Here is a baseball team that together could probably reach the CS. Most of these players have either spent a lot of time on the DL, is old, or is just under the radar. Feel free to disagree with me, but back it up with stats, not the “well, he sucks” rule.

Catcher: Bengie Molina (Giants)
Yea, he’s old and the only reason he is still behind the plate in San Fran is because the organization wants to give super-prospect Buster Posey a little more time to grow up. But never the less, while Bengie is not the defensive juggernaut his brother Yadier is, he is the better offensive player. Let it be known that at thirty-four years young, Bengie had his best offensive year. In which he hit over .280 and set a career high in home runs.

First Base: Garret Jones (Pirates)
A young journeyman, in just 82 games with the Pirates last year Jones hit close to .300(.293 to be exact) and hit twenty-one home runs and had an OPS of .939. Fluke? Maybe, but there is a small glimmer of hope for his career to turn around after being ditched by both the Braves and Twins. It would be interesting to see what he could do outside of Shitsburgh, maybe he could become a pretty solid corner infielder.

Second Base: Orlando Hudson (Twins)
On a Twins team that has all the right pieces in place to make a deep run in September/October, the O-Dog could be a huge part of that scheme. Played pretty well in Los Angeles last year, but then he just disappeared offensively and was benched. If Minnesota is going to make a serious run to become one of the elite teams in a small market city, Hudson and new short stop J.J. Hardy are going to be crucial. Let just hope for the Twins sake that Hudson doesn’t get benched and Hardy doesn’t get sent back to the minor. like he did last year with the Brewers.

Shortstop: Jason Bartlett (“Devil” Rays)
In an infield where all the talk is of Carlos Pena’s power, Ben Zobrist’s versatility, and Evan Longoria’s potential HOF status, Bartlett quietly hit .320 last year. HE HIT .320! And played everyday. He is one of the most overlooked pieces of that Tampa Bay puzzle. While the Rays continue to finish in the worst spot  in all of baseball (third in the AL East), Bartlett was doing work at the plate. While he might not duplicate last year’s money performance at the plate, some .320 talent doesn’t just come and go. Well, it does come and go if your name is Nomar.

Third Base: Casey Blake (Dodgers)
For an old guy, Casey Blake is still turning out solid production. If the name of the game is consistency, then Casey Blake is winning that game. He was never an elite player, and never will be, but his value as a veteran infield is extremely underrated.

Outfield: Shin-Soo Choo (Indians)
Choo doesn’t really classify as underrated because he is a rising star in the Cleveland organization, but then again it is a Cleveland organization that came within Josh Beckett of going to the World Series in 2007 and crapped the bed since. Choo’s numbers( .320/20/86/.883) are damn impressive on a team that is on the far side of god-awful.

Outfield: Jayson Werth (Phillies)
If Roy Halladay hadn’t shattered his wrist in spring training a few years ago, the conversation surrounding Jayson Werth may be an entirely different one. If he hadn’t hit two home runs in game 4 of the World Series last year you still might not know his name. While I have always appreciated Philadelphia’s stonefaced attitude displayed while crushing the NL East, Werth’s “you might be better, but I’ll beat you anyway” attitude was a welcomed addition to the only AL-type lineup in the National League. A big question that still remains: was last year was a career year, or if that what he can do consistently if he stays healthy?

Outfield: Xavier Nady (Cubs)
While you didn’t hear as much as a squeak out of Nady last year, if he can get a decent amount of playing time, now that the moron that is Milton Bradely is out of Chicago, his numbers could get close to his days with New York. He has always been a quality defender, it was just his consistency people worried about. However, the more he plays the more consistent he should become.

Stating Pitcher: Jered Weaver (Angels)
Behind John Lackey no more, Weaver could do huge things in 2010. His 16-7 performance as the number two guy last year was no joke and now that he is the number one guy on that staff those numbers should get better. That is, if he can handle the responsibility of being an ace.

Relief Pitcher: Matt Capps (Natinals)
To get close to thirty saves in that mess of a ball club that is Pittsburgh, that is impressive by itself. If Capps could play on a team that didn’t have a joke for a pitching staff and a bunch of terrible one-liners in the field(Washington), he might turn into something.

Honorable Mention:
The Enitre Seattle Mariners Roster (minus Milton)
The “Departure” of Steve Phillips from ESPN
The Phillies Scouting Team

_
Some movies can be classified as “epic failures.” These movies usually contain megastars, millions of dollars, over-promotion, and Judd Apatow. These are the movies that come out in November, but the hype over it has been building since June. A good example of this would be 2008′s ‘Pineapple Express’. The stoner-action/comedy was set to be a huge hit and enlisted a huge actor payroll that included Seth Rogan (the comedy killer), Danny McBride, and James Franco. This movie was so bad that my friend, who saw the entire movie high, left halfway through to walk across the street to eat another Cookout burger. When I first saw a promotion for the movie I was genuinely excited. Finally, Judd Apatow was reuniting some of the cast from Freaks & Geeks on the big screen and maybe we’d see some elements that made that show one of the great TV series of all-time. However, a terrible plot, pointless acting, and the fact that someone thought it wise to allow Seth Rogan write anything other than his name on a credit card receipt at Burger King made this a film that, upon exiting the theater, a friend of mine said “well, there’s one hundred and ten minutes of my life I can never have back.”

_
Back to the term of credibility, most people who has witness the film genius of View Askew Production, headed by mastermind Kevin Smith, can attribute that a huge budget and A-Listers isn’t necessary for a film success. Cited as the thirty-sixth greatest film ever, Clerks was made with a microscopic budget of around $27,000. The writing alone is enough to make this film one of the best ever made, not to mention a no-name cast that made the film just enjoyable to watch. With a tiny budget and limited initial release, Clerks eventually turn a gross profit just north of $3.2 million. This film set up a line credit that fans cashed in over excellent films such as Dogma, Chasing Amy, Clerks II, and Mallrats.

_
A big key that many film makers often overlook, or over do, is the ability to make an audience forget the restriction of the real world. The most notably film craze right now is the comic book adaptation genre. Films like the Spiderman Trilogy and The Dark Knight did this to perfection, the eye-bleeder Jumper didn’t do it, and Hulk did it too much.

_
Sam Raimi and his crew made the first two Spiderman films to near perfection in allowing the audience to see how Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) went through his transformation and the struggles that came with it. The Dark Knight built on the first film in the new Batman line and pushes the envelope even further with the psycho criminal mind of the Joker (Heath Ledger). Both of these examples forced to audience out of reality and made them, if only for an hour or two, believe in the universe created by the authors of the comic books. While some movie goers would leave with comments like, “Spiderman’s fight with Doc Ock on the train completed defied physics and was completely unrealistic.”(I actually heard that one on the way out of the theater.) They never stop to say “that was bullshit, nobody can climb on walls.” This is because the film had the credibility to make the audience buy into the gimmick of film.

_
In my two examples of what not to do, these films had no place on screen and where lame attempts to make money. Jumper (2008) tried to just “jump” into the action but never explained why these dumbass teenagers could do these things and thus left an audience with more questions than anything else. Hulk (2003) did the exact opposite when it spent the first ninety minutes of the movie explaining how Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) became the Hulk and by the time any action took place everyone had been put to sleep by terrible dialogue. Lucky for us, in 2008 The Incredible Hulk was released staring a much more credible Edward Norton as the lead role and, as evidence to what should have happened in the first film, The Incredible Hulk summed up the entire Hulk storyline during the opening credits.

_
My whole point is that with all the time and money invested in the film industry today, you’d think that someone would invest a little more effort into making these films worth the audience’s time. The credibility of these film and their staffs is what leads to other successful films. I realize not everyone can possess the genius that Kevin Smith has or the money of Marvel Studios, but that shouldn’t prevent anyone film executives from making decisions about which movies to pick and promote as the “next big thing”. Sooner or later they are going to have to stop given Seth Rogan parts in major films; he is leading every overweight, curly-haired dropout to believe they can pick up the hot girl over their successful counterpart.

My brother of the past 18 years has been a steady point of stress and messed up comparisons over the course of my life. My brother, Rusty, and I have been wrecking shit up on Westridge Road since the early 90’s and there doesn’t seem to be anything to stop us in the near future.

The first time I realized my brother’s awesomeness might be a problem was around age eight. My Uncle Michael had recently purchase us a set of ‘Pillow Sized Boxing Gloves for Christmas’. (You can probably tell where this is going.) We would spare in our front yard for our neighbors because everyone on the block knew we were badass. All was in fun sport until one day all the pillow-stuffing in the gloves had naturally moved away from Rusty’s knuckles and he land a right hook than would have sent a drunk Mike Tyson stumbling. In my case however, I went straight to the ground. And my mother follow in the embarrassment by yelling at my triumph brother and his victim(me) in front of the whole neighborhood.

I have had the unique experience of growing up in race where someone is always coming up behind you. It seems that whenever I try something or become involved in a sport or activity, Rusty has to attempt and pass my accomplishments in a relatively shorter amount of time. The best example of this would be our wrestling careers. When I was in about the seventh grade I became infatuated with the sport of wrestling and my brother soon filed in suit during his sixth grade year. When I was in the eighth grade I lost a close match to Craig Brown in our conference finals and finished second, not to bad. Being himself, Rusty followed with an undefeated season and a monstrous victory in the conference finals. When high school rolled around I had to work and wait my way onto the varsity quad and while I made it my sophomore year, it wasn’t really until my junior year that I really had sometime in the spotlight and captured all-region honors and went to the state tournament. Rusty decided he would make our state-championship squad his freshman year, the only freshman to do so, and eventually win the regional title and have nice big championship bracket to put on his bedroom wall.

Even to this day it’s hard for me to imagine growing up any other way. My brother and I have been blessed with some of the better parenting methods around, but I don’t see how they could prepare for some of the dynamics between us when we were in high school together. Our local newspaper referred to me in the wrestling season preview article as “Rusty’s older brother.” Which really makes it hard to focus on the upcoming match when you’re wondering if the next write-up will read, “125: Rusty O’Connor wins by pin. 152: Rusty’s Older Brother wins by decision.”

To most people it would be a weird feeling to introduce a girl you are courting to your family and have them talk about how attractive your younger brother is for the rest of the night, but by my senior year in high school I was more than used to it. I once had a girl say to me, “if you looked more like your brother you would be the perfect guy.” I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that statement so I said something like “oh, well good looks run in the family,” but it kind of sounded like, “well you can get the hell out of the car you ginger-loving freak.”

It was always really awkward when we would travel to family functions all over the state and my brother’s introduction was along the lines of, “Hey guys its good to see you, this is my girlfriend.” While mine were usually, “uhh hey, you guys know my sister Emily.”

I was never bothered by the dynamic of our sibling rivalry because it was never really competitive. I really enjoy watching my brother succeed in life. This past year when I traveled to watch him win the regional wrestling championship I couldn’t have been prouder of the kid. His success is a direct consequence of his work ethic, which anyone in our family will tell you came from our father. My friends will often ask me if it’s hard to watch your younger brother accomplish what you couldn’t. My answer is always the same, ”no.”

So I will sometimes take the liberty of calling him “bro” because it’s the natural order of things. Since the term “bro” is derived from the longer term “brother,” I don’t see any reason not to use it. Everybody knows I like taking the easier route and why not save a couple of breathes?

With baseball in the current state that it is, I really don’t see how these new finding can really surprise anyone. Over the last few years it seems that all of the stars from the turn of the century have either been proven “cheaters” or their names have been so closely linked to this event that their careers were nearly ruined. Even with all of the “evidence” flying around(I use evidence in the sense that some sports writer now feel it there to duty to call out anyone who has a career season after age thirty as being on ‘roids.), I still find it had to believe that these players legacies are being tainted. Take Barry Bonds for example, possibly one of the ten greatest baseball players of all-time. While no real, physical evidence has been put up against him, he has received extreme allegations of steroid use. While he very may well have, and probably did, used performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career, that doesn’t take away from the fact that he still had to make contact with the 90+ mph fastball and drive it 400 feet. Not the mention the fact that he is the only player in Major League Baseball history to hit five hundred homeruns and swipe just as many stolen bases. My point in the is that there is now way that steroid use alone made for his exceptional career. I find it appaling that sports writers who have never made it past rookie league spring training can claim that steriods seem to have account for all of his statistics.

At age 37 Raul Ibanez of the Philidelphia Philles is having the season of his career, currently batting .316 with 22 homeruns and 59 runs batted in. However, it could not have been because he worked hard during the offseason, found a club that fits him well, or because he has always been talented. Its because he’s “juiced.” Give me a break.

The 1980-90′s have been labeled the “Steroid Age” and for right reasons, as it seems that an unbelievable number of players have been linked to banned substances. The Mitchell Report was published on December 17th, 2007 and it solely responsible for the downfall of average American’s faith in their nation’s past time. This waste of paper had in it eighty-nine printed names of known “cheaters.” Or did it? Rick Ankiel’s name was printed in the Mitchell report after it was found that he took dosages of human growth hormone, also known as HGH. However, when Ankiel took this substance in the early-2000′s, when it was not a banned substance (HGH did not become a banned substance until 2005). But to people like my roommate’s dumbass girlfriend he is still a “cheater.” That nonsense of a situation would be like a highway patrolmen giving you ticket for driving 55mph in a zone that used to have a 45mph speed limitation.

Many of these “steroids” are not even illegal substances. Being a mediocre NCAA athlete I can say that I have seen a list of substances that are banned from my consumption. On this list were, of course, illegal substances, but the list was also riddled with many items that could be easily purchased. Even one of those banned substances, Musle Milk (a product of the company Cytosport), could have been purchase by any member of my team by simply walking down two flights of stairs and buying it from the same drink machine that the Gatorades are found in. So its not as if these players are having to skip the country to obtain these drugs. I can guarantee that if i walked into GNC tomorrow morning i would be able to find half of the stuff the NCAA forbids it’s athletes from consuming.

Another side of this story that need to be looked at is the player perspective. While I can’t speak for any of them, I can say that if I was a struggling Minor Leaguer and a former teammate who had taken HGH was now making millions in the majors. I would be tempting to take the risk. A lot of these drugs don’t have the extreme medical consequences that anabolic-steroids possess. If I were a minor league ball player and was told by a medical professional that if I took this supplement before i worked out and it would make me stronger and better my chances of signing a major league contract without any major medical side-effects, it would be hard to say no. The general public need to realize that this is these men’s livelihood, not just a boyish dream to play ball for the Yankees.

I am, in no way, condoning the use of performance enhancing drugs. I am just simply stating that at this point in Major League Baseball, does it really ruin the game? The answer to that question is ‘No’. And i cant see how it has really effected teams. The only teams with a real drop in attendance lately is the Washington Nationals. And that is probably linked more the fact that they could be beaten by the majority of Triple-A minor league teams than any connection to steroids. The Steroid Era has changed how many look at the sport. However, i believe that any true fan can appreciate baseball regardless of what is being said has happened.

When i heard of the Manny Ramirez incident I wasn’t shocked, not one bit. Manny Ramirez is the best hitter in the game today. I would still pay good money to watch ‘Manny be Manny’ and crush a towering five hundred foot homerun out of Dodgers stadium. Oh, you can bet your ass I’d pay, regardless of what “substance he was on.”

I’d have to say that overall I have gotten a lot of what I’ve wanted. I am currently enrolled in a somewhat respectable four-year university. I get to hang out with Craig Brown from time to time, even though he still refuses to let me meet his lady-friend. I am a member of an NCAA Division-One collegiate Track and Field team, and my 2:05 800 meter time is currently saving me a spot on our powerhouse of a team. And I’m pretty sure the number of people that respect me greatly outnumber those who don’t, with the exception of a few ex-girlfriends.

_
I think Want is one of the greatest things an individual can have. If you don’t want anything than how is there any drive or motivation to do anything. I know a few people who live with that “whatever, I really don’t need it” attitude. And lets be completely honest, those people are a pain in the ass that no one wants to deal with on a daily basis. There is always that guy, or girl, who, whenever asked a question, claims, “I don’t care, whatever you want to do.” Which, while I love the invitation to choose our destination or meal, I didn’t ask you for your opinion if I didn’t at least plan on pretending I cared for it.

_
My close friends’ favorite thing to give me hell about it my love/lust life. While I haven’t been in a functioning relationship since about May of last year(2008), I’d like to think that I’m not realtionshiply retarded. A dear friend once told me that I have the power to make past boyfriends come out of comas. In a recent stint with a female, a friend of mine asked me, “well, if you want it that badly why do you just take it?” My answer was simple, “because that would be rape.”

_
I want super powers. While I know this is far fetched want, I’m pretty sure if I could freeze stuff with my mind life would be a whole lot sweeter. However, I don’t dwell on this one because there really isn’t any  respectable reason to do so.

_
The only reason I still run is because I want to, I want to be better. (Trust me, there are no real perks of being a member of UNCG’s cross country team.) As of right now I just sit in the background on my team and try not to royally shit the bed, this doesn’t always work out. But at some point I would like to be a regular contributor to our squad. I think it’s this wanting to be a better running that keeps me from not skipping out on daily runs and hitting my splits in workouts. And I’m pretty sure others can tell this, and it might be why I’m still on the team.

_

Want can also be a killer. We have all seen stories on the news of some guy that wins the lottery and then somehow manages to spend all the money and files for bankruptcy. Now, I have never won the lottery so I can’t say I wouldn’t blow the money either. However, if this person really wanted the lottery money to better their life they would have taken better are of it instead blowing it on  couple of cars and cheap, probably borderline trashy, women to satisfy the “wants” they had at the moment. That guy who won the lottery then seven year later filed for bankruptcy was obviously a dumbass.

_
While Mick Jagger may not be well known as a philosopher, I think he speaks the truth. You cant always get want you want. Life would just be boring. But when thinking of those masterful lyrics one can not forget the lines that follow, “…but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.”

Near misses:

15. Alkaline Trio “Fire Down Below”

14. Ben Folds Five “Army”

13. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones  “Where’d You Go?”

12. Bruce Springsteen “Lonesome Day”

11. Warren Zevon “Werewolves in London”

10. Death Cab for Cutie – “Bixby Canyon Bridge”

I’m usually not a fan of the ‘emo’ genre, as my peers call it. However, Death Cab for Cutie’s “Bixby Canyon Bridge” continues to put me to sleep night after night. The bridge in this song is absolutely amazing and the transition of styles in this song is ridiculous. Fun fact: I think that each member of this band resembles what my Uncle Tim could have looked like at random points in his life.

9. Jim Croce – “Operator”

This song has the same effect on me as the movie “Simon Birch.” I think the main reason this song is constantly played in my iTunes library is, while I don’t like to admit it, this song basically sums up all my feelings towards a certain female that pisses me off more than anyone else on the planet, including Bobby Belcher.

8. Led Zeppelin – “Street Corner Girl”

While I never plan on picking up a prostitute on the streets of Greensboro, this song somewhat makes me think it’s not such a bad idea.

7. Steve Miller Band – “Jungle Love”

“You probably wouldn’t remember, I probably couldn’t forget” Those are lyrics you can not argue with. Plus, Steve Miller’s voice sounds like what I think God’s voice sounds like.

6. Andrew W.K. – “She Is Beautiful”

This man can single-handedly turn my day from piss-poor to excellent. I think the lyrics to this song are what I’d like to say to a girl when I attempt to trick her into going on a date with me. While I don’t think it would ever work, I need to do something to turn my fortunes around before my mother starts trying to set me up with the daughters of the women she works with.

5. Billy Joel – “The Ballad of Billy the Kid”

Much like with Bob Seger, I am relatively sure if I could play the piano like Billy Joel it would be impossible for any problems in my life to not just simply disappear. This song is story telling in song at it’s finest. The way Billy Joel can relate the story of Billy the Kid to his own persona is simply amazing. The second verse of this song is probably my favorite part of any piece of music. In June of 1987 Billy Joel became the first American musician to perform in the Soviet Union since the construction of the Berlin Wall, I think we were very well represented.

4. Ben Folds – “Zak and Sara”

When I was in high school I was crazy about this one girl. She introduced me to this song and then shortly after broke off all communication with me. It was probably one of the most rewarding relationships I have ever been in. I recently traveled to Asheville to see this man in concert and it was by far one of the greatest nights in my recent memory.

3. (tie) Bob Seger – “Hollywood Nights”

I have recently stated that if I could sing like Bob Seger all of life’s problems would simply dissolve, and I will continue to fully stand by that statement. While Mr. Seger is best known for his song that is currently being overplayed in those new Guitar Hero commercials, “Hollywood Nights” will remain in my heart as the best song of his illustrious career. Do not attempt to argue this fact with me because I will unleash a verbal beat-down of lyrical dominance on you and your friends.

3. (tie) Lynyrd Skynyrd – “The Ballad of Curtis Lowe”

I am willing to admit that when i am alone, listening to this song, I might shed a tear. This song is perfect, period. I will sit in the dark, with all other noises silenced,  and just respect the amazing sound that is rushing it my ears. The keyboard sounds alone are enough to make goosebumps appear all over my body and cause a deathly chill to run up my spine. I personally believe that it is music like this that turns men to boys and could cause people to stop and think about themselves. The only word I can really put my finger on that describes my true feeling for this masterpiece is ‘appreciation’.

2. Aerosmith – “Mama Kin”

I am pretty sure the name Aerosmith speaks for itself. However, anyone who hasn’t listened to this song is either deaf or extremely mistreated. These lyrics…
“It ain’t easy, livin’ like ya wanna,
And it’s so hard to find piece of mind. Yes it is.
The way I see it, you’ve got to say shit.
But don’t forget to drop me a line.”
…basically sum up my outlook and opinions on life. I’m not really sure what that says about myself, but needless to say, if it is streamed out of Steven Tyler’s industrial sized lips it must be fact.

1. Queen – “Don’t Stop Me Now”

Freddy Mercury may very well be the greatest front-man in the history of music. This song has been played in my iTunes library 534 times, 128 times more than it’s runner-up(“The Ballad of Curtis Lowe”), and it will never get old. Remember when you were a little kid on Christmas and you received that perfect gift? Well, for me listening to this song is like receiving that gift and then having my father say “I hope you like it, by the way have I told you you have always been my favorite child.” No matter what your personal musical taste may be, there is no way in hell you could listen to this track and not possibly, at least secretly, deep inside, get some feeling of enjoyment.

"I'm a shooting star leaping through the skiesLike a tiger defying the laws of gravityI'm a racing car passing by like Lady GodivaI'm gonna go go goThere's no stopping me"

All of these question never seemed to get answered, but one just seemed to run into another. Inside of all these questions I kept coming back to the key focal point of the persona I try to get across to other people. I like to view myself as an approachable, likable person. I’m sure there are some people out there who would disagree with me, but its probably a good thing they have not tried make contact with me.

_
I’d like to think that I am an overall good person. I am well aware that I have a prominent asshole streak in me, I’m sure Craig Brown would love to testify to that. But he somehow finds a way to put up with most my bullshit. I mean, this guy is still my friend after, one week past summer, I openly told him I was going to try and make his life a living hell just because I was having a rough couple of weeks.

_
I once verbal assaulted someone who was parked crooked in a parking spot because an ex-girlfriend of mine I had seen no less that five minutes before acted like she had know idea who I was. The guy in that car probably shakes every time he sees me on campus.

_
But, other than those few exceptions, I try to be cordial and see the good in other people. I am almost a junior in college and I still don’t have a car (I had two, but neither of them are still with me, and I had nothing to do with either of their failures). But in stead of raising hell to my parents like I often want to, I just try to accept the fact that they are putting me through school and always making sure I have enough of everything else. So in my eyes it evens itself out. But just for the record, it is the most annoying thing in world to have to depend on others for a ride whenever I go home.

_
I recently got kicked to the curb by a female for reasons I still don’t fully understand. My first response was to let my jackass streak come out, because my first thoughts of her spiel was that it was completely fabricated. However, I do have a very high respect for her so I’m just going to look the other way about it. I really do have a outstanding amount of respect for this girl, even if what I’d like to see never materializes. I think I am getting better about not instinctively resorting to being a dick when stuff doesn’t go the way I planned it out, but it still needs some work.

_
One of the things I have tried my hardest to avoid is becoming of those guys who attempts to act like he somehow became an adult over night when he went off to college. I still watch at least four to six hours of cartoons everyday. I am still somewhat upset with God for not giving me superpowers so I can become one of the X-Men. But in all honesty, if I had superpowers I would probably just quit school, rob a bank, and live off that money on Nantucket Island. (Yes, I do have a plan for when I wake up one day with superpowers.)

_
All throughout my run I kept thinking to myself that I need to do something. I never figured out what, just something worth doing. Not being able to freeze the air around me or shoot lasers out of my eyes could make that difficult. I don’t really know, but I want to do something people will remember me by.

_
As you can more than likely tell, me being alone with my own thoughts for fifty minutes can be somewhat dangerous. I’m pretty sure that if I would have been forced through another ten minutes of it I might have self-destructed.

My point is that if someone is aggressively chatting at you pre-completion and you beat his ass so soundly that you know he is already just destroyed inside and you feel like rubbing it in, go for it. I am in no way suggesting my the poor kid cry, but if you feel so obligated to let him know you didn’t appreciate the mess he was chatting up before and that are now well aware that you are better than him, let him have it. I seem to be talking in circles so I will just turn to an example to make my case and try to prove I’m not an asshole.

_
Yesterday my little brother barnstormed his way to a first-place finish at the Regional High School Wrestling tournament and guaranteed himself a number one seed at next weekend’s state tournament. The individual he competed against in the tournament final was a less than admirable fellow from my brother’s rival high school. Even though this young man had lost to my brother is their previous two meeting he decided it to best to make sure my brother knew that he was a “pussy” and a “lucky piece of shit.” Granted sometimes in a rush of adrenaline and frustration we all might say some things we don’t necessarily mean at heart, but this kid’s a dick and a half.

_
The match began with my brother immediately putting this kid to his back, establishing that he, in fact, was not a pussy. Long story short, my brother never let up on this kid and rolled to sound 11-3 major decision.

_

Now, in light of past events, if was my brother I would have found this kid alone and crying because he just lost the regional title and made sure he knew that I was not a “pussy,” but luckily my brother has a little more sense than most do and just let the fact that the other kid had to look up at him on the awards podium do all of the talking. The whole point of that story was to point out that a little trash talk he and there is just going to happen in sports and other competitions. There are some people, like my brother’s opponent who are so insecure that trash talk is his first defense, instead of his actions. And then there are people like my brother who make me proud to say that we O’Connor’s let our actions do the talking.

_
Have I ever been caught up in the moment and let my words make an ass out of myself, yes. I think that at any point in a man’s life he could get caught up and not think things through before he opens his mouth. But in all honestly has trash talk ever really hurt anyone? In many cases, great athletes will quote some prick’s trash talk and other’s doubts of their ability as their motivation to achieve greatness. A great example of this is Steve Prefontaine, American long distance running legend who, at the time of his early death, held every American running record from 3000 to 10000 meters. Throughout Prefontaine’s entire life had been cut from sports teams and ridiculed about his sized and lack of talent. While in high school and at the University of Oregon he crushed many American records and claimed that his critics were right, he had no talent, but it was his willingness to work harder than anyone who claimed to be better than him that made him great. And after he achieved greatness he openly blew everything his critics had said back in their faces.

_
To sum everything up, the point I am trying to make is that trash talk is going to take place between people. That doesn’t mean both will be participating, but one will say something hoping to get a reaction from the other. All of these cases are different and end different ways. Whether it be a stoic, silent reaction like my little brothers, or it be a loud blasting resolution of greatness like Mr. Prefontaine’s. And some people crack under the pressure of trash talk, however I won’t get into those because I don’t believe in words being the only thing that makes you crack. Whichever way these situations work out, I can say from experience that there is no better feeling than what my little brother accomplished Saturday by silencing his opponent into a state of “maybe I’m not as good as I thought I was.” That feeling is too amazing to be put into words.

This all came to my attention after a good friend of mine apparently decided that he had to make sure that the rest of my friends and I know that he is “cool” and he is always the life of the party. Over the past year and a half since we all went off to school, his stories have gone from hard to believe experiences with the most attractive of women to unbelievable hang outs with Grammy winning musicians and professional athletes. These stories often trouble me. Not because I’m jealous of his “great times,” but because I just can’t seem to comprehend why someone would want everyone to think that they are that “awesome.”

The best example of these stories would be the time he supposedly sold DeAngelo Williams, the third leading rusher in the NFL, $9000 worth of clothing at his dead-end job as a salesmen at Buckle. Is it impossible that DeAngelo Williams purchased clothes from the Buckle in the Charlotte shopping mall? No, but it seems impossible that he would be on first name basis with a random salesmen and then purchase $9000, when I first heard the story it was $4500, worth of clothing. And I will let the math explain my theory:

• Buckle sells high-end jeans for around $135. If Mr. Williams bought $9000 worth of jeans, that would roughly be 66.67 pairs of jeans. And unless he is wearing those jeans while facing off against the Atlanta Falcons defense, that many pairs of jeans are unnecessary for anyone to own.

After reading that I hope you are shocked that someone would tell that story expecting anyone to believe it. Which is what upsets me even more. Is this semi-grown man so obsessed with his image towards his best friends that he feels the need to bullshit us on the happening of his life away from us? Or maybe its something deeper. Has he told himself these fabrications so many times that he now has images of them happening in his minds and believes them to be factual? Who knows, this individual obviously doesn’t.

Why is it that the “simple life” is apparently being frond upon these days. It seems to me that just doing what you like is no longer in some peoples mind when they plan there evenings. This makes me miss my childhood and just playing in my neighbor’s front yard until I was out of breath and forced to come inside by my parents.  I’m not a sociologist so I will not begin to act like I know the answers to the questions I keep asking. However, I will say that whatever the reason for these fabrications by my friend and others need to end. I realize I could do nothing but ruin our friendship by telling him he is a bullshit-liar, but hell, someone almost needs to do it.

All I can do in this battle against false reality is grin and bare it, hopefully my quest for a world where everyone appreciates the life they have been handed will have to wait. I guess the only think I can do is continue to tell it as I see it.

So this weekend when some asks me what I did after my track meet I will reply, “I hung out with some friends watched some TV, and had a quiet night around Greensboro. Nothing spectacular or unbelievable happened, and I’m perfectly fine with that.”

1. Who gives a damn if A-Rod took steroids? Yea it’s bad, but he admitted to it like a man and i think we should all move on.
2. UNC just beat Duke convincingly. And i, like most of you should, dont care because i have no connection either of those schools.
3. I listened to Andrew W.K. today and afterwards i felt like i had the strength to lift a bus.
4. Dane Cook is not funny.
5. I should be studying for Mythology right now.