Ripken and Gwynn Come to Cooperstown

GWYNN



RIPKEN


- Jordan M.
Commerce, TX

Clip of the Week

Harry Caray Budweiser Commercial (1985)

It's that time again, CotW time. And you all (I know there are hordes of you, dear readers) love it. Here is the clip of the week:



Yes, that's iconic Cards, White Sox, and, Cubbies announcer Harry Caray "dancing" around and "rapping" for Budweiser. More proof that the man was always drunk.

And how about that prediction? "'84 was just the start"? Really? In 1984 the Cubbies won their divison with a very respectable 96-65 record. In 1985, they finished fourth (77-84), in '86 they finished fifth (70-90), and in 1987 they wound up in sixth place with a record of 76-85. I guess I should note that they took the NL Central again in 1989, just in case my roommate is reading this. Rest in peace, Harry, wherever you are...

- Jordan M.
Commerce, TX

Top Ten List of the Week

Top Ten Baseball Nicknames

You may think I spend an inordinate amount of posting space dedicated to baseball. And you'd be right. Well, I love the game. So deal with it. One of the many little intricacies of the game that I love so much is how every player that makes a major league roster eventually winds up with a nickname. So, here it is, the list of the top ten baseball nicknames of all time. Some of them are funny, some are very apt, one is ironic (see if you can pick it out!), and some are just awesome. Oh yeah, you might notice that George Herman Ruth is not included on the list. The Babe may be the most easily recognizable nickname ever (not to mention the bevy of other nicknames he had), so it's a given.

1. Ted Williams - The Splendid Splinter and Teddy Ballgame
2. Reggie Jackson - Mr. October
3. Fred McGriff - The Crime Dog
4. Bob Ferguson - Death to Flying Things
5. Willie Mays - The Say Hey Kid
6. Andre Dawson - The Hawk
7. Frank Thomas - The Big Hurt
8. Ernie Banks - Mr. Cub
9. Ty Cobb - The Georgia Peach
10. (TIE) Walter Johnson/Nolan Ryan - Big Train/The Ryan Express

Honorable Mentions: Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, Pete "Charlie Hustle" Rose, Lenny "Nails" Dykstra, Rich "El Guapo" Garces, Greg "Mad Dog" Maddux, Ozzie "The Wizard of Oz" Smith, Hank "Bad Henry" Aaron, Tris "Spoke" Speaker, Brooks "Hoover" Robinson, Walt "No Neck" Williams, George "Steam Engine in Boots" Mullin, Charlie "Piano Legs" Hickman, Ted "Simba" Simmons, Andres "Big Cat" Galarraga

Man, I love baseball.

- Jordan M.
Commerce, TX

The Timeline Post

Well, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, The Timeline Post have a record. A real record. Shrink-wrapped and everything. It's titled, creatively enough, The Timeline Post, and it is amazing. I've had the privelege of being able to get my hands on a copy (a perk of living with the bass player) and I'm ready to dub it one of the top five records of the year. Where The Wooden Nickel EP was good, the new record is great. It is polished, especially for being mostly recorded at home. Owen mixed it and it has been mastered professionally. And it shows. The lows and highs both withstood "the car test" and sound just short of magnificent.

I highly suggest you pick up a copy. It will be officialy released this Friday at a release show in Denton at Rubber Gloves (click HERE to watch some videos and see what a treat you're in for).

The record boasts 12 tracks, and the listing goes like this:

1 With The Sweet Comes The Sour
2 Ivory Forest
3 The Burning Bridge
4 Dweller
5 Out My Window
6 A Sonnet
7 Intermission
8 You Were Alone
9 Song Merchants
10 Lost In The Woods
11 Coma Love
12 Another Sonnet

Official Site
Myspace Site

- Jordan M.
Commerce, TX

What Is Jordan M. Doing?

I know what you are asking yourself, all of you dear loyal readers, you're wondering what I am doing. Aren't you? Of course you are. What else could be on your mind? Nothing, you dolts. Well, loyal reader, I've decided to answer your prayers with a brand-spankin'-new post that will keep you apprised of what I'm up to! YAY!


Currently Watching (Film):

I’ve recently started on the massive 5 DVD The Movies Begin - A Treasury of Early Cinema, 1894-1913 box set from Kino video. This thing is an amazing time capsule of early film experiments and great old shorts. So far, I’ve only watched the first disc, which included The Great Train Robbery and Melies’ A Trip to the Moon. I’ve always wanted to watch those two in particular, due in no small part to Scorsese’s copping the final scene from Robbery for use in GoodFellas and the Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight, Tonight video. Other highlights on the disc include old Edison and Lumiere Brothers shorts.

I'm also smack dab in the middle of the Grindhouse release of Umberto Lenzi's notorious Cannibal Ferox (aka: Make Them Die Slowly). I love sleaze and am pretty well versed in Cannibal films, but this one seems pretty lazy and is pretty much a rehash of Lenzi's earlier Eaten Alive. Not a big surprise. If you want to, you can watch the trailer here.

Currently Watching (Television):

We’re kind of limited on television at my house, only getting about 15 channels. But, we do get WGN, so I’ve been watching quite a number of (the red-hot) Cubs games (in between re-runs of America’s Funniest Home Videos and Home Improvement...damn you, WGN!). This definitely makes my roommate Steve happy, as he’s a lifelong Cub fan. We also get about one of out every five Ranger games, so I’m able to watch some of those as well, which is nice (it’d be nicer if they could finish out the AL West cellar this year).

Sadly, the only other shows I watch are Jeopardy! and, I’ll admit it, The View (only from time to time and only because it’s the only show that’s on when I wake up).

Currently Watching (Television on DVD):

The Sopranos - Steve and I have just started watching the first season of the show that just finished its series run. Yeah, we’re a little late to this party, but are getting a pretty big bang out of the first season. Word on the street is that the show only gets better, so I'm looking forward to that.

The Simpsons - Over this year, I’ve been watching every season straight through and I’ve just finished up season five and I’m ready to start season six. I’m right at the meatiest part of the series that had all the best episodes. Season five had gems like Cape Feare and $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling). Excellent stuff.

Currently Watching (YouTube):

There are only a few YouTubers (man, that sounds lame) that I actually subscribe to. One of the series that I like to keep up with is We Need Girlfriends which is a pretty funny monthy webseries (I guess that's what you'd call it). Another guy that I subscribe to is The Angry Nintendo Nerd, who is pretty hit or miss (and, actually, most of the stuff he's doing no can be found over at GameTrailers.com), but generally worth a watch. There are some more, but I'll save them for future "Clips of the Week" :)

Currently Listening To:

I’ve gotten back on to a Coheed and Cambira kick lately. Just the first two records, which I hadn’t listen to in about two years. I got really burnt out on them after MTV beat them into the ground, and never even picked up their third record. I was once really into them, some five years ago, even joining their official forum! The records haven’t aged as well as I thought they would, but I can still dig ‘em.

Other random songs I'm currently digging:

Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
The Timeline Post - Ivory Forest
Grandaddy - I'm On Standby
Bob Dylan - Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again
Midlake - Roscoe
Mercury Rev - Goddess on a Highway
Pearl Jam - Immortality
Fair to Midland - Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes
Zager and Evans - In the Year 2525

Currently Reading:

Still working my way through Stephen King’s The Stand. I’m about on page 890, and I still have a long way to go. I’m reading the “revised” version. You see, King was something like a precursor to George "Greedy-O" Lucas, updating his book ten years after it came out to give it up-to-date cultural references (at least for 1990) and changing all the dates. He also added some 500 pages that the publishers originally cut out of the thing, bringing the page total to a whopping 1135! It’s a great read, probably King’s best, and I’m really enjoying it.

Currently Playing (Video Games):

MLB2K7 (Xbox 360) - While the game is not without its problems, it's pretty darn complete. And a lot of fun. Right now I've got a franchise going, I just lost the World Series to Steve (Brewers lost to the Indians in 5 games), and I've taken it upon myself to recreate the 1994 Texas Rangers. Good stuff.

Super Mario World (SNES) - I've mentioned previously on here that my lady friend and I are trying to beat this one. Still fun after all these years.

Currently Looking Forward To:

A quick release list of some great upcoming stuff looks like this:

July 24 - Monster Squad (DVD)
Aug. 14 - Taxi Driver: Collector's Edition (DVD)
Sept. 11 - Vincent Price: MGM Scream Legends Collection (DVD)
Sept. 14 - Eastern Promises (Theatrical - Wide)
Sept. 18 - The Roger Corman Collection (DVD)
Sept. 25 - Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
Sept. 25 - Someone's Watching Me (DVD)
Oct. 16 - Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)
Oct. 19 - Margot at the Wedding (Theatrical - Limited)
Oct. 23 - Breathless: Criterion Collection (DVD)
Nov. 21 - No Country for Old Men (Theatrical - Wide)
Dec. 21 - Be Kind Rewind (Theatrical - Limited)


- Jordan M.
Commerce, TX

Top Nine List of the Week

9 Things That I Used To Think Sucked, But I Now Realize Are Awesome


-Country Music

When I was growing up in North East Texas, it was very hard to escape hearing country music. It was literally everywhere. Gas Stations. Department Stores. Grocery Store Parking Lots. EVERYwhere. I used to get a little sick to my stomach every time I heard it throughout my entire childhood. And then, I realized that there was something I was missing. All the country music I had been hammered with day in day out, year after year...wasn't real country music. It was this pop-country shit. My grandmother changed my whole perspective when she played me some Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Hank Snow, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Charlie Daniels, and even the great Kris Kristofferson. It was then that I realized that I had been mislead by the garbage on all the country radio stations, because the REAL country music was some of the most genuine, hearfelt, good music I'd ever heard.

-Foreign Film

My good friend Jordan is mostly responsible for turning me around on this one. I always had this nasty stereotype image in my head of foreign films. I think you may know what I'm talking about: cheesy romance scenes between two young lovers speaking in some strange language, always overdressed, rushing in and out of someone's arms, etc. Granted, there are a large number of foreign films that do fit that stereotype, but there are films like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, City of God, 8 1/2, and The Vanishing that I found extremely enjoyable and are nothing like that. Thanks for helping right the ship, Jordie.

-Kobe Bryant

This one is a little more recent, but maybe one of the bigger about-face's I've experienced. As a die-hard Dallas Mavericks fan, Kobe was a guy that I just hated. Mostly because I was afraid of him and what he'd likely do to crush the championship hopes of my beloved Mavs, but moreso because the guy is a dick. Plain and simple. He's a spoiled little turd who thinks the entire basketball world should bow at his feet and hand over the "next Michael" crown he feels he so sorely deserves. But then, I realized what exactly makes Kobe Bean Bryant tick. It's a psychotic desire to prove he deserves that crown. I don't know that I've seen someone in this modern sports age with such a blood-thirsty, killer instinct approach to his craft. Kobe doesn't just want to win. He wants to destroy his opponents, and, more than that, his detractors. He wants to break their spirits. This is what I want to see in an elite athelete. I'm glad I saw the light.

-Cooking

Changing gears here. In my younger days I couldn't stand preparing my own meals. Frozen pizza was about the only thing I would do for myself, but that was due in large part to the fact that I was very picky about how it was cooked and nobody does it the way I like. I would even beg my mom to make my favorite sandwich, The Peanut Butter-Banana, when it only consisted of mashing up two ingredients and slapping it on some bread. It was, admittedly, pathetic. Nowadays, I love to cook. Partly because it's less expensive than eating out, but mostly because it's a lot tastier than TV dinners or Hot Pockets every day...that got old in a hurry. Bon Apetit.

-Bob Dylan

As a child, I could not understand at all what the big deal was about Bob Dylan. I really don't think I need to explain why or how I came around on this one. I can now see that I was immature and irresponsible, and deeply regret my lapse in judgement. I apologize to myself.

-Reading

Up until about 4-5 years ago, I shrugged off reading as something that was used as a way to torture young school children for 13 years and keep their minds occupied enough to keep them out of trouble. My bad. Since then, I've somehow turned into a guy who reads non-stop almost every day. Whether it's a newspaper, website, book or magazine, my eyes are steadily moving left to right, taking in as much information as I can.

-M.A.S.H.

Every single night at 10:00pm, our local CBS affiliate would air syndicated reruns of the sitcom, M.A.S.H. And every single night at 10:00pm, my father was parked in the living room floor watching it. I had no idea why for the longest time. I had thought it was so corny, and not very funny, but he was always cracking up laughing. Well, it clicked to me when I was about 17 or 18 years old. This was obviously meant for older folks, and I'm glad I finally got there. No wonder the show lasted so long...

-Onions

This one may seem a bit out of place on this list, but it's legitimate. I thought that onions were edible death as a child. They didn't taste good and they burned your eyes...what's to like? I eat them on nearly everything these days. Go figure.

-Naptime

Every Sunday after lunch, my parents would force my brothers and I to take a nap. It was a horrible, horrible experience. Well, actually, not really. But it seemed like it at the time. The older I got, the more I realized how much I actually needed those naps. Every day at about 2:00, I have this overwhelming urge to lay down in the floor and go sleepies. I didn't realize how good I had it.

....and now that I think about it....I'm going to take a nap now.

- Pop Newmo
Austin, TX

Clip of the Week

Fight on Set!

It's time again for that greatest of all rituals, the CotW (that's the Clip of the Week, sucka). I know, last week I forgot to post a clip, so it looks like it is the CoEOW, or the Clip of Every Other Week, but it ain't. Anyway, without further doodoo, here it is:



That's dynamo director David O. Russell (Three Kings, Flirting With Disaster) getting in a fight with aging actress Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees. Yeah, it ain't exactly "fresh", but it's still hilarious.

- Jordan M.
Commerce, TX

Top Twenty List of The Week

Jordan's Top Twenty Favorite Songs from Dallas-Based Artists of the Past 20 Years:

Well, it's time once again for the weekend "top" list, and this week's is a doozy. I've narrowed down my top twenty list of songs by Dallas-based artists in the past twenty years. I'm sure I missed a couple of excellent choices, sue me, I just got back from Galveston Island and my body feels like it's on fire. So this is whatchoo get.



1 & 2. (TIE) The Timeline Post - Out My Window/Fair to Midland - The Wife, the Kids, and the White Picket Fence
3. Huver - Lower
4. Jump Rope Girls - Silvergirl
5. The Toadies - Tyler
6. The Timeline Post - Coma Love
7. Fair to Midland - Orphan Anthem
8. Slow Roosevelt - Boys Lie, Girls Steal
9. Doosu - Clovers
10. Pantera - Cemetery Gates
11. Old 97's - Timebomb
12. Tripping Daisy - Pirahana
13. Eisley - Marvelous Things
14. Doosu - Color of Her Hair
15. Pantera - Fucking Hostile
16. Midlake - Kingfish Pies
17. The Polyphonic Spree - Section 3 (Days Like This Keep Me Warm)
18. Fair to Midland - A.O.D.T.R.P.
19. Soak - Shuttergut
20.Chomsky - 00.15.00


And there you have it. Now, where's that aloe?

- Jordan M.
Commerce, TX

Invitation to Blog

Can I blog? I thought you had to be depressed to blog. It is too hard to be melancholy during a blazing Texas summer. The heat beats depression out of you like an anger boxer. I like July but only for a minute and I am thankful for a job that makes me enjoy the coolness of early morning. I used to sit on back dock of my restaurant, smoke a cigarette and watch the sun dance its way up the pasture and scrub-brush landscape east of Greenville, Texas. I miss smoking. I think perhaps that to use the word miss would be an understatement, but lack of vocabulary and unwillingness to use a thesaurus aids its existence in my speech. I do miss it however. Perhaps it is time to begin writing again. Writing is a fickle thing I toss around in my head, like a joke that you are unsure if it is funny or not. Opportunities arise and I open mouth to joke but the awareness of the joke’s uncertain laugh register cause me to blurt intelligibly incomplete sentences. Something like muttering, but with more excitement. Writing finds it way onto my list of things to do below reading the stack of dusty books on my night-stand, and above mowing the lawn. Do writers pencil in times to write inside their hip black mole-skin journals? Another cool looking journal would probably make it easier for me to write. Write about things that are important. Things like God. Or god. Fleshing out the ideas that haunt me, and keep me from stillness. Calmness does peak into in my head and linger slightly during a peak Sunday lunch rush in the restaurant; plates falling out of the window, waiters screaming for set-ups and a small band of Hispanics running the money-machine from the behind the curtain of ovens, fryers, and prep tables. Epistemology, theology, and the rest of the ologies I should have left in the small dorm room that smelled of mold and Drakkar. The theories of theories I should have left with my posters, filthy bed sheets, and Pentium II computer. But I’ve carried them with me and now, as I look back, I ponder the idea of trying to leave them behind. Maybe I should write them down. Flesh them out. Eternalize them in written form. Maybe blog. Blogging jumbles up my brain. In middle school, some friends and I were accused of stealing another friend’s sister’s diary. The story goes on that she actually misplaced it, but her parents neglected to inform my father and the lashing I received was never taken back. I don’t thinking a whipping can be taken back, but I do remember thinking that diaries must be really important if I got a whipping like that one. Reading someone’s thoughts uncensored always gives me a little tingle in the seat of my pants and I remember the fear and hurt I felt almost 15 years ago. I wonder if anyone else turns the lights off, hunches over the computer and enjoys someone’s blog, like a group of middle school boys huddling over a stolen diary, discovering that their friend’s sister doesn’t like school, or her dad, or her period. You do?

Well, turn the lights off, pull the desk chair closer, it’s gonna get really good in a minute.

-Logan
Texarkana, TX

Top Ten List of the Week

Top Ten Things I Used to Like, But Now Realize Suck

Recently my special lady and I have started playing through Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo (possibly the best platformer of all time). Neither one of us had attempted to thwart Bowser since our salad days, and it’s absolutely amazing how well this game has aged. It would be very easy to get caught up in the nostalgia of it and think that surely all the things that I prized so much as a child still carry as much weight as Super Mario World does. Surely. But you’d be wrong. And I’ll prove it.

Here it is, the top ten things that I used to like, that I now realize suck:

10. Independence Day (Movie)

The recent holiday got me thinking about this one. Riding high on the wave of Stargate and Universal Soldier (however high you can ride on that wave), the German-born Roland Emmerich decided to give us the second most jingoistic action film of all time (the first being Rocky IV), Independence Day (sometimes called ID4, though by whom I don’t know). I remember going to watch this in the theater with my old man (on Independence Day, no less!) when I was ten years old and being absolutely enthralled. Sue me, I loved watching shit blow up.

9. The Pittsburgh Pirates (Baseball Team)

Okay, this may be a little unfair, I’m basically condemning a pretty good team at the time for their latter day bumbles. As I write this, the Pirates are 39-48 and 10 games back in the NL Central and haven’t had a winning season this millenium. But, I was a big Pirates fan when I was a kid. Mostly because of the logo, but also because of Barry Bonds, Doug Drabeck, Bobby Bonilla, Jay Bell, Andy Van Slyke, and Sid Bream, the Jimmy Leyland-era Pirates.. From 1990-1992, they won three division titles and Drabeck won a Cy Young in 1990. If only they had that team again

8. Candlebox (Band)

Candlebox was a “post-grunge” band. Basically that means they came in late on the Seattle grunge explosion and attempted to cop the basic style of some of the bands that had already gained popularity (most notably Pearl Jam - so much so that in 1997 the band recruited Dave Krusen, former Pearl Jam drummer). Don’t get me wrong, I still dig listening to Far Behind and Cover Me from time to time, but their first record went 4X platinum and somehow they have a greatest hits album out. That’s a little much for a less than mediocre band like this.

7. Food Fighters (Toy Line)

The more I think about it, the worse these toys actually were. Believe you me there were tons of bad toys in the eighties, but the Food Fighters I actually liked at the time. They were just crummy figures, with no articulation, shaped like various food items that fought each other. They were broken up into two teams (Kitchen Commandos and Refrigerator Rejects) that evidently didn’t get along. I remember being so happy when I saw these stupid things at Toys ‘R Us for the first time. Ooo! Look toys shaped like my favorites foods...with guns!

6. The Nixons: Foma (Album)

Being from East Texas, I had to listen to The Nixons. It was required for a short stint of time. So in 1995 I bought their album Foma, and, of course, was really into it. I would jam it out on my walkman (that skipped like a bastard) while roller blading down the block. Seriously. Look, I can still listen to Sister, but that’s it. That’s the only song that holds up at all. I’ll tell you how dated this record is: in the linear notes there is a picture of the group all wearing Stussy hats and Redsand and No Fear shirts. Yeah. Cool. I never got any of their other records, so I can’t tell you how bad they are, just stay away from Foma.

5. Korn (Band)

I liked Korn. I’ll admit it.I was in middle school and it made me feel like a little rebel to listen to a CD with EXPLICIT LYRICS! Hey, at least I never felt like Jonathan Davis was “speaking to me” with his angst-ridden lyrics about getting beat up in high school or whatever. I just liked that he said “fuck” sometimes and it was pretty loud. Luckily I got out of them by the time they had pressed their third record. Yikes. Watch them here "performing" with Amy Lee!

4. Friday the 13th (NES Game)

While an argument could be made that the movie could make this list, I ain’t buying that. It’s too much fun for that. And that’s the biggest difference between the film and the game. The 1988 NES game is just no fun. When I was a kid though, I loved anything and everything that had an image of Jason or Freddy on it (still do, actually) because they were from movies I wasn’t allowed to watch. I was, however, able to rent the video game countless times (thanks to there being no ESRB!) and I would sit there playing it without having a damn clue what I was supposed to be doing. And when I play it now, I still have no damn clue what I’m doing.

3. Masters of the Universe (Cartoon Series)

Another one of those cartoons that began life as a toy. Of course, the MOTU line does have the interesting distinction of being a toy line that came about by accident. Of course, when I was a kid I was really into the MOTU cartoon series because of how awesome the action figures were. I mean, Castle Grayskull was the lone king of toy bases until the Technodrome came out years later. Going back and watching it now, it’s such a trite and stagnant show that you wonder if they actually paid writers to hammer out this dreck. I think the idea was that the toys would keep the kiddies watching.

2. Barry Bonds (Baseball Player)

I don’t know how much explanation this one really needs, but I’ll give you the set up. Before he was playing his game of shadows, Bonds was one of my favorite players (I’ve already told you about my love for the Pirates). I remember buying his posters at the book fair that we’d have at school and everything! And he was good. He was especially good in 1993 - hitting .336 with 46 four baggers and 29 stolen bases. Of course his best stint was 2001-2004. But I already didn’t like him by then.

1. POGS (Game)

Call them milkcaps or Pogs or wastes of money, it all amounts to the same thing: little round pieces of cardboard. Everyone I knew was playing pogs for a good fourth month period there in the mid 1990's. And I had the really cool ones, the poison ones with the skull and crossbones on them! the ones that had eightballs (apparently encouraging drug use)! the ones with my favorite football star Drew Bledsoe! Wowie! And then I’d lose them all to some kid who had a 12 lb solid oak slammer. Lousy kid, taking all my sweet Pogs. The fad died off so quickly and I’m sure that there were tons of kids who were pissed off cause they had just gotten into it and spent all their allowance buying some awesome set of Pogs that they never got to used cause Johnny down the street was getting into yo-yos now, cause Pogs are so last summer.


That's it for this weekend.

- Jordan M.
Commerce, TX

Clip of the Week

MLB All-Star Game 2007 Commercial

Hello there, loyal readers, I am Jordan M., co-founder (along with the idea man and guy-behind-the-guy, Pop Newmo) of the 'choke and I'm proud to host the inaugural edition of "Clip of the Week", a segment that should become a weekend staple 'round these parts.

This week's clip is a nationally televised commercial for the 2007 MLB All-Star Game (coming up on July 10th, check your local listings!):



What's really interesting to see are the guys that were nowhere near good enough to make their league's squad through the first half of play this season, like Andruw Jones (hitting a dismal .203 on the season, though with a respectable 15 dingers) or Lance Berkman who is hitting .264 (also with 15 homers). Other players featured in the commercial that didn't make the cut (complete with nicknames that I'm making up as I write this): Joe "Sideburns" Mauer (but I voted for him), Ryan "Chubs" Howard, "Juicin'" Jason Giambi, Roy "10-3 Ain't Good Enough?" Halladay, Jason "Bomb" Bay, Nomar "No More Allstar Games" Garciaparra, Barry "Bust" Zito, Jimmy "Rockin'" Rollins

But the best part of the commercial, by far, has to be the GIGANTIC SMILE on Vladimir Guerrero's face as he is halfway jogging up to catch the trolley. Priceless.

By the way, I've got the National League in this one.

- Jordan M.
Commerce, TX

The Blogging Begins

Well, here it is July the 4th, the birthday of our great nation, and what better day to begin Olympic Artichoke? Soon, the nation will no longer remember that this day was set aside to celebrate the nation's birthday, but will only know it as OA-Day.

So, stick around. Bookmark us. And get ready to live.