Lovely Day for a Walk

MANIFESTO

My wife, a couple friends, and I joined thousands of other protestors who walked down Broadway in an anti-war demonstration today. As always, there was a lot of different groups there, including many who seem to spend more energy trying to vote out the current Democrats than they do George W Bush.

But it was a nice day for it, and there was a good crowd, with people leaving Union Square for at least two straight hours, which suggests to me that it was in the tens of thousands. We joined the march about an hour in, and even stopped for lunch at a diner along the way and were still able to join back in as the march continued.

Oldie but a Goodie

SPORTING GOODS

Watching the grainy footage from Pawtucket of Delmon Young throwing his bat and hitting an umpire a couple nights ago, reminded me of this classic minor league incident from a few years ago involving Sox long-time prospect Izzy Alcantara.

Gotta love Youtube.

Representin' Philly

SPORTING GOODS

In case you haven't seen it yet, I just wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of a "legend in the making" moustache being sported by Sal Fasano, the Phillies' backup catcher.

There's No Need to Fear ...

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

... because Underdog is here!

The great Jason Lee has been cast as the voice of Underdog in the upcoming live-action movie. If you're going to do it, this is the best way.

"Why the Republicans are Screwed"

MANIFESTO

The title of John Dickerson's new article at Slate pretty much says it all. Even if he is wrong, he has some reassuring words for Democrats:

If Republicans manage to hold on to their majorities, it will be because they have perfected the ability to use gerrymandering, pork-barreling, and other toll-keeping powers to maintain themselves in office, much like the Democrats they turned out of office in 1994. Retaining control by a narrow margin will do nothing to solve the struggle at the heart of the party between moderates and social conservatives, neoconservatives, and realists, and between fiscal conservatives and big spenders or fanatical tax cutters. In some sense, if the GOP wins ugly and keeps control, they'll be worse off, retaining undivided responsibility, without much actual ability to do anything, heading into the 2008 election. Even the nomination of Hillary Clinton may not unite the factions. Antipathy toward her husband didn't keep Republicans from a debilitating primary struggle in 1996.

God, I hate these people.

Not Soon Enough

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

Another critic weighs in on the Too Soon question. New York Magazine's David Edelstein:

It is never too soon for an artist to grapple with a national trauma and its repercussions in the collective psyche. Nearly five years have passed since 9/11, and the events of that day have permeated popular culture at all levels, from the inchoate yearnings of an English physician in Ian McEwan’s novel Saturday, to the burgeoning rage of young terrorists in Syriana, to the torture-first-fill-out-paperwork-later ethos of the hero in TV’s 24. Yes, depictions of 9/11 still dredge up emotions that are difficult to bear. But the process of framing and reframing the tragedy is vital to our healing. We will relive 9/11 anyway, in our nightmares. The best defense is to face it head-on. As Nietzsche wrote, “Dare to be tragic men, and ye shall be redeemed...”

My answer, somewhat modified from above, is that if they truly help us—as the brilliant, tightly focused, and momentous United 93 helps us—to fill in the gaps in our knowledge and to pose more incisive questions, then it is not soon enough.

At Rotten Tomatoes, United 93 has received 94% approval from critics and 100% from the top critics. This is is going to be a movie to be reckoned with come award season.

I Hope He's Fair and Balanced

INSERT JOKE HERE

Fox News anchor Tony Snow has been offered the job of White House Spokesman.

UPDATE: He's in.

"No One is Going to Help Us"

From David Denby's review of United 93 in The New Yorker:

“No one is going to help us. We’ve got to do it ourselves.” Those plain, unarousing words, spoken by a man ordinary in looks but remarkable in perception and courage, are a turning point in United 93 Paul Greengrass's stunning account of how a group of airline passengers, almost certain of death, decided in the morning of September 11th to fight back against hijackers on a suicide mission...

Greengrass’s movie is tightly wrapped, minutely drawn, and, no matter how frightening, superbly precise. In comparison with past Hollywood treatments of Everyman heroism in time of war, such as Hitchcock's hammy Lifeboat, or more recent spectacle , like War of the Worlds, there’s no visual or verbal rhetoric, no swelling awareness of the Menace We All Face. Those movies were guaranteed to raise a lump in our throats. In this retelling of actual events, most of our emotion is centered in the pit of the stomach. The accumulated dread and grief get released when some of the male passengers, shortly after those few words are spoken, rush the hijackers stationed at the front of the plane with the engorged fury of water breaking through a dam...

A fair amount of distaste for this movie has been building in recent weeks. Would the heroic event—which ended when the plane crashed in Pennsylvania, killing everyone aboard—be exploited in some way? And why do we need to take this death trip? But United 93 is a tremendous experience of fear, bewilderment, and resolution, and, when you replay the movie in your head afterward, you are likely to think that Greengrass made all the right choices...

By the time the plane got off the ground, the attacks on the World Trade Center were only a few minutes away. In the movie, once the flight is aloft Greengrass sticks to real time, and the passing minutes have an almost demonic urgency. This is true existential filmmaking: there is only the next instant, and the one after that, and what are you going to do? Many films whip up tension with cunning and manipulation. As far as possible, this movie plays it straight. A few people made extraordinary use of those tormented minutes, and United 93 fully honors what was original and spontaneous and brave in their refusal to go quietly.

I, for one, reject the Too Soon mentality that United 93 and other 9/11-themed films face and look forward to seeing it this weekend.

Truth-ism

SPORTING GOODS

Great line by a regular sports old sports guy on one of the local evening news last night:

The Mets were looking to take 3 of 4 from the Padres, but Victor Zambrano stood in their way.

Not good when you are referred to as being in the way of your own team winning.

It Gets By Buckner!

SPORTING GOODS

This is probably only interesting to a very small section of the Daily411 audience but some guy has recreated the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series on the Nintendo game RBI Baseball. This brought back memories for me on multiple levels. The first was listening the the great Vin Scully call the game on NBC. It's amazing how ingrained this still is in my mind after 20 years. The other was watching those squatty little baseballers in the game. How many hours I spent playing this game when I was a kid...

Watching (so-to-speak) this infamous half-inning again made me realize how Buckner has taken all the blame when it should have fallen on the shoulders of Boston's ineffectual relief pitchers, Calvin Schiraldi and Bob Stanley. Be sure to stick around for the RBI Baseball theme at the end. Here (and here) are some other rallying music selections.

Who knew Marty Barrett was the Miller Lite Player of the Game?

Ozone Man

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

The next "Most Controversial Movie of the Year!" will undoubtedly be Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Basically a filmed version of a PowerPoint presentation he has been giving for years, I originally thought it sounded about as exciting as counting butterfly ballots. But when it played at Sundance, it blew the lid off the joint.

Jeffrey Wells:

An Inconvenient Truth is Gore's crowning achievement...the summation of his life...the reason he was put on this earth to become a politican and a stirrer-upper and influencer of public opinion.

Because if people see Truth in sufficient numbers, Gore will have done more to save this planet from ruination than anyone in his realm has ever managed.

It's due out May 24th and my guess it will be a major Talking Point for everybody. It will also bring up a lot of "What If Al Had Won?" ponderings from people on the Left. It's getting hard to image and Gore/Bush comparison working out favorably for the Boy King in anyone's mind except for die hard Righties.

Richard Cohen:

You cannot see this film and not think of George W. Bush, the man who beat Gore in 2000. Bush has been studiously anti-science, a man of applied ignorance who has undernourished his mind with the empty calories of comfy dogma. For instance, his insistence on abstinence as the preferred method of birth control would be laughable were it not so reckless. It is similar to Bush's initial approach to global warming. It may be that Gore will do more good for his country and the world with this movie than Bush ever did by winning in 2000.

David Remnick:

An Inconvenient Truth is a brilliantly lucid, often riveting attempt to warn Americans off our hellbent path to global suicide ...

The catch, of course, is that the audience-of-one that most urgently needs to see the film and take it to heart—namely, the man who beat Gore in the courts six years ago—does not much believe in science or, for that matter, in any information that disturbs his prejudices, his fantasies, or his sleep. Inconvenient truths are precisely what this White House is structured to avoid and deny ...

It is past time to recognize that, over a long career, [Gore's] policy judgment and his moral judgment alike have been admirable and acute. [He] has been right about global warming since holding the first congressional hearing on the topic, twenty-six years ago. He was right about the role of the Internet, right about the need to reform welfare and cut the federal deficit, right about confronting Slobodan Milosevic in Bosnia and Kosovo. Since September 11th, he has been right about constitutional abuse, right about warrantless domestic spying, and right about the calamity of sanctioned torture. And in the case of Iraq, both before the invasion and after, he was right—courageously right—to distrust as fatally flawed the political and moral good faith, operational competence, and strategic wisdom of the Bush Administration.

After six years of The Boy King and his faith-based science, I think people are beginning to cast off the shackles of government-imposed ignorance. Evolution and Global Warming are just two "controversial" subject that have once again gained favor with mainstreamers. Hopefully this trend, unlike the overheating of our planet, will continue when these same folks vote at the polls.

View the trailer here.

Me Like Mike (Piazza Version)

SPORTING GOODS

It was fun and a little sad seeing Mike Piazza play with his new team versus the Mets last night. He’s having a miserable season so far (.231, I HR, 4 RBI) and has a contract that pretty much guarantees he won’t be back in San Diego next year. (He has an $8M team option for 2007.) It’s clear that all the wear-and-tear of being a full-time catcher for so many years has undoubtedly cut short his brilliant career. I think you have to give credit to Piazza for essentially sacrificing a few years and untold millions of dollars by refusing to become a DH. No offense to all you David Ortiz fans out there, but in my mind, all designated hitters should be a little ashamed of themselves. (My NL bias is clearly showing here.)

Nonetheless, it was funny to hear that Piazza was actually “a little nervous” playing against his old team. I forget sometimes that these guys are susceptible to the same pangs of sentimentality as the rest of us. And speaking of being sentimental, it literally warmed my heart when I read Piazza wants to wear a Mets cap when he is inevitably voted into the Hall of Fame. I look forward to August 8-10 when he returns to Shea Stadium for perhaps the last time as an active player.

Our time!

SPORTING GOODS

As cheesy as it is, I'm a big fan of the old Mets' theme song. But, times change, and the Mets have a new craptacular song, that you can listen to, or even download, by following this link. Enjoy!

Me Like Mike

MANIFESTO

The Pulitzer Prizes were awarded yesterday and I was thrilled to see the brilliant Mike Luckovich won for "Editorial Cartooning." Luckovich was cited for twenty cartoons he created for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Like any Op-Ed writer, Luckovich takes sides and lets his opinion be known. The Pulitzer board praised him "for his powerful cartoons on an array of issues, drawn with a simple but piercing style."

"Incompetence/Fantasy" is my favorite because it is so dead-on but they are all worth a look. (Don't miss "CBS," "Eat Less Fatso," "Back of the Bus,"or "Why?" either.) I defy anyone to say more with less than Luckovich.

And he wins a cash prize of $10,000!

NOTE: I also want to give the Pulitzer Board credit for having the stones to not give out an award for Drama this year. (There were three plays nominated...hate to be one of those writers.) I find it refreshing that they are willing to admit that some years are better than others and sometimes no one deserves an award. Now if only they would give an award for filmmaking. I guarantee it wouldn't have gone to Crash.

I Spy a Finale

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

For the last five years, Jennifer Garner has been my TV girlfriend. What exactly does this mean? It means that if I could be with any woman currently on television (and had never met my wife), it would be Jennifer Garner. It is not just a sex thing, although she is obviously sexy. It's about attraction which is more complicated. Needless to say, I'd put her #1 in my speed-dial if the opportunity arose. Which it never will.

So set your TiVos everybody because Alias finally returns for its final run tomorrow at 8:00. Despite some major missteps in the last few seasons, Alias is still one of my favorite all-time shows. I still remember the joy of the first episode where bad-ass secret agent Sydney Bristow slinked around in that famous red hair kicking bad-guy butt. Too bad she is not even the best character on the show.

That would be Victor Garber's Jack Bristow. He is one of my three or four favorite TV characters of all time, right up there with Jack Bauer, Tony Soprano, and Dale Cooper. Garber is a terrific minimalist. With his furrowed brow and clipped enunciation, he makes Jack a riviting character without a lot of pyrotechnics. But when he does lose his temper, watch out. I will especially miss his scenes with Lena Olin's duplicitous ex-wife Irina Durevko. They were full of more undercurrents than you can count.

In any case, the final eight hours of Alias will start tomorrow with a two-hour episode and end May 24 with a two-hour finale. In between, Weiss, Vaughn, Will and Irina will all be back for final appearances. I'd love it if Francie popped up but I can't remember if she is dead or not. (Not that this matters on Alias.) Alias was not a perfect show. But when it was clicking (like in the first two seasons), it was truly perfect entertainment.

Gay gone

SPORTING GOODS

Rudy Gay has announced that he will enter the NBA draft, which puts UConn halfway on the road to having their 2007 national championship hopes decimated. I expect Mr. Marcus Williams will follow suit.

One noted NBA draft site now predicts that five Huskies (including Williams) will be selected in the draft this summer. This is a bit reminiscent of the 2005 North Carolina team, which of course actually lived up to its potential in winning the national title.

Interesting to see that the site predicts Gay will go 5th in the draft now. As he was the consensus number one pick entering the season, his inability to take over meaningful games or assert himself at will has hurt him a bit. I expect that his tantalizing athleticism and "length" will lead to him rising again as workouts progress.

Depending on the decisions made over the next few weeks, it's possible that UConn could be "Josh Boone's team" next year, which for some reason makes me think of the mid-90s Knicks. No thanks.

Drive me Crazy

SPORTING GOODS

You can't win 'em all, and I have been happy/impressed with Tito's moves of batting Youkilis leadoff with Crisp injured, and of going to Papelbon as the closer quickly, before Foulke had the chance to blow several saves.

But my biggest ongoing gripe with Francona has to be his habit of deciding to bench a number of starters when Wakefield is pitching. For those that don't follow the Sox, All-Star catcher Jason Varitek does not catch the knuckleballer, so this year a relative unknown Josh Bard will be in the lineup every fifth day.

That's fine, and unavoidable. With Trot Nixon ailing and Coco Crisp on the DL, that leaves the Sox down three of their usual starters. So why is it today of all days that Francona insists that starters Mike Lowell and Mike Loretta need a day off? That left the Sox with 4 of their opening day starters in the lineup, including Alex Gonzalez who isn't much of a hitter (to say the least).

Not surprisingly, about 2.5 hours after I first complained about Francona's insistence on doing this - well, that was the first time I had complained about it today - the Mariners completed their shut out of the Boston Red Sox in front of a sell-out Saturday crowd. Even as the Sox put together an occasional rally, it would never be long before the Mariners had the pleasure of facing some part of the J.T. Snow - Wily Mo Pena - Josh Bard - Alex Gonzalez - Adam Stern - Alex Cora portion of the lineup.

A pitcher can breeze through a lot of innings with that lineup. And today, that's exactly what Joel Pineiro, J.J. Putz, and Eddie Guardado did.

I did not know that

SPORTING GOODS

I am sure that other contributors to this site knew this, but I just found out that the Mets' starting pitcher today, Brian Bannister, is the son of Floyd Bannister.

Even though Bannister was basically an average pitcher, I remember him, and that somehow is enough for me to think slightly higher of his son. I guess that makes me "nepotistic," as a caller into NY1's sports show once said.

More of this, please

SPORTING GOODS

With Coco Crisp going down to injury, it looks as if Adam Stern will be the medium-term replacement while Coco heals. He is a fine player, killed the US in the WBC for Canada, but at the same time he has gotten spare playing time for a reason.

On Sunday, the replacement for Coco in the field was also his replacement at the top of the order. Fast centerfielder bats leadoff, right?

Well today in the home opener, the Sox will bat the slow, but often-on-base Kevin Youkilis lead-off, followed by Mark Loretta. Stern will bat 8th. Their career On-base percentages? KY: .381 ML: .366 AS: .273

Theo-ball, baby. Stuff like this will win you games over the course of the year. Home opener, let's go!!!

Come to the park and greet the Mets!

SPORTING GOODS

I know I'm a day late on this, but the new Mets ballpark looks like an amazing place to watch a game. I can't wait.

Mets Geek has the overview, and pictures, here.

Hurt So Good

SPORTING GOODS

I didn’t get as much sleep as I wanted to last night, and it’s all Michael Kay’s fault.

With my wife out late, I left on the YES network as I drifted off to sleep, only to be jolted awake by the following statement that I’m paraphrasing from Kay:

“You know, back in the ‘90s Frank Thomas looked like a sure-fire first-ballot hall of famer, but at this point you’d have to say he’d be hard-pressed to get in.”

He used the phrase “hard-pressed” and then as Ken Singleton (to his credit) vigorously defended Thomas, Kay somehow found a way to compare Thomas’s hall of fame credentials to Dale Murphy (“but he won 2 MVPs”) and then Don Mattingly (“he was great for nearly a decade before injuries slowed him down”).

So obviously, this jolted me awake as I started yelling at the tv, but now that I’ve had 12 hours to sleep on it…it’s still just about the dumbest thing I’ve heard an announcer say. So Joe Morgan, congrats, you just moved down the list a bit.

I seem to recall reading in about 2000 or so, that Frank Thomas was high in the top 10 in all time OPS+, which takes your OBP + SLG and adjusts it for era and ballparks. This is generally a good measure of comparing offensive firepower, as everyone at this point seems to accept slugging and on-base as probably the most important stats. Thomas was basically surrounded by Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, and a few other absolute hitting legends on this list. He’s now “only” 14th, surrounded by guys like Jimmie Foxx and Stan Musial.

And it’s not like people weren’t noticing - Thomas finished in the top 3 in AL MVP voting five times over a ten year period. And nobody was more feared by opposing pitchers and teams during the 90s, no matter how bad he was with the glove.

Quite simply, when you think of offense and the 1990s (and you can’t think of one without the other), you think of Griffey, Bonds, and then Thomas. I can imagine a 17 year old who only remembers 1997 and on questioning Thomas’s hall of fame credentials, but not a baseball “expert” who has been around the game for years.

In looking up Thomas’s numbers, I stumbled across this Hardball Times article that lays out the defense in much more detail than I can. But by every offensive measure, Thomas is a first-ballot hall of famer. Read the article if you want to remember just how good his career has been, but when analyzing Thomas, the comparisons are more Ted Williams, Frank Robinson, Rickey Henderson, Eddie Collins, not Dale Murphy and Don Mattingly.

The problem with guys like Kay, is they can only focus on a limited number of career counting stats. How many all-star games? How many home runs? Oh yeah, well this guy has more, and he’s not in! Thomas has a career .427 on-base percentage – only six guys in history are .01 better. And not to spoil the Hardball Times article, but Thomas is the only guy with seven straight years of hitting .300, 20 HRs, 100 RBI, 100 Runs, and 100 Walks. Only guy to do it six straight? Ted Williams.

Frank Thomas is no Ted Williams. But he sure as hell ain’t Dale Murphy.

I promise not to rant this much at every stupid Michael Kay comment, as it would lead to my job firing me, my wife leaving me, and me forgetting to bathe, as it will become a 24-hour a day hobby. But I thought it worth a reminder just how great the Big Hurt’s career was. And even Kay admits, it is widely believed that he did it all without steroids.

Passed on without comment

Sporting Goods

From ESPN:

8. UCLA Cheerleaders and Dance Team
Memo to all of those waving pompoms: Never, ever taunt Noah during inbound plays.

"They were just talking crazy to me, like, 'You're so ugly,' " Noah said. "I mean, it hurts when you have so many beautiful girls out there just telling you how ugly you are and stuff."

Brokebackwards Island

MANIFESTO

The lovely country in which I got married has decided to ban Brokeback Mountain from theaters.

Apparently when making a remark about the right to marry during our rehearsal dinner I was risking getting thrown off the island. Bahamians seem to be so happy and laid-back, who knew they would be so uptight? One more reason to avoid "Paradise Island," no matter how cool Atlantis looks.

Movie Review - V for Vendetta

Universal Remote

It has been a long time since I enjoyed a movie as much as I enjoyed V for Vendetta. V offered something I haven't seen in a movie in a long time. It offered characters with opinions, with points of view that were not clearly right and not clearly wrong. V is a freedom fighter, a terrorist, a murderer, a hero, a villain. He fights what he believes is evil. His motivations are not completely pure certainly his tactics are not. He believes in a better government, true democracy, sure, but it helps that he was personally victimized by the current government. He spends 20 years seeking vengeance, planning for the ultimate victory, what that victory is, is a little ambiguous, delightfully so.

V for Vendetta can be seen as a parallel for modern times. It is absolutely not surprising that many see today's climate in the U.S. on the screen. But, the graphic novel from which the movie is adapted was an indictment of the Thatcher era in England. (In fact, author Alan Moore has disavowed the film although it seems mostly the result of a dispute with DC Comics.) Indeed, the film, despite its parallels to today, is really more of a story about what modern day totalitarianism would look like and how it would be implemented today. In effect, the England of V for Vendetta represents what would happen if Joseph Goebbels had Fox News.

Power is exercised through fear. If you speak out, you will be black bagged and taken away. If you keep quiet, you are subjected to endless announcements of dangers that will befall you if you leave the safe zone. The television is mostly fear mongering -- reports of chemical attacks, disasters, dangerous immigrants. The government mantra is "Strength through Unity - Unity through Faith" - Faith in God, Faith in Country, Faith in the Leadership.

V is the sole voice in face of the madness. His words are pure. They are refreshing for those watching are have become too cynical, too jaded, who forget why it matters. But his actions are not quite Ivory soap. Do the ends justify the means? It is the unanswered question and I suppose, as it often does, it depends on what the end is. Here the end is destruction. Thanks to the wonder of trailers, the physical what probably isn't all that surprising. But there is more to it than that. There is a subtext about the whats and whys, about V's true motivations and what he would sacrifice to get what he really wants that is compelling. And, of course, the final destruction is accompanied by a rebirth, in a scene that is one of the most moving I've seen in while.

V for Vendetta should offer something for everyone, a dystopian vision of what could happen if questions are not asked and answers are not demanded. The silence of fear is the most dangerous weapon. I guess I'm not surprised people see present-day parallels. The rational response would be to eliminate those parallels, to focus us all on our ideals. Not surprisingly -- and most ironically -- I'm sure many will simply try to blame and silence the messenger. Perhaps then it is best to remember a refrain from the film: "Artists use lies to tell the truth. Politicians use lies to cover it up."

What a day!

Members of this blog rejoice. There will not be many days like today.

First, the Mets win making Sergio and me extremely happy (and B, but I'm sure she's distracted by the new four-legged member of her family, Lincoln. And Monocle, I plan on making you care about the Mets before the year is done.)

Then the Sox win making Darlucky and Monocle happy (and, of course, regular readers O and Moosesox.)

Then Tom Delay quits his re-election campaign (no link yet) making us all happy.

What a day!

Magic Number: 161

SPORTING GOODS

So the Mets and Red Sox both win, making all the writers of this blog happy.

The (Red Sox) good:
Question marks Curt Schilling and Mike Lowell had nice days.

The (Red Sox) bad:
Foulke was absolutely shelled. Outs crushed. Foul balls crushed. His 9th inning performance replaces my previous bad of Youkilis going 0 for 4, which will probably motivate Tito to bench him for one to five days.

The (Mets) good:
One year after losing on a blown save, Billy Wagner entered and did his job. That is why he is paid the big bucks, and no one misses Looper.

The (Mets) bad:
The Mets re-created the final out of the 1986 World Series with the ceremonial first pitch. Just kidding. Sounds like the Mets needed some help from the ump to win, but a win is a win.

UPDATE(by Chill): Sorry for pulling the post for a while DarLucky. Sergio was trying to pull the ignorance is bliss, watch the game on tape at night technique and I had to save him. I don't have the patience for that technique. I need to know what the Mets are doing real time. Other thoughts about the Mets. It looked like everybody was a little excited today, jumping at the ball and trying to hit homeruns. Heilman looked like he was throwing too hard. I hope the team can settle down quickly. But at least there will not be a five game losing streak to start the season. Or a blown save. Already better than last year.

Meanwhile, SNY, the new home of the Mets, lost an inning of the broadcast due to technical difficulties. The same thing happened during the network's first spring broadcast. Hopefully they can get the kinks out. P.S.- The game looks great in HD. Going to be a fun season just to watch, regardless of what happens.

Finally, in former Met news. Mike Piazza homered in his first AB as a Padre. Congratulations Mike. Three more to 400. I'll cheer for him till the end... except for the six games a year against the Mets.

Finally, take two. Why does major league baseball give a bunch of teams a day off tomorrow, including the Mets? I hate this. They do it every year. Is it to set up the days off for the rest of the month/season? Anybody?

Emeril Live!

FOOD FIGHT + UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I recently was looking for info on what it's like to be an audience member at Emeril Live, and the internet let me down. Since I was able to attend a taping on Friday, I thought I'd do future internet surfers a favor and write a few words about it. That is, if they can find their way to Daily411 via google.

Taped in Chelsea Market, the day starts out with a lot of waiting. We got there 30 minutes before check-in time, and still were pretty far back in line. This in part determines how close you sit, so that was unfortunate.

It seems like the people who sit basically on stage so that they can eat and talk to Emeril, are picked somewhat at random, mostly from the attendees who have "VIP passes." The people who get to sit in the front two rows of tables seemed to be mostly VIPs as well. My wife and I got lucky (it must be because she is photogenic), and at the last minute we got upgraded from the back row of the studio up to the front row of tables, taking the place of a couple who got moved up on stage.

Out of about 120 people in the studio, 24 got wine (including us), and about 18 got to try some of the food (not including us). Though they did throw some chips to the poor saps in the back rows.

Once it was show time, it was pretty entertaining. I always think it's lame when people are clapping because Emeril adds salt, but you do get a bit caught up in the show of it. He doesn't do a ton of cooking on the show really, but he is definitely entertaining, and very charismatic in person. The coolest behind the scenes thing was seeing the 5-10 sous-chefs and other crew members scramble around like mad during commercial breaks, cutting up food and getting things ready so he can move on when the lights come back up.

So it made for a long day (nearly 5 hours from getting in line until leaving,) but still pretty cool, and there's a good chance that my wife and I will be seen on the Food Network on May 10th. And we got a free glass of wine, so there are worse ways to spend an afternoon.

The Daily411 jinx

Sporting Goods

You've heard of the SI jinx, let's add the Daily411 jinx to the mix.

While completing a seventh-inning pitch, Victor Zambrano felt discomfort in his left hamstring and departed yesterday's 9-6 loss to the Cardinals. Mets brass instructed rookie Brian Bannister to be prepared to take Zambrano's start Wednesday against the Nationals at Shea, though the Mets have yet to officially scratch Zambrano.

"I felt something in my hamstring, so I just preferred to get out of the game," Zambrano said. "It wasn't in a bad spot. It was right in the middle."

Zambrano was charged with six earned runs on eight hits in 2 2/3 innings, but was pitching with the residual effects of a flu-type illness that made its way through the clubhouse. He had entered his final spring appearance with a 0.82 ERA and only two walks in 11 innings.

Good job by both Sergio and me. (See this post and comments for info.)