Posts from July 2009

July 31st, 2009

Everybody’s Blogging For The Weekend: The ‘Seinfeld’ Reunion (Sort) (UPDATE: Jake Peavy)

By Ryan Corazza

On certain days, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is my favorite television show. These days normally come when I catch an episode on rerun I’ve never seen — which is rare  — and Larry David gets into one of his regular conundrums or bickers about those little nuisances in life we all have experienced, but rarely see expressed so blatantly in film or TV. It’s the stuff about life we all hate, the little rules we’re suppose to follow. Larry David doesn’t follow those rules. He goes against them. It makes for brilliant comedy.

Anyway, for Season 7 which starts Sept. 20, Larry David announced last evening that they’d be doing a “Seinfeld” reunion within the world of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

“We’ll see writing, see aspects of the read-through, parts of rehearsal, see the show being filmed, and see it on TV,” David explained. “You won’t see the entire show. You’ll see parts of the show. You’ll get an idea of what happened (to the ‘Seinfeld’ characters) 11 years later. Within the show, it will be incorporated into regular ‘Curb’ episodes.”

Can’t wait. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some gardening to attend to. These tomatoes are giving me hell. Have a good weekend, y’all.

UPDATE: The White Sox have acquired Jake Peavy from the Padres. Particulars here. My reaction tweet style, here and here. Even though he’s hurt now, remember this: this isn’t a move just to try and put the Sox over the top in the second half, as he’ll be around till at least 2012, with a club option for 2013. Looks like Kenny Williams finally got his guy. Great success.

July 31st, 2009

Miss U, Ben Gordon

By Ryan Corazza

Motown String Music is calling the musical choice in this video “probably a little creepily over the top.” Life on Dumars says Ben’s highlights “so pumps me up for the season.” J.E. Skeets is calling it a  “a creepy goodbye video with funky techno beats.”

And what do I call it? AWESOME.

Now, who’s coming to Excalibur with me tonight?

July 31st, 2009

Are The Bears In The Market For Matt Jones?

By Ryan Corazza

According to the man himself, his agent has had talks with the team (via). Talks are just talks, (the agent has talked with the Jets, Titans and Cowboys, too) and the Bears seem mighty content with their current crop of receivers, but hey, let’s speculate anyway.

First: It’s a name that hasn’t been thrown around a ton, namely because when you have to compete with the likes of Anquan Boldin, Torry Holt, Marvin Harrison, Plaxico Burress and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, you tend to get shoved to the bottom of the pile.

Jones makes sense for a few reason: he has size (6′ 6″), and he’d instantly become the Bears’ No. 1, something they don’t truly have at the moment. He’s a freak athlete. Last year in only 12 games, he had 65 receptions for 761 yards. Not league leading, but pretty darn good. Couple that with Jay Cutler, and it could be quite nice. He’s likely a cheaper option than any of the other big names that were, and still are out there.

But, there are the dreaded “character issues” with the guy that teams are wary of, the details of which you can read about here. The reason he’s available right now is because the Jags dropped him in March after his second substance abuse-related arrest.

If the Bears can be convinced the past is the past — it’s not like there aren’t a few guys on the Bears squad that have had issues — and can get Jones at the right price, it’s a terrific steal at this juncture.

If not, be prepared for the uncertainly of the receving corps heading in the season opener.

July 31st, 2009

A Look At Postseason Odds For Cubs, White Sox

By Ryan Corazza

With the clock about to turn to August here, we are indeed in the dog days of summer. (That’s August, right?) Over 100 games of baseball have been played by both the Cubs and White Sox. It is time now, friends, to keep a vigilant eye on Baseball Prospectus’ postseason odds, which usually just gives you more reason to freak out about your team not making the playoffs. Fun!

First up, the Cubs:

NL Central Winner: 41.11577 percent Wild Card: 6.05652 percent  Playoffs: 47.17229 percent

If the Cubs are going to get into the playoffs, as of right now, the only way in is to win the division. It’s them, and it’s the Cardinals. That’s it.  Same as it ever was.

Next, the White Sox:

AL Central Winner: 19.77610 percent  Wild Card: .22800 percent Playoffs: 20.00410 percent

The Sox have no shot at the Wild Card. And, thanks to a woeful week after Mark Buehrle’s perfect game, the Sox have seen their odds at the playoffs drop a whopping 13 percent. But, at only 2.5 games back in the division, there’s still plenty of time for things to change and the Sox to see some increased odds. Or for them to fall further behind. It all depends on your view.

July 31st, 2009

What You Missed: July 27-31

By Ryan Corazza

+ Man catches foul ball, man doesn’t drop child.

+ Wrigley tattoo fail.

+ Carlos Quentin cares not for music when he steps to the plate.

+ Mark Buehrle’s gift to the White Sox.

Quotable:

February 9, 2042: Brett Favre grows agitated over a Girl Scout’s incompetence, claims that he could probably bake Thin Mints at home without too much trouble anyway, threatens retirement.

September 16, 2055: Brett Favre formally announces his retirement before an audience of seven lawn gnomes, a garden hose and an inattentive squirrel.

April 5, 3010: Brett Favre shoves his freeze-pod open and stumbles out. He awakens to a dystopian future in which artificial intelligence governs the populace and personal freedoms are a distant memory. He runs to the nearest public concourse and announces his retirement. No one dares make eye contact.” – Brett Favre And Retirement: An Essential History

July 31st, 2009

The Stephon Marbury Show Hits A Bump

By Ryan Corazza

This has been everywhere already, but whatever.

I made a point earlier this week that the watchability of Stephon Marbury’s lifecasting dwindles by the day, because no one can be that interesting for that long. It’s overkill. And any really blogworthy parts — Marbury crying, Marbury eating Vaseline — have been chopped up and hit YouTube for us to see. We don’t need to see these moments live: someone else will for us, and then it will be all over the place and then we’re covered. Cool? Cool.

Case in point, Marbury was lifecasting from the back seat of a car yesterday, and the driver appeared to run over or hit something, temporarily knocking the camera off him. (Watch from the 1:40 mark.)

Marbury claimed it was the devil, and the car soldiered on, as did his mostly boring show.

July 31st, 2009

So, What Hall Of Fame Players Did Jose Canseco Play With?

By Ryan Corazza

Whenever there is a baseball performance-enhancing drug user revelation, you can count on some quotes from Jose Canseco. Last time around, he staged an embarrassing press conference. But this time after David Ortiz was named yesterday? He’s back with the only reason we ever give him an ounce of respect, he gives us names. We love the names. Feed off the names. We don’t care what they took. We just want the names, and we want them now. Speaking to Pedro Gomez yesterday, Canseco said this:

“When you tell me something I didn’t already know, I’ll be surprised,” Canseco told ESPN. “And I’ll tell you this, Major League Baseball is going to have a big, big problem on their hands when they find out they have a Hall of Famer who’s used.”

When asked to name who that Hall of Fame player is, Canseco refused to divulge who he believes it is.

OK, so that’s not a name. But, there’s no denying he’s been incredibly truthful when it comes to MLB and PEDs. As much as people want to dismiss this rogue character, he’s been right so much, you have to take his word about this subject and believe. He’s given us no reason not to, really.

So, in that vain, Andrew over on our Sox blog — which I’m hoping one to seven of you read — listed out the HOF players Canseco has had as a teammate. Now, point to make before I get any further: neither he nor I are saying any of these guys took anything. We have zero evidence. There is no reason to believe any of these guys injected or swallowed something to enhance their performance on the field. Let me repeat: I am not insinuating any one of these fellas juiced.

That being said, and knowing Canseco’s track record on this stuff, onwards to the players via Baseball-Reference:

Keep reading →

Blog Search

Staff
Sole Proprietor:
Ryan Corazza | E-mail
About | Feed
MOUTHPIECE Blog is a Chicago-centric sports blog which will also comment on national stories and general sports blog-y goodness. E-mail rcorazza at mouthpiecesports dot com with tips and story ideas, if you so desire.

Subscribe to our RSS feed.
Blogroll
| Awful Announcing | Ball Don’t Lie | Ballhype | Blog Chicago Sports | Can’t Stop the Bleeding | Dan Shanoff | Dave’s Football Blog | Deadspin | Detroit Bad Boys | Docksquad Sports | EDSBS | FanHouse | Free Darko | Inside the Hall | Kissing Suzy Kolber | Larry Brown Sports | Mister Irrelevant | NBA Mock Drafts Database | Shutdown Corner | Sports by Brooks | Storming the Floor | The Dagger | The Sporting Blog | True Hoop | With Leather .