Best Bandwagon Teams of the 2000's

Credits to bleacherreport.com

It has been a week since my Atlanta Braves got eliminated in the MLB Playoffs. However, this did not stop me from watching the remainder of the playoff games last week. If you love the sport, watching it does not end after your team gets eliminated. You either watch it for entertainment’s sake or you root against your team’s rivals. I had both reasons when I watched the League Championship Series as Atlanta and Boston’s division rivals, namely Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees, were battling it out. Actually, both teams were pegged to duke it out in the World Series just like last year. Their lineups were just loaded. And their opponents? A bunch of teams who struggled to even reach the playoffs. The Texas Rangers never won a home game in the postseason prior to this year’s ALCS. Nobody expected the San Francisco Giants to reach the playoffs as San Diego was in a comfortable lead some months back. The San Francisco Giants’ last World Series appearance was in 2002 when they suffered a heartbreaking Game 7 loss to the Anaheim Angels. Both teams never won a World Series trophy. The Giants did but they were not yet situated in San Francisco then.

I first got to watch the Game 1 of the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers. The Yankees had their probable Cy Young Winner, CC Sabathia, in the mound and I expected them to crush the Rangers who just had little rest from their five-game series against Tampa Bay. Then, the unexpected happen. CC Sabathia struggled to find the strike zone as he walked batters, gave up a home run and was even down by a huge deficit early in the game. The sluggers of New York were also rusty. Even the analysts were astounded. If they expected a pitcher to have 30 more pitches than the other, it would not have been Sabathia. The huge lead had the Rangers and their fans complacent to the point that they forgot to boo A-Rod and Mark Teixeira. Nolan Ryan was comfortably chatting with George Bush and Texas seemed to coast to a Game 1 victory.  Then, 8th inning arrived. C.J. Wilson was exhausted after giving up a run. They had to replace him with Darren Oliver who walked the next two batters. This ensued a huge Yankee rally that was good enough for the comeback win. Using Bill Simmons’ term, Texas just experienced a stomach punch game. They thought everything went right. The announcers were stating that it was history taking place for them as it will be their first postseason home win. Just when they thought that things were finally right, they got hit out of nowhere. In the final innings of the game, you can read the words “Oh no! Here we go again!” etched in their faces.

Greatest Season in TV Series History?

“Mad Men” is the cure for the common TV show.*

Spoiler Alert: Whenever I write about TV series, it will always have spoilers. In case you want to know what this is about, it is about “Mad Men” Season Four. Feel free to read if you have no plans of watching “Mad Men” or if you do not give a damn on spoilers. After all, this write-up is for general insights learned from the TV show so that anyone can (hopefully) relate.

I have been thinking it out for weeks. Is “Mad Men” Season Four the best TV season of all-time? After watching “The Beautiful Girls” (Episode 9), I already felt that this is the best “Mad Men” season (more on that later). The acting, plot and the themes were superb. I have at least re-watched each episode since “The Crysanthemum and the Sword” (Episode 5) and even if I already knew the plot, there are just too many new factors that amazed me every time I re-watch an episode.

But before we get to the finale, let us discuss the various themes from this season.

Note: I have not watched “The Sopranos” or “The Wire.” Thus if you want to contend that these series’ seasons are marginally better, I cannot argue with you.

* - taken from a signature of one IMDB user. This is a good reference to one of the brilliant advertising pitches that Don Draper made this season.

“Why I’m Quitting Tobacco”

 

Don Draper delivered one of the gutsiest and most brilliant moves of all-time in the penultimate episode. Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (SCDP) was in deep trouble after their biggest client, Lucky Strike, left them due to organizational restructuring. With no financial stability, SCDP lost its clients one by one. In the 1960’s, advertising companies rely a lot on cigarette companies. Just by watching “Mad Men,” you will observe that the characters smoke cigarettes at least fifteen times per episode.

Greatest Season in TV Series History Pt. 2

Note: This is the Part 2 of this write-up. To view Part 1 or Part 3, click the link below:

PART 1 | PART 3

 My Take on the Season Finale

I had mixed feelings after I watched the season finale. This is arguably their most polarizing season finale that the show had (with more people hating it than liking it.) I was perplexed when Don proposed to Megan. It was excruciating to watch the remainder of the episode after that. It further doubled when I saw the break-up scene. The rushed decision made the Joan-Peggy conversation (on how stupid Don was) the best scene of the episode. Seeing the two women sharing a laugh was heartwarming after the times this moment was broken before (i.e., lawnmower scene in Season 3).

No matter how frustrated I was with Don’s decision, I still realized that this is “Mad Men” that I am watching. It never was your typical TV show to begin with. The only time they had a brilliant, kick-ass ending was in Season 3. Seasons 1 and 2 featured subtlety and realism of the narrative. In fact, “Mad Men” is not even plot-driven. I guess I was just pampered from the Season 3 finale (which remains the best in show’s history) and the fact that majority of Season 4 was plot-driven. Don’s decision still made it appear that the writers forced something so that it would be contrary to “Mad Men’s” fans’ wishes. However, it still changed the dynamic of the show’s direction. Don might not have learned after all the hardships, but we also know that Faye knows a lot about Don. It is good to speculate on how Faye can use it for revenge.

Greatest Season in TV Series History Pt. 3

Note: This is Part 3 of this write-up. Click on the links below to read Part 1 and Part 2.

PART 1 | PART 2

Don Draper, you broke up with this pretty chick?! How dare you!

Best Moments of Season Four

Funny Moments

•    Any Miss Blankenship Moment. Miss Blankenship was just comedy gold. She calls people with their wrong names (she called Lane Pryce as Pryce Lane). Because of her old age, she is clumsy most of the time. When Don told Miss Blankenship to cancel his meeting with Faye, Miss Blankenship called Faye and asked her to come inside Don’s room in order for him to say to her that their meeting is canceled. It was the stupidest meeting cancellation of all-time. Whenever Ms. Blankenship informs Don that someone is coming inside his room, it is always funny. This is because the person has already entered the room.

Thank You, Bobby Cox!

Bobby Cox's Final Curtain Call

Tuesday, October 12, 2010. It is my second rest day after a work marathon for the past 2-4 weeks. I woke up like it is a Sunday (since I worked the whole weekend) and the first thought I had is to go downstairs to watch the ongoing baseball playoffs. For some reason, working on weekends has become beneficial to me because I get to watch American professional sports games on weekday mornings (this also happened in Super Bowl early this year). In October 12, it was a “can’t miss” affair because it was probably the Atlanta Braves’ last game of the year. It was Game 4 of the National League Division Series and the Giants were leading 2-1 over the Atlanta Braves.

8 Random Thoughts on Women, The Three Peat and Mad Men

Oh Jessica!

You may find this blog entry to be a bit personal than the usual (I rarely write about myself unlike in my early blogging years) but it is actually used to inject some style in conveying my insights. By the way, before you call me a LeBronesque douchebag for referring to myself in the third person in the questions, it’s either I want to experiment on some new style or I am finding it hard to put it in the “8 Random Thoughts” style of question. Either way, the Atenean Fanalyst does not like to be called a douchebag.

* - if you don’t read from my blogspot, I am the Atenean Fanalyst.

Hey! Stop calling me a douchebag.

Random Thought #1: Is Jessica Mendoza the “greatest of all-time” when it comes to UAAP courtside reporting?

One more Jessica Mendoza pic

Now that we may have probably seen the last time Jessica do her courtside reporting for UAAP basketball, I think that this is the time to evaluate if she is the best. Before Jessica, we have seen a good share of quality courtside reporting. Lia Cruz was actually the greatest then. She could convey her thoughts in a very informative manner. She does not need to lengthen her reports and I rarely see her reading her notes (either that or I was just not observant then). Whenever I watched Lia, I always felt that she had a substantial knowledge on the history of basketball (even if what she once said in an interview was contrary to that). Above it all, she was never biased. UAAP also had Gretchen Fullido – the only three-peating courtside reporter. Honestly, she is quite good but there are times when she gets overly biased. Patty Laurel and Sharon Yu were also awesome reporters. These eye candies exude remarkable confidence whenever they hold the microphone.

The Ateneo Dynasty

“Basta, ang alam ko three-peat next year.” – Ryan Buenafe from Ateneo Bonfire 2009

Last year, I laughed at Ryan’s fearless prediction when I heard that. Deep inside, I had some doubts. Ateneo was about to lose the three vital cogs of their back-to-back title run. FEU is supposed to get stronger after a year of experience. Then, 2010 arrived. Experts tagged FEU to win it all, while Ateneo was branded as has-beens. The elimination round resulted to what they expected. FEU was first while Ateneo had more regular season losses than the past two years combined. I was not able to blog my thoughts about the UAAP season before it started as I was busy studying then. But contrary to my doubts last year, I had special confidence in the Blue Eagles.