I got to see the Champions League Final on tape-delay tonight. It was shown live on ESPN2 earlier in the day, with a replay at 7:00. I successfully avoided the outcome all day, but did not realize when I sat down to watch, it would take three hours on the delayed program. I'm not sure what ESPN thinks in these situations and I'll tell you why.

They cut the first 30 minutes of the second half! Now, it's easy to say, well, nothing happened, but it seems to be more of an arbitrary decision to forgo those minutes. Again, there were no scores but don't you think that 30 minutes had a foreshadowing on subs in the last 15 minutes, leg strength, tactics, etc.?














My advice is cut the pre-game. A pre-game in which John Denver's "Country Roads" was played. In Moscow. WTF? And, of course, the playing of the "UEFA Champions League Anthem". Therefore, the match actually started at 7:25. Then they showed the entire halftime. It seems to me to watch talking heads whom we don't know should have been edited out. Run a crawl and say due to time constraints, eliminate both of those studio sets for game action. They do it all the time with those Drive-Bys on Classic, so...

But they did show all of extra time and the resulting penalty kicks and the trophy presentation. It just seems to me they cut the wrong 30 minutes from the broadcast.

Meal of Links

Boy, Tom Waits knows a lot of shit. His definition of a gentleman: "A man who can play the accordion, but doesn’t." Great stuff.

These websites can save you money. I have used not a one.

American Airlines is now charging for the first checked bag. Sign o' the times or bad management?

Exercise Yard

The Indians still can't hit. A more drastic measure seems to be in the offing.

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39 Across: Danny of the Boston Celtics (5 letters) Answer: Ainge