Nurse the Hate: Still Hate the Yankees

I am so excited about the Yankees floundering around right now. It’s really just the best, isn’t it? All those cocky fat turd Yankee fans aren’t chiming in about all those championships from years past now, are they? Here’s a question…How can you spend $500 million dollars in payroll, and forget to buy pitching? Did it just slip their minds, or are they convinced that a rotation of Mussina, Pettite, Igawa, Wang, and 47 year old Roger Clemons is going to get it done? Even better is the fact that when those chumps get knocked off the mound in the fifth, there’s no reliable help in the bullpen. The icing on the cake? Mariano Rivera is finally showing himself to be mortal, and has looked very shaky out there. Throw in a new steroid scandal with Jason Giambi, and now you’ve really got something! (Did anyone but me notice how Giambi got caught with steroids, lost 50 lbs of muscle, couldn’t hit, put 50 lbs of muscle mysteriously back on, and started to hit again? That wouldn’t be HGH, would it? Just asking…)

I love the track. In what is one of the last bastions of true manliness, the track has it all. Where else can you find scruffy degenerates drinking draft beer from paper cups, eating questionable nachos, and yelling “C’mon Queen! Gimme some sugar! Gimme some sugar! Daddy needs some sugar!” and not have anyone even think of it as being odd? Even more importantly, why do I feel at home there? Let’s not dwell on that, and instead focus on the Preakness. I dropped a little action on the Preakness for a gentleman that just had an operation and couldn’t make it there himself. Based on his selections, I think the morphine might still be flowing through his body. I took a flier on an exacta box with Curlin and Street Sense, and a trifecta box of Street Sense, Hard Spun, and Circular Quay. I don’t make any claim to know what I’m doing, but since I cleaned up on the Cavs game (+135 on the money line, thank you) I figured what the hell. Circular Quay might be a mistake in there. I’ll probably regret not putting King of the Roxy in the mix…

Random Notes: Jermain Taylor should beat Cory Spinks tonight in a decision. The real action is on the undercard where Youngstown’s Kelly Pavlik gets a shot at Edison Miranda. Both of these guys are big punchers, so there should be plenty of action. Pavlik is a slight underdog, and is a nice option at +125...I played a couple shows with Dick Dale this week. The guy still shreds on guitar, but his set list is a bit of a mystery. Why the hell is Dick Dale playing (and I’m not making this up) “House of the Rising Sun”, “Fever”, “Folsom Prison Blues”, “Rumble” and some medley with “Smoke on the Water”? He could absolutely kill if he played all his monster originals right down the line. Miserlou/Mr Eliminator/Run for Life/Nitro/Let’s Go Trippin/Taco Wagon/Etc, etc, etc. When I was walking around the venues, I don’t recall anyone saying, “Oh Man! I hope he plays Fever tonight!”. Hey, he can do what he wants, but everyone in that room wants to hear Dick Dale play Dick Dale songs…I saw the Hold Steady and Heartless Bastards last Sunday with a band on the bill that tried to be The Clash. (The problem is when bands want to be the Clash, everybody wants to be Joe Strummer. “No way! You wear the beret and creepers! I’m wearing the work jacket and combat boots.” No one wants to be Mick Jones apparently. The end result is that you‘ve got two Joe Strummers and a guy playing a bass swung real low.) The Heartless Bastards and Hold Steady were both really good. I loved the fact that the Hold Steady are juxtaposing classic rock hooks with original wordplay. They have a genuine quality to them. Heartless Bastards were also really impressive. I don’t know where that giant voice comes from out of that tiny woman. Great rhythm section too. Those guys really lock in together.