A lot of offense by both teams, including a beauty of a grand slam by Angel Pagan.

And, as luck would have it, I was able to snap a picture as soon as it left Pagan’s bat.

All in all, a good time.  Let’s Go Mets!

Oh yes, that’s me at 0:34, predicting the win.

I had my camera with me for the intent of getting a good Project 365 picture, but with the structure of Jadwin Gymnasium, they don’t exactly have the court blocked off.  So for the second half of the game, I took my camera and sat on the baseline with other (more legitimate) photographers and snapped away.  Unfortunately I only had my Nifty 50 lens on me, so all the pictures are either really up close or really far away.

By the way, Penn won 62-55 in OT.

Penn during the second-half warmups.

Princeton’s Pawel Buczak (55) looks for an open man.

Penn’s Zack Rosen (1) drives down the court.

Penn’s Glen Miller looks pensive as Penn takes over the lead in the second half.

Penn’s Cameron Lewis (33) tries to bring down the rebound.  The auto-focus didn’t quite capture the shot I wanted, but you can see that Princeton is losing.

Penn’s Glen Miller explains that he would rather be arrested than put up with any more of these terrible calls. (Caption credit to Rhyno)

Princeton’s Marcus Schroeder (21) prepares to inbound.  And also prepares to lose in OT.

Penn’s Zack Rosen (1) reminds the crowd what his jersey number is.

Penn’s Cameron Lewis (33) lays down a dunk.  With authority!

The referees take a time-out during the second half to watch American Idol.  Also, in a double-whammy decision, they decided to eject Penn’s Conor Turley (44) from the game.

Penn’s players kindly point out that Princeton’s Patrick Saunders (22) should have been taking foul shots, and not Dan Mavraides (33).

Penn’s Jack Eggleson (24) drives down the court.

Penn’s Harrison Gaines (22) sets it up from the outside.

Penn waits for Princeton to come back after a time-out.  Even the Quaker looks on impatiently.

And at that point, my camera died, so I don’t have any other photos from the end of the game or during overtime.  Whoops!  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed.

UPDATE: My friend Jerricka is doing her own Project 365, and took a picture of me taking a picture.  This shows you where I was sitting for my shots.

The idea came to me yesterday while trying to think of ways to avoid Valentines Day. Really, who needs a made up holiday? I resolved that instead of sulking around and thinking about being alone and heartbreak and girls on the 14th, I would spend the day celebrating the rebirth of hope: 37 pitchers and a handful of catchers, all decked out in orange and black, reporting to Orioles’ spring training in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

And so, even though I have a very lovely girlfriend (hi sweetie!) she is currently 2,508 miles away so I will also be spending Valentines Day celebrating Sports New Years.  That and getting my car inspected, but that’s neither here nor there.

I have two resolutions this year.

1. Attend a New York Mets game at their new stadium.  I didn’t get to go to Shea during the final season there.  I HAD tickets to the playoffs, but oh yeah, they blew their lead for a second year in a row and didn’t make it.
2. Be better New York Rangers fan.  This is mainly because I am consistently embarassed by my 10-year old sister who knows 90% more about the team than I do.  I’ll have two pretty solid opportunites coming up, with Flyers vs. Rangers on NBC on Sunday and Rangers vs. Blues on Versus on Monday.

Also, to celebrate, I think I’ll make Mets brownies.  I think I’m going to include the Mets logo and add the message “Dear Mets: Don’t Suck This Year”. Pictures will be posted this weekend.

If you’re counting the 2004 NHL lockout year as a “season of futility”, then indeed we are at 100.  If you don’t, well, you’ve got 99 problem and the NHL lockout ain’t one.

*Pause for groan over the Jay-Z lyrics reference.*

The years refer to when the championship for that game was played.  So, the 2005 Eagles stat refers to the 2004 regular season and Super Bowl XXXIX, where they lost to the New England Patriots 24-21.

…

The guys on my favorite morning show, WMMR’s Preston and Steve, played the audio on my way to work and I was dying from laughter.

I found the video in a YouTube clip, and so I pass it along to you all for your enjoyment.

By the way, “chitlins” are “are the intestines and rectum of a pig that have been prepared as food”. Thanks, Wikipedia.

Yesterday, the final day of the regular season, the Mets found themselves in a similar situation.  They needed to win the final game of the year to put them in the position of either forcing a one-game playoff or making the post-season outright.  Well, long story short, the Mets lost to the Marlins, and are the first team to ever miss the playoffs two years in a row by losing their last game at home on the final day of the season.  This proves that while the Mets are a pretty good team for 95% of the year, they do not have the ability to command the loyalty of sea creatures.

Last year everyone on the official Mets e-mail list got an apology from the organization for the collapse.  This year, not only do I expect an apology e-mail, but I also expect free tickets to the 2013 Home Run Derby in which the Mets are rumored to be hosting at their new stadium.  Make it happen, Mets.

However, I only lasted until the 12th.  Well, more accurately, I lasted until the 9th, fell asleep, and woke up in the 12th and turned the TV off.  I proceeded to have at least two dreams about the “final outcome” of the game.

In the first one, the AL got off to a quick start in the 13th and won on a home run.

I had a second dream in which the game went to 17 innings and the AL won 14-15.  I also remember looking up the box score and saw the following:

Wow!  That’s a heck of a lot of scoring in extra innings.  Perfectly symmetrical scoring never solves anything in baseball, though.  I also “read” a story on how the winning AL run was a controversial call involving David Wright and Ryan Howard.  Nevermind the fact that Ryan Howard wasn’t even an All-Star this year.

And of course, I found out the real score when I woke up, and the NL defeat matched the NL defeats in my dreams.

Battlestar Galactica – A few weeks ago, I was about to take a nap when Kristine flipped on her DVR to the last episode of Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica.  I quickly changed my mind when I saw robots.  Here’s the storyline.  In a galaxy far far away, there are twelve planets where humans live.  They build robots to help them do stuff.  One day, the robots become sentient and fight against the humans in what is called the “Cylon Wars”.  A truce was made, and the Cylons went away for 40 years.  They evolved, and they came back with a bunch of nukes and wiped out everything save for a handful of civilian ships and the Battlestar Galactica.  So now, the humans are on a quest to run away from the robots and find a way to a new home on a planet called Earth.  Also, the robots evolved.  Apparently, some of the shiny metal robots have blood and guts inside, meanwhile there are humans which are actually robots in disguise.  Add in an attractive alien babe named Number Six and you’ve got yourself a winning show!  Season four is being shown now, but at the same time I’ve started from the beginning and am working my way through the first three seasons.

Flight of the Conchords – I saw them in Upper Darby at the Tower Theater the other night, and it was awesome.  Further write-up on them (along with a setlist) forthcoming.

Mario Kart Wii – So far, Mario Kart Wii is a winner.  I might do a write-up about the game later, but using the plastic steering wheel attachment has been very intuitive and I’m really enjoying the game so far.  Tip of the hat to the new online mode, but wag of the finger on changing Battle Mode to be timed as opposed to just losing your three balloons.

NHL Playoffs – I am an avid New York Rangers fan and my roommate is an avid Philadelphia Flyers fan.  The playoffs have been good to us because generally the teams were playing on opposite nights, so there has been no fighting over the television.  However, since the Rangers have been knocked out, viewing rights for the games have been ceded to my roommate.

Passover – My roommate invited me to his family’s house for Passover a few weeks ago.  It was my first experience with a Passover Seder, and let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS.  I enjoyed beef brisket, a roasted chicken, matzo ball soup, and asparagus.  I don’t like cooked carrots at all, but Ms. Crespi cooked a delicious baked carrot dish that tasted like I was eating a plate full of orange sugar.

Philadelphia Phillies – I’ve been to a handful of Phillies games the past few weeks, one of which was against my favorites, the New York Mets.  Of course, the Mets won.

Rittenhouse Fair – Every year around the end of April, they apparently close down Walnut Street from Broad to 19th and host a festival where local vendors and restaurants set up tents and sell things off of their menu.  This is the first year I’ve known about it, and I guess it’s the closest thing that Center City gets to a county fair.  As my friend Wendy put it, “it’s like Spring Fling but without the drunken freshmen throwing up.”  All of the food I tried was delicious, including the Kobe beef sliders from Barclay Prime and the chicken kabobs from Wok.

Star Wars Exhibit – I finally got to see the Star Wars exhibit on the last weekend that it was open.  They ran an event where the exhibit stayed open continuously from the morning on Friday until the evening on Sunday.  I thought it was a lot more interactive than the exhibit that I saw in London, but it seemed to me like there was smaller collection of props at the Philly exhibit.  The Philly exhibit tried to tie Star Wars into the real world more, highlighting things like trains that run on magnetic levitation and having a computer terminal where you can program a mini R2-D2 to maneuver through a course.  There was also an “attraction” where you sat in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon and Anthony Daniels (of C-3PO fame) took you on a tour of the stars.  It wasn’t very exciting and arguably not worth the extra $5 I spent.  However, since the exhibit was closing, they had a cool projector slash Star Wars cut-out for sale.  Only $1000!  Sadly, I had left the wallet with my $1000 bills in my other pants, so I didn’t buy it.

Well, that’s the update for today.  More will be forthcoming, including a potential site redesign.

Here are my personal highlights from the 2007 NFL Season:

• Watching the opening game of the season against the Cowboys on Tay-Tay’s crazy 50-something inch TV.
• Being surrounded by Giants and Jets fans in a sports pub in London for the Giants/Jets game.
• Going to the Giants/Dolphins game at Wembley in London and NOT getting wet.
• Going to the Giants/Eagles game in Philadelphia.  Highlights include Eagles fans booing a mom and her two 6-year old kids who were wearing Giants gear.  Also a highlight:  The Giants winning (just like EVERY road game this year).
• Watching the first Giants/Patriots game from a concourse at a UNLV basketball game.
• Getting my first ever Giants jersey.  They didn’t have Jeff Feagles, so I got Michael Strahan (which I thank Drew, Kristine, Jerricka, Ryan and Stephanie for).
• Watching the Playoffs at Fox and Hound (Tampa), Chickies and Pete’s (Dallas), and the Crespi house (Green Bay).
• And clearly, the entire Super Bowl was amazing.  Highlights include eating a lot of wings, a “brownie pizza” courtesy of Wendy, and some blow-your-brains-out salsa courtesy of Kristine.  I also realized that I unfortunately curse a lot during sporting events, and in homage to xkcd, have created my own pie chart of “Sources of My Cursing” (See Figure 1a).

Favorite Commercial: Diet Pepsi Max.

Fun Fact Trivia Question:  There are four players active in the NFL today who are also in the 1991 video game Tecmo Super Bowl.  Two of them played in Super Bowl XLII.  Name them, and you’ll get a prize.

Congrats to the New York Football Giants, Super Bowl XLII Champions.