Fooling myself.

Grace woke up at 6:30 this morning. Despite having gone to bed at 2 or 3 am last night…I was thrilled with this. Why? The Open Championship coverage started on TNT at 6 am. This year the Open is being held at the truly majestic Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland, and because of the time delay, it makes for super early coverage here in the states, which, in turn, means I actually get to watch some first and second round golf for a change. Normally I get to watch an hour or so before I have to leave for work, but today I get at least 5 or more hours of watching the best players in the world play at one of the oldest and most storied courses in golf. One of the birthplaces of golf.

The thing about Carnoustie is that it is located right on the eastern coast of Scotland, so the weather changes by the day, or perhaps by the hour. When we awoke today, it was overcast, rainy and dreary at Carnoustie. All of the players were in long sleeves. Sweaters. Windbreakers. Tiger Woods was even wearing mittens to keep his hands warm between his shots. The temperature there was about 55°.

Now, the whole week here in Chicago has been hot and humid and muggy, so we have had the air conditioning on here in the apartment. We had a pretty hellacious thunder and lightning storm last night, the remnants of which were still lingering this morning. So the combination of the sun low in the sky, the dark clouds still on the horizon, the conditions in Scotland I have been watching all morning and the AC keeping it nice and chilly in here, I had convinced myself that it was a brisk autumn day outside. After I got Grace back to sleep, I brewed a nice strong pot of coffee, made some eggs and biscuits and huddled up in the darkened living room to watch golf while my forward thinking (read: NOT stupid) wife went straight the fuck back to bed.

Now the sun has broken through both at Carnoustie and here at home. The weather forecast says 75° which sounds pleasant until they mention the part about 90% humidity. So, while I am thrilled that I have gotten to watch all this golf, I am now realizing that the heat and lack of sleep is going to make for a rotten day at work and I feel daft for letting my eyes trick my brain.

P.S. John Daly lol.

Cubs acquire Jason Kendall

Announced during the game tonight. Cubs send the recently acquired Rob Bowen to Oakland for 12th year veteran catcher Jason Kendall. Kendall’s numbers are in the toilet this year, but he has been a solid ballplayer his whole career and with Koyie Hill not even hitting his weight and Henry Blanco on the Kerry Wood disabled list plan, Kendall can be considered a sizable upgrade with his meager .226 average.

Kendall’s career numbers are very good, but as I mentioned, all of his numbers are down this year. His BA is down 70 points to .226, SLG down 110 points to .281 and his OBP is down 110 points to .261. I have seen a lot of Kendall from his time with the Pirates and always liked him. His career numbers suggest that he is far better than currently constituted and hopefully the change to Wrigley will help him find his old form.

P.S. Cubs just took the lead in the 9th on an Aramis Ramirez double and the fucking bleacher morons started throwing garbage on the field for no good goddamn reasons.

Did I mention how fucking stupid Cubs fans are?

Finally, some quality television programming!

I do not watch much tv because, on par, it is all crap. Gilmore Girls had a nice run, but it came to an abrupt end not too long ago, after which there were only 3 shows I had any interest in, those being Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Mythbusters and Good Eats. With the baby I have been home more often and parked in front of the tv more often, and to my surprise I have found a handful of new shows which are breaking the mold of mundane crap being squeezed forth from the ass of television networks the world around.

Halfway Home Report: Chicago White Sox

With the All Star Break coming to an end, it is a good time to size up the two teams in this town. To review the first half and to preview the second. Currently, my time on the internet has been limited, and my time for this blog has been devoted to a large post I hope to have done in the next week or so that is political in nature, so I decided to ask a couple friends to handle the task of the Cubs and Sox posts.

Today I give you the 2007 Chicago White Sox according to my friend Valerie Olson. Val is a lifelong Sox fan and gave me a nice write up about her favorite team. I particularly appreciate the job she did because it is angsty enough to be from a true White Sox fan, but not the crazy, nonsensical silliness you often otherwise encounter from the stereotypical south sider.

Click the link below to read her thoughts. All of my “insights” will be noted in italics.

Things to come

I’ve asked a couple of completely biased people to write first half season reviews for both the Sox and Cubs, so I will try to have those posted sometime before the All Star Break is over. I will add in my own little insights and snide remarks, of course.

I hope to have more guest contributors on all topics in the not-to-distant future, as well. My buddy Mark has agreed to help me with Bulls “coverage.” He has already given me his thoughts on the Joakim Noah draft, and I will be consulting him if/when any off season deals are made.

I’ve got some thoughts on the Blackhawks I would like to get to soon. There is some new music I have been listening to and even a dvd review or two I want to write about.

Traffic for the site has gone up a little bit in the past week or two and I hope to have some new material up by week’s end, for those of you who crave something more than my golf scores.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to drop me a line if you want to contribute.

superfanthony @ gmail . com

7-2-07 Apple Orchard…what a waste.

I got some birthday money from the wife’s family on Sunday, and I was anxious to do some golfing. I debated on how I should spend the money, which totaled $60. Combined with a previous $4 that I had, it was a whopping $64 in mad money. That could buy me quite a few rounds of golf…but it could also buy me an oversize driver, something I have wanted for quite some time. I have grown sick of borrowing other people’s drivers on the tee box. After realizing that I would not have this sort of expendable windfall for quite some time (anything over $40 is a windfall to me), I decided to shop for a driver. Wal*Mart is the store of choice because…well…everything is moronically cheap there, so I stopped on my way to work Monday and picked out the Dunlop Super Loco 456cc driver.

The obligatory “why did the Bulls pick that asshat” blog.

I am by no means an NBA expert, and I do not like, watch or follow college basketball at all. I, however, feel compelled to give some recognition to the NBA draft. Now, going into Thursday’s NBA draft, I was desperately hoping that Greg Oden or Kevin Durant would somehow fall to the Bulls at number 9…but knowing full well that would not happen, I hoped that 7 foot tall Chinese Superman Yi Jianlian would fall to 9. So much so that the wife and I even ordered chinese food for dinner. Well…that was more of a coincidence. It was also a coincidence that the delivery man showed up with our mongolian beef, crab rangoons, pot stickers and egg rolls at the exact moment that David Stearn was announcing the Chicago Bulls 9th overall pick in the draft, Joakim Noah. Since my basketball acumen is limited, I asked my good friend and Bulls fan Mark Salvesen to give me his thoughts on the pick.