Looks or Confidence?

The scene: Downtown (of DT as it is affectionately called) Roanoke on a Saturday night.

The situation: We are on the hunt to see what is more important in the eyes of the opposite sex, looks or confidence.

Before I answer that question above, I have to give a rundown on the previous antics that led up to the asking of the golden question.  We first started our night at the famed Cornerstone Bar (where we, as Salem Red Sox employees, enjoy a discount on our drinking.  Except for Saturday night, where a assumed new bartender didn’t know the deal ($2 beers, $4 shots) even after we told her.  Let’s just say that my bill was larger then I thought it was going to be) and watched the delightful men’s college basketball game between the UCLA Bruins and the Washington Huskies (I use delightful as a joke because I think Washington doubled up UCLA) while enjoying a few adult beverages. 

After a few brews and shots; and after the cupid shuffle (which is the favorite song of every one in Roanoke apparently.  It’s the only song that gets everyone on the dance floor no matter what and yes, Roanoke is two years behind in it’s music selection.  Except for Lady GaGa, they play plenty of her) Steven (sales guy and roommate at Massanutten) decide to venture off to see what other attractions we can find downtown.  Now, I’ve gone out a few times in my time here and I’ve only been to Cornerstone and a bar/restaurant/cougar central called Metro so I jumped at the chance to go somewhere new. We ended up at some bar that I don’t know the name of but had the word BBQ in it in some fashion.  This was my type of bar because I was drinking a tallboy Pabst and listening to a live band playing fast Bob Dylan covers and other bluegrass/Brian Setzer type music which was a lot of fun to listen to. 

After we finished our beers we decided to go to Club 202, which is Roanoke’s dance club.  Now, unbeknown to me, Roanoke is trying to be a very classy place.  Upon arriving at 202 I was told that I cannot enter because I was wearing a hoody (which really was a glorified long sleeved t-shirt that had a hood) and a hat.  After being denied entrance at 202 we moved onto a bar called Corned Beef which also had a dress code (making me remove my t-shirt with a hood and stuffing it into my pocket).  Corned Beef was an interesting bar that had a dance floor on its top floor so Steve and I made our way up to that area to check it out.  After a few minutes the rest of our crew showed up after finally leaving Cornerstone and joined us on the dance floor.  Fellow intern Peter lasted all of two minutes before feeling disgusted by the surrounding people and the atmosphere before saying that he’s out of there and he was gone quicker then Urban Meyer stayed retired.  Couldn’t really blame him though.  The crowd was very suspect and what do you expect at a low rate “club” at midnight on a Saturday.

So how does this have to do with the question of looks or confidence?  Well, Andrew (marketing/ graphics guy) told us that if we were to leave Corned Beef that he would make a move on a chick that we all wanted him to make a move on earlier and, as the story goes, could have made a move on as late as last year.  So, obviously we all wanted to see this happen and happily obliged to leave Corned Beef to return to Cornerstone in hopes to see magic happen.  Only it never did.  On our way to the Waffle House (obviously) we found out the reason why.  Andrew confessed to having no confidence when it came to girls.  That lead us to a drunken rant about how girls like confidence and even if you don’t have it you have to pretend to have it (a la Andy from 40 Year Old Virgin).

We were all sitting in our booth as the waitress came upon our conversation and was about to be a key player in the hot topic of the night.  Kyle (fellow intern) asked the innocent question of “What do girls like more, looks or confidence?”  Our waitress paused for a bit and had this as a response, “Well, I’m not really in to guys.” Yeah.  That just happened.  After she said that I quickly returned to my menu and gave out a “uhhhh, I’ll have…” as quickly as I could to deflect the awkwardness that was just created. 

Long story short, we never found out the answer to our question and created an embarrassing situation in the process.  Plus we were drunk in a Waffle House at 2:30 in the morning dropping f-bombs like sailors causing a guy behind me in the pay line to say “no class at the waffle house tonight”.  Sorry buddy, no need to act like you are a saint in front of your girlfriend. 

All in all it was a good night.  As good of one that you can have in the city of Roanoke. Thee end

Trade Me

Will these players be swapping uni’s soon? 

Do you know what is one of my favorite things to do on the internet (besides looking at porn, obviously…)?  It’s a little thing called the NBA Trade Machine on espn.com.  If you are unfamiliar with the Trade Machine, then you have a void in your life and I will help you fill it.  The Trade Machine is a webpage that you can use to do hypothetical trades with various NBA teams.  Want to trade Lebron for D-Wade?  Well you can do that if the salaries match up (they do) and then ESPN NBA annalist John Hollinger will predict how many wins gained or lost as a result of the trade (for the Lebron D-Wade Trade, Cavs projected wins decrease by 7 and Miami’s increase by 6) and so on. 

I’ve had a lot of fun this this in the past, making the T-Wolves a NBA Juggernaut but it’s time to get serious. Sort of.  Here are few NBA trades that could happen and the reasoning behind such trades in my eyes.

Milwaukee trades Luke Ridnour and Joe Alexander to Golden State for Corey Maggette and CJ Watson (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yfkmy55)

Why: Milwaukee is on the cusp of a playoff birth for the first time in years with an electric, yung point guard and a solid big man that is finally playing up to his potential.  What do they need?  Someone to score the ball.  Corey Maggette has proven that he can do that and it’s not like Golden State has anything to play for.  Golden State gets Ridnour’s expiring contract and Milwaukee picks up another young point guard to back up Brandon.  Easy.

Wins Projections: Milwaukee +4, Golden State –5

Cleveland trades JJ Hickson, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Delonte West to the Toronto Raptors for Chris Bosh and Marco Belinelli (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yl4xwbx)

Why: Everyone thinks that Cleveland is going after Amare when they should really be focusing on Chris Bosh.  Bosh may be harder to pry from Toronto because he apparently likes it there but what Toronto needs to realize is that they aren’t going to get out of the first round of the playoffs, no matter who they face (as of right now it would be Boston) so they should save some cash and try and get players for Bosh before he walks and they get nothing.  JJ Hickson and Delonte West are nothing special but they are better then nothing.

Wins Projections: Cleveland +5, Toronto –13

Boston trades Jesus Shuttlesworth and Big Baby (or Uno Uno as he wants to be called) to Phoenix for Amare Stoudemire and Jared Dudley (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yjxz8f8)

Why: Boston isn’t getting any younger and while trading for another big man doesn’t make much basketball sense for the Celtics to do, Amare would be a welcomed addition to the lineup with an aging Kevin Garnett being able to take longer rests to be ready for what could be a final playoff run.  Also, can you imagine a lineup with a healthy KG and Amare in it?  Not much D but watch out for the oops raining down on the opponents. Perkins would obviously work his way in somehow to pick up the defensive slack.  Also they would get rid of Jesus’ huge contract while picking up a good shooter in Dudley.  Phoenix turns Amare into Big Baby and cap space.

Wins Projections: Boston +3, Phoenix –5

Houston trades Tracy McGrady to Sacramento for Kevin Martin and Kenny Thomas (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yz82qxe)

Why: Houston has been looking for a team to dump McGrady and his contract on and Sacramento could be that landing spot.  Houston gets a scoring guard to replace McGrady and also Thomas’ expiring contract.  Everybody wins.

Wins Projections: Houston +4, Sacramento –5

San Antonio trades Richard Jefferson to Golden State for Monta Ellis and Devean George (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yg7y4tb)

Why: The Richard Jefferson experiement isn’t working in San Antonio so why not swap him with a young and exciting player that is having his own problems in a system?  Monta may not play any defense or shoot all that well, but he can push the tempo for the Spurs and give them a slasher scorer that they do not have when Tony Parker is hurt (which he is quite often).  Who knows, maybe Monta will even learn how to play D in Popovich’s system and having Tim Duncan there to teach him.  I’m sure we’ll never know either…

Wins Projections: San Antonio +2, Golden State –2

Memphis trades Rudy Gay, Mike Conley, and Sam Young to Portland for Andre Miller and Martell Webster (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ykbr3cr)

Why: There has been a rumor all season that Andre Miller is not happy with his role with the Blazers and that he and coach Nate McMullen have not gotten along.  Memphis wants a point guard as bad as I want this snow to go away and they are getting a good one in Miller but in return they are losing a promising young player in Gay in the process.  Portland gets athletic and adds to their stable of tweeners that they already have on the roster.

Wins Projections: Memphis +4, Portland –4 (apparently Hollinger doesn’t like this trade.  I bet Portland would be better off with Gay)

Detroit trades Kwame Brown, Chris Wilcox and Chucky Atkins to New York for Jared Jeffries and Jordan Hill (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ylq4bw6)

Why: Can anyone say cap space?  New York has done everything possible to get Lebron and this is no exception. At this rate, the Knicks will have two players under contract for next year (the immortal Toney Douglas and Danilo Gallinari).  Let the sweepstakes begin.

Wins Projections: No change for either team because both are worthless this season

Bulls trade Kirk Hinrich to Los Angeles for Derek Fisher and Adam Morrison (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yksxnhc)

Why: Derek Fisher isn’t getting any younger and Adam Morrison rots at the end of the bench.  Kirk Hinrich is under contract for a few more years and is basically the same player Fisher is, only younger and better.  Chicago gets about $10 mil in cap space to try and sign D-Wade.

Wins Projections: Chicago –1, LA +1

And finally…

Minnesota trades Mark Blount and Brian Cardinal to Cleveland, Al Jefferson, Ramon Sessions, Sasha Pavlovic and Oleksiy Pecherov to Orlando and Damian Wilkins to New Orleans for Lebron James, Dwight Howard Matt Barnes and Chris Paul, Cleveland sends Boobie Gibson to New Orleans (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yjnte5a)

Why: Because then I would be a T-Wolves fan again

Wins Projections: Minnesota +17, Cleveland –8 (really?  that’s it? Trading Lebron for Brian Cardinal and Mark Blount and you only are 8 games worse…?), Orlando –11, New Orleans –13

Boom goes the dynamite.

Virginia, how you tricked me…

I haven’t posted anything of real significance recently so I thought that this would be the best time to let everyone know how it’s going with the internship and the new state…

First, the state of Virginia is nice as far as I can tell. I’ve been here for a month now and so far the nicest weather was during my first week here. I was bragging to all of you Sotan’s out there how nice it was here (mid 50’s and topped 60 a few times) and my, how my words have came back to haunt me. It is currently snowing outside. Which is the third such snowstorm since I have been here. And when I say snow storm I’m not talking 2-3 inches (which actually shuts down schools here. Crazy I know), I’m speaking of 8-10 inches of the white stuff that I thought I was avoiding by fleeing south. So you can imagine how “ecstatic” I am about the snow.

Other then winter following me where ever I go the rest of landscape is very beautiful. I’m used to flat prairie land so I like the change of pace with the mountains (or big ass hills as they more resemble) and I’m constantly staring at them whenever I drive, which is probably very safe. Which leads me to the driving in this state; there are three things that bug me more then I ever thought someone driving could pull off. Usually I’m not an angry driver and have had very little experience with road rage but I may lose it in this state. First off, no one uses a turn signal here (which happens to be my #1 pet peeve). I think people here just assume that the drivers behind them know what they are about to do; because that makes sense. Secondly, I swear that everyone here has their own damn personal license plate. It’s almost as if their was a “going out of business” sale at the dmv and everyone jumped at the chance to get one (I was told by a resident that they are only $10 bucks or so. I guess that explains a lot). Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the drivers here ALWAYS go under the speed limit. And in both lanes. During rush hour. When I really want to get home. You can imagine how frustrating that can be and then multiply that by 20. That’s how frustrating it is.

Enough about the state and it’s peeps though, the internship is going very well so far. We just started making sales calls last week (by “we” I mean us interns (me along with Kyle and Peter) and a staffer by the name of Andrew) and they are going well I suppose. It’s hard to make sales when 80% of the people do not pick up their phones and the other 10% have already bought tickets or were planning on doing so later in the year. My favorite call happened last Thursday when I was closing a deal with this old man and he first lost his check book and then lost the phone that he was talking to me on. I sat there for a good seven minutes until he got back on and finished the deal. That was pretty interesting but you gotta love old people.

We haven’t done much baseball related stuff yet because there is fucking snow on the ground. Still. In Virginia. But I’m hoping once the snow goes to hell then we can actually do some stuff outside and the like. I’ve never been so ready for baseball season to start and I’m really excited to be apart of this team because of the prospects that have a chance of being big time guys for the big league club that will hopefully spend some, if not most of their season here. Pitcher Casey Kelly is the 18th rated prospect according to Keith Law and he spent most of the year with Salem last season. He will most likely start the year here before moving up to Portland in double-a. Another prospect that Boston is excited about is outfielder Ryan Westmoreland (32 ranked). Westmorland had surgery a year ago so he started slow in single-a ball but stole 19 bases on 19 attempts. He should start in low-a again with the Lowell Spinners but hopefully he’ll play most of the season with us in Salem.

Our office just got back from a weekend trip to Massanutten resort in northern Virginia last weekend which was a blast. The thing I like most about this group of people in the office is that I don’t feel like an outsider. Most of this group has been together for three years at least and it feels like us interns have been there the entire time which is cool. Getting drunk with co-workers is also a very good ice breaker and you get to know people more as they also get to know you. So far it’s been a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to more of the same.

This is the view as I am leaving my apartment complex

The mountains I stare at everyday

Salem Memorial Ballpark – Where stars come to play…or something like that

The 2nd Annual Hot Stove Banquet at the Salem Civic Center

Proof

Table for seven

Giles and Erin making sure no one steals anything

Oh yeah, Jim Rice was there too

Salem Manager Kevin Boles, Hall of Famer Jim Rice and Salem General Manager Todd Stevenson talk some baseball

When Jim Rice speaks, people listen

For those of you old enough to remember (I wasn’t alive yet) but this is the little boy that Jim Rice saved when he was hit in the head by a foul ball at Fenway. The boy is all grown up now, obviously

Jim Rice telling on of his many stories. Very entertaining night though.