The Monday Edition 8.26.02

Flea with a double shot

– Eric S. – last Wednesday

Don’t mind if I do! Cheers!

Hello! I’m Flea and you get two for the price of one as I fill in on Monday while Hyatte does his Mop Up. I think that all of you make out like bandits, but I may be biased. Whatever you opinion is, the fact of the matter is that you are now here and I appreciate it. Couple items to take care of

Yes, I do know that my bitching at the whole NWA-TNA vs. Hassman thing was chock full of grammatical and spelling errors. I was going for an effect, folks. Got a ton of mail on that and I only responded to one. The rest of you should learn to be nice I don’t print and goof on flame mail. But I can, if need be

Also, I asked a question yesterday I use the phrase “Well Alright” every once in a while. Saturday I axed who it was the answer in email order is

No, no, no, no way, not even, who, no, no, no, yeah right, who, no, no, who, no, close, real close, no, no, no, no, who, no way and no.

The correct answer is Mick Jagger from Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out. Go check it out. And if Flea gets his way, that album will be reviewed on 411 MUSIC sooner, rather than later. Yo fat girl, come here! Are you ticklish?

That closes out the old business, whatta ya say we talk current stuff?

Come on, let’s go

FIRST OFF

In A Gadda Da Vida baby now THIS is what the Fed should be up to on a constant basis. I’m sure some folks will trash this show out of general principle, but if you didn’t see this one, order the f*cking replay. Top to bottom good and TWO supreme historic moments

Let’s review as usual, my initial thoughts from The Saturday Matinee are in italics and, well you know how to scroll

WWE Undisputed Title Match – The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar

The outcome to this match seems to be more predetermined than usual. Rock-E is, according to anyone who knows anything, supposed to be taking the remainder of the summer off to go and be a movie star. Good for him. Is it just me or does the lately the Rock seem like a biker chick loaded up crystal meth – talking 100 miles per hour, not making any sense and not able to sit still for more than a second at a time? Jeez, I know the dude is a motor mouth but his promos have become parodies of the cool shit Rock-E used to say, as if he is a record player skipping after having the speed amped up from 33 1/3 to 45. You know, as far as analogies go, stick with the cranked up biker chick, cause I just realized many of you probably don’t know nothing from vinyl records. Brock, on the other hand, as been playing the role of the monster heel quite well, including blatant theft of everything Vader used to say. Which, really, ain’t a bad thing, as he has Paul E. to do his real talking. That is something which I think is awesome – no one in the business can get someone over as effectively as Heyman, when given time. Why ANYONE in their right minds would want to break up this tandem is beyond me, some people (like Brock) need all the promo help they can get. So all the set up and hype has been said and done and that leaves us with the match, which has all te making of a classic heel/face showdown. One question that the “armchair work rate know it alls” have is if Brock has enough gas in his tank to go a good 20-30 minutes, which is what this match will need to be effective, in my opinion. I say yes, the dude just happens to be one of the top “real” athletes in the world, as long as his nerves don’t make him a nervous as an alcoholic on his kid’s first day of school. Look for Rock-E to go above and beyond to carry the match (and he can) leading up to a Lesnar win and hopefully culminating in an injury angle. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and it would be perfect if after the victory Lesnar SQUASHES Rock-E with his urban legendary SHOOTING STAR PRESS, which would be the nail in the coffin for Rock, internal bleeding , stretcher job and all. Just don’t make me feel like a f*ck by Rock-E coming out in a couple of weeks and cutting a no-selling bastard promo, like he did when the N.W.O f*cked him all up. But for shits and giggles, it would be fun to have Rock-E retain the title and lose it the next night for free on RAW. Ha ha ha ha ha oh would that just get everyone’s panties in a bind.

You know what I hate about New York? Long Island = RACISM! (mask and a gun, CRZ!). All inside jokes aside, the New York crowd turned on Rock-E like they did on Bret vs. Austin in 97. Was it live or Memorex? Guess that’s your call. Point of the fact is, I marked out when I heard “ROCK-E SUCKS” chants and the faint ( but established) “GO LESNAR GO” chant, which seemed to howl from the NY fans’ mouths when they weren’t booing the ROCK. I think just for general principle I will elaborate that all the fans there this evening were plants and they also were paid and the Fed also added some Brock cheers to the sound track and they also pulled from the archives some ROCK-E SUCKS chants probably from WreslteMania Vs. Hogan if not hey had to go back to the time when he fought Cactus and then they had to research Brock’s whole career to find GO LESNAR GO and then they had to digitally enhance all the jaded NY fan’s mouths to simultaneously chant in the same words that all the viewing public can hear oh f*ck is that enough?????? I’m outta gas trying to shovel the shit you will probably hear this week. Fuck anyone who says different the Rock got BOOED out the building and did the best job of anyone on the planet of selling said heel turn. Twice this year he had to do that, you know. Speaking of acting, that’s what he’s gonna be doing now, while Brock is the champ. By the way, WWE is still in NY (MSG) tomorrow. Cheer or Boo? The betting windows are open, chumps.

WWE Intercontinental Title Match – Chris Benoit vs. Rob Van Dam

Here’s a dream match for at least one or two of you out there. This can go one of two ways – 888 (hit the shift key, Flea) ***** match of the year classic, or yet another clash in styles, which is the politically correct term for saying “f*cking Van Dam is all over the place again!!” I’m leaning towards the former, although I think two matches on this card will be better. RVD can take about as stiff a shot as anyone, so can Benoit. RVD works stiff as hell, Benoit has been known to lay the chops in like no tomorrow. Throw in some RVD “innovative” offense and some Benoit “cool as shit” counters and give the whole thing half and hour and you got yourself some good rasslin for the buckage. As far as the outcome, leave the belt on Benoit and let RVD chase him all summer – it’s something for the both of them to do as the main event card is gonna be booked solid. And I hope Cole and Tazz are the ones to call this match – JR and Lawler would probably find something else to talk about as that seems to be their modus operandi lately.

Damn, this one was a fight. Hardway blood, some kick as offense and stiffer than an erection in a women’s prison (don’t know if that’s even an analogy, but I have to do dick jokes to stay hip, yo.) Benoit legit kicked the f*ck out of RVD and Van Dam returned the favor, with style. Wonderful match culminating in RVD winning the IC Belt. It’s the only time I have EVER seen RVD with his hair down all the way and the only time I have EVER noticed the bald spot on Benoit’s head. HA HA HA HA HA Nancy ain’t so good to ya is she, you f*cking wife thief! By the way, I would like to steal again, this time from an on line deity from days gone by – “The New York crowd was obviously in the mood to brag about their venereal diseases: OUR VD OUR VD OUR VD. (kids, that never fails to crack me up). As mentioned, RVD wins the gold, hopefully this feud continued and JR and King didn’t do too bad calling this. Although overall Tazz and Cole ran circles around them. By the way, if anyone even considers this the “MATCH OF THE YEAR” they are f*cking nuts. Two matches on this card were better. But that’s your choice, not mine.

WWE Tag Team Titles Match – Lance Storm & Christian vs. Booker T & Goldust

Ahhh some good old fashioned tag team action. The matches betwixt these two teams have been gold lately, building up to a big time babyface vindication against those evil UnAmericans. Not much more to say on this one – all guys are talented enough to put on a good time tag team match and that’s what I expect to happen.

And that’s what happened. Break time and all I saw was the Spin-a-rooni. The Bad guys retained the belts though.

Unsanctioned Match Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels

Now we’re cookin with gas. Man, did I mark out when HBK did his thing last Monday on RAW. Well, that is until Lawler and JR decided not to sell HBK’s selling. Those two are sucking shit lately, I’m sorry. Anyway, it’s been 4 long years since HBK did his thing and the main mystery building up to this is can “Shawn still go”. Well, the f*cking Cruisers can’t do a tope worth a shit and HBK did it with a broke back, catching his foot on the rope just enough to show that “hey, he might not be able to perform”. Didja stop to think that may have been PLANNED on Shawn’s part? The guy is so far and above everyone else in the psychology department, I wouldn’t put that past him. Remember Mind Games when it looked like Cactus blew a move and Shawn got all up in his face, turning it into a “shoot” looking brawl? Not until recently did we find out that that was actually a planned spot. Or maybe I’m just sitting here wishfully thinking that HBK ain’t all that washed up. I’ll think what I want, you think what you want but just be prepared for a match that’s off the charts, if you have the right mindset on expected expectations. I’m going out on a limb here and will say that these guys have all the details worked out to live up to said expectations, although I doubt we will actually see any “holy shit bumps” from HBK. Which is fine by me, Shawn’s killed himself enough for my amusement over the years. Besides, HBK wouldn’t be doing this if he couldn’t perform and he couldn’t pick a better person in the business to protect him from looking bad than H. And yes, I will like this more than any other match on the card and will vote for it in the “Match of the Year” category, if only on general principle. By the way, how do you vote for that shit anyway? Oh, you have your OWN FUCKING COLUMN and say whatever you want! Yay for me!

Here is your match of the year, ladies and gentlemen. I’m sure someone somewhere will trash this match, but f*ck them, and f*ck you if you think that way. I have only said “Holy Shit” twice legitimately, despite the fact that I spent 5 around the asshole marks in the ECW Arena. One time was when Cactus took the second bump in Hell In The Cell II and tonight when HBK took the spinebreaker on the chair. The crowd for this match was super amped and HBK played them like Clapton plays his Strat. You want spots? You got em. You want some psychology? Try Shawn’s kip up. Brawling, Blood, SPOTS, elbow drops and some f*cking Sweet Chin Music. I’m marking out just typing about this one, as it was one for the ages. H beat the shit out of him after the match, leading to a stretcher job, but that’s a means to and end. HBK wrestled the Match of The Year again, and if you don’t think so, well then, think what the f*ck you want I guess.

The Undertaker vs. Test

Why do people say this one is gonna suck? At least it will have crowd heat, which is more than I can say for a lot of other matches I have seen lately. I’m thinking that Eddie Guererro should join the UnAmerican side just so he can confuse everyone by leading a chant of “You, ese?” – “You, ese?” .see why I don’t do humor, folks? UT has a beef against Test for dissing America, which is a good enough reason to have a fight. So although it won’t be your “technical classic”, ain’t nothing wrong with a big man brawl, especially with everything else that is on the card. “You, ese?”. OH HYATTE? Could you please help me with my jokes, the boys just ain’t laughing. Now THAT’S funny .ha aha ha ha

Another break but I saw Test get TOMBSTONED and UT bask in ALL AMERICAN GLORY!!!! *****

***** *****

Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio

This is why I refuse to take the Cruiserweight midgets seriously. Not that they are not talented, but the fact is, the Fed does not take them seriously, so why should I? Rey’s first PPV and it ain’t the opener against the Masked Mexican Marauder, but he gets to show his stuff against the best f*cking wrestler on the planet. Which I have absolutely no problem with, just don’t try to convince me that any other Cruiser is on Rey’s level after this. I’ll paraphrase an old Jim Cornette line and predict that this one won’t get an obscene amount of time (maybe 12 minutes at the most) because no one in their right minds would believe Rey could take an big man ass kicking for 25 minutes. Still, it should be quite entertaining and the phrase you WON’T hear is “clash in styles”, at least not in the bad way. Angle rules, Rey is great and it would be nice if the give Rey a fluke win here, if only to continue the feud. I have no problem at all with these guys doing multiple matches, with Angle continuing to bust Rey’s balls for “cheating”. That’s some good stuff.

Top flight with Angle getting the win with an Anglelock. The feud will continue I hope. Well, it should, seeing as both Angle and Rey are phenomenal. Now then, I don’t know nothin from Lucha Libre but I have seen many Rey matches. Was this not one of his best? I think that by far it was, but that’s my opinion. ANGLE made him look better than anyone I have ever seen. And it’s totally right to give Angle then win. More matches, please.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge

Edge continues his development as a top level talent and who better to assist him than Latino Heat? Again, this match speaks for itself – Eddie will cheat like hell and Edge will be up to his normal Edge stuff. I like how Edge has improved so much over the past few months and it’s fathomable that he will most likely keep up with Eddie here. Good, good and good. Edge has “future” written all over him and it’s great to see him showcase his abilities with guys like Eddie, Benoit and Angle as opposed to Regal (and Some Other Guy, for that matter) . Not to mention, his “spear the dude through the ropes” move has become one of my favorites, right up there with Eddie spinning his boot of some chumps forehead and then laughing at him in Spanish. Hey! I think this match is right up my alley!

Plenty of psychology. Another feud that should continue. Let others be more verbose, I saved my accolades for HBK.

Ric Flair’s Match

Flair’s latest “last run” has been a good one, as he has seemed to re – educate the unwashed masses that, yes indeed, less is more and it’s all about the presentation, sometimes. While I’m thinking about it, does it ever seem to you that the more talented someone is and despite the fact they can cut promos better and get a crowd incited more than many of their peers, for political reasons they are consistently buried and made to look the fool in just about every feud or angle that they are involved in? Yeah, I have always hated the fact that happens to Flair. Who did YOU have in mind? At least I can guarantee I’ll see some BLOOD in this one, which is always worth my dough. And this is my 2nd favorite match on the card, for reasons I’ll keep to myself. Just watch how the match progresses and form you own opinion. Then come back and tell me how it’s possible for a 50 year old man to run circles around his opponent. Must be political. But I’m pretty sure that Flair can’t play a guitar, although he did do a nice impression of Pete Townsend the other night. Now, where’s my Teenage Wasteland to tell me how great Some Other Guy is? I know you’re out there.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA AH HA HAHAH AHA HA AHAH HA AHA HA AH AHA HAHA AH AHA AH AHA HAHA AHAH AHA HA

Must be f*cking politics. Maybe Some Other Guy is better off as a rock star. Flair rules. And if you didn’t hear me the first time

Ah HAH AHA HA HAHAAAHA HAHA HA HA AHHA HA AHAHA AHA HAAH A

Without a doubt, best show in ages. HBK is back baby! Although with the stretcher job they might hold him off till the next PPV. Whatever. That match their was worth the price of admission and therefore order the f*cking replay if you ain’t seen SummerSlam.

HAVE YOU HEARD?

Goldberg has something to say but I don’t care. I’ll make the WWE a proposition. I know they probably don’t read my column (but I do know who they read) and although I know someone on the inside very well (who can’t seem to give me a line on anything), I’ll still make an offer right here in The Monday Edition; I’ll front you guys the dough to sign Goldberg if I can get a backend deal on the PPV buyrate as well as 10% of the merchandise sales. Only one PPV, Flea? Why yes! Just bring him in to have Brock destroy him, job him out on PPV, if you will, one time only. Oh, I also want 4% of Brock from that point forward. Have your people call my people. And yes, I’m serious. Paying Bret to kick his dumb bald head in is optional

Something else was going on but I’ll be damned if I can remember it. X-Pac was covered yesterday, the only new thing out of that is, according to the usual suspects, the Fed wanted Waltman to stay around but he pretty much said nothing doing. Guess that seals the deal.

Okay, when in doubt, rip people off

ALFRED HYATTE AINT GOT NOTHIN ON ME

Here is your Top 5 movie wrap up for the weekend. No clue where these links go, I stole this from Yahoo

XXX – $22,111,421

Signs – $19,362,674

Blue Crush – $14,169,455

Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams – $11,520,234

Austin Powers in Goldmember – $8,729,738

My Big Fat Greek Wedding – $5,700,072

Ain’t seen a damn one of those except Signs, which was cool. Desi is totally ape shit over Vin Diesel, whoever the f*ck that is. My kid couldn’t give two shit less about Spy Kids. Austin Powers is always good, so we’ll probably go see that. As far as Greeks go, all I know is the only way to separate the Greek Men from the Greek Boys is with a CROWBAR!

So there’s your movie Mop Up .I mean WRAP UP!. Yep.

While I’m in full scale rip off mode how about some

VAGUE CRZ

Ryder Fakin: in addition to stealing, can I have a vague CRZ?

See Our Zed: Ummm…I can’t wait for CRZ 25K

So I cut out the portion where I misspelled vague. Stealing is stealing is editing is stealing.

ANOTHER WEEK OF THIS CRAP

RAW is in MSG, that I know. What I also know is that that it would behoove them to do a Rock injury angle. If life was smiling on me, HBK would come out and give his “showstopper / icon” speech tomorrow, the same way he did after the UT beat his f*cking ass in Hell in the Cell Numero Uno. HHH will probably talk as I attempt to talk my wife into adopting TheRatDiva. Hey You! Don’t worry, she only talks about H so your adoption is still in the BAG(atelli). We only want her for HEY THE RAT DIVA! Just thinking about you!

Smackdown, according to WWE.com is in Uncasville, CT. Expect the usual, including commentary by the best two in the business at this point. Uncasville? Is that where Unca ED lives? If only he’d write to me, I would know.

THE LINKS ARE ON ME

Unca ED Unca Ed Unca ED .Byte This is brought to you by Unca ED.

BOSS’S REAL TIME PPV IS AVAILABLE!! In Caps and full orchestration and five part harmony!

GRUT says the site is down so I believe him. Surf’s up and I still love my little grutman.

READ THE SATURDAY MATINEE!

And Glorydog will be around with a Mop Up of SummerSlam. That must be, or else I would have been done on Saturday.

And while I’m in the spirit of giving, let’s rock and roll it’s time for the

1st ANNUAL FLEA GIVEAWAY CONTEST

I would like to thank all of you that participated in the contest that featured a grand prize of FREE ACCESS to the Honky Tonk Man’s website thehonkytonkman.com. For those of you who may be new to this column (or my columns in general), lets’ go back a couple of weeks and review

Great! With all that out of the way, here’s how you win!

Scour the Flea archives of 411 and find the poem I wrote for those 2 hick homos, Matt and Jeff Hardy.

Here is a hint – it was in an EXCESS report. Find it, cut it, paste it and mail it to me.

RyderFakin@aol.com. Believe me, when you find it, you will know.

ME! 8-10-02, SATURDAY MATINEE – PAGE SIX

And boy oh boy did I get some feedback. And I as mentioned last week, it was made easy for a reason. For those of you that did not play or said “Oh, Flea is just f*cking around, he’s not serious” well too bad for you. Here is the answer (with the entire recap segment included) –

* * * * *

We am back and the antics of the Hardy Boyz are discussed. Why? Because the H Boyz have a VIDEO on the market and we get a behind the scenes look at what makes these two humble hillbillies tick. Well, Matt is an expert at SEWING and I think I will withhold my comments. Jeff likes PLANTS and ANIMALS as I continue to bite my tongue. Aw shit, we get into the poetry and aluminum decoration with facepaints.

OH COME ON!!!!!! How are we supposed to believe a triangle romance after THIS shit to close the segment the Boyz introduce their new entrance song! Put your hands together to the tune of “POP! Goes the Weasel .

I don’t’ go out with the girls anymore

And I don’t intend to marry

I just go out with the boyz I adore

WHEE! I’m a fairy!

Anyway, the video is called Leap of Faith and it certainly is. Suspension of Disbelief only takes you so far .

ME! 11-24-01, WWF EXCESS

* * * * *

There you go. As specified, all entrants were assigned a number and my roulette wheel was spun until a winner was determined. So with out further ado, the WINNER of the 1st ANNUAL FLEA GIVEAWAY CONTEST is .

GRUT’S “COUSIN” ROSS GRUTMAN ! OY VEY OY VEY! OY VEY! OY VEY! OY VEY!

No, that’s not really true. Actually, that joke is very old and very inside but it made me laugh, so there!

Try this again

The winner is

Chris Williams, 17 years young from Pontefract, England. You can congratulate the young bloke at

obscureaddress@hotmail.com

And with an acceptance speech, here is Chris Williams himself

Well, it’s been 2 days since I found out the amazing news, and seeing as us English types don’t know how to react when we win something (I mean, short of World War II, when was the last time we won anything important?) I guess I’d better go Oscar’s style and thank everyone in sight. Top of the pile is Flea; quite possibly the best damn Excess reporter in 411wrestling history. I miss Excess L No, seriously. Next I’d like to thank Honky himself, for this competition wouldn’t be possible without the great man himself. His services to wrestling can’t be ignored either, crippling Jake Roberts might just be the greatest single achievement in wrestling history. Actually I’d better shut up now with Jake living in merry old England, wouldn’t want him to dive through the window and DDT me or anything. Also I thank the Smashing Pumpkins for their musical contributions, my AS Level exam markers for obviously being on crack whilst marking my papers and giving me all those A’s. If I may, I’d also like to plug the upcoming Posse V Circle soccer match on Sunday 1st October, 3PM, Barracks field. If you’re in the area, come along, I promise it will be old-fashioned slobberknocker. Once more, thank you Flea for this once in a lifetime prize.

No problem, my pleasure. Just remember what I said in the contest rules – if I get notification that the password has been canceled because you gave it to all your friends or posted it on a message board, well I just hope you don’t do that. Enjoy the prize!

There you have it ladies and gentlemen. I will ignore the irony of the winner being named Chris Williams. And a foreigner, for that matter. And not even f*cking drinking age (at least in this country). But that goes to show you – it’s an equal opportunity contest! Be sure to enter the next one (coming soon, it ain’t REALLY going to be “annual”, you know), the only way you can win is to enter!

OH HYATTE! Would you PLEASE tell everyone I will spring for something again? You know how l loooovvve to please the masses! Better yet, don’t.

Be sure to check out thehonkytonkman.com. It’s worth it.

PAGE SIX

Another weekend has come and gone, thanks for joining me and my “double shot”. Just like the old days, you know. Come back next week for The Saturday Matinee as I finally get around to the debut of something I have been meaning to do since last Christmas. Better late than clever as I like to say. What is it? Tune in next week to find out!

As mentioned yesterday in the Saturday Matinee, I intend to go off topic here on Page Six and that off-topic topic will be baseball through the eyes of Flea. If you at all squeamish about non-rasslin related material, don’t say you were not warned.

One of the hot topics in the sports world today in the impending Baseball strike. The owners and players have pretty much come to a stalemate and have set a firm date for work stoppage as August 30th 2002, with no word if and when play would resume. Which means, for the second time in a decade it is highly possible for both the post season and the World Series will be cancelled. It is highly probable that play will not resume in time for the remembrance of 9/11. By the way, after the events of 9/11 last year, the sport of Baseball took great pride and honor in assisting the country to “heal” as some might say, or “something that will take your mind of some f*cked up shit” as others have said. I think the players and owners deserve a great deal of credit for their various tributes as well as a great postseason and World Series, moreso than a bunch of singers and late night talk show hosts attempting to get mad props for helping the country “get back to normal.” Why the players and owners are pretty much waving their dicks in the face of America at this time is a subject that both sides have ignored / not commented upon, as it is a touchy subject to broach; especially when the general public is to the point of total ambivalence.

The point of contention on both sides is the esoteric ramification of revenue sharing as well as a marked propensity for the owners to impose certain clauses that would eventually lead to a salary cap OH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH FUCKING BLAH no one but a hard core sports junkie really gives two shits on a shingle about the details of this – all they are looking at is the big picture. Which is overpaid players arguing with ownership who is claiming to be belly up while having to hire extra staff to count their money. Meanwhile it costs a small fortune to attend baseball games and the possibility of “contraction” looms. Layman terms for contraction, by the way, is if your hometown team is on the list, you are f*cked. How bout them apples?

To me, Baseball is as perfect and as beautiful as any sport ever invented. Some may call it boring, but to someone who enjoys it, nothing else compares. As far as “sports excitement” in general, nothing compares to basketball, especially college basketball. However, no “west coast style”, slam dunks, overtime nail biters, or the thrill of seeing Reggie Miller give Spike Lee the what for can take the place of baseball, at least in my opinion.

There is nothing in the sporting world more recognized as a “display of power” than a Home Run. A hitter catching hold of a 95 mile per hour fastball and blasting it into never never land is a thing of beauty in itself, only accentuated by the call of an announcer, whether it be the late great Harry Carey (HOLY COW!) the more recent title holder of the “Home Run Call” ESPN’s Kenny Mayne ( too many to mention, but he seems to invent them on the spot). A game decided on a home run is the pinnacle of sports, especially in the event it wins a World Series game. Two notable examples (of this generation) are the L.A. Dodgers Kurt Gibson’s pinch hit game winner in 1988 (all the while his crippled body would give Austin and Foley a run for their money) and the 1993 Game (and Series) winner given up by “Wild Thing” Mitch Williams of the Philadelphia Phillies, which to this day will spark the damndest argument in any sports bar in the Tri State Area. The fact that Williams is still alive speaks volumes for the humanity of fans of Philly (noted for the worst behavior of ANY city in America); of course the inside story “why kill the guy when can make his life miserable by hating his guts” may deserve more credit than “humanity”.

On the other side of the coin, a complete game pitching performance performed by some of the modern masters of the mound is a sight to behold. Currently on my list of “must watch events” is anytime Curt Shilling (my longtime favorite pitcher) takes the mound and proceeds to make hitters throughout the league look like total buffoons. One of the top moments of the baseball season took place during the buildup and in the first inning of The All-Star Game. Shilling, point blank, told anyone who was listening that he was coming after the American Leagues top hitters with fastball after fastball – hit it if you can. And they didn’t. Absolutely fabulous, notably in an age where “trash talking” has become exactly that – trash. The people who have the talent to talk shit and back it up (Tiger Woods) keep their mouths shut to avoid looking like a dick. People who don’t have the talent to back it up (pick anyone) talk shit until their gums are sore, but the fact that they can’t back up what they say makes it all for naught. And boring. Something that baseball is not.

So that brings us back to the issue of “baseball is an antiquated game, is boring and if they go on strike who cares”. To me, that’s a horrible attitude to take, even though Baseball is being ruined by said players and owners. Baseball, the game itself, is not boring but beautiful, and if you take the attitude of “who cares” is only defeating what I think should be the real purpose – getting the game of baseball fixed so incidents like “work-stoppages” and strikes do not happen again.

Tell me why don’t you care about Baseball or the impending strike? You should care. Better yet, don’t tell me. I’m not here to give you a “why” on this whole thing, but here is an example of “how” you should care..,

You know how it takes (on average) $200 to go to a ball game? Take that dough, buy a grill, some food and a bunch of beer and go out and tailgate at the ballpark. Imagine if 15-20,000 people got together to party in a parking lot while a couple thousand sit and watch a baseball game. Don’t spend you money on NOTHING they have to offer and if Giambi comes out, just treat him like a someone that your wife wants at a party but you don’t i.e tolerant but not ignorant towards said person. For damn sure don’t accept his autograph. Give that player a beer and some chicken and tell him to go about his business. The cops can’t toss you; you think the “Game of the Week” is going to be 20,000 fans partying then getting arrested due to a riot breaking out? (Although FOX would eat that shit up. Naturally they would more interested than that as opposed to an empty ballpark.) But in real life, all the real new outlets will concentrate on the games until it gets to the point where they HAVE to concentrate on those 20k tailgating around the league at various ballparks. THAT’S how you can make a difference and possibly save the greatest game ever invented. But if you just shrug your shoulders and say “I don’t care” you are no better than the players and the owners .

And who wants to be classified as the Scourge of Society? Not me, I love Baseball

Thanks for reading THE MONDAY EDITION, I’m Flea.