What a legend. Even if you only know him as Willy Wonka, you still love him. But he's had two other roles that are a couple of my all time favorite characters in movie history. Which would be Jim (aka The Waco Kid) from Blazing Saddles and Dr. Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein. Here are some clips for your viewing pleasure, along with some from Willy Wonka too.
RIP, my man. Legend.
The Las Vegas NHL naming fiasco is the Jimmy Vesey decision of team naming. -Barrel
Late this past June the city of Las Vegas was awarded an NHL franchise, at first my thought was that it could be a good market due to the fact that Americans love gambling on anything, that alone would put asses in the seats. I'm still hopeful for the new team because it adds spot in the Western Conference standings and the opportunity for more talented hockey guys to lace up the skates at the highest level, something that gets my pants movin for sure. What I completely overlooked was the fact that any team name with Las Vegas attached to it will sound gimmicky and much like that of a Single-A short season baseball team. Seriously, you can take of the most sacred NHL team names in league history such as the Blackhawks, add Las Vegas to the front of it and it just sounds fucking stupid. All of that being sad, if they named the team right away, no matter what it was, fans could know what the new kids in town will don on their silky sweaters come October 2017. It is almost September, we are closing in on a new season and this year's world cup and the Las Vegas franchise has just trademarked a team name......Just kidding they've trademarked three. I always say if you have three team names you really have none. All three of the trademarked names end in Knights which is something the owners have firmly believed in from the beginning, and if it were not for Army's Black Knights and The London Knights owning the name in Canada, they would probably have decided by now. A few weeks ago there were rumors swirling that LV was gonna pick up a team name that would contain some adjective and the word hawks, sorry but this isn't the CFL, guys, can't have two teams called the Roughriders (After fact checking via Canadian web I have found out that is no longer the case, but just know that two teams called the Roughriders was a thing.)
This drawn out decision reminds me of another drawn out decision that was made by a 23 year old college hockey superstar just last week by a fella named Jimmy Vesey. Jimmy is an American kid who went to Harvard for all four years of his collegiate career and of course the NHL has a ridiculous loophole that allows guys who do that to become free agents if they don't sign with the team that drafted them at the conclusion of their college seasons. Vesey was drafted in the third round of the 2012 draft by the Nashville Predators, a team that beat my beloved Ducks in the first round of the playoffs before falling to San Jose in the seventh game of the second round. Nashville is a growing hockey market, not to the likes of Boston, Toronto, Chicago, or New York just yet, but they are also a better team than all of those guys aside from the perennial favorite Blackhawks. Nashville was smart and traded Jimbo's rights to Buffalo so that they could get a return rather than lose a drafted player for nothing. Literally from May through August the hockey world was waiting for a 23 year old ivy league kid to decide on a team after spurning the consistent playoff team that drafted him. Much like the Las Vegas team naming decision, if Jimmy made his choice quickly it would have left a bad impression but at least would have been over with. Jimmy and Las Vegas were and are gonna look dumb regardless of their decisions but both took the annoying route and want to drag things out. Keep in mind, Jimmy Vesey is 23, a college superstar yes, but 23 years old. There will be top prospects entering the league next season that are 5 years younger than Vesey, the guy who soaked up a dumb amount of spotlight this offseason will be outscored next year by kids who were in 7th grade when he got drafted. A week before Jimmy made his decision, reports were saying he wanted to stay close to home, he lives in Boston and his dad works in Toronto, okay so he'll sign with the Bruins or Maple Leafs, right? nope, he signs with The New York Rangers for christ sake. Jimmy is the girl who leads you on for years then posts a selfie of you two on instagram with the dagger of a caption, "Best Friend!!!" Boston and Toronto were the good guys who sit around patiently waiting for their chance then get best friended on social media.
The Jimmy Vesey and Las Vegas storylines were the only things that hockey fans could really focus on after the stanley cup concluded, both could have been fun for a week and decided on so the rest of us hockey nerds could focus on the 7th round pick 18 year old kids that we will never see play in the NHL tear up a development camp. Fuck Vesey and screw Las Vegas NHL, they will literally be unsuccessful based on their indecisiveness on picking a name that will not be good no matter what it will be. Vesey was the most high profile prospect not last named Laine or Matthews and he will probably put up a 30 (point) spot next year in New York. Maybe I will be able to enjoy his presence on a nice wintry night at the XL center in Hartford, Connecticut.
Colin Kaepernick Hot take? -Barrel
To me this is not really a hot take, because what I like to see Colin K do is storm down the field late in a football game, break tackles and ankles to win a game for his team. I do not think it's right if a guy stays seated during our national anthem, but also, who cares. Seeing someone sit during the national anthem is something I glance at, gather my opinion, then move on with my life. I see people supporting Colin and people against him, I do not particularly care for what he did, but he is his own person so there's nothing to get butt hurt about. There has been a number of African-Americans killed and for Colin to stand up (or I guess sit down) because he is sick of it is respectable, then again I'm thinking cool bro you sat on a fuckin bench looking like a pouty millionaire athlete. Colin's reasons made sense but his execution was lame and caused a stir that fills peoples' news feeds with whiny facebook hardos. I don't care that Colin Kaepernick sat during the national anthem, he can do whatever he wants as a United States citizen and he was vocal about his reasons. Social media has blown this decision out of proportion and now I have to exercise my mouse pad and scroll past the posts and risk mild hand injury, Thanks Obama.
(Note: I wrote everything up until the awards picks on Tuesday. I suck at finishing/doing blogs)
Okay, so I've been meaning to do a Yankees blog for a while. I was gonna write one when they traded Chapman, then when they traded Miller, then when they traded Beltran, then when Tex announced he was retiring at the end of the year, then when they called up Gary Sanchez, then when they announced A-Rod would play his final game last week and he would be released to become a special advisor, then when they called up Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin, then when they went back to back in their first career at bats. But here I am finally, writing the blog way after all of that shit happened. So here's a blog about everything that has gone on with the Yankees in the last 2+ weeks.
Everyone knows the Yankees were sellers at the trade deadline for the first time basically ever. They unloaded closer Aroldis Chapman, set up man Andrew Miller, and RF Carlos Beltran. Two of their best relief pitchers (and pitchers in general) and their best position player are gone. What they got in return was pretty incredible and the Yankees now have a top tier farm system with guys like Clint Frazier and Gleyber Torres leading the way.
The next big thing was that first baseman Mark Teixeira announced he would be retiring at the end of the season. I'm sure it was a tough move for him but it's the right move. He said at the beginning of the year he would like to retire as a Yankee. Given that his deal runs out after the season and the Yankees have some quality young depth at first base with Greg Bird and Tyler Austin, Tex probably figured out that his .190 batting average would not be good enough to get another deal with the Yanks. Instead he'll just call it a career and save himself from anymore trips to the DL. I love Tex, and I'll always be grateful for his major contributions to the 2009 championship. The walk off laser home run against the Twins in the 09 ALDS was an incredible moment.
Then the Yanks decided to call up catcher Gary Sanchez, who has performed pretty well in 11 games so far. He's been a top prospect for a while and it's nice to see him doing well in his time so far. And as I'm writing this, he's hit his 3rd and 4th homers of the season (he's since hit his 5th as well).
And then A-Rod and the Yanks hit us with the bomb that he would play his final game with the Yankees on Friday August 12th. It was a sad day, but given the way the Yankees are heading, and the way he was playing when he got the time to play, it was the right move. He was taking up a roster spot and the Yanks would rather pay him $20 million a year to be a special advisor than bat .200 and take up a spot on the roster. Since Tex announced retirement on his own, I guess the Yanks are okay with waiting out his .190 average for another couple months. Similar to Tex, I'll forever be grateful to A-Rod for dominating the 2009 playoffs after a career of sucking in the postseason and winning that ring. He was simply unbelievable in the playoffs that year and it was awesome to watch. I'll also be grateful to him for letting Jeter stay at shortstop without being a bitch about it like every moronic sports commentator who thought it shoulda gone the other way around. And I also wanna thank him for some of the most unbelievable seasons I've ever had the pleasure of watching, whether it was with steroids or not. Sure, he's a douche for cheating (if he did, still not convinced he did) but the guy made a hell of a turnaround and became a fan favorite these last couple years. He's such a goofball and if you put aside his douchiness, you can certainly learn to love the guy.
Next big news for the Yanks was calling up Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin once A-Rod was off the roster. Neither took much time to make an impact as they hit back to back home runs in their first career at bats on Saturday. Judge would hit another one on Sunday too, and the youth movement in New York is looking very real. I love it.
So that's what's happening with the New York Yankees. Despite selling at the deadline, they are still very much in contention for not only a wild card spot, but the division too. I've seen crazier things happen than a team make up 5.5 games in the division in a month and a half.
