Phils done All-Star break, still on fire

The Phillies' lead in the NL East is up to 5 games now after winning their first game after the All-Star break, 4-0 at Florida. The runs all came on homers, two by Rauuuuuuuuuuuuul Ibanez and the career 200th from Ryan Howard. Howard is the fastest player (in terms of games played) in MLB history to reach the 200 mark. Jamie Moyer, the oldest man in the game (but still younger than me) gave up just one hit in 7 innings. Very satisfactory way to start the second half. I have my doubts about how much newly-signed Pedro Martinez will help when he's activated after some rehab starts, but it won't matter if Moyer can keep this up.

Flyers' 09-10 schedule includes Winter Classic

Every year there's one day when a team officially releases its schedule for the upcoming season. Today was that day for the Flyers and the rest of the National Hockey League. The biggest news of the day was the official announcement that the Flyers will play the Boston Bruins at Fenway Park (a baseball park, for those who may not know) in the 2010 Winter Classic, the league's new showcase event, on New Year's Day. This will be the third year that the NHL will take a game outdoors for January 1st; the first two were hugely successful.

I always like to look at the road schedule in particular, because if the Flyers are playing in a particular location and I have friends there (or just if it's not far away, such as Newark, NJ, where the New Jersey Devils play in a new arena that's right next to the Amtrak station) , I think about how fun it would be to visit them and see the game. (I do this for the Phillies and Eagles as well.) Of course, this is all a huge fantasy right now because of a lack of money.

So here's the list of road games I'll be seeing if I should win the Poweball lottery between now and October:

At Boston: Dec. 14, Jan. 1
At Buffalo: Nov. 6, Mar. 5
At Dallas: Mar. 18
At Minnesota: Feb. 6
At Nashville: Mar. 16
At New Jersey: Oct. 3, Dec. 12, Feb. 10
At Ottawa: Jan. 3, Mar. 23
At NY Islanders: Nov. 25, Dec. 27, Apr. 1
At NY Rangers: Dec. 30, Mar. 14, Apr. 9
At Phoenix: Nov. 21
At San Jose: Nov. 20
At Toronto: Jan. 14, Apr. 6
At Washington: Oct. 27, Jan. 17

In case I don't win a huge jackpot, the following are highly encouraged ;-) to send me plane tickets:

• anyone from a location listed above who knows me
  
• anyone from a location I didn't list because I've somehow forgotten you
• anyone living in any location who doesn't know me but would like to
• anyone else.

I think that covers everyone. ;-)

My iTunes Shuffle Baker's Dozen 7-15-09

Time for more random musical blandishment:

So Right - Dave Matthews Band
Room 101 - Eurythmics
Time (Clock Of The Heart) - Culture Club
X-Static Process - Madonna
Viagra... (Dialogue) - The Osbourne Family Album
Hey Ya - Will Young
The Little Things Give You Away - Linkin Park
Female Of The Species [Fembot Mix] - Space
Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters
Theme from Valley of the Dolls - Dionne Warwick
Same Ole Love - Anita Baker
Two Divided By Zero - Pet Shop Boys
You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) - Jimmy Somerville

MLB 2009 at the halfway point

Before the season started I previewed both the National and American Leagues on the Outsports blog. The All-Star break is the unofficial midpoint of the season, as teams have actually played a little more than half their games. The pointless (despite that crap about deciding which league gets home-field advantage for the World Series) exhibition game is now over and the season is about to resume. That got me wondering, how well have I done so far? Here's how I called each division, and how things have actually turned out so far:

AL East: Tampa Bay, Boston, NY Yankees, Toronto, Baltimore
The Red Sox and Yankees have the two best records in the AL, with Boston up by 3 games, thanks to a surplus of starting pitching and their 8-0 record against the Yanks. The defending AL champion Rays are in third, trying to recover from a poor start. The Blue Jays and Orioles are living up (down?) to my expectations, although the last-place O's are only 8 games under .500 -- probably because they gave up pretty quickly on Adam Eaton. Toronto is now contemplating trading ace pitcher Roy Halladay (to the Phillies, pleasepleasepleaseplease!).

AL Central: Minnesota, Cleveland, Chicago White Sox, Detroit, Kansas City
The Tigers are one of the AL's surprise teams and hold a 3 1/2-game lead over the White Sox and a 4-game bulge over the Twins. A win on May 7 gave the Royals an 18-11 record; since then they're 19-40. The Indians have been a big disappointment, falling to the cellar with the AL's worst record.

AL West: LA Angels, Oakland, Seattle, Texas
The Angels also got off to a slow start but now have a 1 1/2-game lead over the Rangers, who have unexpectedly gotten better pitching. Maybe even more of a surprise is that the Mariners are just 4 games out. The A's sit well out of the race, and presumably will trade Matt Holliday for prospects.

NL West: Arizona, LA Dodgers, Colorado, San Francisco, San Diego
Despite losing Manny Ramirez to a 50-game suspension because he was trying to get pregnant -- hey, why else would he take a women's fertility drug? -- the Dodgers have baseball's best record. However, the Giants (7 games back) and Rockies (9 out) have been better than expected and could make it a race if LA falters, or at least challenge for the Wild Card. The Diamondbacks have been the biggest flop, while the last-place Padres started well but quickly sank to the bottom of the division.

NL Central: Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Houston, Pittsburgh
The top five teams in the division (Cardinals, Brewers, Cubs, Astros and Reds) are within 5 games of each other. The teams aren't very far over .500, if at all, with the Cubs seriously underachieving. The Pirates were in the pack for a while, but what may be the worst ownership in baseball doesn't seem to give a damn about trying to win, as they continue to make bizarre trades, sending away talented players just headed into their prime for even younger, more raw and undeveloped players.

NL East: Philadelphia, NY Mets, Florida, Atlanta, Washington
It's been a bizarre season in this division. The Phillies had a poor home record and a stellar road record, their starting rotation was hideous early and only somewhat improved since; they then hit interleague play and hit a wall, only to return home and get hot against weaker NL teams. The defending world champs have pulled 4 games ahead of...the Marlins, who have a poor bullpen and shaky defense but otherwise have been strong. The Braves have the best starting pitching in the division but their hitting is severly lacking. Still, it's been enough to put them ahead of the Mets. The Mets' injury woes, shoddy defense and lack of power are making New Yorkers miserable. As for the Nationals, the worst team in baseball, well...just read this post on Outsports.

Customer service from hell

My complaint here isn't actually about me, although I certainly have had my share of issues, but it bothers me nonetheless.

I used to have my bank accounts with a credit union that served Social Security employees and some other federal agencies. Most of their branches and ATM machines were in the Baltimore/Washington area, but some were located here. Over a year ago they began closing or cutting back hours at their Philadelphia branches, removing ATMs, etc. While it's now possible to do so much bank business online or by phone, if there's a problem extreme enough that I want to go into an office and speak to someone in person, I want an office available. Since they were moving away, I moved on. I opened accounts with a regular bank, in part because of their heavily-advertised no-fee ATM card (besides not charging a fee for using their own machines, they refunded any fees charged by other institutions' ATMs), but also because they did not charge fees should you not keep a minimum balance.

Not long after, they merged with another bank. Then, a couple of months ago, they sent me information about changes as a result of the merger. Among them: maintenance fees that would only be waived if you kept a minimum daily balance: $4 per month for savings, and $15 per month for checking. So I've switched again, this time to another credit union.

Thus I found myself at a bank branch yesterday, closing out my old accounts. There was one customer service rep at a desk speaking with a customer, and a few others speaking to tellers or waiting for a customer service rep. Two different people in the bank at the time were there regarding the same issue: they couldn't get their ATM card to process a transaction, and then the machine kept their card. One of the tellers said it had to do with their PIN number: if you enter an incorrect PIN three times, the machine keeps the card. The customers spoke broken English so there may have been a miscommunication.

I closed my accounts and left. When I got outside an elderly woman was at the ATM, and she stopped me. She said she put her card in, and the screen kept showing the usual ads for the bank instead of asking for her PIN. When she pushed the "cancel" button to try and get her card back, nothing happened. We pushed pretty much every button, to no avail. She was concerned about leaving the machine with her card still inside, so I offered to stand there and keep watch while she went inside to get some assistance.

A few minutes later she came back outside, alone. She said she was told there was no one who could get her card back, and she'd have to call her own bank (her card was from a different bank). I was really shocked that no one could open up the machine and get the card. Clearly the machine was malfunctioning -- three different people had their cards eaten in a matter of minutes!

There used to be a TV ad for a different bank in which a woman rushed in, saying she had to catch a flight in an hour and the machine ate her card. The scene then cut outside to the ATM, where the woman stood and her card came out of the machine. The woman is grateful, and you hear the voice of the man helping her (from inside the bank, his voice coming through the machine) saying, "You're welcome, have a nice day." At that moment an older man is coming up to the machine, so, because old people are depicted as feeble dolts on TV, he starts talking to the ATM: "I'd like to make a transfer...hello?"

So, unless the TV is lying to us, there seems to be no reason that someone at the bank could not have gotten that woman her card back yesterday. It just made me think that I closed my accounts there just in time.

Quick review: Bruno

Oh. My. God. I haven't laughed this hard at a movie in a long time. "Bruno" is extremely raunchy, and not for the faint-of-heart, but it's brilliant. Bruno, the extremely gay fashionista, comes to America to become a major celebrity, and tries different roads to that status, with little success. It's a hysterical commentary on celebrities and their charitable activities, stars adopting children from Africa, and (of course) homosexuality and homophobia. My only minor quibble is that I can't help but think that some of the interaction between Bruno and non-celebrities just had to have been planned out in advance. I assume that at least some of the Bruno-and-celebrities interactions were staged; certainly the stars appearing at the end of the film were in on the joke.

I worry about Sacha Baron Cohen, though. He's used up his three characters. He needs to create someone new or do some other kind of movies (not counting his supporting roles in other people's movies, of course; I'm referring to his own productions). My grade: A.

Ryan Reynolds may play Green Lantern

He may play a comic book superhero. Yeah, whatever. I mainly just wanted to post this:

A couple days of Phils stuff

Interesting developments...

• Shane Victorino was the winner in the NL All-Star Final Vote. Apparently he came up with the idea for the Phillies to team up with the Detroit Tigers, whose Brandon Inge was the AL winner. The "Bran-Torino" campaign apparently worked...except since I voted hundreds of times, including non-stop in the 2 hours before voting closed, it really was me who put him over the top.
• Jayson Werth is also going to the All-Star game; he was named as a replacement for the Mets' Carlos Beltran, who is missing the game due to injury. This is surprising, because I would've expected that LA Dodger Matt Kemp, the only other outfielder on the Final Vote ballot. But clearly NL All-Star game Charlie Manuel is playing favorites and rewarding his players, between this choice and that of Ryan Howard at first base. Must be good to be the king. (With Victorino and Raul Ibanez, this is the first time since 1972 that one team has had three outfielders in an All-Star game.
  
• Ibanez has been activated from the disabled list; in a very surprising move, catcher and author Chris Coste was designated for assignment to make room for Ibanez, and Coste was claimed by Houston.
• The Phillies are interested in free-agent pitcher Pedro Martinez. He's struggled with age and injuries in recent years; this year he pitched in the World Baseball Classic and has sat waiting since then. I don't know that he'd be much of an upgrade over the starters they already have. I'd much rather they trade for Toronto's Roy Halladay now that the Blue Jays have intimated that they might try and trade him.
• Oh, and they've now won 7 of 8 on this homestand after tonight's 3-2 win over the Pirates, with me in attendance (and I'll be there tomorrow also), and now lead the NL East by 3 games.
  

This Week's Comic Books 7-8-09

Speaking of the date, yesterday at 34 minutes and 56 seconds past the noon hour, it was 12:34:56 7/8/9. Cosmic moment! Anyway, among my purchases this week are an exercise in nostalgia, a prologue to another big "event," and the Superman book that actually stars Superman...

Wednesday Comics 1 (of 12): This would be the DC Comics exercise in nostalgia. It's supposed to remind you of the Sunday comics section you find in newspapers, even going so far as to be on newsprint instead of the glossy paper stock normally used for their books. It's folded up to be the size of a comic book but when you unfold it, it turns into a 14-by-20 paper, 16 pages, all but the back page featuring a single strip starring different DC characters, with different writers and artists for each. That in itself makes it a mixed bag. Since the stories are just starting this week, they have one page to grab the reader. Some of the stories grabbed me, some didn't. Some of the artwork looks great, some of it is confusing and flat-out ugly. I don't think I'll buy this again. I may just open it up and read the pages that interest me and put it back down. ;-)

Superman: World Of New Krypton 5 (of 12): And this would be the Superman book featuring Superman. As previously explained, he's now living on New Krypton. He's serving as an army commander under none other than General Zod. As a result of events occurring in issue #4, Superman is on trial for treason, with the death penalty applicable if he's convicted. Superman's defense strategy is very Superman-like, so what happens is not much of a surprise. What happens after the trial, though...ooooooh.

Green Lantern 43: ...and this would be the prologue to the next big event, "Blackest Night." In previous books it came to be that, instead of just being Green Lanterns, there are all kinds of colorful ring-wielding corps, and each color is tied into what's referred to in this book as the "emotional spectrum" -- green is for willpower, red for rage, orange for avarice, yellow for fear, blue for hope, indigo for compassion (hey, if all the indigo ring-wearers were females they could be the Indigo Girls!), violet for love. I don't really understand it because I didn't buy any of the stories that introduced all of this. Anyway, now there will be the Black Lanterns, dead characters who are brought back to life with black power rings and, presumably corrupted by the Blackness, will cause all manner of mayhem. Not sure if I want to keep up with this.

Red Robin 2: This is another new series that was spawned from the events that apparently took the life of Bruce Wayne. Since there's a new Batman, I guess the laws required there be a new Robin as well. Thus, the most recent Robin -- Tim Wayne, formerly Tim Drake until Bruce Wayne adopted him after his father's death -- now stars in this book. Tim's on a quest to find Bruce because he thinks Bruce isn't dead. They haven't really explained why he thinks that. Maybe it's because so many other heroes have died and returned, even without black power rings. Or maybe it's because he's acting so dark and brooding and borderline obnoxious, so much unlike how he's always been, that he's acting just like Batman did in recent years. Again, not sure how long I'll keep going with this one.

Like I said...

One night after the Phillies buried the Cincinnati Reds 22-1, they waste numerous scoring opportunities after taking a 3-0 lead, and lose 4-3, ending their four-game winning streak. Such is baseball, especially this year. As I said before, we just have to let the 2009 baseball season play out without getting too high or too low, and enjoy the ride.