Hot Hot Hot!!!

I am being dared to say that on television, hahaha. I would love too but I couldn't get away with it. As for the purpose of this post, I decided to make a forecast for back home since it is hot and only going to get hotter. Here is the downright disgusting forecast for Cambridge, MD:

Currently listening to: "Play That Funky Music" by Wild Cherry...what an awesome intro!

I was just thinking about the trading deadline approaching in baseball and decided to post a blog on some Orioles that really need to be traded (if they have any trade value). So here it goes, the following players need to go away ASAP:

1. Bruce Chen (no one laughs at his jokes anymore, just him)
2. Todd Williams (gives up as many big hits as the not-so-great Todd Frohwirth...ARGH!)
3. Russ Ortiz (1-16 in his last 17 decisions! quite possibly the biggest piece of crap in MLB)
   
4. LaTroy Hawkins (4 teams in 2 years would be incredible!)
   
5. Rodrigo Lopez (togh call, I have some lingering sentiment for R-Lo, but he may be the only one on this list with significant trade value. some pitching-hungry team will surely overpay for him. heck the phillies even dangled abreu as a possibility.)
   

What a surprise! All five of those guys are pitchers which we lack the depth in. If the Orioles can somehow get rid of all of these guys this year (which we all know will never happen), I may resume rooting for the O's. Most likely that won't happen though because Angelos and his cronies are very good at keeping worthless players around long enough to piss people off.

Dem O's......really suck

It really pains me to do this, but I have to live up to an ultimatum I placed on myself earlier this season. At 12:49AM on June 13, here were my exact words:

On July 4, if the Orioles are below .500 and/or at least 8 games back in the division, I will prematurely throw in the towel for the 2006 season.

So, here were the AL East standings on Independence Day:

Boston.....(50-31, .617, 0 GB)
NY Yankees.....(46-35, .568, 4 GB)
Toronto.....(47-36, .566, 4 GB)
Baltimore.....(39-46, .459, 13 GB)
Tampa Bay.....(37-47, .440, 14.5 GB)

And after tonight's 15-1 arse-kicking by the Silver Spring native Mark Teixeira and his Texas Rangers, here are the current AL East standings:

Boston.....(53-34, .609, 0 GB)
NY Yankees.....(50-36, .581, 2.5 GB)
Toronto.....(49-39, .557, 4.5 GB)
Baltimore.....(41-50, .451, 14 GB)
Tampa Bay.....(39-50, .438, 15 GB)

So unfortunataly, without further ado, I am throwing in the towel and giving up on the O's for 2006. This is a sad day for me and I hate to do this, but I issued an ultimatum and the Orioles could not live up to it. I wasn't asking for much, heck I wasn't even asking for anything better than mediocrity. Once again for the ninth season in a row, that damn Peter Angelos and his cohorts have assured us fans of another miserable, losing season. Not that you give a sh*t Angelos, but you have lost yet another faithful fan. Here's to 2007 and the ongoing hope for a .500 record.

Pearl Jam Setlist

Nearly a month later, here's the setlist from the best concert I have ever seen:

Pearl Jam - Pittsburgh, PA - June 23, 2006

1. Throw Your Arms Around Me (Eddie Vedder solo acoustic pre-opener, Hunters and Collectors Cover)
2. Release (Beginning of Set 1)
3. Life Wasted
4. Severed Hand
5. Corduroy
6. Do The Evolution
7. Dissident
8. Evenflow
9. Marker In The Sand
10. In Hiding
11. Better Man
12. Daughter/With My Own Two Hands (Ben Harper Cover)
    
13. Garden
14. I Got Id
15. State Of Love And Trust
16. Inside Jobe
17. Worldwide Suicide
18. Porch (End of Set 1)
19. Wasted Reprise (Beginning of Encore 1)
20. Man Of The Hour
21. Waiting On A Friend (Rolling Stones Cover, 1st Time Ever Played)
    
22. Elderly Woman Behind A Counter In A Small Town
23. Black
24. Alive (End of Encore 1)
25. Go (Beginning of Encore 2)
26. Why Go
27. Comatose
28. Smile
29. Rockin' In The Free World (Neil Young Cover)
30. Yellow Ledbetter

There is no other band out there that can come close to putting on a show as well as Pearl Jam. By the way, the previous best show I had seen was also Pearl Jam at Bristow, VA. Rock on!