Only one King of Cool

I was surfing some of my favorite movie spoiler sites, joblo.com and The Movie Blog, today and came across a rumor that somewhat bothered me. It is being reported that Brad Pitt might star in a remake of the Steve McQueen classic, Bullitt (about a San Fransisco cop that...to say the least...is a badass). I have nothing against Brad Pitt in fact I like Brad Pitt. He is a fine actor and he's a cool actor. But in the realm of coolness, he's no Steve McQueen.

Granted I have a McQueen bias as he is my favorite actor of all time, but come on...there does not need to be a remake of Bullitt. The movie for all intended purposes invented the modern car charse scene...but even more than that the movie cemented McQueen's legend of being The King of Cool. Actors are still trying to rip that performance off.

I'll reluctantly admit that Bullitt doesn't have the classic status (yet) of some of its contemporaries but that is no reason to remake it. I'm not against the ideas of remakes...only ones that don't make sense. To me Bullitt doesn't seem dated or not relevant. I'm also somewhat puzzled why Pitt would want a film role that he can't really make his own. No matter how good he is...he will never measure up to McQueen's performance. (Look at some recent remakes...Vince Vaughn nailed his part in Psycho but it didn't come close to the original (Anthony Perkins). Denzel Washington put forth a solid performance in The Manchurian Candidate but it was overshadowed by Frank Sinatra's in the original). Unless he really wants to do the movie...and that is his prerogative...I can't see why he would want to do a remake.

Neifi Perez is doped up.

Neifi Perez was suspended on Friday for violating MLB's drug program.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2927670


Although I don't think the amphetamines were helping considering that he was batting a robust .172.

The part of the article that cracked me up was the quote by Perez, "I say to my fans that I am not stupid. I know the difference between good and bad and there are things that are going to be known going forward, but my lawyer has advised me not to talk for now."

Sorry Neifi, you don't have any fans.

Craig Biggio belongs in the hall of fame

Here is the "Craig Biggio is a hall of famer" post.

I've said this for a long time in arguing why someone should be a hall of famer. A given player has to be the best (or one of the best) of his position for a number of years. In being the best, that implies that a player would have had to put a number of "seasons of excellence." In essence I'm going to compare Biggio's best seasons with that of his peers best seasons of other hall of fame worthy second basemen--Roberto Alomar and Jeff Kent.

These are the averages of Biggio's best six seasons
[why six...mainly because it is clear that Biggio has had six excellent seasons as his career has followed a strict bell-curve type path, which is typical of most players (and a lot of hall of famers).]

Runs: 129
HR: 19
RBI: 79
SB: 33
BA: .301
OBP: .395
SLG: .472

Here are Alomar's best six seasons.

Runs: 118
HR: 18
RBI: 95
SB: 38
BA: .322
OBP: .407
SLG: .499

And Jeff Kent's...

Runs: 98
HR: 30
RBI: 113
SB: 8
BA: .303
OBP: .374
SLG: .544

In order of OPS it would be Kent (.918), Alomar (.906), and Biggio (.867).

This shows that Biggio is well within the ballpark of his contemporaries who are also likely hall of famers.

Has Biggio been one of the best at this positions for a number of years...the answer is a resounding yes.

PS. . . it is also worth noting that in 137 plate appearances against Greg Maddux Biggio has a .299 bating average. That in itself is hall of fame worthy.

Good Luck Chuck Uncut Trailer

So much for the post-holiday let up at work...although, Dirty, I'm working on the "Biggio is a hall of famer post." Good stuff.

It seems Hollywood's latest fad is showing rated R (red-band) trailers on line. I think it is a good idea. The R-rated trailers for both Rambo 4 and Superbad were both in their own ways incredibly awesome.

Here's the latest one, Good Luck Chuck with Jessica Alba and Dane Cook. The trailer has some good moments but they didn't fully utilize the R-rating.

What's more patriotic than a Western...

Here is the trailer to 3:10 to Yuma. Yes, its a remake...but yes it looks awesome since it stars two of coolest actors around, Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809781728/video/3053783

It's also directed by James Mangold who directed Walk the Line.

Oops Bush does it again...

Well it was only a matter of time before politics made its way to my blog.

For those not aware, yesterday, President Bush consummated the sentence of former chief of staff to Vice President Cheany, Scooter Libby. He is not going to serve any prison time (30 months) but still has to pay a $250,000 fine and have two years of probation.

On eve of American's birthday this bit of news just makes me feel fantastic to be an American. Sarcasm aside, this is nothing but political croynism. This administration continues to do as they please without any thought of being held accountable. Bush in his statement argued that the sentence was "excessive" but from what I've been seeing and reading that is far from the truth when taking into account the federal guidelines for Libby's charges of obstruction of justice and lying under oath. Jeffery Tubin, CNN's legal expert was on Anderson Cooper 360 last night and was shocked that Bush's reason for the intervention was because he thought the sentence was excessive. The Bush people are trying to spin this that Libby is still being held accountable for his actions and that the justice system was not railroaded. But I'm not buying it and the American people are not buying it. I have a hard time believing that A) that fine will ever be paid or B) if it is paid...its paid by Libby . There is a reason that this looks bad...that's because it is unjust. Justice was not served.

A quick check of morning shows this morning basically contributed nothing to the discussion as pundits were taking party lines. Maybe I'm doing the same thing...I hope not though.

The bottom line is that the American people are tired of the hard-headed attitude of this administration. It blows my mind how obtuse the executive branch of my government is acting.

(Sports) Bonds on Bonds

Let me get this straight...Barry Bonds gets booed in every visiting ballpark yet gets voted into the All Star game by the same fans that are booing him. That is perplexing to me.

According to this article on espn.com
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/allstar07/news/story?id=2922709
Bonds, ". . .overcame a 119,000-vote deficit in the final days of balloting and finished 123,000 ahead of the Chicago Cubs' Alfonso Soriano on Sunday to claim the third and final starting outfield spot for the National League."

Bonds's numbers are all-star worthy, .304/.516/.603 and one could make the case that he even should be a starter. If one is to believe that he should be a starter than one would commend the fans for objectively voting in a player that deserves to start. (More times than not the fans do a suitable job in voting in the starters.)

Nevertheless it is hard for me to see why fans voted him in when we are led to believe that people in general are worn out by Bonds. I get the impression that most people are sick of Bonds...sick of ESPN's continual coverage of Bonds...and just plain tired of Bonds being "the" story in baseball. I would argue that fans just want him to go away. But obviously baseball fans are still intrigued with Bonds and maybe don't dislike him as much as we are led to believe.

I can already see that Fox's and ESPN's coverage of the game is going to be Bonds-centric. For better or worse, Bonds again is going to be "the" story come all-star weekend.