowd calling for him all first half - couldn't have helped much either. But something woke him up during halftime, because he came out firing. You could almost sense a weight lifting off his shoulders when he scored the first TD off a play-action scramble, and it was all good from there. The two picks he threw in the 2nd half were more good plays by the DBs than mistakes by him, and he threw a brilliant TD pass to B-Rob to ice it. Davis was impressive for his first time out, he's going be a playmaker when his time comes. Also impressive was Montel Harris, rushing for 112 yards on 14 carries. He and Haden are going to be a great backfield in the next few years. Don't even get me started on Steve though - all I'll say is, I want to see Billy Bennett given a crack at being the FG kicker if another 24-yard chip shot conks off the uprights. For the game this week against URI, it's going to be a laugher. Davis will see his share of snaps, but Crane will continue his solid play from the second half of the UCF game. Haden (finally back), Jeff Smith, and Harris have a good day running, Crane is solid again with his arm and feet - we win easy 38-7, because Billy Bennett kicks a FG.

Oh and the Patriots - oh boy was that awful. Let me sum up it up like this - anytime you get burned on just about the same play 5 times for a TD, it's a sure sign you're going to lose.

Nothing Is Over Until We Decide It Is!...Sometimes...

To quote John Belushi - well, I already did, actually. His famous line from Animal House pretty well sums up my feelings towards Tom Brady's devastating knee injury.


I will admit, as soon as I saw Brady stay down clutching his knee, one thought and one thought only raced through my head - "Our season's over". Even though he got up and walked off with help - a fact, prior to the grim diagnosis, that several of my friends were quick to point out must mean he wasn't injured that badly - I knew better. My dad had torn his ACL playing soccer a long time ago, and not only drove himself home that night - he played the entire rest of the game. And since Brady's leg during the hit showed some hallmarks of "how to tear your ACL", I was steeling myself for the worst. After he walked off the field, I walked down the hall to my friends' room, fully intent on proclaiming our season over. But a funny thing happened in the 45 feet or so I had to walk - I realized that it wasn't. Sure, our preconceived notions of another possible perfect season and near-certain Super Bowl win were down the drain, but the fact remained that the Patriots are still a very good football team - even if Matt Cassell hadn't started a game since high school (although it's not his fault he's backed up two Heisman winners and one of the greatest QBs ever). We've still got Moss, we've still got Welker, we've still got Maroney, and we've still got one of the best front 7's in the NFL - we may not go 18-1, but I'd be willing to bet we easily win the division and make at least the AFC Championship. The Colts have not looked great so far, and neither have the Jaguars or Chargers, all of whom were supposed to contend with the Pats for. By comparison, the Steelers and the *surprising* Broncos have looked very good. Still, I think the Pats match up well against all 5 of those teams. Don't write them off yet.