Jose Canseco on twitter

When I was about 12 years old I had a poster of Jose Canseco on my bedroom wall that I'd covered with a giant "X" (I remember the "X" was fluorescent pink, because neon colors were cool at the time).  I also doctored this baseball card to say "drug user" instead of "American League" (I'm sure it's still in my parent's attic somewhere).  I had a great disdain for Jose in part because his A's swept the Red Sox out of the playoffs in 1988 and 1990, but also because I was certain he was using steroids.  When Boston acquired him in 1995 I was very conflicted.

Well, 20-some years later Jose now admits to being on "the juice," and loves to talk about it whenever he gets the chance.  If you use twitter, I highly recommend following Canseco.  He is pretty hysterical, but mostly of the unintentional variety.  I have a feeling he sits at home and gets drunk many nights, then decides to start tweeting.  He's a small sample of some of his recent work:

I could have done a way better job interviewing Lance Armstrong than Oprah did
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 19, 2013

How the hell does Pete rose get a show before me
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 14, 2013

Wow Jodie Foster at goldenglobes makes me want to join the lesbians
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 14, 2013

You know we should all consider having sex Prison style
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 13, 2013

Anyone have contact info for dustin Hoffman?Can't find him on twitter and want him for the La Russa role for Juiced! The Movie.
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 11, 2013

Jose sent out a bunch of tweets to various actors last week trying to recruit them for "Juiced! The Movie," he's definitely planning on making it.  Not sure if anyone else is...

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The lawyer suing the Spurs for not playing their stars is just a big fat liar.

Lebron and Co. almost lost to the Spurs scrubs.

Back on November 29th the San Antonio Spurs played against the Heat in Miami.  It was the final night of a 6 game road trip for San Antonio, and their 4th game in 5 nights.  Spurs coach Greg Popovitch chose to send 4 of his best players (Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Danny Green) home without ever making the trip to Miami.  Popovich had decided that resting his team was the smarter choice than competing for a victory that night.  This happens often in the NBA as the playoffs approach (Doc Rivers did it when the Celtics had a big game in Atlanta last spring), but not usually early on in the season.  League commissioner David Stern was not pleased, and fined the Spurs $250,000.

Three days ago a story broke that a Miami lawyer is suing the Spurs.  He claims that he and other fans "suffered economic damages" by paying more money for tickets to a "premium" game that turned out not to be.  I actually see how a person could honestly make that case, except in this instance the guy is just lying.  He has no idea what he's talking about.  If you watch this interview with him (click here, I couldn't get the video to embed.  Please watch it, it's almost comical and you'll understand my comments much better if you do), he doesn't appear to actually be a fan of the NBA, or even understand the game of basketball.  Not to mention the fact that he also seems to have some serious trouble with simple U.S. geography.

The guy says "When you have a really good west coast team come into town and you don’t get to the see the entire bench, the bench is not there. Not in street clothes, there’s no medical reason for not being there."  But the thing is the entire bench was there.  That's who he saw play, it was the starters who were missing.  He also refers to the Spurs being a "west coast team" multiple times, so either he doesn't know they are from San Antonio, doesn't know San Antonio is in Texas, or doesn't know where Texas is.

Of the "all-stars" that he allegedly paid more to see, the only one of the four who's name he is able to come up with is Tim Duncan.  And then he says "Had the Spurs had their all-stars there, it would have made a difference in the competitive nature of the game."  But here's the thing, it was a highly competitive game.  The Spurs bench players actually led the Heat 98-97 with just :43 seconds to play (Miami won 105-100).  If he was a San Antonio fan I could understand him being mad that the Spurs should have won if they'd had their full roster, but then I'm assuming he would have been able to name more than one player on the team.

So I guess my message to this clown/lawyer is if you're going to file a ridiculous lawsuit, at least make sure you know what you're talking about.  On the ESPN show Around the Horn, a reporter named Bomani Jones hit the nail right on the head.  Despite how stupid he and the other reporters all thought the lawyer was, Jones said "He's already won by us talking about it."   Annoying but true; which is why I haven't mentioned the guy's name.

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3 thoughts on the Manti Te'o fake dead girlfriend story

In case you haven't turned on the TV or interwebs in the past 24 hours and this is the first you've heard of this story (in which case I'm flattered LucidSportsFan.com is your go to choice of media), here it is on Deadspin.com.

1.  If you have ever seen the MTV show Catfish (or the movie it's based on) you know that these internet hoaxes do happen.  But, they tend to happen to people who for whatever reason are social outcasts, those who might easily be duped by a made up internet person because they lack their own real life social interaction.  It seems very very hard to believe that a good looking guy at Notre Dame, who is one of the best and most famous football players in the entire country, would ever resort to the internet because he can't find actual tangible girls who are interested in him.

2.  It absolutely blows my mind that no media ever looked into the fake girl or her fake death in the past 5 months.  As Te'o almost won the Heisman and Notre Dame made it all the way to the national title game, this "inspirational" story was reported time and time again.  Somehow nobody ever fact checked it.  That doesn't seem possible.

3.  Te'o needs to explain what happened, and he needs to do it right now.  If he's telling the truth and he is just the victim of a cruel hoax, then he has nothing to hide.  He should start answering every single question that anyone has.  The longer this goes the worse it looks for him, and the more and more likely it is that he is involved.

Also, when I went to categorize the post just now I laughed out loud as I put it under "general unawareness of others" (who don't even exist).

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Milestone night at the Garden?

Robert Parrish and Patrick Ewing, 1993

The Celtics host the New Orleans Hornets tonight, normally a fairly insignificant game on the schedule.  But today it includes the story line of C's head coach Doc Rivers facing off against his son, Austin, who was the Hornets first round draft pick last June.

This evening could also be a big night for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.  Garnett (24,809) needs just 7 points to pass Patrick Ewing (24,815) for 16th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list.  Pierce (23,317) is only 18 points away from passing Boston legend Robert Parish (23,334) for 22nd place.  Both are likely to happen tonight.

Former Celtic Ray Allen (23,336) just moved ahead of Parish for 21st place on Monday.  If Pierce scores 20 or more against New Orleans he'll surpass Allen as well; although Ray would likely regain his position just a few hours later when the Miami Heat play in California against the Warriors.

If you scroll down to yesterday's post (January 15), you'll notice that I discussed the rap/pop star Pitbull; which is not something I ever really expected I'd do, or intended to do again in the future.  I found out today that it was his birthday.  That is freakishly weird.

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Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Funky Kingston" by Toots and the Maytals

There's a Bud Light commercial featuring Pitbull that's on TV nonstop at the moment:

I don't really have anything much to say about the add, or the song in it.  But, the song that Pitbull took the background music from (which is basically the standard in pop music nowadays) is one of the biggest hits from one of my favorite bands, Funky Kingston by Toots and the Maytals.  "Toots" is easily the singer/band/group/artist I've seen the most often live; in fact I may well have been to as many of his shows as all other concerts put together.  Being arguably the second greatest reggae act of all time and still playing regularly on Martha's Vineyard definitely has had a lot to do with it.

On an unrelated note, Rajon Rondo posted another triple double last night.  I think he decided he was going to do it before the game even started.  Read about it on Celtics Life, and his last one on January 5th as well.

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Here's why I'm more afraid of Baltimore than Denver

I spent the last two weeks telling anybody who would listen that I didn't think the Denver Broncos were very good.  I discussed on this site how they shouldn't be the Super Bowl favorites, posted it on Cosby Sweaters, and also wrote another piece about it for Patriots Life.  But now that the Broncos have been eliminated I'm a little concerned.  Even though I know that the Ravens coming to Foxboro is a much better situation for New England than travelling to Denver, because I believed the Broncos were greatly overrated I was very eager for the Patriots to play them.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ray Lewis can breath fire.

On the other hand, Baltimore scares me.  In part because they crushed the Pats 33-14 in a playoff game here 3 years ago, outplayed them (despite losing) in the AFC title game last season, and then emerged with a 31-30 victory when the two teams matched up back in week 3.  But, the real thing that I am afraid of is Ray Lewis' magic powers.

In January of 2000 he was involved in a double homicide.  The murder charges against Lewis didn't stick, but he was still convicted of obstruction of justice.  Yet somehow he has magically made the entire mainstream news media forget this ever happened.  They constantly applaud him for his greatness as a leader.  More often than not Lewis' interviews involve statements of how God is helping him and his team win.  The reporters just accept this and congratulate him; nobody ever asks "Ray, was God helping you when you and your buddies stabbed two people to death outside a night club and then fled the scene afterwards?"

My only conclusion is that he must have some sort of magical powers.  Maybe it's mind control.  Maybe it's memory erasing.  Maybe it's something that strikes such fear into anyone who looks him in the eye that they are terrified to do anything but praise him.  Regardless of what it is, his decision to retire after the season has convinced him that the 2012 Ravens are a team of destiny; and I'm definitely a bit worried about the Patriots having to face a guy with magical powers who believes his team's victory is preordained.

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It's time for technology that lets you hear the questions reporters ask at press conferences.

It helps to know what question's Belichick is answering.

If you've watched any of the NFL post-game press conferences this weekend, or any weekend, or after a different sporting event, or really any type of press conference for anything anywhere ever; you've probably noticed that it's often hard to hear the questions the reporters are asking.  Frequently the person at the podium's answer doesn't really make much sense when we don't know what it is they are responding to.

I think it's about time somebody resolved this situation.  Here's a few ideas just off the top of my head: Tell the reporters to speak up.  Hand out a bunch of little cheap microphones so that they all have one.  Hang a single big powerful microphone over the group of reporters, and maybe attach it to a robotic arm.  Or have somebody standing by the podium with one of those listening devices you see on TV and in spy movies, pointing it at each person as they ask a question.  Somewhere in here there's a solution, I just can't believe nobody has implemented it yet.  Thanks to my mom for the topic idea.

Do press conferences need these?

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