Opening Day 2011

Got my first look at the Indians of 2011 yesterday. Naturally, they lost. This time though, it was embarrassing. The White Sox absolutely pounded Fausto Carmona on their way to a 15-10 win. Gale and I had seats in Section 109, and I got to be "End of Row Boy".

Progressive Field was a beacon in the distance, two hours before game time.





















Things of note: Typically, everyone wants to know what's going on inside the park. No, I didn't go all the way around, but virtually everything inside has gone up in cost. Opening Day Parking, BTW, was stable. I paid $20 in the traditional Hanna Garage spot, and most places were charging that price.

Rabbi Feldman's grilled hot dog stand in right field has changed this year. It's a bigger grilled dog slathered in onions, called a Slugger Dog, and that'll set you back (gulp!) $8.50. Not sure if other grilled dog stands exist. We'll find that out later. You can get a Brat or Italian Sausage there for $6.75. Not sure about the price of vendor dogs.





















Cracker Jack is $4.00, Peanuts are $4.50, so Marc's still cannot be beat. New this year is multicolored Cotton Candy. This comes in a bag for the amazing price of $6.00. A unique concept of a product kids love, but don't like to share, at exorbitant prices! Bottles of water were $4.50 and Gatorade will set you back $5.00 a bottle.

But, what about the beer? OK, I didn't see the foreign beer stand where, in years past, you could get Guinness and others. The Leinie Lodge had $7.75 Leinenkugels.

Dad's Beer Stand, predictably, had the longest lines. You could wash down Andy Capp Fries and Beer Nuts with a 12-oz. Blatz, Gennesee, Iron City, Natural Light, Pabst, Rolling Rock, Schaefer or Stroh for $4.50. I honestly don't get the nostalgia here. There are some lousy beers in that bunch.





















Beer from a vendor? This is where the variable pricing model has run amok. You can get a 24-oz. can (yes, they are back this year) of beer for $10.00. Yes, beer has hit $10 at the park. Or you can get a 16-oz. bottle for $7.75. Even more choices, a Gennessee vendor has 24-oz. cans for only $8.00. That would be Gennesee, Genny Cream or Gennessee Ice.

Bob Feller Salute

I'll hand it to the Indians, they did a much better job with the Feller salute than with the Herb Score Tribute a couple of years back. Big time ups on the video. The team wore Number 19 uniforms in the pre-game. Mrs. Feller put the ball of the first pitch on the pitching rubber. Bunting. Balloons. Bigass Flag. As Always. Real nice stuff.





















The Game

Can we quit with the White Sox as an opener. Chicago's Mark Buehrle now has 9 Opening Day starts. Six against the Indians.

Even though I was in the park, I have yet to see the Indians score a run in person. in a tribute to Bob Feller...Redass, we did a "five-and-fly". We had good seats in right-centerfield, but our row should have been renamed Row P. Our row seated 24 people, but it might as well have been 100, because I have never had to let that many people out to buy a beer or pee in all of my years attending sporting events. Ever.

Combined with a joke of a game, where I think I saw Austin Kearns flag down seven balls in the leftfield corner and watch two homers fly over his head. And, while it was 14-0 in the fifth and watch the Tribe look at only four pitches in their half of the inning, it literally drove us to drink, cheaply, at Alesci's. Where we got to see whatever faux comeback fall short.





















White Sox kill the Tribe on Opening Day. Loss No. One, 15-10. Today, the smallest crowd in the history of the park watched them lose again. It's a shame, but that's Baseball 2011.

Meal of Links

I realize I am a bit late to this game, but I went to Outback Steakhouse for the first time on Thursday. Kind of impressed with the place. My Dad had been there before and got a 6-oz. size and enjoyed his potato soup. I opted for a 10-oz. ribeye that was chargrilled over an open flame with a baked potato and salad. At the very least, I'll consider this as a dining option and no, I have no idea why it took this long to get there.

Us polkateers went to the early morning viewing of "Polka: The Movie". So popular, the Film Fest had two showings this morning. I figured at least 300 people were there to see this one. Kind of an average movie, which suffered from some decidedly poor editing. We get it, the Slovenian neighborhood of Cleveland is in decline. They really needed more music here. It was like they got to the '70s and said OK, who still plays this stuff? If it was a history lesson, you never got the full version. Not even any "Polka Varieties" footage. Hell, even Paul Sciria was in "Kill The Irishman".

After the movie, we visited P.J. McIntyre's in West Park. Heavy Irish vibe, but really good food, liquor and beer selections here. Not a surprise, it's a popular place. I shared some Reuben Egg Rolls and followed that with some Angus Beef Sliders. Homemade chips, too.

Your cell phone as wallet. Coming soon.

Record Store Day is in two weeks. Here are the most interesting releases. Check out the new license plate in Tennessee.

It's the Ramones. Always good, no matter what is recommended.

Looks like Eddie Izzard will have another go at an FX series. "The Riches" first season was superb, I thought.

They have announced the 2011 Peabody Awards. Those you may have heard of: "Justified", "Men Of A Certain Age", C-SPAN, "Degrassi", "If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise", and ESPN's "30 For 30".

How to play well with drugs. Mainly, don't mix your drugs.

New book is out. "The Oxford Book of Parodies", which asks the question, "Mickey or Bugs?" As a cynic, I am solidly in the corner of Bugs.

Exercise Yard

Who won the World Cup of Cricket? Why, that would be India.

Visitor

30 Across: Mattingly's predecessor (5 letters) Answer: Torre

I've seen two entirely different movies the last couple of days.

Mr. Mix was up from Nashville and we ventured over to Cinemark to see "The Expendables". This was directed by Sylvester Stallone, who also had a hand in penning some of the most absurd dialogue I've heard in a really long time.

You have to admit, there is something cool about seeing a bunch of action heroes getting together to create mayhem. Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture and Terry Crews make up the team. Oh yeah, Mickey Rourke is the guy who gets them the jobs. But it was Stallone and Statham who had the most screen time.

So, the boys go off on a job bankrolled by Bruce Willis. But only before Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up as an old rival of Stallone, to also bid for the job. Arnold backs off and Stallone gets the job. This is somewhat of a cheap thrill, highlighted by the fact I don't think Stallone and Arnold were in the same room while being filmed. Looked like Arnie had a little CG going on.

The bad guy hierarchy was Eric Roberts as the ex-CIA main baddie, with Steve Austin as his muscle. David Zayas (Batista from "Dexter") played a General gone bad, who Roberts enlisted to help him carve out a drug trade. The boys have to take out the bad guys. BTW, Couture and Austin have a a fight scene where I don't think they were together either. They basically fought each other's stuntman. Stallone's direction was a dizzying array of constant cuts, so combined with a lack of lighting, they were able to disguise a lot of who was actually doing what.

Let's cut to the chase. The dialogue and lack of over-the-top action really killed whatever chance this movie had for me and whatever plot existed was simple to figure out. Of course, it's ridiculous to think these old hands could still do their old tricks. Dolph Lundgren was horrible and should show up next in "The Replaceables". Stallone shows his age. Couture was an afterthought. Crews fares better in the Old Spice commercials as the bouncing pecs guy (not the new guy). They kept making jokes about Jet Li's height, which combined with his subpar English, renders him useless for any action roles he may have left in him. Statham is the only one who even comes close to being half decent and probably has the best fight scene. I swear in Mickey Rourke's "Go For The Oscar Speech", he either made it up as he went along or he was high. Amazingly bad. Eric Roberts hams it up as the bad guy and probably comes in behind Statham in the maintaining of self-respect category.

This is super-discount matinee viewing. Probably makes enough money for an "Expendables II", however.

My Dad and I took in a first-day showing (imagine that) of Anton Corbijn's "The American". Corbijn is the one-time music video director (U2 and Johnny Cash) and last time out directed "Control". This movie stars George Clooney in the title role. It seemed "The Expendables" was bankrolled by a Brazilian and "The American" looks like it had Italian money behind it. I can see Clooney agreeing to the role, because he lives over there. I see him working.

I'll say this, the three lead women in this movie all have great asses. No doubt that was a characteristic necessary for these roles. Or maybe not, but very nice. And a nice mention of Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West" was unexpected.

But, "The American" is a throwback to those movies where an assassin has to be alone, constantly on the lookout and exhibit paranoia at every turn. This is not Jason Bourne beating up a guy with a phone book.

Therein lies the problem. I liked this movie as a character study. Works great on that level. And Corbijn shoots this movie wonderfully. Lots of geometric detail and it looks fantastic. But I can quite easily see all of the arguments against it. The main one being there isn't a whole lot of action, which is going to kill any box office it may get. I joked that we just saw George Clooney build a gun for two hours.

If you like Clooney, it's a must-see. If you have muddled through the early slow-paced episodes of "Rubicon" and stayed with it, again, this may be up your alley. If you want a better story about an assassin, revisit the original "The Day Of The Jackal".

Meal of Links

It's interesting that cricket becomes very interesting when there is a betting scandal involved. Otherwise, I still don't get it.

Have you been keeping up with Brazil? It is now one of the world's great breadbaskets.

David Cross Is Funny



Top movies with twist endings. Top 6 are pretty good choices.

Vodkas. Including Cotton Candy!

I see Ed Schulz on occasion. But he's delusional if he thinks he can outdraw Beck.

Speaking of delusional.

Exercise Yard

UEFA bans the vuvuzela. Their charm has dissipated rather quickly.

Visitor

71 Across: "When A Man Loves A Woman" singer Percy ______ (6 letters) Answer: Sledge

"When A Man Loves A Woman"/Percy Sledge

I had a fun weekend. Our friends, Mr. Mix and his wife, came up from Nashville. So, we spent the evening downtown doing, uh, I think it's called drinking. That was a marathon of fun.

Yesterday was the NFL Draft, so that took up most of the day. It was a rather odd start, because in the morning, my neighborhood was taken over by folks who wanted to see the Fulton Road Bridge implode. No kidding. 7:00 and there are people grabbing every available parking spot on my street and the surrounding side streets. Lots of traffic. I had to leave at 8:00, the scheduled implosion time. I found out later and was rather amused that they had problems blowing up the damn thing. Most of it, was still standing later in the day. I think Round Two is later this week.

I felt somewhat vindicated to read, for all the accompanying hubbub last year, that Cleveland hardly rates any frames in the new "Spiderman 3" movie. With all of the CG out there and no stars in town, I could not understand how "Hicksville" this place became last year. Never understood it. People thought they were gonna be in it, the city would be recognized, etc. Amazing.

Meal of Links

The Steelers have a mascot. Please, Randy Lerner, do not get any ideas. Oh, I know we have those stupid dogs down there like "Huddles", but they ain't no mascot of mine.

Two things that are worth watching. One is the current Bill Moyers program on PBS. Great look at the media and the run-up to the war. The other (and I'm a little late with this one) is the HBO special where they give an award to Jerry Seinfeld. Lots of funny stuff there.

The LA Times has a blog on the Phil Spector trial. Phil apparently likes firearms.

Exercise Yard

I don't know crap about cricket. But I do know the recently concluded Cricket World Cup was a disaster.

Visitor

None, it was a sunny Sunday.

When will we get a Sonic? After their latest commercial (during "The Riches", BTW) for a Banana Pudding Shake, apparently not soon enough. Oh, why do they torture us so? Closest location: Whitehall, OH.

Meal of Links

Folks are eating less fruits and veggies. I had a pear and broccoli and a salad today. I guess that counts for something. OK, I had Girl Scout cookies, too.

When to buy gadgets. Wait is the operative word.

In Detroit, houses are cheaper than cars. Hey, maybe the next Will Smith movie will have him living in a house.

Exercise Yard

Cricket may have killed the Pakistan coach. The pressure of the job may have bowled him over at the World Cup.

Visitor

41 Across: School official (4 letters) Answer: Dean