Ticketmaster...........the new mafia?

I'm on the soapbox again my friends, this time I dust off my hatred of ticketmaster. I was under the assumption that monopolies in this country were illegal, don't bring up MLB or the NFL, NHL or NBA, while all of these have extremely high barriers to entry they are not necessarily monopolies. Take the AFL it was at one time its own entity was bought by the NFL because the NFL recognized it as a competitor. Pont being if you have the money to create a professional sports league, there is nothing stopping you. That brings me to Ticketmaster who is now in the process of merging with Live Nation, which will give them unilateral control over the entire concert process. Recently tickets for a Bruce Springsteen sold out in 1 minute, consumers were refered to Ticketnow, which is a 2nd hand ticket seller, much like Stubhub. Now let me put this in a real world example, I took my at the time girlfriend to a Yankee game in the Bronx in May of 2007, as we came up out of the subway there was a black kid being lead away in handcuffs, his crime was "scalping two tickets" and I highly doubt the prices on them were that high, the Yankees were playing the Mariners. So how is it Ticketmaster is allowed to drop 10,000 thousand tickets onto a second hand scalping site with no ramifications? Two words. Rich. Whitey. Its a disgusting process, If you are lets say a dad looking to buy 4 tickets to a baseball game to take the kids and the old lady to, you are going to shell out big money for the tickets and money for "convienience fee" how is that convienient for me when I don't have a choice in the matter. I think the government should step in, maybe take sometime off from chasing Bonds and Tejada and help the American consumer. Here is my system for combating this plague of corporate greed. Have two sets of numbers on the tickets, available only to a ticketholder, similar to the serial number used on our currency. Regulate the scalping sights so that if the ticket broker/ seller charges more than 3% above the face value of the ticket the ticket will become null and void, also close delivery charges to no more than $10 to close any possible loop holes. This will force brokers off the ineternet and onto the stadium grounds at which point buying huge lots of tickets will become economically inefficient, because the tickets being available at the stadium by a large number of brokers would create an inelastic price system where the consumer would be in charge. Also we can blame this phenomenom on corporate America, a large buyer of tickets to sporting events, capitalism at it's best, screw the consumer on tickets to see sporting events even though they are the one's paying for the new stadiums with their tax dollars. Shameful. Before you go to bed tonight say your prayers that I don't get accepted to law shool rich whitey, becasue I'm going to come after you like a wolverine with a crack problem.

A-Rod admits to steroid use.............

Let's get it straight folks, A-Rod took steroids, several years ago, before substances were "banned". Before you call into ESPN to bash the A-Rod's, Giambi's, Petit's and others who admitted to using steroids. let's look at a different angle. Could they possibly have become products of their environment's? I think so, take A-Rod for example, if I go out tomorrow and take steroids I still won't be able to hit a Papelbon fastball or a Halladay change-up, let alone hit it 400 feet consistently, for years. I played baseball for 20 years and never hit a home run. So lets quit making federal cases out of these "disgraced" baseball players and focus on the real culprit, which is capitalism. To quote my Dad "no one is going to pay $75.00 a ticket to watch me take inventory at Publix" that was in response to someone saying professional athletes salaries are way too high. MLB is a marketable commodity which generates $17 billion a year, players are under pressure from owners, fans, espn, sports writers and even baseball memorabilia compaines to include jersey's and baseball cards. When I go to see a baseball game I am comfortable with the fact that the worst guy on the field is 6 milllion times better than me. So when there is that kind of pressure players look for an "edge" to stay on top of their game, is steroids the answer probably not. At the same time none of these guys are commiting crimes against society, they are under intense pressure to perform day in and day out or risk getting put out to pasture at 25 with no marketable skills. If ESPN were around when Ruth or Chamberlain played do you think they would talk about their womanizing for 24 hours a day? Under today's microscope people are bound to screw up and makes mistakes, "OMG A-rod took steroids, OMG Phelps is a pothead" Get a job people, this is entertainment not life or death, so take off your white wig and get off your high horse, if you want to be pissed off at someone stand outside your local bank and throw needles at the branch manager when he walks out to his $200,000 Benz that we are paying taxes for him to drive or go to a church and throw small dildo's at the catholic priests when they walk out of their tax shelter/ house of "God". Gimme a break and find a better outlet for your pent up hostilities. Thank you.

Superbowl Write up and thoughts.......

Well, I hit my spread bet of the Cardinals +7 and won my 3 prop bests. Total profits were 77 units, that makes me happy. However, the officiating made me unhappy. I have not seen so many phantom calls since the Steelers-Seahawks Superbowl 2 years ago. The Cardinals had I believe 11 penalties for 116 yards?? Are you serious right now? I will test my hypothesis that referee Terry Macauley had indeed taken the Steelers Money Line. It seemed that everytime the Cardinals had a 3rd down play it was brought back by a phantom hold or "personal foul". Ironically Santonio Holmes was not called for unsportsmanlike conduct after his touchdown celebration. That penalty would have marched off 15 yards in the Cards favor after the kickoff with 35 seconds left. At this point Terry Macualey was sweating bullets getting ready to wash down his cianide pills with some gatorade. Then they don't review the Kurt Warner "fumble"?? It sure looked to me like an incomplete pass. Did anyone else notice Kurt Warner's wife has become attractive? Maybe I had to many freshies but she has had some work done. So it's official now, I dislike the Steelers more than any other team. Also I guess John Madden had the superbowl script with him in the booth as he called the Warner endzone pick right before he threw it, coincidence? Even a professional handicapper like myself couldn't have hit that prop bet. After going all in on my Bodog account I settled down at Gator's Dockside with some friends, and fielded their questions about sports gambling. Some of the questions I had were "I don't understand what does the +7 mean?" "What happens if you lose? Do I need to drive you to an ATM to pay a bookie?" I said you do know what a bookie does right? "Yeah, they pay you" was their response. Other questions I fielded were "Is Billy Vegas really in jail for illegal bookmaking?" Yes. He is. Vegas also has him on probabtion. "Why do you keep saying bye bye money and slamming your beer down as well as your phone?" I always find it amusing watching football with "normies" which is a person who doesn't bet on football, that's OK not everyone likes money!! I liked the Bruce Springsteen halftime show, Springsteen still put on the best concert I have seen to date in my life. Those of you who don't like Springsteen should throw out your Fall Out Boy CD's and board a plane for Baghdad sans IBA. See you next season readers when I will continue my quest of digging into Vegas's coffers!!

President Obama's Inaugaration

I woke up this morning expecting to see a nice ceremony. I have to say I was disapointed. It was disturbing for me to see people celebrating President Obama's African American roots instead of celebrating a new direction and new hope for our country. Lest we forget people that President Obama was raised by his white mother and his white grandmother, however, there was no mention of that. Also, college educated white voters (like myself) put up huge numbers at the polls in support of President Obama. The whole thing left me feeling disenfranchised and questioning my vote, perhaps I should have voted for Senator Mccain. The reverend that spoke the envocation added to my dismay. I get the civil rights deal. I don't want it jammed down my throat all day long, then to add insult to injury I have to listen to Jesse Jackson and Russell Simmons give their two cents. I felt the race card was played too much, at this point in our nations history we should be uniting as one, not bringing up issues from the past.

NFC and AFC championship covers

After going 3-1 (thanks Chargers) last week, I'm looking for 2-0 this week, let's get right to my picks.

Cardinals +4 vs Eagles: I don't see how the Eagles can win this game, Philly likes to win outright when they are dogs but hates covering spreads and winning when they are favored (Redskins, Bengals). I know that the Eagles milk cartoned Arizona on Thanksgiving, but this is a different Cardinals team. Arizona is 7-2 at home this year and have been playing out of their minds in the playoffs, Warner has pass protection, they are running the ball, and they are defending the pass well. The Eagles ground game is in bad shape with Westbrook hurting, so Mcnabb will have to do most of it through the air. I like the Cardinals to win this one outright by 1 to 3 points.

Ravens +6 @ Steelers: Big Ben burned me last week and now he owes me money. The Steelers won the regular season meeting 13-9 on a last minute "touchdown". If Ben throws deep they might be able hurt the Ravens here, as I see the deep ball as their one weakness, but then again Ed Reed could come away with a couple of pics as well. The Chargers put zero pressure on Rothlisberger, something the Ravens will be able to do all game long, let's not forget the Steelers O-line is not the best in the league. Flacco continues to play well, what a steal that guy has become. Flacco has not thrown a pic or been sacked in the playoffs. This game will be tight, but in the end I think they Steelers will fail to pull this one out of their rear end. Ravens win by 1.

I have now seen everything.

While checking my email, I noticed a video on Yahoo! It was about "Joe the Plumber"who has now taken a job with a conservative news site PJTV as a war reporter, he is currently in Isreal reporting about the war with Hamas. "Joe the Plumber" is also advising President Obama on what he should do to support Isreal. Couple things come to mind here. #1. "Joe the Plumber" who the fuck do you think you are? You couldn't even get certified as a fucking plumber, and you are telling President Obama a Harvard Law grad and a Columbia grad, what he needs to do? You fucking piece of shit, you think you are entitled to give your opinion to the president of the U.S about a war? Answer me this "Joe the Plumber" how long were you in Iraq? I didn't see you there, because I was there for 15 months. So since you have never fought in a war and have no education you have no right to say A FUCKING thing, you see "Joe the Plumber" I have both, Degrees and a Combat Patch, you should try one of them sometime. So let me spell this out for you in simple terms, I'll hold your hand like a small fucking child and wipe the drool from your bubbling lips till it sinks through your Mr. Clean skull and absorbs into that very small, very limited brain of yours: People who can't pass plumber tests, that have no college degree and were too scared to serve their country have NO right to tell a President what he should do about Isreal. Since your such a fucking tough guy over in a "war zone" with your shaved head, goatee, limited vocabulary and diminshed capacity IQ of yours, I hope you get shot, cause you are a fucking slug of a human being, why don't you go back to Ohio put your fucking Buckeyes gear on and plunge a pile of shit down a toilet you useless fuck.

2009 Update

I will be tracking my covers for the new year. After the College Bowl Game Season I went 12-2, losing only with Penn St. and Texas ATS. My NFL action has to get better though, so far this year with my NFL action I am 5-3, not my best work.