Merrill Hoge is an Idiot and Other Observations from Sports This Weekend

The big story of the weekend was obviously the St. Louis Cardinals winning the World Series in 7 games over the Texas Rangers. The Rangers were 1 strike away (twice) from winning the World Series in Game 6, but they managed to blow 3 saves for a World Series record. For two of those blown saves, St. Louis hometown kid David Freese got incredibly huge hits, both with 1 strike left. In the next game, he again contributed with a big time hit with 2 strikes and 2 outs on him to break a tie that the Cardinals never gave up in Game 7. Freese was later named World Series MVP for his 2 huge games and for his consistent hitting. This morning, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa announced his retirement after 33 years and 3 World Series championships, 1 with the A's and 2 with the Cardinals. La Russa will undoubtedly go down as one of the best managers of the last 40 years.

More after the break...

I Just Watched the Worst Nationally Televised Football Game in Recent Memory (And it Could Get Worse)

This is was one of the "highlights" of the Monday Night Football game I just saw between the AFC North leading Baltimore Ravens and the increasingly unpopular Jacksonville Jaguars. Pictured is Josh Scobee, the Jaguars kicker who nailed 3 50+ yard field goals and another from 22 yards to get the 1-5 Jaguars a 12-7 win against the Baltimore Ravens. Yes, the same Ravens team that defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets. The Ravens were just plain atrocious on offense, having a net gain of one yard in the first half. Although the offense woke up in the 2nd half enough to get a touchdown, Joe Flacco ended the game by throwing a very poor pass right into the Jaguars defense for an interception.

So let's get this straight. The Ravens lost to a 1-5 team that has not sold out a game in 2 years. The Ravens also defeated the Steelers and Jets.... Therefore, the Steelers and Jets are not that great and make every team they have beaten look even worse. About 2 posts ao, I contemplated which games the 49ers could win down the stretch of the season, thinking that the Giants, Ravens, and Steelers games would be big tests. I now no longer think that and am ready to declare the games against the Ravens and Steelers both wins for the Niners, to get at least a 14 win season; their only threat being the Giants.

Back on topic to Monday Night Football, this game was just plain atrocious.... And things could get worse. Following are the next scheduled nationally televised games by week:

• Dallas Cowboys vs Philadelphia Eagles, San Diego Chargers vs Kansas City Chiefs
• Baltimore Ravens vs Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears vs Philadelphia Eagles
• Oakland Raiders vs San Diego Chargers, New England Patriots vs New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings vs Green Bay Packers
• New York Jets vs Denver Broncos, Philadelphia Eagles vs New York Giants, Kansas City Chiefs vs New England Patriots
• Green Bay Packers vs Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins vs Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers vs Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers vs Kansas City Chiefs, New York Giants vs New Orleans Saints
• Philadelphia Eagles vs Seattle Seahawks, Indianapolis Colts vs New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers vs Jacksonville Jaguars
• Cleveland Browns vs Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants vs Dallas Cowboys, St. Louis Rams vs Seattle Seahawks
• Jacksonville Jaguars vs Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Baltimore Ravens vs San Diego Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers vs San Francisco 49ers
• Houston Texans vs Indianapolis Colts, Chicago Bears vs Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons vs New Orleans Saints

There's a disturbing trend in the teams that will be making frequent appearances in nationally televised games from here on out. Note that the last 3 weeks are not set and can be changed if it is deemed the game will be garbage (aka, not hold you breath for Rams vs Seahawks Monday Night Football). Here's how many times each teams with multiple appearances will appear nationally for the rest of the season:

• Cowboys (4)
• Eagles (4)
• Chargers (4)
• Chiefs (3)
• Ravens (3)
• Steelers (4)
• Bears (2)
• Patriots (3)
• Jets (2)
• Packers (2)
• Giants (3)
• 49ers (2)
• Saints (2)
• Colts (2)

The Super Bowl Champion Packers are appearing 2 more times on national television. The NFC Champion Runner-Up Bears are appearing 2 more times, the Super Bowl loser Steelers are appearing 4 more times, the AFC Runner-Up Jets are appearing 2 more times, First Round exit teams, Eagles (4), Saints (2), Chiefs (3). The Falcons were good enough to get a first round bye, but they will only make 1 appearance nationally. The Patriots whom had the best record in the NFL lat year but lost to the Jets after a first round bye will have 3 more appearances. The Cowboys and Chargers who did not qualify for the playoffs each have 4 more appearances. The Giants did not qualify either and will get 3 more appearances. The currently winless Colts thankfully only have 2 more national appearances and the unexpectedly good 49ers will only have 2 more appearances.

What the fuck NBC and ESPN? The fucking Cowboys, Eagles, Chargers, and Steelers have at least 4 more nationally televised games this season, while the reigning champions, who were early favorites to repeat as champions, only have 2 more scheduled? I mean seriously, what the fuck? Even the teams with 3 games left in this latter half of the season are ridiculous: the Chiefs, Ravens, Patriots, and Giants. Can an East Coast bias be more obvious? The only team with more than 2 scheduled nationally televised games west of the Rockies are the Chargers, who didn't even qualify for the playoffs last year. Yes, the Seahawks have been having a terrible year, but after last year's upset against the Saints, you'd think they;d get more respect. The Broncos are a hype machine these days, with people wanting to see Tim Tebow play and it was only going to be a matter of time before he would play this season.

This week was bad enough in nationally televised games, with the Ravens and Jaguars tonight and the Saints and Colts last night, although to be fair, before the season started and Peyton Manning's injury was unclear, that game looked to be a real winner. Without Manning however, the Saints demolished the Colts in a 62-7 victory.

Luckily, there were World Series games on yesterday and today (which were both great), but next week and the week after and so on, that won't be an option.

The match-ups this season are proving to be real stinkers with only minor gems here and there, highlighted by the 49ers and Lions defying expectations and making games more watchable. I just pray the playoffs will be well-played and that deserving teams get in.

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham Asylum will always be remembered as the first Batman game where you actually felt like Batman, having access too all his gadgets, having immense fighting prowess, and detective skills aided by the best of technology. What Arkham Asylum was missing however,  was open-world gameplay that is simply part of Batman's nature. Yes, Batman does lurk in the shadows and infiltrate enemy hideouts, but primarily is a watcher of the night and strikes down on criminals when they least expect it, many of whom have no idea Batman is in the area.

Batman: Arkham City rectifies that. Taking place 18 months after the events of Joker's Arkham Asylum takeover, it is revealed that Hugo Strange has been orchestrating plans to construct an Arkham City within Gotham to house all Arkham inmates. Batman, unable to bring down Arkham City alone, decides to use his recognition as Bruce Wayne to run for mayor of Gotham and shut down Arkham City. This plan certainly gets him notoriety, as he is kidnapped and brought to Arkham City.

From there, Batman embarks on a tale of twists and turns involving a cure for the Joker's TITAN poisoning, the blood of Ra's al Ghul, a power struggle between Two-Face and Penguin, and who Hugo Strange is really working for. Along the way, you also get to play as Catwoman as she discovers the location of a massive stockpile of loot that Hugo Strange confiscated from inmates, but also rescues Batman from time to time.

The ending has a twist that is hinted at from nearly the very beginning and makes you feel stupid for not catching it right before the big reveal, especially since the game is basically dropping hints everywhere as to what the Joker is really up to. What happens after the final boss fight though (which is incredibly underwhelming), while maybe upsetting to fans, is nevertheless classic Joker and excellently written by Paul Dini. Arkham City does not end on a happy note, but it is truly the only way a Batman story can end, especially one so heavily styled on the comics.

Everything you wished Batman could do in Arkham Asylum is now possible, including some things you may not have thought of. Batman is much better armed this time, being that he has much better access to his arsenal. There are 2 notable gadgets from Arkham Asylum missing though: multiple Batarangs and the 3-pronged Batclaw. The multiple Batarangs aren't missed much due to the larger environment, but the better Batclaw becomes obvious when some Riddler puzzles have to be solved more ingeniously than before.

Arkham City has its minor hiccups (like loading times), but overall it's a solid game that will have you playing endlessly searching for more Riddler puzzles.

Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Presentation: 9.5/10
Replay Value: 9/10

Average Score:      9.6/10

The 49ers Are Having Their Best Season Since Steve Young's Retirement Season, Also Jim Harbaugh is Fucking Cool

Unfortunately, the big story out of Sunday is not that the 49ers knocked the Lions out of the jungle, but that Jim Harbaugh and Jim Schwartz got into a little scuffle after the game because Schwartz objected to Harbaugh's over-enthusiastic celebration and handshake. The two Jims were both immature, Harbaugh for gloating on his opponent's home turf and Schwartz for acting like a 12 year old boy with raging hormones. I mean just look at the face Schwartz is making. He's pissed he lost to a team the media was telling him he should win, especially after demolishing the Cowboys and Bears in comeback victories. Either way, the NFL decided not to fine either coach for their antics.

At the post-game press conference, Harbaugh even admitted it was his fault for "shaking his hand too hard," but he did not apologize for his behavior and only said that that's how he is, take it or leave it. After every game in the locker room, Harbaugh always ends the sessions with what could easily become the running phrase of the 49ers season: "WHOSE GOT IT BETTER THAN US!?" with which the players answer, "NOBODY!" Jim Harbaugh has taken a team that has hardly changed since the Singletary era and coached them into a team that Singletary could only have dreamed of. Without a doubt, Harbaugh is the leading candidate for Coach of the Year.

The 49ers have somewhat quietly gotten to their first start since 1998, the year Steve Young retired due to sustaining too many concussions. It's unknown if the Steve Young and Terrell Owens duo could have reached the Super Bowl, but this 49ers team is already turning heads and making some people think they could possibly go the rest of the season undefeated thanks to a particularly weak schedule. Here is the 49ers remaining schedule:

• Bye
• vs Cleveland Browns
• @Washington Redskins
• vs New York Giants
• vs Arizona Cardinals
• @Baltimore Ravens (Thanksgiving)
• vs St. Louis Rams
• @Arizona Cardinals
• vs Pittsburgh Steelers (Monday Night Football)
•  @Seattle Seahawks
• @St. Louis Rams

In the NFL, no game is ever a guarantee, but the chances are extremely high that the 49ers sweep the NFC West, so there's 5 games right off the bat for at least a 10 game winning season. The Browns are incredibly awful, so the 49ers should win that, 11. The Redskins have been OK, but they have a pretty bad QB situation right now, make it 12. Now the 3 games that are very losable are the Giants, Ravens, and Steelers games. The Giants aren't particularly good, but they did surprise this past weekend by beating the Bills. The Ravens are really good, but their QB, Joe Flacco is having an awful year. The Steelers game could go either way, but the 49ers have been a fantastic team on MNF even with bad teams.

If the 49ers do go undefeated the rest of the way, they should be seen as real Super Bowl contenders. If they lose all 3 games to the Giants, Ravens, and Steelers, I'll be waiting for next year.

The NFL Season is in Full Swing, the NBA Season Will Miss at Least the First 2 Weeks

Week 5 is over in the NFL, and the results thus far are not going the way ESPN would like. The Indianapolis Colts are without the injured Peyton Manning and are off to an incredibly awful 0-5 start, alongside the much-hyped St. Louis Rams and the increasingly worse Miami Dolphins. The Philadelphia Eagles, once hyped as being the Miami Heat of the NFL, are off to a 1-4 start, the Dallas Cowboys are 2-2 after bipolar performances against the 49ers and Lions. Speaking of the Lions, they're 5-0 for the first time since 1956, sharing an unbeaten record with the 5-0 reigning Super Bowl champions, the Green Bay Packers. The two current league leaders will meet on Thanksgiving for the quite possibly the biggest game in Detroit Lions history.

Outside of the two unbeaten teams, there are several 4-1 teams: New Orleans, San Francisco, Buffalo, New England, and San Diego. Wait, wait wait. The San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills started 4-1? Yes, it's true. The 49ers and Bills are two of the better teams in the league thus far, steamrolling their competition. The Saints have had a very easy schedule thus far, not impressing anyone along the way. The Patriots have also had a very easy schedule, although their one loss comes against the Bills. The Chargers, while not surprising as a league leader, are 4-1 for the first time under coach Norv Turner.

Next week, the biggest game of the season thus far will happen on an early game, the 49ers visiting the Lions in what should prove to be the only game of the season the 49ers look to be capable of losing, with 5 remaining games against NFC West opponents and 5 games against the unimpressive Steelers, Ravens, Redskins, Giants, and Browns. I'm not normally one to make bold predictions, but it is entirely possible the 49ers could finish with a 14-2 record at the rate they're playing.... or better if they defeat the Lions. If the 49ers do defeat the Lions, expect Super Bowl talk to be thrown around as many have already crowned the Lions the biggest threat to the Packers in the NFC.

The first 2 weeks of the NBA season have officially been cancelled. Although there is still some glimmer of hope for a delayed 82 game season, the odds of the season happening at all are grim at this point. the players and owners are very far apart from reaching a deal and it looks like they will not reach a deal this season as the players' association has been saying for quite some time now that the players have been stockpiling money in case a lockout did happen.

Whatever ends up happening, the lockout will be very bad not just for the loss of games, but the loss in TV time and possibly increased viewership of hockey.The NBA and NHL play concurrently, so if just the right fanbases ditch basketball to watch hockey, we could be on to the disastrous results that happened to the NBA on NBC after the 1999 lockout. Hopefully ABC decides to abandon the rights to NBA games, because I really hope CBS or NBC gets the rights so that I can either get my Bob Costas or Marv Albert fixes. I really don't know why ESPN thinks Mike Breen is a good basketball commentator, because he's not. Mark Jackson thankfully will be coaching, so I won't have to hear "Mama there goes that man" ever again. Although I would have liked to see Jeff Van Gundy coaching again, he is an excellent color commentator, so there are always at least some positives in ESPN keeping the rights, besides games being broadcast on ESPN 3D.

Drive

It hasn't been the greatest year for movies outside of superhero films. Before September, the best film of the year was easily X-Men: First Class, rivaled by a bit of movie hangover by Rise of the Planet of the Apes. September brings 2 movies that make us believe in the movies again, 50/50 and Drive.

Drive tells the tale of the Driver, an anonymous young man who works as a movie stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night. As a getaway driver, he has certain conditions: He must always remain anonymous, he will only work for someone once, and he will only wait for 5 minutes before he starts the getaway. Drive doesn't ever attempt to make car chases with explosions or 50 car pile ups, instead aiming for realism and brevity, allowing the sound of roaring engines to be the soundtrack.

Before seeing Drive, one should not watch the 2 minute long trailer for the movie, because it spoils the entire plot of the movie in just 2 short minutes. The plot of the film isn't particularly unique, having been seen before in several movies, television shows, and other works of art beforehand, but what makes Drive unique is how memorable each shot of the movie is and how incredibly well the soundtrack narrates the film, culminating with one of the most bizarre moments of romance I've ever witnessed in a film, with the song "A Real Hero" by College playing in the background, almost reassuring his love interest (played excellently by Carey Mulligan) that the Driver is in fact a good person even though he is about to do something very terrible; "A Real Hero" not being nominated for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture would be an incredible disservice.

There are 2 fair warnings to Drive before viewing or considering viewing: every moment of violence is done in incredible amounts and does not sugar coat realism in favor of a PG-13 rating for broader appeal, and there are very long stretches of the film that have no dialogue or less than 10 words spoken between characters. The last time I saw a film with this little dialogue was Bambi, for a point of reference. This film is done so well though, that it does not need dialogue to pad the length or big, long winded speeches explaining a character's motives; Drive does not treat its viewers like idiots and assumes they are intelligent.

Simply put, Drive is the best film of the year thus far.

Final Score: 5 scorpion jackets out of 5