Like the NHL one of the best days in MLB is the trade deadline. However, as MLB goes by every year and teams like the Yankees continue to field an all-star team worth over 200 million the sport begins to become a laughing stock.

The Phillies got Oswalt and his huge contract and the Yankees got Berkman this evening in 2 of the bigger deals of the deadline. As titled here the rich are certainly getting richer. The Yanks are the obvious # 1 in payroll and the Phills are 4th(before the trade), showing us that still the ones with the money are the ones who get the big names. (And save your Mets comments, I am a Metsfan and know they have a high payroll and know they still suck but I will deal with them later in a post)

     Let’s look at the bottom line here. I will say it, MLB needs a salary cap plain and simple. Yep, I said it, deal with it. Revenue sharing and lux taxes blah blah, you can throw whatever you want at the problem but more and more it’s obvious if you have the money you will put yourself in great position to win.  Lets look at the last 10 years or so of World Series winners.

(thanks to fanboy.net for the chart) 

One thing sticks out like a sore thumb. Every single team has a payroll in that year, in the top 10, with the vast majority (8) being in the top 5 of salaries in the league. The obvious exception being the Marlins who were in ’03 the perfect storm. Between trades and guys due huge raises they won in the exact year they need to and the next year their payroll went down from roughly 80 mil to under 40. 

So now this year the current playoff teams and their rank in salary are as follows (these rankings do not include recent deals)

Yankees (1)

White Sox (7)

Rangers (26)

Rays (19)

Braves (15)

Cardinals (11)

Padres (29)

Giants (9)

And the also in contention teams including the Phillies (4), Red Sox (2), Twins (13).  Recent additions will also raise some of these teams a bit higher (see Rangers/Angels). Also for arguments sake we can throw out the Padres right now, b/c we all know either they won’t be there in the end or they will no win the WS (look at history teaches us).  What this shows us is that the most likely winner this year will be a top 5 or top 10 spending team. How ridiculously spending are they? Well the Yankees at 200+ million have roughly the same salary as the bottom SIX teams combined. Let me repeat that the bottom SIX! teams combined.

So as history tells us by looking, that it will prolly be one of the top 5 salary teams who wins the WS no matter who gets there. Sure teams like the Rays or Braves might contend but it’s the smart money that will say the Yankees or Phils will likely be there when the last out is recorded. 

Unless you are one of the lemmings being lead around by the front running world as a Yankee fan you prob are completely fed up with the same teams competing and winning this crap year after year. It is just old. The sport needs a cap for the sake of itself. The diehard fans want to see every team have a chance to win every year. This is only achieved through a cap. What the NHL model shows us is that you can have a 20-30 mil span of what you can and have to spend and you will see different teams have a chance to win every year. Sure if you are the yankees you can still max out your payroll but you actually have to be creative in how you do so and trades as well.  Look at the NHL again you see how great the system works.  In the last 5 years since the cap was put in 5 different teams have won the Stanley Cup. Not only that only 4 of the possible 10 slots in the finals were repeats by teams who were there in the last 5 years (The Det vs Pitt finals 2 years in a row).  Every team has a legit shot to win every year.

MLB will NEVER institute a cap, mainly b/c the MLB players hold more power then any union in sports and they would never stand for it what so ever. Untill hell freezes over we will have to deal with every single year the Yankees being a 5-2 fav to wn the WS.

This made me laugh so hard I had to watch it a few times just to see what I missed while laughing!

Like a lot of kids growing up, I was a HUGE comic book guy. Of the usual Marvel Vs DC fight I come down 150000% on the DC side. I am not a psycho DC guy where I cannot appreciate Marvel things b/c I do love the X-Men movies and the Iron Man movies as well. I just happen to love the DC universe more and still have a big collection of DC comics.

So natrually being an MMO guy I have quite an interest in seeing how DC Universe Online will end up being. I REALLLLLYYY want it to be good. However two things are against it.

1. Superhero MMO’s just aren’t good. Sure City of Heroes/Villains and Champions online have a following but bottom line is they just aren’t very much fun for long. I am not sure if it’s the dated game play or the fact that it’s hard to do LOOT in a superhero game (and let’s face it the whole carrot on a stick thing pretty much revolves around loot). Either way DCUO will have to bring some good graphics or gameplay to the mix to win me over.
2. SOE sucks. Yep, I am going to go with their track record. SOE blows, their games blow and their service is just as crappy. They will really have to hit a home run to make this one work. Look at their list of games—>  Free Realms,Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, Pirates of the Burning Sea.  All complete crap for the hard core MMO gamer. Everquest was a huge hit.. WHEN I WAS IN COLLEGE! I beta tested Vanguard and I can only wish I had those hours of my life back. Please SOE Prove me wrong.

I do have to say one thing tho. The guys who did this CGI video are the tops in the industry. If they were do have this quality in a full length movie they would make a KILLING. The detail and animation is just to die for. See for yourself below. A word of warning, it might not be very suitable for young children. For the rest of us tho watch it, it kicks ass. Also keep in mind, these intro movies have ZERO gameplay footage in it. So this isn’t what the game will look or play like, but it’s still fun to watch.

B/c of vacation I found this late also… I think they will have episode 3 of this season up tomorrow too.

Thanks as always to www.watchtheguild.com for the link. Please go there and buy the old seasons they are great! Simply one of the best web shows ever.

Sorry for the lul in writing the Geekjock is still on vacation. However, I saw this happen in the news while I was up here on Long Island and it’s in the “you just can’t make this shit up” category.

Last week a man dressed up as Darth Vader and robbed a bank on Long Island in Setauket. I am guessing that after all the destroyed Death Stars the Empire needed some way to pay for the next one. Selling off pieces of the old Death Star wasn’t working so hey let’s rob a bank!!!

I normally like to put my reviews each in their own post but I felt I wanted to include these together. Mainly b/c they are both fairly odder/ out-there type movies. Being a movie enthusiast, I don’t mind that at all, but they are good examples of how one get’s it right and one is just a smelly mess.

Pretty Bird (2008 120 mins) Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti, David Hornsby

This is a story of three men trying to invent a rocket belt. Crudup is the get-rich quick entrepreneur who is organizing the project. Giamatti is the rocket scientist brains behind the production, and Hornsby is the all too loyal friend and money behind it all.  The men cannot seem to get along with ambitions, paranoia and money all getting in the way. The movie is just all over the damn place. It starts easy enough and just diverts into, as a co-worker called it a big smelly pile of poo. I couldn’t have said it better. We never really know what the plot wants to do and where the characters want to go and where they end up. Sure there is the small tieing of loose ends but it doesn’t keep us from scratching our heads when the credits roll.  IT really wants to be an intelligent darker comedy, but it just doesn’t succeed, mainly b/c of the plot.

Usually I add in the warning or small weaknesses, but here I will add in the 2 positives. First, I liked Giamatti’s performance here. I always tend to like him when he is a flawed everyman. From Private Parts to Sideways he is at his best in roles that ultimately have him screaming. I don’t know why but some actors are best when they are riled up and screaming, and he’s just one of em. Second, the small role Kristin Wiig has in here is performed well. She is good at what they gave her. Mostly I say this b/c the part and the writing for her is utter crap. She just does a good job at making it somewhat memorable.

Verdict—> Pile of poo. If it’s on cable late night andyou can’t sleep then sure go for it, otherwise don’t bother.

Peacock ( 2010 90 mins) Cillian Murphy, Susan Sarandon, Ellen Page

Peacock is an example of how a film that is darker and a bit more out there with subject matter can be good and enjoyable. The film is about John (Murphy), who has had a real troubled childhood due to his upbringing by his mother which has left him broken and scarred. He is further scarred by her passing a year ago. He is left as a man who lives dual lives. One a twitchy, anxiety riddled mess of a man who works as a bank book keeper. The other is as a woman who is calm,collected, maintains the house and cooks for the other personality.  Both worlds are turned upside down when a train crashes and leaves a caboose in his back yard. All the town attention has his world mixed up and part of him struggles to become part of society and deal with the world seeing his other self, named Emma.

Another part of the story is a girl from John’s past Emma (Page). Emma has been living in town with her son but only now has gotten back in touch with John.  This movie is so well written and spins such a layered story that it keeps us riveted to it. The somewhat taboo story and the uncomfortable nature of it all is well woven to keep us invested in it all. It all centers around John/Emma and how they co-exist yet how he is not sure he wants them to, or if he knows why they exist. It’s not a bright and cheery movie and it’s not exceptionally fast paced but it just works. Murphy plays the 2 parts exceptionally. He has completely different mannerisms and twitches as both characters and brings them to life in such a way as to make them truly 2 people in one. The internal struggle is evident and well shown.  There is one slight thing that bothers me (b/c I gotta complain about something as usual). The character of the town officer played by Josh Lucas, just seems wasted. It’s not completely compelling nor very deep. He doesn’t serve a whole lot of purpose in the story. I know in a way he’s just not supposed to b/c the movie is about John/Emma, but even Sarandon’s character Fanny manages to be relevant but not take anything away from it’s main character. The officer just isn’t relevant at all. A wasted performance.

Verdict—> This is a good movie for people who just like movies. Don’t look for this to be your edge of your seat popcorn movie, but it’s an intellectual drama that is well written and well directed.  I recommend you pick it up at the Red-box b/c it will make for a great double feature with a Rom-Com or actiony movie.

Leap Year (2010 100mins)  Amy Adams, Matthew Goode

This probably won’t be a real long review. Mainly this is a romantic comedy from the usual mold of romantic comedies. It’s not great, it’s not bad, it has some funny moments but it’s what you expect from the beginning. This will however, bring me to the gripe I want to bring about sooooo many Rom-Coms.  It’s so cliche’ to have every boyfriend of a girl who meets the mysterious guy somewhere to be an asshole. There’s always some complete flaw in the guy and the story tries to get you to say, yeah no way she should be with that dick. Yeah, Yeah I am well aware without this basic premise then there is no movie, but it’s soooo overdone. Most of the time I would rather see the girl be single and find love where she doesn’t expect it.  One exception to this rule is Sweet Home Alabama, where McDreamy himself,Patrick Dempsey’s character is on the poor end of the Rom Com stick but he’s not a bad guy but he’s just not the right guy for the girl. It’s handled well and not overdone so it works.

Anyway I digress. Getting back to Leap Year. The movie is about a woman (Adams) who is quite used to her life in which she is in control of everything. Everything, except the boyfriend who won’t ask her to marry him. So she tries to take matters into her own hands and go to Ireland, where on leap day there is an Irish tradition that a woman can propose to her man. The trip goes awry and Declan (Goode) is the innkeeper/barkeep/cook who ends up having to help her get to Dublin. What ensues is exactly what you think. Hi-jinks, and love, hope I didn’t ruin it for you    One warning, if you are like me then you cannot understand the majority of movies with people who have accents in movies. So be careful you might miss half of what is said in the movie once they are in Ireland.

Verdict—> Good date movie, both with a spouse or a date. Certainly better ones out there but if she wants to see it, then do it b/c  it doesn’t suck and worth it for the brownie points!

The Book of Eli (2010, 118mins) Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis

Eli is a movie about a man with a mysterious book and on a mysterious journey. Eli (Washingon) is in a post-apocalyptic world (not unlike the movie The Road) in which the world is in ruins from an unknown cause. All we know is Eli is a bad ass, that water and food is scarce, and Carnegie (Oldman) has a hard on to possess some long lost unknown book. As always Oldman plays a ruthless bad guy to a tee. He’s cold calculating and wants just one thing. The movie has plenty of underlying tones to it, mainly b/c we all know what we think the book is and we all know why Eli is such a BAMF. It’s a good movie for those of us who like this sort of setting. It really makes the game lovers among us think about how a game like Fallout would translate to the big screen. 

Although I liked this movie I do have a few minor problems with it. More and more these days movies take volume manipulation to new extremes. They tend to go extremely low in the dialog and then when action or music comes it practically blows out your eardrums b/c you either are straining to hear the talking or you have turned the volume up so high to hear what everyone is saying. Here we have Eli as so mysterious, and Carnigie as so evil and wispy that we can barely understand what either says especially to each other. The other thing is the movie never really follows any sort of normal movie flow. The flow that kind has either the buildup to a big climax or a few smaller climax before the big finish. It kinda throws action at us normally at the beginning then from the midway on it just kinda sputters about and the “climax” per-se really isn’t anywhere near what the movie builds up to. There is a couple of minor twists here and there, but we kinda want more out of the end. Like I said very minor negaives.

Verdict—> Another good movie, both as a sci-fi type movie with some good action and a movie that keeps you guessing a bit. Def worth a rental.

Love Happens (2009 , 109 mins)  Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston

Love Happens is a story about a very successful,widower, self help guru who has not quite gotten over the accidental death of his wife. It’s a story mainly about a man who can help people but cannot help himself. When he meets Aniston we half expect them to fall in love and oh how everything ends happily ever after. It doesn’t happen that way and here, that is ok. The movie unwinds quite well. As Burke (Eckhart) helps people more and more, we are given a different insight to who he really is inside. We start to see what he is hiding behind that persona, and he more and more starts to shed some of the foney-baloney of the guru. I have to call what Aniston does as a very good supporting role. I know I know, she’s the female lead, but the movie truly is about Burke and his struggles. What Aniston does is just lends herself to his healing, because a broken heart like his has to be mended by himself before others can help.  Well done, well acted, I didn’t really expect to like it but I did.

Verdict—> Add it to the top tier when you want a break from the blockbusters and rom-coms. A good movie and good for date night  with the wife. Recommended

Brooklyn’s Finest (2009, 132 min)  Gere, Cheadle, Hawke

Antoine Fuqua directs such a long and dark drama, that I actually had to ask if this was a Scorsese flick. The movie follows 3 separate yet intertwining police stories in Brooklyn. Richard Gere is the elder flawed cop who is retiring in a week, Cheadle is the undercover cop who has had enough and wants to get his life back, and Hawke is the flawed narcotic officer who has dug himself such a hole in life, both with large family and crooked tendencies, that the line between right and wrong is so blurred we don’t really ever know weather to root for him or against him.  The thing about movies with detailed inter-winding stories like this is that they get you sucked in when we get invested in the characters and we really don’t ever want it to end, or when it does it’s hard to believe 2 hours plus has passed. Here, the base stories are there, but it just never gets over the top. We never REALLY care or want to care what happens to some characters. The movie goes a bit too long that by the end we just want closure so we can stop watching and move on. There is a point about the 90 min or so mark where the stories go from entertaining to drawn out. 

One thing I did loved was the film studies geek inside me (from 10th grade I think it was), loved the many film techniques involved. From the many foreshadowing to certain placement of shots. Granted every good writer and directer throws in many of these, and they are not hard to spot, but I just appreciated it a bit more in this movie.  A heads up to straight liners and parents. This movie has quite a bit of drug use and prostitution/nudity involved, so if that sort of thing bothers you then be wary.

Verdict: It’s def worth the Red Box rental. However, b/c of it’s shortcomings I would put it on the 2nd tier of selections. Kinda when all the new ones are out and you have seen most everything else. Right before you have to schlep to the horror flicks, and make sure you have the 2 & 1/2 hours to kill.