bigbadbob's Blog

In Brett Farve’s NY Jet debut, he threw a Touch Down pass in a pre-season game.  YEAH!!

Welcome to New York Brett! I think it was Leonard Bernstein who once said “When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way, from you’re first cigarette, to your last dying day!!”

 And after all the fuss about him being 38years old…BFD!  So are my GYM SHOES!

So it looks like they’re finally going to be using “INSTANT REPLAY” in baseball!

Let me tell you from experience that it works.  My wife’s been using it for years on me. “You’re wrong honey, I never told you that I’d fix the door” Her reply?  “Oh yeah, WATCH THIS!”.

We should all be proud of our OLYMPIANS.  And what about swimmer Michael Phelps?  Do you believe him?  He won eight gold medals breaking ALL the records!!

 He was so excited they had to talk him down.  He wanted to swim home!

Just when you thought that it couldn't get any better, George Steinbrenner makes a grand entrance!  I had no idea how bad his health was, and regret some of the jabs I took at him over the years.   But when he handed out baseballs to Goose, Reggie, Whitey and Yogi...so they could throw out the first balls.  I got a little emotional!

Before I was a Met fan, I was a die hard Yankee fan, and spent a lot of time at Yankee Stadium.  Over the years I always saw it as our answer to the Colossium.  I thought it would stand the test of time and be there forever. I know that I, along with others are going to miss it big time!

BBB

    I'm extremely upset to See Willy Randolph go.  I was hoping that everything would turn around for him, but it just wasn't in the cards.  I met him years ago at Lou Pinella's birthday party and found him to be a really nice guy, great smile, great personality, great sense of humor....a really NICE GUY!  They say that 'NICE GUYS FINISH LAST!"  But I don't consider him finishing last, I think he's going out  a champ!  (He'll be back somewhere) 

   I am NOT  a baseball expert, I'm just a loyal fan.  I don't claim to know what it takes to manage a team.  I'm just a fan!  I DO know that it has to be difficult to deal with multimillion dollar atheletes and keep them in line.  I don't know what went on behind closed locker room doors, but I Do think the blame has to be shared by upper management and the PLAYERS!   They seemed to lay down on the job.

   I also think it was a mistake to force Reyes to calm down last year, when he was the SPARK PLUG that ignited the team.  Who cares what the other teams think or say?

   Let's hope the change can produce the championship team we were promised!  Wouldn't it be GREAT if the YANKEES and the METS played one last SUBWAY WORLD SERIES at both stadiums before they're both gone?  ONE BIG LAST HURRAH!!

   It could still happen.  Oh yeah and METS IT WAS totally CLASSLESS and cowardly the way you broke it to WILLY. I hope you're all ashamed of yourselves!

He didn't deserve that!

    I once wrote a joke about Grandma taking up jogging and that she runs ten miles a day...we expect her to be somewhere in the Chicago area by next Tuesday!

   It was before running turned into a NATIONAL OBSESSION!  At that time I was running two miles every morning and loving it.   There were only a few others running at that time, and we'd all nod to each other in approval of each others progress! 

    After giving it up for a few years, I finally got back into it, only to find the makings of a GRID-LOCK situation.  There were many more trotting torsos coming toward and whizzing away from me.  Some of them would recognize me on the train or in the neighborhood.  "How many miles are you up to?" this one guy asked.  "How many miles?  Two, why?  How many do you do?"  He looked back with a condescending smirk and answered, "Ten!"  I said, "Ten? If you run that much, why don't you save yourself the monthly train ticket and run to work?"  "What're you, a comedian?" he asked.   "Yes, as a matter of fact I am!" (you putz, I'm thinking in my mind.)  "Don't worry", he continued, "in a few months you'll catch up."  "I wasn't aware that it was a race," I fired back, "I'm just running for cardiovascular reasons, not training for the Kentucky Derby!"  "The Kentucky Derby isn't a race for humans, it's for horses, you big silly!"  Not only is this guy a putz, he has no sense of humor.  As a matter of fact, he has no sense of reality and should be returned to the mother ship! 

    In weeks to come, I tried to avoid meeting him by changing the train I took and the car I rode in, but like the post office, neither rain, nor sleet, nor change in schedule would deter this pest from his assigned task of hunting me down and nagging me into training for the New York Marathon. 

    Finally my project in the city was over, my early morning jog was over, and hopefully my experience with this "RUN-O-MANIAC" was over.  Then one Saturday morning my doorbell rings, and low and behold, standing on my front stoop is the RUNNER FROM HELL, and a half dozen of his running mates.  He said that he'd asked some of the other commuters where I was, and that someone pointed out my wife to him on the train platform and she gave him our address.  Enter the wife, "Hi, honey....Oh, Hi, Phillipe!  I see you found it okay."  Teeth clenched, I said under my breath, "You told him where I live?"  She, also with her teeth clenched, "Oops! THIS is the guy you were telling me about?"  It was like a conversation between two ventriloquists. Neither of our lips were moving.  As for the herd on the stoop, they could hear a muffled exchange of words, but couldn't figure out where they were coming from. 

    "So, what can I do for you Phillipe?"  "I thought you'd like to join us.  We're training for the marathon, and even though you were saying that you weren't interested, I felt deep down inside that you really, really wanted to do it.  It'll make a new man out of you.  You don't know what you're missing," he smiled.  "Let me tell you something, Phillipe, years ago when I was a youngster, grownups were constantly forcing me to eat foods that I hated.  They would say "eat this or else", "don't worry you'll acquire a taste for it", and the one I hated the most "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING!"  Phillipe looked at me with a YEAH?-SO? expression on his face.  "I hated that expression then, and I hate it even more now.  So in response I say I know exactly what I'm missing, and as far as training for the marathon......BITE ME!"  I slammed the door in his face, and now the only time I see him is at a distance, scurrying away from me and trying desperately to avoid making eye contact!  I obviously frightened him.  Come to think of it, I forgot the time I saw him on TV running in the New York Marathon.  There he was running and looking back to see if I was dogging him!

            Not too long ago, I began running again.  The other day I had occasion to take the train into the city and someone on the platform tapped me on the shoulder and asked if that was me he saw this morning, and do I RUN!  Without giving it a second thought, I grabbed him in my arms and started doing the Lindy, embarrassing both of us as I sang, "I-DO-RUN-RUN-YES-I-DO-RUN-RUN!"  Now nobody asks me that question anymore!  Oh, by the way, about the dancing thing.....I lead!  And FYI…I have since joined a gym.

   If it doesn't rain.... tonight is the beggining of the end!  It's the LAST " Subway Series" at Yankee Stadium!  Sad but true. Even though I crossed over from the Yanks to the Mets, I'll really miss Yankee Stadium!

   And if this season so far, is any indication...I predict that "BOTH TEAMS" WILL LOSE!!!

Big "SAD" Bob!!

   Once again Baseball owners are spending tons of money to, BUILD, not upgrade their ball parks!  Guess who'll be footing the bill for that one!  So here's my question, if you're spending gazillians of dollars to erect new stadiums, why don't you spend a coupla bucks more and build them with retractable roofs???  With temperatures being so cold in the spring time and in the fall...It makes sense! 

   Think about it....NO more rainouts, snow outs...not to mention that the way ballplayers are dropping like flies, it would have to be a healthier environment!  Just close the roofs when they need to be closed and turn on the air conditioning!  It makes sense!!! 

   The cold weather HAS to be taking it's toll! And then who know, maybe in the off-season you could hold concerts, boxing matches, arena football, ice show, carnivals, circuses, rodeos....THE LIST IS ENDLESS!!!  IT MAKES SENSE!!  You could make a fortune!  It'd be another way you can get money from us.  WE MAKE CENTS!!

I'm curious to see how the rest of you feel about this.  Let me know!!

BOB

I'm THRILLED that Baseball is back.  I LOVES BASBALL!! 

   It also  signals the Begining of spring.  Flowers, short sleeve shirts, spending more time out doors, opening the pool, gardening, spring clean-up, muscle aches, fatigue, mowing, barbecuing, cleaning the grill, mosquitos, gnats, bees, wasps, unwanted house guests, wanted house guests....Let me tell you folks SPRING IS HARD!!

   But I kid my fellow bloggers....I LOVE IT!!!

   As far as Baseball goes, I finally got my wife to like baseball too.    ActuallY I didn't get her to enjoy the game...THE METS did!!  Even after last years STINKO finish when I was so ticked off that I was ready to jump ship, SHE called me a traitor.....and forced me to watch spring training.  Who are you, and what did you do with my wife???  Even though in the past, I knew a lot of the players personally, she never warmed up to the game.  So I asked her what did it this time?  She said, "a lot of the players are exciting, and more important..they're EYE CANDY!  They're cute!" "Heck THEY'RE HOT!"  Hey, know what?   I'll take it any way that I can! 

   Prior to watching games with her, I used to watch with my  Mother-in-law.  and if I should miss and inning or two, I'd ask her to fill me in...she'd tell me which of the players are expecting a baby, which of the players have just had a baby, but nothing about the game.  I'd  tell her , I don't care about any of that stuff, she'd say "WHAT, they can't have babies??"  No I'm not saying that, I just want to know about the game, if any of them got any hits?!?!  She says, "how the heck would I know!" The problem is, she had a NO-TRADE clause in her contract.

BOB

  When I was a kid, a bunch of my friends and I decided to workout at a gym.   We thought that the ultimate goal was to bench-press a BUICK!  We didn't have a clue.  We'd get some big muscles, go to the beach, and the chicks, instead of kicking sand in our faces, would be falling at our feet!!  Oh yeah?  Well the only way that would happen is if we kicked them in the shins!  To my knowledge there were no exercise programs back then to help us in the right direction.  Gee, ya think we shoulda' asked?  Hey we were teenagers...WE KNEW EVERYTHING!  We didn't need NO STINKIN' PROGRAMS!!  So we just started lifting barbells and dumbells, trying to out do each other...All that produced were a pile of teenaged DUMBELLS, with muscle aches and pains...severe moaning and lots of pointing and laughing!!  You don't even want to know about the WEDGIES!!  So instead of trying to pick us up off the gym floor, the gym owners just banded together and rolled us out onto the sidewalk!!!    

  Fast forward to the new millennium…  State of the art gyms… Personal trainers.  Wow! Things have gotten better. People have become more health conscious and are realizing the tremendous benefits of exercising!    The elderly are MALL WALKING!  I’m MALL WALKING!   Mall employee’s are STREET WALKING!  New Yorkers are Jaywalking!  Lots and lots of walking.  Why?  Because it’s good for you!  It’s exercise! It’s a natural function, something we can all do and it’s free!  I began walking at four thirty in the morning about eight years ago when I found out that I had high blood pressure.  I got up to two and a half miles a day and stopped when I got to Pittsburgh! (I know rim-shot. Bad joke!)  I loved the walking, but not as much as I loved to run, however I was told that it was bad for my legs.  I walked for a couple of years, but  with the smog, humidity and bugs in my teeth in the summer, the freezing cold and snot-cicles in the winter, and the smog all year long, I took my friend’s advice and joined a gym.  It was by far the best thing I ever did.  They wrote up a training program for me and update it constantly.  I do weight training every other day and walk on the treadmill every day.  Thank God IT doesn’t take me to Pittsburgh!  (Rim-shot #2 or the ever popular ba-dum-bum!)  I roll out of bed and before I know it I’m in my sweats and on a treadmill at the gym, and my day begins.  I’ve made lots of friends, do some networking, and you should know that there are athletes, cops, firemen, corporate C.E.O’S, housewives, business owners….even senior citizens and paraplegics in wheel chairs and in some cases minus a leg or two….all working out.  In my view, there’s no excuse!  It keeps the juices flowing.  If you don’t use it…you’ll lose it!!!  It seems that we’re all going to be living longer, which is nothing new in some European and Asian cultures.  One reason is that I don’t think they know the word RETIREMENT!!  They just keep working and doing.  I think that age is just a number.  I choose to do all the right things to constantly improve myself and try to maintain the quality of my life, with liberty and justice for all!! Amen.  As I’ve said in the past, think of yourself as a car. Keep you body fit, your mind tuned up and active and every once in awhile let them put you up on a lift so they can check your oil!  

 Two more things…

1)-How come every one who goes to the gym, myself included,  jockeys for position in the parking lot…trying to get as close as they can  to the gym’s front door??  (Think about it) 

2)-Better machines…Better weight training = MORE HUMONGOUS WEDGIES!!

        I'm a huge baseball fan who for the past few years has been dissapointed at many of the umpiring  calls.  Years ago they tried using video replays and for whatever reason dropped it!  Since that time technology has become much more sophisticated...so much so, that someone as technically challenged as myself can sit at home along with thousands...nay....MILLIONS of viewers and watch the umpires make fools of themselves with bad calls, for an entire nation, or at the very least the hometown fans to see!   I do understand  that in High School  the Cheerleaders never said "look at that umpire, isn't he dreamy?  Ya think he'd go out with me??" No, it was always the ballplayers that got all the action wasn't it? 

I feel your pain fellas, but don't take it out on the atheletes....You get them angry with bad calls then throw them out when they try to talk to you!  You have much to much power....What's next... penalizing the hometeam for wearing white after labor day!  Even Judge Judy is fairer than that!  Guys...it's simple, carry blackberries....Push a button...See for yourselves...Redeem yourself and restore your pride to your fellow man (and or woman). Bite the bullet...change is good...I don't even want to discuss my idea on using laser beams to check balls and strikes. Come on help us out here guys...'KAY?!?!

Oh yeah, this has nothing to do with baseball but, about Senator Craig staying in the Senate...Be on the safe side and make hime turn in his key to the executive washroom....No more "SNEAKY-PEAKY"  under the boardwalk if you get my drift!..I guess it all "DEPENDS!"  Wow Bob, that was a cheap shot, but who knows maybe he can get an endorsement deal with them!!