On Sports and New Notebooks

Yeah, yeah, sports, I know, sports. There’s so much going on, right? Rutgers is playing South Florida soon and they’re still in the running for a bowl, no, not that kind of bowl, but close. And BIG game tonight on the ol’ MLB Network, the Niners and da Bears. Be still my heart. Then the Mets are apparently making some noises in Chicago, noises that’ll eventually translate into a player or two or three. That’s the major news of the day.

In other new, the Yanks are considering Damon and Matsui (notice I didn’t say versus) and basking in their newfound World Series glory (for, what is it, the 27th time, who cares, I mean, really). And the football Giants ponder their carelessness and stupidity while the Jets just seem to send Mark Sanchez out to the podium to blame himself for everything… very tricky.

Aah, but let me digress for a moment. it’s so nice to finally have this notebook (an HP 2.2 meg big-screen screamer)working as it should. My docked configuration is working just great now. My old HP keyboard works just great (I’m converting from an old HP desktop) for typing and my wireless mouse makes it one hell of a lot easier to navigate around the screens, no matter how terrific these new touchpads are. A cheap USB hub makes all this a snap, by the way. Printer?... no problem, just stick it in the USB hub. Now, if I just had one more USB cable, I’d be set.

The logistics of the whole thing are slightly problematical though. Wires are, after all, still wires and they have to go somewhere. You’d think all that time I spent as a satellite TV installer would have helped in this regard, but, alas, so far it has not, not on a conscious level at least.

And it took me quite a while to figure out how to get a docked config at all as there are no hardware profiles included in Windows 7. (The answer was to change the way the notebook behaved when the AC power was engaged and the cover was down (closed) position).

Going from Windows XP to Windows 7 is a trip too. Learning those differences along with changes incorporated in the Microsoft Office 7 has been a real challenge and….do I really need all these menus and dropdowns and couldn’t they have included Outlook (the e-mail program) somewhere? I mean, Windows Live Mail looks familiar but am I going to be able to synch the two? Microsoft, what the heck are you doing to me? That Apple store at the Mall is calling me…..”Jimmy…..Jimbo…..look at this”)!

Pardon the lengthy aside but I’m all excited now…and then there’s the HDMI connection to my hot-stuff new Panasonic 42 incher yet to come. And should I get that Google Chrome?

But let’s get back to sports and the Mets, my favorite subject. The word coming from WFAN and ESPN is that the Mets are talking about Matt Holliday and Roy Halladay and there may have even been a trade for Castillo. And, if Bengie Molina is your catching cup of tea, you’re a happy Mets fan right about now.

Let me first throw my blessing upon getting either or both Holliday/Halliday(s). Acquiring one of the best pure hitters in the game in Matt and perhaps THE premiere pitcher in the game in Roy would be just exquisite. Even John Lackey would be quite an upgrade in our starting pitcher rotation.

Bengie’s getting a little long in the tooth though, isn’t he? Or are we just stocking up on power so we can continue our experiment with Murphy playing first base? Whatever the motivation, the man can hit and that’s something Mr. Schneider was never able to provide. And there may be no better alternatives on the free-agent market after all.

Then there’s the second base situation. Luis Castillo had a very creditable 2009. I certainly wouldn’t make replacing him a priority. I’m going to assume he was included in a potential trade for somebody else, maybe a catcher or a first baseman. I’ll throw my hat in for getting a real-live first baseman. Being the Mets, after all, wouldn’t Murphy be a nice pinch-hitter candidate and part-time first baseman?

It will be difficult for Omar Minaya to maintain his focus amongst so many alternatives. I’m assuming he does have his priorities firmly set despite a plethora of needs. Hopefully, power-hitting outfielder is one. First base and catcher would be tied for two.

After all, we have two incumbents who haven’t been too terrible at each spot, if either is not quite capable of being considered a real starter. But both Murphy and Omir Santos show promise. (They could probably start for Kansas City).

Whatever our Metsies wind up doing, it would have to be a step up, wouldn’t it? I’m going to assume our hard luck won’t continue and we’ll have a somewhat healthy Carlos Beltran in center and Jose Reyes at short.

While I can’t get overly excited about Rutgers, they did show some remarkable skill against Connecticut in their last. Beating the Huskies in the final seconds on a long touchdown pass was very impressive even if they made themselves beatable after building up a big lead. I think they’ll nip South Florida.

The Niners certainly have had a lot to say about their matchup with da Bears. Who do they think they are….the Jets? They seem to think they’ll dominate on both sides of the line and I hope they’re right but what about that secondary? Didn’t Vince Young just have his way with you? I think Jay Cutler could carve himself a nice 400-yard game out of this one.

The Giants have a bye and thank God. Hopefully, they’ll take Coughlin’s blaming of himself to heart as I think the head coach is right. It’s largely his fault.

And could some Jets besides Sanchez start looking in the mirror? It’s high time.