Here’s some of the best stuff I’ve created lately.
During a gambling stream, Steven Cheah made some awkward comments to the blackjack dealer, and the resulting conversation was hilarious.
Amazing turnaround shot by MRags. Good example of using zoom and slow motion to enhance a video clip.
Sunday’s Pokémon Presents live presentation didn’t promise much in the way of major news. It was only 14 minutes long and the hype was smaller than previous Pokémon Day presentations in which we knew we were overdue for a major video game release. There was no indication that Game Freak was set to blow the lid off a new giant mainline Pokémon adventure. However, after a slew of update announcements for other Pokémon games, the screen faded to black and we got our first look at Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.
Unbelievable. The trailer is two minutes long once you get past the long build-up with the security guard exploring the office building. Once the game footage starts, we see what Game Freak has been building towards with the Wild Area in Sword and Shield as well as the giant open landscapes in Legends: Arceus.
Continue readingI need some sort of hope to grasp onto in the sports world. You can argue that the hope of your team winning a championship is more valuable to a sports fan than the actual championships of the past. What good is bragging about the Knicks winning in 1970 and 1973 if they haven’t come close to competing for the NBA title in 20 years. The 1990s didn’t bear the sweet fruit of a championship, but the hope of a title throughout the decade kept the Knicks relevant and Madison Square Garden rocking.
MSG was once again the place to be on Wednesday night, but it was only because Steph Curry was about to break the record for most career three-point field goals. I joked that it was another great Knicks moment, but really I’m getting sick of big MSG moments rarely being about the Knicks. Sure there was Linsanity and Carmelo Anthony scoring 62 points, but there hasn’t been enough team success.
The hope for the Knicks appeared to make a return last season with Julius Randle and Tom Thibodeau taking a team that was expected to do nothing and leading it all the way to the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Even after the Knicks lost to Trae Young and the Hawks in the first round of the playoffs, it looked like the foundation was set for a string of playoff runs.
Maybe not. Even though most of the major players have returned, the magic, and more importantly the defensive intensity have not been the same. The Knicks have lost seven of their last eight and now find themselves in 12th place. After Curry made history on Wednesday, the Knicks hung with the Warriors for most of the night, only to let the game slip away in the fourth quarter. A win over one of the best teams in the NBA would have been a nice morale-booster to get out of a rough stretch, but instead we got another defeat.
Continue readingBoth the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves have made it through the gauntlet of Major League Baseball’s postseason and are set to begin the World Series at Minute Maid Park tonight. Many fans have a pretty strong rooting interest in this year’s Fall Classic because of the despicable cheating committed by the Astros during the 2017 season that resulted in them winning the title. Everyone wants to see Houston fail now that the playing field is supposedly even, but since the massive scandal came to light following the 2019 campaign, the Astros have kept on winning. They fell in the ALCS during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but they’re back in the main event this time around.
I’ve been doing nothing but rooting for more Astros success. Not only would another world championship legitimize the 2017 team as a group that could have reached the pinnacle of baseball without stealing signs, but it would tell all the holier-than-though critics to shove it. That’s right, no one should like cheating, but a lot of the fans who turned into Houston haters overnight seem to be under the assumption that no one else has tried to steal a sign via camera or other shady method.
Based on the career paths of the ringleaders of the trash can scheme, Alex Cora and Carlos Beltran, I’m convinced that at least two other teams were trying out similar systems in their own clubhouses. After winning the World Series with the Astros in 2017, Cora left to manage the Boston Red Sox for the next two seasons before the scandal was still under wraps. Not only were his Red Sox investigated for a similar sign-stealing system, but Cora implied that the Yankees were also up to no good during the 2019 London Series.
Beltran was working as a special advisor for the Yankees at the time in his first baseball role following his playing career, which ended after the 2017 season. It sure seems like the the two big American League East powers were implementing similar sign-stealing systems to the one that brought Cora and Beltran success on the 2017 Astros. And why wouldn’t they? They won in Houston and now found themselves in high-pressure organizations where winning is even more important.
Continue readingWe start out with Brandon Walker pointing out how absurd it is for Smitty’s life to revolve around what Ben Simmons says at 76ers practice this afternoon. Smitty says the only acceptable answer is for Simmons to say he will fight and die for the city of Philadelphia, but he’s not expecting that answer. Brandon says that Smitty sets a high bar, but Smitty counters that Allen Iverson has already set the bar. Brandon pisses off Smitty and Ev by talking about how overrated Iverson was. Brandon says that Iverson never won anything and was a selfish player. He didn’t fight and die for Philadelphia; he was only about himself. Smitty doesn’t care because Iverson left everything on the floor every night. Iverson was also a better quarterback than Donovan McNabb. Check his high school highlights.
Yolk’s Take: Saying that Iverson was better than McNabb is a little disrespectful to what McNabb accomplished with the Eagles, but there’s no denying Iverson’s toughness and passion. Plus, it’s easy to say that he’s a ball hog when the closest thing he had to a superstar teammate was Aaron McKie. Even if he didn’t bring home an NBA title, Iverson set the standard for fearlessness and leadership that Philadelphia point guards are expected to emulate. It’s safe to say that Ben Simmons doesn’t fit that mold right now.
Brandon moves the show along and everyone gives their top five NFL teams right now. First, though, Brandon calls out Marty Mush for being on the wrong side of the Bills vs. Titans Monday Night Football game. Brandon says that the Titans were the obvious play. Ev backs up Mush by saying that Mush knew the Bills were a square play, but sometimes you have to be square to win. The guys agree with the Bills going for it on fourth down when they were down by three in the final minute, but Smitty says that the quarterback sneak was the wrong play call. The Bills should have rolled out Josh Allen instead to give him options.
Yolk’s Take: Yeah, I was on the Bills last night. Buffalo had been blowing everyone out and I didn’t think the Titans were a good team. I was right about the defensive side of the ball as Buffalo didn’t have much trouble scoring when they needed to (until the last series). On offense, however, the Titans proved they can be very hard to stop when Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown are playing well. I was fine with Buffalo’s decision to go for the first down at the end, but I would have preferred that the Bills drop Allen back and let him improvise, especially since the sneak had failed earlier in the game. Of course, I was rooting for the field goal, since Buffalo still could have covered with a touchdown in overtime.
Mintzy talks about Henry being underrated as an MVP candidate. Brandon isn’t sure that a running back can win the MVP in today’s NFL. Everyone is amazed that a man Henry’s size can move so fast. Smitty makes a good point about the Titans needing to get Henry more involved in the passing game.
NFL MVP Odds
Brandon thinks that Murray’s odds will drop once the Cardinals lose a game. Smitty boldly puts Arizona on upset alert if Tyrod Taylor is healthy enough to play against them this weekend. Smitty reacts live to the 76ers suspending Ben Simmons for one game. Smitty believes that the suspension will end up lasting longer than one game, but he wants to know what Simmons’s “conduct detrimental to the team” actually is.
Continue readingThe Mets had a chance to reestablish dominance over the Braves on Thursday night. Atlanta destroyed New York on Wednesday in a 20-2 drubbing that started with a two-run home run by Pete Alonso and ended with 20 straight Atlanta runs and Albert Almora Jr. on the mound for the Mets. Thursday was supposed to be different with Jacob deGrom starting the game and putting an end to the rut that had New York losing three out of four games.
In a way, Thursday was a return to normalcy. deGrom struck out 14 Atlanta batters, including three victimizations of Freddie Freeman and eight in a row at one point. However, a rough first inning allowed the Braves to take an early 3-1 lead that they maintained until the ninth.
Ehire Adrianza led off with a ground-ball triple that barley escaped Pete Alonso’s reach and rolled into the right field corner. Jeff McNeil’s relay throw beat Adrianza to third, but Luis Guillorme whiffed on the tag. Ozzie Albies would single to drive in Adrianza, but the major damage was done when Austin Riley hit a laser beam home run off a 100-mph deGrom fastball.
The Mets’ feeble offense couldn’t get much going against Atlanta starter Ian Anderson, but Dominic Smith homered off him in the seventh and then against off of Will Smith in the ninth to tie the score. It was great to see Smith, who is one of many Mets to see their power disappear in 2021, mash a couple of taters when New York desperately needed them. Now we just need Jeff McNeil, Francisco Lindor, and Michael Conforto — you know, the whole top of the order — to get going and the offense will be all set.
Continue readingAfter getting blown out by the Atlanta Braves 20-2 last night, here’s a list of teams in the National League East with a better run differential than the New York Mets.
Washington (+2), Atlanta (+14), and Miami (+21)
Woof. The Mets have now allowed two more runs than they’ve scored in 2021. While that’s not the most accurate measure of a team’s worth (Albert Almora Jr. gave up three of the 20 runs on Wednesday and he’s still a better pitcher than hitters this season), it’s also not a great sign that New York has what it takes to hold off its rivals and finish first in the division.
Atlanta is the East’s three-time defending champion with two of the best hitters in the world. They have been lurking all season and you figure they have to make a run at some point. Hopefully last night’s outburst wasn’t a sign of things to come, but the Braves have the talent to score lots of runs.
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