Well, hello there

Buongiono

Bueno dias

(See, training camp wasn’t an entire waste of time after all)

Welcome to this little corner of the cyber world and if this interweb thing isn’t just a passing fad, this should be a cool thing to do.

Think of it as Nothin' But (Inter)Net v 2.0, an upgrade of sorts, more snark, more snippets, more stuff for you to discuss amongst ourselves before you send notes telling me I'm absolutely wrong about everything.

The aim is to make daily updates at least, looks ahead and back, all the news that isn’t fit to print, fun stuff. As always, we stay interactive and welcome your comments but, trust me, the next dude, or dudette who prefaces a question with "I know neither team would do it and it wouldn't work under the salary cap anyway, but what about trading …" will have unleashed on them computer gremlins the likes of which they’ve never imagined. (I can’t actually unleash them, but someone who works with me can. And will).

Okay, on with the show, as they used to say.

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There seems to be a huge amount of man-love out there for Garbo (maybe some lady love, too, since some of the names of writers who flooded the in-box on the weekend were unisex) and concern over his fate in the rotation.

But the weekend story on who's in the top 9 or 10 didn't omit him by mistake. Right now, he's not there.

It's Calderon, Nesterovic, Delfino and Humphries first off the bench, with Dixon and Graham right behind them.

That could change, though, so don't bury Garbo yet. The people I talk to say he’s being out-played in practice right now by Hump and that’s the determining factor in Sam Land.

Of course, it might have more to do with Hump than Garbo. If Humphries pulls stunts like trying to lead a fast-break, ignoring a guard ahead of him and trying to dribble the length of the court and dunk (as he did, unsuccessfully) on Friday night, he's going to get buried on the bench for a while and, presto, it's Garbo time!

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Another year, another FanFest open practice.

People who don't normally get to sit in the good seats did; it was relaxed and entertaining and you got to see players in different roles (Maceo Baston firing up three-pointers isn't going to be a common sight).

Others I wish we'd seen:

Rasho vs. Hump in three-point shooting.

Sam vs. Alex English in a shooting contest.

And, not sure if this is a portend or what but Jamario Moon beat Luke Jackson in what might have been a "Winner Gets The Job" contest.

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You know how players are always saying they welcome exhibition games because it's nice to play someone else because "we're getting tired of beating each other up in practice?"

Seems it’s a legit statement in Houston.

Fran Blinebury in the Chronicle last week tossed out these bon mots:

"We've got guys going at each other, a couple fights, couple arguments," said Tracy McGrady. "That's what I expected."

"It gets very heated. We're not playing out there. It's not a joke," said Mike James.

I'm worried. Very worried.

You don't think scraps on a team that employs both Rafer Alston and Mike James could get out of hand quickly, do you?

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Oh, finally, you do realize that The Greatest Baseball Team In The World (Not including the Erindale Lions minor Little League Yankees) has now not lost a single World Series game in 89 years.

Not bad.

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Okay, that’s all for now, kiddies.

We'll be back if they decide to do something dramatic to clean up that 14th, 15th, 16th man thing before 6 tonight (the bet here is that Bryan Colangelo can't pull off a huge trade and they simply waive Luke Jackson) or we'll be back first thing tomorrow.

Smith

Comments

[Doug Grittani]

Are we forgetting the sox in 86 and 75? They lost some WS games then didn't they?

[10FootBongz]

Doug,
Does this mean that you are now typing up your articles in your basement? Do you still have to get dressed to go to work, or are pajamas permitted?

[Scott Patterson]

The Red Sox haven't lost a World Series game in 89 years? Seems to me they lost four in 1986, four more in 1975, four more in 1967...

[Urethra Franklin]

Doug - it's buongiorno ;)

I keep getting the sense that all is not right in Raptorland between Garbo and the team. It's just a hunch but you kind of get the feeling that there is some residual bad feelings on both sides over the whole Garbo-playing-for Spain-on-the-bum-leg-when-he-probably-should-have had-surgery-instead situation.

Have you been able to dig anything up on this (I mean real reporters work - not media scrum interviews!!)?

[Kinnon Yee]

Hey Doug!
Congrats on getting in on the daily blog thing. I guess you and Grange are both trying to carve out some more space on the web. :)

It's pretty funny with the whole Rockets PG situation. Could you imagine Francis, James, and Skip in a 3 way brawl? I guess the good side is that it's unlikely they'll play all 3 at the same time, so there won't be any of that Skip-Jalen stuff going on in Houston :)

[Richard P.]

HEY! Doug, Doug, Doug, baseball season is OVER!! - thank the lords. Keep all that baseball jargon stuff to Richard Griffin's blog.

Now the more fun, up-beat, up-tempo, shorter professional sport game begins in juuuust over a day. Been counting the days all summer. Entered already into 2 fantasy pools. Got my boys from here and NY razzin' and hurling obscene volleys at each other over what player or team is better that the other. Got the daily [$1 per game] bets all lined up. already pre-picked Spurs, Warriors and Rockets with points to win in day 1. And today we’ll be picking the predictions for all the best in all stats and MVP, rookie, 6th, division winners, conference and champs, etc., etc…. Man, busy, fun day….

But more importantly if yer a NBA basketball fan you know what time it is?!?!

IT'S GAME TIME!!

Richard P.

[Grant]

Hi Doug – I like that I won’t have to wait for Tuesdays and Fridays to get your take on the Raptors anymore!

Last year you described the 2005 opening day starting line-up (of Loren Woods, Chris Bosh, Jalen Rose, Joey Graham, and Mike James) as the most talent challenged group of opening day starters in Raptor’s history. Where would you rank this year’s group, assuming it is Bargnani, Bosh, Kapono, Parker, and Ford?

[Richard P.]

Doug! More baseball? Should I send you ther link to Griffin's blog? Shesshh....