Eliminate place-kicking; the Spanish way of doing business

I remembered why I stopped going to espn.com when doing research for this entry. First, it takes me about 15 clicks of the back button of the browser before I find what I'm looking for b/c I keep getting distracted by interesting stories. Second, though, is because it really is the Yankees-Red Sox network. That's all they wanna talk about - who's gonna win the AL MVP - Big Papi or A-Rod (including a breakdown on who has the cooler nickname), who's gonna win the AL East race, blah blah blah. I know they cover those two teams b/c "that's where the fans/interest is" but I think it's self-fulfilling. The more they cover Yankees-Red Sox, the more those fans'll watch and the less I will. Hell, I didn't even know there was a tie in the AL East race...*

Alan Ashby is hoping to become the next full-time play-by-play guy for the Astros when Milo Hamilton semi-retires next year. I like Alan (from extensive personal interactions) but the guy makes a must-win pennant-race thriller sound like a Double-A Spring Training game. He's not terrible as the former-player-turned-color-guy, except in the innings after he does play-by-play (4th and 7th) when he still thinks he's 'the man' and tries to interrupt Milo for some fun fact that is largely unneccessary. [ed. note: I used 7 different hyphenated phrases in this paragraph] He's smart, which is a rare thing for a former player turned broadcaster, but he ends every sentence with a raised intonation. It just sounds lame - kinda like I did when I tried to call the Dartmouth baseball games last spring. But at least no one paid me. Or listened to it.

I had another extended interaction with the Spanish way of doing business today. After going to bed after the Astros game last night at 5:30, waking up at 8:30 to go over to my future apartment, waking up the girl that lives there, and waiting for 3 hours for the cable guy, I found out that the owner of the complex didn't want ONO (the internet company) to install a cable in his apartment. Even after the cable guy told him it wouldn't be more than a cable, he still said no.

So the cable guy left. We eventually talked him into it (apparently he thought he had to get a 4'x4' box installed and pay for it, even though the cable guy told him he wouldn't), and I've rescheduled the cable guy for tomorrow. This of course, is just the end of the story; I already tried to get internet, was told I couldn't get it on my street, then told by a different girl I could get it, then told I couldn't get it without a bank account, then told I couldn't get it on my street again, then finally was scheduled for the appointment today.

I hate Skip Bayless and think he's a terrible human being. But this article about eliminating kickers from football is great. A little mean at the beginning, but i like his style and what he has to say.

Excerpt: Giant, gifted men battle their guts out playing a violent game, and the outcome is all too often decided by some former soccer player who has absolutely nothing to do with football. No football talent. No football heart. No football mind.

Eliminate Kickers
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=bayless/050929




* technically not true, but I was proving a point