TIMING. (AND ICE DRAGONS)

Just a quick one on my now very boring Friday nights…

1. Greetings and salutations, people.  Watching the US Open Final and going to type a few words for you.  Let’s turn and burn.
2. Yes.  It is the FINAL.  Whoever wins this mammoth matchup between Del Potro and Nadal will win in straight sets…unless they tire each other to exhaustion.  I say mammoth because if you watch these two play, it is VERY aggressive play.  Basically, if you hate tennis, this is the match you would want to watch to have a prayer at liking tennis.
3. First set was typical.  Stalemate of Del Potro’s lethal forehand and serve against Nadal playing Floyd Mayweather and figuring the guy’s game out for the night.
4. And then Nadal won the second set 6-0 with some BRILLIANT shot making.  Entertaining to say the least.
5. Ok.  To other things.  Timing, all.  WHY does Maria Sharapova’s new book come out about being unstoppable and talking about Serena in a very…derogatory/ non tennis…way RIGHT when people started to like her again for winning a couple of matches to start the Open out?  Bad timing, and now the haters have more right to hate.  Not the brightest bulb on the tree is Maria.
6. This Michael Bennett thing is interesting.  On one hand, you have an incident that at first glance LOOKS like something this whole sitting down during the anthem movement is speaking against.  But, now the NFL won’t investigate it.  I GET believing M.B. for what it is.  But cover your bases, and let’s not TRY and make cops look bad at their jobs.  Do the due diligence and show us that it is indeed an incident worth noting.
7. When typing that last hook, I noticed that words like “noting” and “nothing” are literally ONE letter different.  Two different things meaning almost opposite things.  Man, it must be hard to learn our all over the board language.
8. Oh, and more bad timing on the Bennett thing.  Police, military, and firefighters are coming out with the Browns this weekend, as they have been the biggest sitters lately.
9. Actually, suit those guys up, Browns brass.  You will need them against my now unstoppable Steelers.
10. Nadal is coming back because simply A) he was scared of the forehand (as he should be to a point) in the first set and now B) is recognizing that HIS specialty is artfully moving a player back and forth around the court.  He is being bold, hitting it all over the place again, and man is it showing.  Decimating him right now.
11. Things changed ever since he made that ball boy kill that bug (you people watching this would get that).
12. Earthquakes, multiple hurricanes., Trump in office, Equifax hacked, North Korea…if this is the end of the world, I just wanted to say I appreciate you all very, very much.
13. So, what is punishment doesn’t seem so bad.  Unemployed NFL kicker Josh Brown gets punished 6 games for domestic abuse, and they are starting the count on the suspension THIS week.  Dude now has six weeks to be on NFL LinkedIn, or Monster, or CareerBuilder, or however people find jobs these days.
14. What I found odd about the Pats loss last night was that they got BEAT.  It wasn’t blown calls or bad bounces.  It was a whipping.  What an odd game.  If that early TD by Gronk gets on the board, that game is a BLOW out.  Instead, Berry makes a fourth down stop and the thing goes the other way.
15. Eric Berry.  Dude fights back from almost DYING, and now is sidelined by an Achilles injury for the year.  Sad.
16. And you can love OR hate the Pats.  There is something mesmerizing and joyful about watching The Hoodie and Golden Boy being utterly hopeless in their tactics in the game.
17. I hate the Pats now too.  I barely had sent my money in for my losers pool and now I am out.  Sure, I was greedy about taking a Thursday game against a decent team and wanting to be advancing while everyone else sweated it out on the weekend.  But, don’t tell me you saw the Chiefs doing that.  Don’t tell me that you saw Alex Smith ringing up video game numbers.  I like what Steelers Depot sent out on Twitter.  The blow up of the Death Star in Star Wars after everyone found that one sweet spot to beat it.  Teams will be watching last night’s tape on end.
18. In case you care, I played against Tom Brady in fantasy last night.  Good, right?  Yeah.  Except for the same dude had Hunt and HIS 55 pts.  Ugghhh.
19. Oh, and my brain doesn’t register the Pats loss as a loss.  It registers it as one step closer to the Steelers getting Tom at OUR crib this year.
20. An old bartending friend of mine is having a birthday party ALL WEEKEND.  That sounds fun I guess.  But, I thought chicks were the only people allowed to have weekend long, week long, and month long birthdays.
21. If you want the Dodgers to keep losing, I guess just call on me.  Whenever I say how GOOD they are, they lose.  They are losing a lot suddenly.  I think they are only 40 games up on .500.  (looking)  Ok, 34 games to be exact, and 38 games up on the Giants.
22. What’s that?  You want them to keep losing?  Ok.  “Wow, the Dodgers are SO good in their rotation and lineup and will NOT be stopped this year.”
23. There is another BLADERUNNER coming out, WITH Harrison Ford????  That is stellar.  Harrison wouldn’t be in a shitty remake.  I am in.  Bladerunner was one of the few sci-fi movies I consider really, really good.  
24. The Bengals locked up Vontaze Burfict.  I guess when you can’t win playoff games, you need to reward all warm bodies including the physical specimens with weird personalities, small dogs, and illegal hits galore.  I guess Pacman Jones DOES need a drinking buddy.
25. Thoughts and prayers to my parents, who are moving to a hotel in Vero Beach before Irma spreads her vicious wings.  Stay safe, Mom and Dad.
26. And I hate Irma because she ruined temporarily my favorite spot in the world, St. John and the Virgin Isles.  We are supposed to go there again next year.  Damn you, Irma.  You wrecked the best bar in the world (I actually MEAN that).  The Soggy Dollar.  
27. So, I guess I have to applaud the windows installer who put UP the cash daring for a 15 game win streak by the Indians, but I really feel bad for the guy who ignored his wife’s prodding about how they needed new windows and he said “after the summer, wife.”  That is BAD timing.
28. I was right by the way.  I got sick after my blog the other night.  I actually called into work.  I believe that was my third sick day in 7 years at my job.  And what is sad is I only took OFF of work for the OTHER people.  I would have gone in, but this new generation of staying home when you are sick made me make the call.  I did it for OTHERS.  I hate missing work.  Not just a line.  I feel literally useless as I watch daytime shows I typically have to watch reruns of.  I would say the only bonus of the day was that I fought unconsciousness during the Venus tennis match.
29. Classy, Tracy McGrady, and GOOD timing.  Way to keep the focus on Houston during the biggest moment of your career.  That took a lot and WAS noticed by many.
30. Sometimes you get just SAD.  I can make all of the A&M football jokes I want, but I NEVER want to hear about racist letters and threats being sent to the coach the week after a bad loss.  Never.  And the fact that it came from a country club is insult to injury.
31. If you see a FOCUSED blog in the coming days, I owe SB Nation a focused article.  I haven’t decided on the topic yet, but at least you escape my random dribble for an outing.
32. Probably not though.  I will just add my dribble at the end.  My mind moves too fast to not type the dumb ideas up.
33. I love that when Goodell went on the field Thursday night, Al Michaels thought it was the Chiefs coming on the field.
34. 5-2 in the second set, Nadal.  Geez, man.  You might finish your match before I finish my brief blog.  THAT wasn’t the plan, but you go.
35. This is like my dream semifinals on the women’s side.  All Americans.  All players I love.  For you people not hearing the names Vandeweghe, Stephens, or Keys, know you will hear them much more in years to come.  American tennis is great on the women’s side suddenly.  Not sure what the men are doing.
36. Odd TIMING.  I am SOOOOOOOO pumped for football ALL weekend and plan on watching everything, yet here I am toying with tennis talk.  But I played tennis seriously.  I know my stuff.  Mats Wilander was my guy, although my play was the polar opposite of how he played.  Kind of like Zeke is my favorite basketball player, but I was more like Kurt Rambis on the floor.
37. Once Hunt scored his 55th point in fantasy last night, I decided I needed a change of paradigm.  So, instead of being The Fillerbuster, I have changed it to Ice Dragon.  Why?  Because just like with my complaints about GOT’s writing flaws, when I lose at fantasy this week, I can just say the same thing I said after the GOT season.  “Who cares what they did wrong?  We have an ICE DRAGON!”  
38. So, I am practicing religiously for my upcoming piano coming out party at Drew’s wedding next week.  I initially told you about this and mentioned how they picked a Celine Dion for their official wedding song.  Well, I don’t know the names of her songs.  I just put them all under the same umbrella.  Anyway, I didn’t realize they picked the CAPTAIN of the freaking team!!!!  Yes, they chose the Titanic song, and for my piano coming out party, I have to play that song beautifully (along with some great Debussy, Billy Joel, Medelssohn, Mancini (yes, Mom, I got your song in the lineup), and others.  I need a flow chart to show how funny that is though about Titanic.  I was in the movie theater just praying for the boat to sink MUCH faster.  
39. Leonardo watched the tennis match live tonight.  He even had a Dodgers cap on.  Flow chart again.
40. The Clippers are releasing Star Seats for this season.  Not even the most expensive in the league for pricing, they still tally $4k per GAME.  I can’t imagine being rich enough to think that I can get $4k of entertainment in a three hour span.  WITH a team that hasn’t even won anything.
41. One thing about Kaep I think people keep forgetting.  Dude just gave away millions leaving San Fran.  Dude sat during the anthem.  BUT, he isn’t just sitting.  He pledged another $100k this week, and is $100k short of his promise to pledge $1 million for his cause.  His actions are backing up what we saw on TV, and he doesn’t even have a job.  Which he should.
42. I don’t remember the last time a kicker had a contract dispute right before the season, but Janikowski is now signed.  I was worried a hurricane and money were going to totally RUIN my first fantasy football week.  Instead, Kareem Hunt will.  But, we have ICE DRAGONS.  See?  It already works.
43. I think if we are counting strikes like in baseball, Bryce is on strike two with me.  One, not running the bases fast.  Two, this new haircut, complete with corn rows.  Three, and you are out, sir.  AND your awesome tagline.  I will move to your rival, Mike Trout, as he is from where I am from in South Jersey.  
44. Elliott will play, whatever crazy rules dictate that.  I am fine with it overall, but that is mainly because I wasn’t sure HOW he was punished in the first place for a bunch of stuff he isn’t officially guilty of (at least last I heard but I am lacking a flow chart for this one).
45. I put links in here.  Some are more worth your time than others.  I PROMISE you this 15 second click is WELL worth overriding whatever you are doing in the next minute.  PROMISE.  You HAVE to click on this.  https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-football/watch-pretty-sure-fastest-referee-country/
46. I will move on, but YOUR loss if you didn’t watch that shit.  CRAZY AWESOME.  Like Ice Dragon cool…
47. Interesting tidbit to tell your friends I learned on my sick day Wednesday.  Coco and Pliskova have faced each other four times.  Every time, they have gone to a first set tiebreaker.  In each match, the winner of that tiebreaker won the match.
48. You might find that boring.  I LOVE that stuff.
49. The Champions League can sue the Big3 all they want about anything.  Ain’t no one going to win the case against Ice Cube, nor have the cash to front up lawyer money that he can even IF they have a case.
50. UVA football is undefeated and the best team in the land.  I am saying this on Friday as this is when things go downhill.  Thanks, though, William & Mary.  We have you.  Indiana?  You are welcome most likely.   TIMING, people, and UVA doesn’t have much left this year.
51. So, THIS is what I hate about the new MLB wildcard system.  If you are the two wildcards, you play one play in game.  That is righteous in most cases, but this year it looks like my complaint comes alive again.  The DBacks are hot and are about 7 games up on anyone.  But, they can’t catch the Dodgers.  They are in no man’s land, but are DEFINITELY better than the other wildcard teams.  What sucks?  THEY still have to do the one game dance.  That is wrong in my opinion.  If you must do this system, make it three games.
52. An inside the park grand slam?  Wow.  Who was it against, Fillerbuster?  Hmmmm.  Let me guess.  Oh yeah.  The Phillies.  Dammit.  https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/09/08/michael-taylor-washington-nationals-inside-park-home-run
53. Maybe I will get to my drop down tabs on my site this weekend, but probably not.
54. I am not giving a bunch of college or pro picks this week, but will make a note of it to do so moving forward.  Just no bandwidth this week (I want to get OFF my computer finally today and have a full day tomorrow).  But, I will say I WANT OU to win but am not sure it can happen, and I think that Clemson should watch its back against Auburn.  I kind of like Auburn at first glance.  I think UGA will find itself a little lost with a new QB (TIMING) and Notre Dame will beat them or at least make it close, and USC will handle business after an early Stanford scare.  Not looking any more before posting as I need to go put in MY bets.
55. Nadal is going to beat me in winning by a hair crazy enough.  It is 5-2 in the fourth and I will be posting MAYBE before he wraps up this now route.
56. I am back on FB again but more so my wife can tag me with new pics as opposed to joining again the FB crowd.  But, I WILL need FB when I start ramping this site and my SB Nation articles up, so the social media tool is now operational again.
57. The theme?  It was going to be Seinfeld and “Time…is what he is indicating there,” but the Ice Dragon was just too cool to pass up.
58. 
59. Plus, GOT has been done for weeks now, so that is LATE timing.  I don’t care.
60. That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoyed or are at least more informed.  Will I blog again?  That is a CLOWN question, bro (without corn rows).  Peace.