23rd Edition - 10/6/06
- MLB Playoffs
Three close, well-pitched ball games yesterday. Quite surprising considering most of the pitchers involved were over 40-years-old.
Tigers 4, Yankees 3 (Series Tied 1-1)
Johnny Damon hit a three-run homer, but the Tigers chipped away.
Cardinals 2, Padres 0 (Cards lead 2-0)
Have the Cardinals forgotten they stunk down the stretch? What is their problem?
My Mets
Mets 4, Dodgers 1 (Mets lead 2-0)
Tom Glavine pitched six scoreless innings. Billy Wagner got his second save, and Jose Reyes drove in two RBI. The Mets are in control. At least half the teams I jumped on the bandwagon of, are doing fine (Twins being the other).
Yesterday's name of the game: Glavine, he might not have gone the 8 innings I promised, but he didn't give up a run and proved to be an oldie, but goodie.
My Twins
At 3:00 central it's the Twins vs. A's (A's lead 2-0). Radke vs. Haren. Either the Twins find a way to win and begin an amazing comeback, or the A's start getting dressed for the AL Championships.
The Name of the Game: Torii Hunter shakes off the diving catch, which led to an inside the park home run.
- The Picks
I'm back baby. I went a combined 5-1 last weekend. Before this, I had never had the chance to roll in money. Actually, it's not as cracked up as I thought it would be. Plus, I still can't find $20.
j NCAA: (Season 7-4-1)
Iowa -11 over Purdue
Pitt -7 over Syracuse
Nebraska -6.5 over Iowa State
j NFL: 2-1 (Season 8-3-1)
Titans +19 over Colts
Redskins +4.5 over Giants
Rams -3 over Packers
- The Movie
The Departed
Plot: Based on the Hong Kong film "Infernal Affairs," "The Departed" gets a South Boston makeover. The Massachusetts State Police are waging a war against crime lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) from the inside. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes undercover to try and gain Costello's trust, while Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) has worked his way up the Special Investigations Unit and is assigned to take down Costello's crew. What no one knows is that Sullivan grew up with Costello in South Boston.
Bottom Line: Hype. The big movies in 2006 have been surrounded by hype with very few payoffs. Superman was back and boring. Jack Sparrow took us on a pointless roller coaster ride, and no one bothered to see the all-star cast in "All the King's Men."
So, although I am a huge Martin Scorsese fan and Nicholson, DiCaprio, Damon, Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin were involved, I didn't want to get too excited about "The Departed."
Well, go ahead, get excited. The story of good guys being bad, bad guys being good and the layers in between have this film immediately becoming a classic.
Whether it is a random at a bar getting a glass smashed in his face, a gun going off, or Costigan slowly losing his grip while undercover--every moment is intense. And beyond the intensity is a great touch of humor with everyone trying on their Boston accents and Baldwin coming away as the funny guy in the group. And of course, Nicholson shows off as the mob boss you don't mess with, plus bad hair and worse outfits.
The one knock on "The Departed" is that half the music is great. The other half ("Gimmie Shelter" from the Rolling Stones starts us off) feels like Scorsese just lifted songs from his previous films.
Hype, we finally have a movie in 2006 that has lived up to it.
Grade: A
4 comments:
feel strong about this week. your reward, have a bonus game for that ass...
st. louis -3...the pack are dreadful. st. louis is showing real signs of life in the new offense. lambeau is a shell.
dal +1.5...westbrook has knee problems and the wr core is seriously banged up in philly. mcnabb's great, but he needs aleast one weapon.
car -8...carolina is back on track and will keep getting better as long as steve smith stays healthy.
den -4...the steve mcnair train get's derailed this week. denver at home, on a roll, is deadly.
i just noticed that i have the exact same pics as the sports guy...2-2 coming up.
Going with a all-SEC theme here with this week's "Best Guesses:"
LSU +1 at Florida...very impressed with LSU thus far, and Florida has won, and of course they're good, but I'm not overly impressed.
Tennessee -2.5 at Georgia...hate to do it, but similar to Jeff's pick of Michigan over Iowa, hoping for some "reverse luck." Tennessee's obviously the better team, and Georgia's offense never made it out of Spring camp. Ouch. Hoping for a miracle.
South Carolina -5 at Kentucky...something tells me that Spurrier has figured out just enough to make the Cocks a dangerous 2nd tier SEC team, and perhaps a spoiler to one or two of the top tier.
Ouch, you know a guy is from the South when he thinks Michigan played Iowa last week. Damn, I guess they don't get nationally televised ABC games down there. Tough break.
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