Monday, July 05, 2004

Return Of The Boom Bap

Let’s not waste any time on this Blog because it has potential to be a pretty good one. I hope I just didn’t jinx myself on that one, but the first thing we’ll get off my chest is about the Yankees weekend series with the Mets, a la the Subway Series. After putting the beat downs to the Red Sox (our supposed rival), the Mets crackalack us big time. They sweep the series in 3 games. That’s ok though, as the Yanks are still up big on the Sox. I’m not worried about them at the moment, but we’ll see what happens. Which Yanks were selected for the All Star Game (played on July 13th)? We’re rolling Jason Giambi, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez as starters. That’s three fourths of our infield. And the fourth member of the starting infield? Alfonso Soriano, who was the Yanks’ second baseman for the past few years. On the bench offensively is Gary Sheffield. As far as our pitchers go, relievers Tom “Flash” Gordon and Mo Rivera round out our squad for the American League. One spot is left to select, as the fans get to vote on that one.

Yesterday I had some HUUUUGE (as Chris Jericho would say) action going on. Not pimpin action unfortunately, but something even better to me, and that’s sports. First things first. I started the day with a big workout. My boy Spank went with me to workout as well. Sometimes I want to go there and workout and not be bothered at all. Kind of do my own thing. But other times, it’s nice to have a buddy to there to motivate you and help you by spotting. I was feeling fairly strong on the bench yesterday, so I figured I’d try something kind of heavy for my standards. I put 225 pounds on the bar and the most I’ve gotten it before was 3 times. Yesterday I was able to get it 4, so that made me happy. Not too shabby for a little guy I must say. After working out, I hit up the tennis scene with none other than Big Cork Dizzle. We sensed some big rain coming, so we didn’t have much time to kill. We went to my old high school’s courts which are the closest to us. The first 5 games or so, we got wet, but it was cooling things down, so that helped. We’re no good (then again, nobody around here is), but it’s a fun sport to play and you get some pretty mean exercise in. The funny thing is that we took 4 balls and ended up coming home with only one. We’re usually real good about saving our balls and very rarely lose one. We both hit one on the roof of the school, and Cork had another go out into the woods next to the court. Oh well.

On a side note, everybody’s favorite hot dog eater, Kobayashi beat his record once again. In 12 minutes, he eats 53 dogs, no joke. And dude is only 130 pounds. He beats these big fat guys and puts them to shame. Nobody ever touches this guy. It’s something to see.

After some tennis time, and a quick shower, I roll to Subway to get a meatball sub with extra cheese. Once I ate that, I get a call to play some streetball at the local outside courts. Indoor ball can’t even come close to comparing with some good old school streetball. It’s not even an argument to me. Two totally different games for the most part. Inside ball is more slow-down, halfcourt style battles. Set up the offense, blah blah. But once you play streetball, it’s straight up run and gun the entire time. You are also more free to try some crazier passes out there on the blacktop and it’s rougher. You see guys getting up in each other’s faces and see who the true crybabies are. It’s always funny to see guys whine and cry out there on the blacktop. If you can’t hang on the court, get off. It’s always nice to play under the lights as well. We ran 3-on-3 for about a half hour or so until a few of our buddies from Clarksburg came down. Then we ran 4-on-4, perfect for our court. For the locals, it was myself (5'10"/160), Ozzie (5'10"/175), Sweet Pea (5'8"/160), and Scotty Wetzel (6'3"/230)taking on Barron (6'0"/175), Sims (6'5"/190), Chad from Clarksburg (5'6"/150), and some Aaron dude (5'11"/165) from out North Marion way. Those heights and weights could be off a bit, but those are just my guesses. It was tight and my crew ended up getting beat by 3 or 4. We ran to 50, playing by 1s the entire way. I felt good out there. Although I’m obviously not a banger inside, my game is to stay outside, run some point, make some good passes (I’d much rather make a crazy pass than to score personally), and do the pure shooting thing. A lot of guys who can shoot good inside can’t always shoot good outside. It’s a test to show who the real shooters are once you get outside in the open, air coming through, and endless background behind the baskets. I was draining from deep. I mean, if they’re going to let me fire up wide open 20 footers, I’m going to light it up to the best that I can.

My cousin Mitch (Ozzie) got all kinds of fired up as usual. He takes it out on himself though, so it’s not like he’s getting anyone else mad. I’ve done really well lately with my temper in ball. 99% of the time I’m super laid back, but when I’m on the court, I get pretty worked up. Ozzie was kicking the ball into the baseball field nearby, spiking the ball down, and all sorts of stuff. But he’s intense out there and I’d rather play with those type of players than just regular bums who play at half speed and don’t help you win. And the necks were in effect for the 4th, but it was cool to play under some neck fireworks as we balled it up. I felt like I was inside my favorite movie. I’m not even going to say what that is, since you all know I talk about it way too much.

When I got home from ballin outta control, I watched a special on a channel called Trio. I’ve never watched anything on the channel, but apparently it’s a channel about music, entertainment, and all of that stuff. Last night Chuck D of Public Enemy fame was hosting a 2-hour long documentary on 2Pac and Biggie. Like everyone else reading this, we’ve seen zillions of documentaries on these two before and most tell the same thing. Not this one. I learned a lot from this one. They went in depth about how Death Row Records had LA cops working for them off-duty and secretly, and gang members. They also tell why these cases will probably never be solved. The information they give makes it seem like it’s solved, but maybe people involved are too scared to go through. They interviewed Biggie’s main bodyguard and he picked out the guy who killed him, yet they still can’t do anything with it. They talked to Biggie’s Mom, 2Pac’s biological Dad, Suge Knight (went in depth about how Snoop is scared to death of what Suge can do to him one day) friends and members of their posse’s, a lot of cops, and tons of others. I have it taped, so it’s definitely a keeper. It’s hosted by this British dude, so it’s funny to see this British guy rolling through the projects getting all of these interviews.



We’re close to ending this thing, I promise. Last night I also got into the mood to download some more CDs. Me and Cork are pretty disgusting and greedy when it comes to downloading stuff, but hey, it’s out there, might as well get it. Last night I was in the KRS-One mood. I downloaded three albums of his, Return Of The Boom Bap (1993), I Got Next (1997), and A Retrospective (2000). For those who don’t know KRS, you need to get in on his stuff. He’s from the South Bronx and has been in the rap game for almost 20 years. He’s one of rap’s legends and as far as straight lyrics go, he’s one of the best ever. I’m not sure many people want a piece of KRS in a rap battle. I also got Eminem’s first album, which not a lot of people even know about, Infinite. This was from 1995 and Em is fairly laid back in it compared to newer stuff, but it’s a great album. The rhymes are creative as he always does. He sounds younger in it (of course he would in 95), but the talent is noticeable even then.



And to end.. Please check out Big Cork’s latest Blog (http://corkzilla.blogspot.com) for his weekend update. Lots of funny party stories there from Posey’s place on Saturday (I didn’t go that night), as well as his version of our Monopoly battle from Friday night and tennis action yesterday. RAW is on tonight, so I’m off to eat dinner to gear up. See ya on the flip side.

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