Big MLB news in Free Agency

Throughout the 2011 MLB season, Albert Pujols was labeled as a free agent after the St. Louis Cardinals and Pujols couldn't agree on a contract. The big discussion heading into the Winter Meetings, naturally, was Pujols.

Originally, the Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and the Miami (formerlly Florida) Marlins were the teams giving offers to Pujols. However, the Marlins bcked down and the Los Angeles Angels of Anehim came in as a suprise contender.

Pujols signed with the Angels for 10 years with a no-trade clause included. Additionally the Angels accquired pitcher CJ Wilson, who played for the Texas Ranger, ironically the team that would lose to the Cardinals in the 2011 World Series.

Big shakeup at Penske

Last week, Steve Addington came over from Penske Racing's 22 car to replace Darian Grubb on the #14 car driven by now 3-time champion Tony Stewart. That was just the beginning.

Due to an incident at Homestead-Miami involving ESPN pit reporter Dr. Jerry Punch and pressure from sponsors Shell, Pennzoil, and Dodge, Kurt Busch and Roger Penske parted ways on Monday, leaving Penske Racing with only one driver, Brad Keslowski in the #2 car, unless a replacement driver can be found.

This adds another wrinkle in the yearly "silly season" tradition for 2012, adding Brian Vicker's unknown future with Red Bull shutting down it's NASCAR operations after 2011, among others.

2011 NASCAR season review

From the moment Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 to Toney Stewart winning the championship, the 2011 Sprint Cup season was an exciting one.

Stewart tied Carl Edwards in the points system, but held the tiebreaker due to his 4 wins in the Chase compared to Edwads' win at Las Vegas.

With Stewart's championship, it signaled the end on Jimmie Johnson's 5 year championship run from 2006-2010.

Merry Christmas NBA fans!

Last Saturday, the NBA players and owners agree on a new collective barganing agreement (CBA), thereby ending the 2011 NBA lockout. The new deal must be ratified by both owners and players before going into effect for the next 10 years.

With the lockout virtually over, the league will start playing games on Christmas Day, over a month after the season was supposed to start.

Personally, I thought that there wouldn't be an NBA season this year, but I was proven wrong, epecially when talks had broken down in mid-November and a lawsuit was filed by the NBA players.

AT&T U-Verse frustration

So I was in St. Louis at Mark's parents house and they have AT&T U-Verse installed. I had no problems with the system before and coming back from Chicago for Thanksgiving on Saturday.

Then, it went weird. I was watching MLB Network's 20 Greatest Games when at times, the picture would freeze and then shut U-Verse down. Here's what would happen:

1. The picture would freeze but you could still hear what was going on for a few seconds OR
2. No sound, like hitting the mute button, but the picture was going.

Either way, this would require having to fiddle with the remote to get U-Verse to breifly work, problems apperar, repeat. Not ot mention, it would shut the TV off.

This continued until I had Mark fix it. After that, it was back to normal.

This is EXACTLY why I'm glad we have Xfinity.

 

                                                                  (not actual image of what happened)

Ford Championship Wekend update

With the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series finished, all that remains to be decided in Miami is the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

The Camping World Truck Series Championshi[p was won by last year's rookie of the year Austin Dillon, who drove the #3 truck for Richard Childress, who is his grandfather. The Ford 200 was rain-shortened and won by Johnny Sauter.

The Nationwide Series championship was also by a driver who won rookie of the year last year: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the #6 Ford Mustang for Jack Roush. In addition, Roush also clinched the owners championship with the #60 Mustang driven by Carl Edwards. The Ford 200 was won by Brad Keselowski.

Edwards heads into tomorrow's Cup race ahead of Tony Stewart by 3 points, making this the closest the Chase for the Sprint Cup has been heading into the final race.

 

Pepsi Throwback's lack of Coke competition

In 2011, after 2 years of limited-time runs, Pepsi maid their sugar-sweetend drinks Pepsi and Mountain Dew Throwback permament products to the Pepsi lineup.

What does Coca-Cola have? Nothing mass-produced, aside from Mexican Coke. The reason is simple:

Where Pepsi knows there's a diference between sodas with sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), Coke says there isn't a difference in taste, and that to them a Coke is a Coke, no matter where you are.

Me? I prefer Pepsi. No Coke Throwback, no problem.