I Am Infected With National Pride*

Oh the Olympics, how I love you so!

Just wanted to make a quick post about the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing. Regardless of how I feel about China, they did a bang up job with the Opening Ceremonies, and Michael Phelps has been kickin' ass so far. So much fun.

I grew up in a pro-Olympics household, and every four years we would gather around the TV for all the spectacle and fun of the Summer and Winter Games. I have very fond memories of all those Olympics, and now as an adult, I get all excited whenever Olympic time rolls around.

Badminton? Yes. Track and Field? Oh, yes. Swimming, gymnastics, diving, equestrian, table tennis, volleyball, handball, tennis, rowing, baseball?! More and more. I will watch just about any sport they put in front of me, and I cheer and yell from my couch.

Just think, in two years we get the Winter Games! So great. Okay, enough of this, I gotta get back to the games!

*Thanks to the guy at the wine store, who when I asked him if he had 'Olympic Fever', he responded with "I am infected with national pride!", inspiring this post, and giving me a kick-ass title. Hee!!

So Far, So OK

I am writing this on my Dad's birthday, which is fitting, since he is one of the reasons I love baseball. Happy Birthday Dad!

The first month of baseball is over, and the Yankees are hovering right around the .500 mark. Considering everything, not too shabby. We have a new Manager in Joe Girardi, whom I love. He was the regular catcher back in the 90s when Jorge Posada was first coming up, and Joe taught him and helped make him into the great player he is today. It is also nice to have someone in the dugout who not only used to play with some of these guys, but who shows some emotion. As much as I loved Torre, he always had that dead-eyed look, no matter what the team was doing. Girardi has how he's feeling written all over his face. I like it.

Much like last year, we have a plethora of injuries to contend with. Jorge with his tendinitis, A-Rod with his strained quad, Brian Bruney with his busted ankle, and add in the less than stellar outings from the newbie pitchers Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes (who is now on the DL with a cracked rib!). There is also the major slumps of Giambi and Robinson Cano, two players who can't seem to get their batting averages off the Interstate. With all of that, I will take .500.

The good news for the Yankees? Johnny Damon is healthy as a horse. I forgot how that man can run! Oh, can he run.... Add in the ever reliable Hideki Matsui, Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreau, and the team is doing just fine. I am already sick of the NY press writing the team off. It's been one month people! Take a freakin' chill pill.

As for other baseball stuff? Eh, it's early, so I haven't gotten into all the standings much. It is shocking to have The Tampa Bay Rays doing so well (did the name change really fix what was wrong with the team?). Peeking over at Joe Torre's new team, I see that the Dodgers are holding their own against the dreaded Diamondbacks. I am definitely rooting for someone to take them down, it might as well be the Dodgers.

Holy smokes, can you believe I got through a whole baseball post without putting up a picture of Jeter? Sometimes I amaze even myself.

The Rocket!

Yes, Yankee fans, The Rocket, Roger Clemens is back in pinstripes! And I couldn't be happier.

As a life long Yankee fan, I am not usually a fan of the gross display of money and power George Steinbrenner is so fond of. I was not thrilled when we got A-Rod (although I am eating my words this season - YAY!), and was pretty disgusted with the acquisition of Randy Johnson (and good riddance). Back in the late 90's, when the Yankees won all those World Series, it was a team of great players who were not necessarily marquee names. The teams that have won since have been similar in the fact the they were just a great combination of players that had chemistry and talent that burned brightly. Steinbrenner's insistence on spending huge amounts of money have not resulted in anymore rings, and I feel like that approach is not really the best idea.

But this season has been different for me. We started out with pitching that looked great on paper, and I was really excited about the teams prospects. Finally, we had pitching that gave us a great shot at the post-season. Then the pitchers began to fall. Hamstrings, sore elbows, and last week a broken leg! The bullpen was being run into the ground and baby pitchers were being pulled up from the Minors left and right.

So today I'm watching a great game, a shut-out pitched by Rasner, Matsui got his 2000th career hit, and during the seventh inning stretch, Roger Clemens stands up in the owners box and tells everyone he is a Yankee again. I was stunned. And then, extremely excited! I had no idea I would feel that way. Roger said he hoped to be pitching by early June, and I certainly can't wait!

Visions of Huddles and Butt Smacking

Woo hoo!! Football!!

When my temp agency called and told me I was going to be working at the NFL I totally laughed. I had visions of manly men walking around saying "You the man!" to each other all day. I was only partly wrong.

I was the Executive Assistant to the President and CEO of the NFL (look him up, I'm not dropping this name). The only person higher on the food chain was Commissioner Goodell, and he was just down the hall. I also was assisting the COO, a lovely, smart woman who was beyond helpful and required almost no assistance.

The NFL is very corporate. My wardrobe is very corporate-lite, so I felt under dressed most of the time. But everyone was so nice. As each person came by the desk, I was welcomed with a smile and a handshake. It was very evident that the people who work for this organization are happy and satisfied with the work they get to do, which is such a nice and refreshing change from some of the pits of doom I have been working at.

As nice as everyone was, there was also an underlying look of concern. Chris, the guy who trained me and was nominated to be my baby sitter, was very precise and made sure I knew exactly what was expected of me. The way he was tip-toeing around made me very aware of the intimidation factor the Boss had with these people. His LA assistant, Kim, called and emailed me regularly, and made sure I knew to not take anything He said personally. Funny thing is, I am not easily intimidated, and I found all this concern fairly amusing. Yes, the Boss is high up in the company, Yes, he is a VIP, but he's just another person. He wasn't scary at all to me.

I had asked Chris how to talk to the Boss regarding his phone calls. Do I run into his office to tell him who was on the line, do I yell from my desk. Chris said he usually yelled, and he had seen past assistants do the same, so I followed his lead. After a half a day of yelling to Him, he said, "You have an intercom, use it." Chris didn't know how to use it, so we pushed buttons and tried to figure it out. Turned out to be pretty easy, just hold the TALK button and talk. So I began to faithfully use the intercom, and He continued to yell at me from his office.

On my second day, the Boss was unoccupied, and He was wandering around the office, stopping into offices to chat. At one point He stopped right next to my desk and was just standing there. After a beat, I said, "How's it goin'?" He looked at me a little startled, recovered, and said with a smile, "It's goin' good, how's it going with you?" "Just dandy." I replied, and he wandered back into his office. I don't know if he was trying to intimidate me, or if he just happened to end up there, but the ice was broken.

He came out one day and asked me if I knew how to call a car. Those of us who have spent any time here in the city have called a car once or twice. I must have looked at him like he was nuts, and after a few moments he said, "Well?" I told him, "I think I can handle that." and was probably a bit too sarcastic about it, but he was impressed that I took care of it so quickly.

I was temping at the NFL because a new assistant had been hired in LA and was to relocate to NYC, but had run into some personal problems so she was delayed. So Kim, in LA, was doing all the heavy lifting of this job, and I was basically there to answer the phone. The Boss' phone was to be answered at all costs. Absolutely no voicemails allowed. This caused a bit of a problem when I needed to go to the bathroom. People had to be called, schedules rearranged, all so I could go pee. When I asked Kim about the procedure for taking a lunch, she said, "Hmm, no one has ever asked me that before." You know I figured out a lunch schedule, I need my lunch.

My second week at the job, Kim called and told me that the new assistant had come in early, dropped off her security credentials and quit. She asked me if I was interested in temp to perm. My decision caused some controversy among my loved ones. I had spent a lot of time on this job doing nothing. Answered the phone, called a few cars and typed and faxed a letter to the Commissioner of the Pac-Ten. Not rocket science. Apparently, there had been a lot of morons on this job, because I was praised over and over by what a good job I had been doing. People, this was not challenging work. When Kim asked me about staying on, I easily told her I was just interested in temp work. I had had a lot of time to think what it would be like to do this job day after day, and I wasn't liking what I was seeing.

My first clue was the Blackberry charger on the desk. Once I leave I job, I am gone. My time off the clock is my own, and the thought of my boss being able to contact me whenever he wanted gave me visions of prison cells. Add to that the enormous effort it took for me to take any kind of break, bathroom or otherwise. How many bladder infections would I get? How many lunches would I be taking at my desk? Not to mention, even though I didn't really care about this job, I acquired a heeee-uge cold sore my fourth day there. I don't need that kind of stress.

So, I had a little over two weeks of rubbing elbows with the NFL VIPs. My Boss was actually charming and fun. I have no idea why everyone was so intimidated by him. I heard the F-bomb flying out of his and his colleagues mouths on a regular basis during meetings. Kim told me that He was in an amazingly good mood once I got rolling, and she attributed it to me and my competence (crazy how just answering the phone right can impress people so much!). Personally, I think He was in such a good mood because he was getting ready to go out to his home in Beverly Hills, which I think he liked way more than his NY apartment. But I'll take the praise when I can get it.

Cool things I saw:

• The Vince Lombardi trophy


• Tom Landry's hat (you know I'm a big Cowboys fan)


• The Division Championship and Superbowl rings


• 15 Emmy's, all in my Boss' office

Cool people I talked to:

• Joe Theisman (I had to call him on his cell)


• Deion Sanders (twice)


• Mel Karmazin


• Jerry Jones' secretary (what? I said I was a big cowboys fan)

Not bad for 11 days at the desk.

The Media Sucks - Sports Edition

I should be thrilled. Being a sports gal, and being that my favorite sport is baseball, I should be all excited that the regular season is so close. But the sport press has gotten me angry and annoyed.

Spring training has begun, and while it is as new as a spring chicken, they have decided to pick up the old chestnut of the A-Rod/Jeter fight. Why, it's being sold as an all out controversy! The back pages of the New York tabloids are screaming with ridiculous headlines about what A-Rod said about his friendship (or his faded friendship) with Jeter. The press asked the question, A-Rod answered it in what seemed like an honest and genuine manner: They aren't as close as they once were, but there is no problem on the field, period. The next day the press asks Jeter about what A-Rod said, and he basically no commented them right out of the dug-out.

John Harper of the NY Daily News wrote this regarding Jeter's no-comment attitude on talking about this situation:

[Jeter] repeatedly avoided questions yesterday by saying his relationship with A-Rod had no relevance to the Yankees trying to win a championship, and here is where he was dead wrong.
Of course it matters because it matters to A-Rod, or at least it did for the last three seasons, when A-Rod desperately wanted to restore his old friendship with Jeter, to the point where it may have messed with his head.

Last I looked, A-Rod was a grown up, and Jeter had no obligation to become BFF with someone who he felt had done him wrong. Both of them have said there is no problem on the field, so let's drop this bullshit, please.

A-Rod has been beaten down in the New York sports press the past couple of years. The Yankee fans, known for being hardasses, booed him mercilessly last season. While I was not one of the ones casting aspersions his way, I was frustrated by his inability to be the superstar he had been before coming to town. I could see how upset he was with all of it, and I don't blame Jeter one bit. I blame the media.

As a point of full disclosure: I have been a Yankee fan for over 30 years, and love Jeter in pinstripes. I was never excited about the prospect of A-Rod joining the team, and said so to many of my fellow Yankee fan friends, and watched as their jaws hit the ground. Whatever. I never felt like he was a good fit for the team, but I always wanted him to do well for the sake of 'My' team. So last year, when the boos came raining down on him at Yankee Stadium, I was one of the quiet few rooting for him to prove everyone, including me, wrong (who could have ever predicted that Alex Rodriguez could be portrayed as the underdog?).

Listen, I know we Yankee fans are the most spoiled of fans. We expect our team to get to the World Series every year, and we get upset when a team full of great players can't seal the deal, but I think this story is ridiculous. It is A-Rod's job to figure out his own crap, no one else's, and to put the blame on Jeter's shoulders (no matter how big and handsome and talented they are - hee!) is unfair and childish. Jeter may have a quiet reputation for holding grudges, but he has an outloud reputation for wanting to win and supporting his team. There is a reason he was made Captain. But he is not a psychologist.

This is about selling papers. Pure and simple. Well guess what? I'm not buying this soap opera crap. I want to hear about the game. The team. I want to hear if Carl Pavano is stepping up and pitching the way he was supposed to two years ago. I want to know if Melky is ready for his close-up (I think he is). I want to know who is healthy, who is getting a slow start, who could have a star making year. Which rookie is gonna shine, how does Joe Torre feel about their chances this year, will we ever see Bernie in a uniform again. I want to know about the baseball, not about another episode of The Bold and the Beautiful.

New York press.. grow up!!