Thursday, December 20, 2007

Mahalo Daily is ready for some football

Okay, ready or not, here it comes, the video I helped to write, direct, produce, and act in.

If you have trouble seeing it here, you can go to Mahalo's website to watch it there.

Monday, December 17, 2007

"Santa Crief" says "Happy Mahalodays"

So we did our Secret Santa in the office today and, me always needing to be the center of attention, decided to dress up for the part:



Here's a group shot of everyone after the gifts were exchanged. Enjoy!

Friday, December 14, 2007

This Bud Isn't For Us

ITEM ONE: Selig Sucks

So was anyone else surprised at the lack of teeth that The Mitchell Report had? Did anyone get caught off guard by the (lack of) findings in the report? Here's what should have happened if baseball had a real commissioner, and not a defacto Head of the Owners Cartel:

(1) Any player asked by Mitchell to provide testimony or answer questions that didn't do so should have been suspended immediately without pay.
(2) Any player now retired who's name appears in the report and didn't answer to Mitchell's interview request should be denied his baseball pension and placed on the lifetime suspension list.
(3) Any current player should be suspended 30 days just for having his name appear in connection.
(4) The commissioner himself, who was in charge of baseball when all this was going on right under his nose, should be forced to resign.

Ever since Fay Vincent was forced in the early 90's, there has been no one who is acting "...in the best interests of baseball...". The commissioner position was created in the first place to help the sport maintain some dignity, so that the sport didn't resemble professional wrestling. When Bud Selig, an owner who only cares about one thing and one thing above all else (money), took over, the sport descended down a slippery slope that it has never truly pulled out of. It seemed like it did, but thanks to a massive fraud perpetrated by owners and players to deceive the public, the truth can now be told: it's credibility rating is zero.

If this were the NCAA, they would rescind the 2000 world championship won by the Yankees, seeing as how more than 1/3 of their roster for that season was named in the report as using steroids, human growth hormones, or whatever they could shoot in their ass to try and gain an advantage. Certainly the conformation of Clemens on that list explains why he threw a half-broken bat back at Mike Piazza in the 2000 World Series, or why his headhunting in 2003 led to the ALCS brawl in Boston where Don Zimmer was "assaulted". It also verifies that Halle Berry was telling the truth about David Justice.

I could go on and on and on and on about this subject, but you've heard it all before. Except for this:

Bud Selig should resign as commissioner for the good of the game. Nothing he does now, short of flying to Afghanistan and capturing bin Laden himself, will change the fact that he was commissioner of baseball when: the World Series was cancelled in 1994, and when players were taking steroids out (and in) the ass on a regular basis. Nothing he does or says now has any weight because while all of this was going on right under his nose, he and the other owners were increasing their profit margins 400% and more.

When the 94 series was blown up, I walked away from baseball. I stopped watching, stopped following boxscores in the paper, watching highlights on SportsCenter. When McGwire and Sosa went on the home run chase in 1998, I begrudgingly came back. Now, when it was painfully obvious that they were amped up on the juice, I have a defacto management report telling me what I already knew, how is it that Selig gets to keep his job? If these kinds of incidents had happened at any regular business, the CEO would either take the fall himself, or be pushed off the cliff for letting this happen on his watch.

But this won't happen, because Selig is the ultimate used car salesman (his actual former business). He has the owners convinced he's done an excellent job. He's done a horrible job. If baseball wants people to take them seriously moving forward, then it should return to having an independent commissioner. Until it does, it might as well have Vince McMahon running the show.

ITEM TWO: Live blogging - now that was something I'll do again
So this past Saturday, I was at the office to watch the Floyd Mayweather-Ricky Hatton pay-per-view. When our boss indicated he'd pick up half the cost if I live blogged it, I said sure. Then I realized I had no idea what the hell live blogging entailed. So after some brief research, I threw myself into the fray and stationed myself to blog the entire proceedings as they happened. It was quite interesting, especially considering that boxing isn't exactly "in my wheelhouse".

Turns out it went better than I thought. The undercard was unwatchable, but the main event did not disappoint at all. And the page actually generated some traffic on our site that night.

So it looks like I may start to make this a habit for big sporting events in the coming months: the BCS National Championship Game, the NFL Playoffs, Super Bowl 42, the NCAA March Madness Selection Show, and others (Hockey Night in Canada). If you want to see how I did, check out this link:

http://www.mahalo.com/Mayweather_Hatton_Live_Coverage

ITEM THREE: Random thoughts

If you haven't seen Veronica Yanco's guest blog posting on Angry Ken's page, click here: I mean, I have no idea what she's talking about, but it was so brilliantly insightful and humorous (whether intentional or not) that it is a MUST read. For some reason, she doesn't have her own blog, but she should... speaking of plugging other blog posts, Beatle fans should check out the Country Caravn posting about top 10 Beatle songs. I'm waiting for the Top 10 Bananarama list myself... did you see the snow in Boston today? Yet another reason why I moved to Santa Monica, today's high temp 60 degrees... Look at the Devils finally figuring out how to play hockey the last 3 weeks. Nice to see them figuring it out... What the hell is wrong with Omar Minaya? How the hell are you going to bring the Mets to training camp with THAT starting staff? Short of Reyes and Wright, whatever Minnesota wants for Santana, give it to them. Talk about a no-brainer... It looks like this coming Thursday will be the internet debut of my Mahalo Daily directorial debut, How to Watch Football as a Couple. Will post it here when ready.

Seriously, Veronica's post is a must read, check it out...

Saturday, December 8, 2007

mayweather-hatton fight live blogging

Hey everybody, I'm making my first attempt at live blogging on Mahalo tonight for the Floyd Mayweather-Ricky Hatton welterweight title fight. Go to this link to watch in real time:

http://www.mahalo.com/Mayweather_Hatton_Live_Coverage

I'll have more on this, and my thoughts on the Heisman, early this week...