Walk on, Kenny

(Image of the season: Brad Jones after the Carling Cup win. He lost a child earlier in the year. YNWA, Brad.)

Kenny Dalglish. What can we say? Legend. Great guy. But not the manager for this team right now. Sorry to say it, but I think John Henry got this right. And you won’t read it maybe, but Kenny even said that it was the best thing. He said that AFTER the meeting. So you need to consider that they apparently have the buy-in of the man who got fired. No, he wouldn’t go upstairs and I applaud that. If you don’t want that, don’t take it to save face. Take your medicine and move on. He did.

According to Brucie Grobelaar, we lost Kenny the first time because the board wouldn’t open the coffers for Alan Shearer. So Kenny left and won the Prem in Blackburn, of all places, with Alan Shearer. He also wanted Roy Keane back there at some point. Those two players would have been game changers. But look at him now. Carroll, Henderson, Downing and Adam. England just selected Carroll and Downing and Hendo is on the reserve team.

He lost me when he broke up what I considered to be the most dynamic scoring group I’ve seen since I started following right after Souness. Maxi, Miereles, Kuyt and Suarez. Those 4 together were murder on defenses. They passed and moved and SOMEone got a good look at goal–and it wasn’t always Suarez, but there did not appear to be any ego with it. They played together and their play (and goals) is really what got Kenny appointed manager, as he was only “interim” at the time.

What did he do? Sold Miereles. Benched Maxi and Kuyt and spent the year listening to people wonder why Suarez couldn’t score!!!! So he lost me there. And during the Bolton game, he lost me permanently. He won me back temporarily, but really, the damage was done.

Fenway Sports has cleaned house at Liverpool. It’s barren. Fresh start. That’s what you need. Hopefully, they keep the bootroom that Kenny brought back, after Souness removed it (turned it into the media area). Hopefully, they give Rafa a shot. He still lives in the Wirral! I was surprised to read that. And encouraged. My hunch is that they will make a show of talking to him but will opt for their own man, through and through. OH well. Simpre es possible…

Congrats: City!

(The moment that Ferguson got the news…)
Was that not one of the most amazing things you’ve ever seen in sports? My goodness. What a final league day. Phenomenal. Defies description. That’s how it ended in my head in the backyard, as a kid, doing my own commentary and kicking the ball against the shed. My oh my oh my. Take THAT, Whiskey-Nose! Hahahahaahahaha….wowo. I emailed my City friend congrats. He’ll be incoherent after that. Don’t blame him. Wow.

So long Dirk Kuyt. You’ll Never Walk Alone, Dirk. Loved your work.

Seeing Maxi in the team twice in the last two games makes me wonder if he won’t stay another year. Hmm…

To those of you who don’t like or “get” soccer, or believe all the stupid nonsense about how it’s “girly” or the guys wear shorts, or there’s no hitting like American football, or there’s not enough scoring…I just want to say, today, I feel extra sorry for you.

How much the game matters

You see those empty seats in the Annie Road end?  That many people did not see Raheem Sterling’s first time in the first team.  I was down by the Annie Road end for Gerrard’s first mins in 1998.  Let’s hope. 

Unexpected surprise

Playing nerf soccer with my son just now and he made a move that I had not seen him do ever before.  He rolled the ball over lefty, across to his right and then booted it low and hard and he did this deftly for 4.5- all in one motion sort of. 

I was a little surprised and asked him, “…buddy, where did you get that move from?  Where did you see that?”

He said, “From you.  I saw you do it”.

That was the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day.  Maybe a couple of days.  I thought, “…that was why I am playing now at my age.”  I want him to see me play and think, “that looks fun”.  I don’t want to tell him to do it.  I want him to see me doing it and want to join in, more or less. 

And I would like to be able to teach him some individual things, and to do that, you need to go out and do it.  You can read all the books you want, but there is NO substitute for going out and doing it.  And there’s not just playing the game that you are learning, but training and practicing.  I think I spend more time and energy wondering what works and why and how to get a result, than in any game I might play in.  I want them to prepare efficiently.  To put some thought into it at some point.  “I roll it this way and then pull it back, ok, I’ll do that a few more times and I think I have it”.  Etc.  Nice.

In 3 days, 6 guys will run 76 miles for 96

http://hillsborough-anfieldrun.co.uk/

Click here to read about the run

Great idea. Click the link. Donate. Follow them on that tweetering thing. It’s an impressive figure, for sure. I recall being impressed with the US Military’s White Sands Missile Range run for the WWII Bataan Death March. Full pack and heat, sure, but 76 miles? Let’s hope the Reds can win it if for nothing else, than just for these 6 Scousers. Good luck. We salute you from America. YNWA.

***

Just read an SI headline: “Jeter, Yankees, pick up first win”.

So now he’s ahead of the team? Oy. Gag. If he was on the Titanic, surely it would have read: “Jeter, 1500 others: lost”.

A couple of facts about Jeter you’ll never read. He has only ever played ONE season on a team that wasn’t the highest paid team in MLB. The one year? 1997, when the Yanks were a 1% behind Baltimore. In some years of his career, they outspent the 2nd spendingest team by 40%!

As Kolchak would say, “FACT!, if it weren’t for the Houston Astros looking to save $300,000 on a signing bonus, Jeter would have been an Astro for a few years, and then a purchased Yankee.”

Just saying.

You lost to QPR? The hoops?

Liverpool were cruising 2-nill and then proceeded to cough up 3, count ‘em, THREE goals to lose 3-2. Even J is agog. Was this worse than the Bolton game? Well, at least we scored 2.

The consolation? Coates’ goal of the year after subbing for Martin Kelly. And also that 4th was not realistic so really, who gives a whoop? (I mean, besides J).

If we win the FA Cup, how bad a year have you had? I understand the Champs’ League, yea, I get that. But honestly, with our squad…with Cholly Adam et al, would be going into the Bernabau and the San Siro and doing anything? We can’t beat QPR up 2-0 on 77′! What good would the Champs’ League do? Remember Basel? And that was a better team.
***
Mrs. Pinetar loves the show “Restaurant Impossible”. It’s basically her “Gold Rush” show. And, I can watch it, unlike the prom dress show last night that was making my flesh crawl. Thankfully, she let me switch to the Military Channel and they had “Fatal H*tler” on again. I’ve only seen it 3 or 4 times so it was somewhat fresh.

Anyway, I have watched many episodes of Restaurant Impossible and I’ve learned a few things. What I’ve learned is that at a subpar restaurant, they are serving you frozen food that they are losing money on, and, the kitchen is filthy and no one has looked at the books to notice, “…hey, we’re losing 3 dollars ever time we serve X…”
***
With the Wilpon’s “winning” their little trial, Mets’ fans have absolutely NOTHING to look forward to for maybe a generation, maybe more. Let’s begin agitating for a National League expansion team in NY. Maybe pull a “Bill Shea” and threaten to start a 3rd circuit. Get Cuban on that. Put a group together. Pick some cities. Smell Bud sweat. Get your team. Worked in 1960, why not? Met fans: Vote with your dollars. Go to minor league. Go to Philly. Go to Baltimore. Go to Wash. Watch MLS. Watch Curling. You get the idea.

3 new planets for a 4 year old

My nephew played in an indoor tournament yesterday, and, after a 2 hour lacrosse practice in the morning, still played 4 20 minute mini-games and they went DWWW to win the tourny! He scored a goal and put two kids clean through in the finals. I’m made up for my buddy. Love it!

Liverpool again do not start Cholly Adam and the team does well. Great to see Maxi Rodriguez in the first XI for the first time since his burial after the Bolton debacle. He played a nifty one-two with Suarez and that put us up 1-0. I was hoping to hear the Maxi song, but it was not to be. Maybe Kenny realizes that he offers good instincts playing with Suarez? Hope so.

So pleased to see the ground game with short crisp give and gos and not the long, balls flung to anywhere Carroll is. I don’t think the team looked for Carroll at all really. I think his slot is wasted. We get little out of it. Downing played well again and may be coming good. I think of the three, Adam, Henderson and Downing, by far Downing is the keeper. Spearing looked good as well and is settling more and more with every game.

Gerrard seemed invisible most of the time but did leave it for Downing, although I think it was an accident really. Hope Kelly and Suarez aren’t hurt too bad.

***
Took my old 6″ telescope out and cooled it off in the yard all day. Just as the boys were about to go to sleep, I pulled them out of story time and had them out in the warm night, in their footy pajamas. I showed them Jupiter, Venus and Mars. Jack was happy to be included but we’re not sure if he saw anything.

Mr. Jelly saw it all. We started with the 25mm eyepiece and then moved to the 10mm. With a 1220mm focal length, that 10mm is pulling 122x! (I rarely go below that unless the seeing is amazing, which it can be on a muggy summer night).

Jelly saw all 4 Galilean satellites and he was into it. With Venus, you’re just looking at a very bright half or slightly gibbous phased disc. Since we talk about the moon phases a lot and the boys have a moon-phase clock, he understood that it wasn’t a perfect circle. Nice.

Almost as an afterthought, he asked me if there were more. I realized that Mars is in Leo (Leo doesn’t look right) and flipped around the scope and we bagged Mars. It’s a little disc and doesn’t look like much to a 4.5 yr old, so I concentrated on the color. “Is it red?” “Is it orange?”, etc.

Then, we came inside and I drew for him what I saw with some quick eyepiece sketches. This helps him understand that he saw what he saw and that is what I saw too. It also makes him realize what he was seeing as we talked about it. And, since he claimed to see NO DETAIL on Jupiter, and I saw two bands, he will be looking hard next time to see that (tomorrow?), and THAT is the whole point. Because we took the time to draw the eyepiece sketches, he will be a better observer the next time. Very happy to show my buddy 3 planets for the first time ever! And he was over the moon–sorry the pun. (Johnny, you should bring your guy over for a look).

Oh yea, for newbies: When the sun is setting, you will see two outrageously bright things in the west above the setting sun. The brighter and higher one, is Venus. The lower and dimmer one is Jupiter. Jupiter takes 12 years to orbit the sun, so it will basically be in that position, next year.

Venus is an inferior planet and right now it’s an evening star. That will flip to morning and then back etc.

Mars is beyond our orbit, but since it’s so close to us, we chase it for a while and it doesn’t peak but every 2 years when we have “opposition”. Opposition is when it’s at its highest in our sky at true midnight (DST throws that off for a while). Think about it, at opposition, Mars, Earth and the sun will be in a line. Mars will be closest to us at that point and will be a fully lit circle and not have any phasing due to funky angles. That’s your biggest and best time for viewing. I’m not sure when that is but it looked fairly bright, so I’m thinking it’s near. I’m way off my game but now with the boys, we will be getting after it again!

Mars? well, if you know the night sky, then you know the stars don’t move but the planets do. Leo is rising on Spring nights and darn near dead South after it gets dark. It’s main feature is a backwards question mark. Find that and look to the left to the triangle that makes up it’s tail. Between the backwards question mark and the triangle, you’ll see a big red “star”. That’s Mars. If you keep your eye on it night to night, you’ll also see that star move, while the others do not. Good luck.

Prayers for Fabrice.

This is why I don’t dig Drogba

Click to watch it in a new window. It’d be funny if it weren’t so pathetic.

Why they don’t retroactively review these games in slow-mo and penalize this, I will never know. It would end diving in about as long as it takes to say it.

Prayers for Muamba. YNWA, Fabrice.

Great old photos

Here are some tremendous photos from all eras of Liverpool Football Club history. Well worth a look. I love the photos from not all that long ago that really look dated now. Look at the old dugouts at Anfield. That was the 1970′s only!

I like the Jan Molby one in front of the Liver Assurance building right down on the Mersey. What a beautiful building and symbol of a city. It’s next to the Cunard building and because of those steamship lines that connected the cities, New York and Liverpool have a lot in common. They could be sister cities in some ways. Molby is a Dane but he stayed on Merseyside after his playing days were done and raised his kids there. He came to the NY supporters club last year and did some dynamite pod casts and an appearance or two for us. Love Molby.

What it’s all about

Guys like J don’t get this, and I feel sorry for them, but really, isn’t this what it’s all about?

Come on you Red Men!