ATL in ATX

Wednesday night was the season finale of one of the greatest TV shows ever produced. After 8 seasons, Scrubs is over. Even though I knew it was coming to an end, it was still hard for me to say good bye to JD, Turk, Carla, Elliot, Dr. Cox, and the rest of the cast.

The hour long series finale left a few questions unanswered but I was pretty pleased with the way the show ended. My biggest complaint about the finale is that JD and Elliot never made any progress in their relationship. The one thing I wanted to see before the show ended was for JD and Elliot to get engaged. I thought for sure that’s what would happen once they got back together (again) but, alas, they are still only dating.

It was also weird that Turk and Carla are expecting a second child and the series ended in the middle of that story plot.

I really enjoyed all of the cameos at the end of the show and the fact that the show was able to stick to its roots and deliver potent messages amidst humor. JD’s final conversation with the Janitor was classic Scrubs comedy. Janitor finally revealed his real name to JD, only to have another employee walk up and call him another name.

So before I ramble on too much longer about the greatness of Scrubs, I’ll conclude this post. I’d like to thank Bill Lawrence and the rest of the cast for 8 great seasons. You will all be missed.

FAREWELL SCRUBS CAST

Just as soon as Johnson returned to the starting lineup, he lost it again. After a decent showing in his first start in 5 games, Johnson is now going to platoon 2B with Omar Infante. So my previous post is completely null and void now that the Braves don’t know what to do with Kelly Johnson. Ah well, such is life.

2B Kelly Johnson was back in the starting lineup yesterday after missing the past 3 games. Johnson was struggling through a slump (just 4 of 39) before being put back in the lineup against the Astros and going 2-3 with a walk. Johnson’s return to lineup saw a shift in the batting order. Instead of batting lead off like normal, Kelly Johnson batted in the 6 spot. Jordan Schafer hit in the lead off spot and went 2-5. Despite Johnson’s return, the Braves fell to the Houston team 5-1. With the loss, the Braves are sitting on an 11-12 record and in 3rd place in the NL East and are 2.5 games behind the division leading Florida Marlins.

Things are starting to look up for Brian McCann as well, who has been suffering from blurred vision in his left eye since opening day. The all-star catcher has tried eyedrops, multiple contact lenses, and other prescriptions before finally finding glasses to do the trick. He will wear them in his rehab assignments with AAA Gwinnett on Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully these glasses will do the trick and the Braves will have McCann back in the starting lineup shortly.

McCann sports his glasses in the dugout on Friday

I have finally found a reality show that can hold my attention for an entire season and shock of shocks, it involves video games. The show is called WCG Ultimate Gamer. I am writing about this because the season finale is next week and I am interested to see who will come out and claim the title of “Ultimate Gamer” (and $100,000 on top of that).

The premise of the show is basically pitting gamers against each other to determine who is the best gamer. The winner will win $100,000 and a chance to represent the US at the WCG World Championships in China. Each week, the gamers compete in a real life challenge that is related to the video game counterpart. For instance, the first week saw the competitors playing Rock Band 2. The real life challenge broke the competitors into 3 bands of 4 (guitar, bass, drums, vocals) to learn and perform “New Kid in School” by The Donnas. Each band was judged on accuracy and style by the members of the band The Donnas. Each of the bands was then ranked based on their performance (first place, second place, and third place).

After the real life challenge, the Isolation Chamber then tests gamers individual skills at the chosen video game of the week. Using the first week again as an example, the bands from the real life challenge performed Lit’s “My Own Worst Enemy” on Hard (which is the second highest difficulty setting, below Expert). Each band consisted of a guitarist, bassist, drummer, and singer. At the conclusion of the song, the total band score and each individual score was combined with the real life challenge to determine who the weakest and strongest gamers were. The weakest player in this case was on the worst band in the real life challenge and had the worst performance on the band with the lowest score in the Isolation Chamber challenge.

A band entering the Isolation Chamber for the Rock Band 2 Challenge

The weakest competitor was then up for elimination. Elimination worked this way: the strongest member of the group (in the Rock Band 2 case was a member of the best band in the real life challenge and had the highest score on the band with the highest total score) got to choose an opponent for the weakest member to face off against. The person up for elimination and the gamer chosen by the strongest member then faced off in a head to head challenge at Samsung Stadium, where the loser was sent home. Completing the Rock Band 2 example, each gamer played The Offspring’s “The Kids Aren’t Alright” on Hard difficulty. The gamer with the highest score was declared the winner and was able to return to the loft to face the next series of challenges.

So far, the games that have been played are Rock Band 2, Virtua Fighter 5, Project Gotham Racing 4, Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3, Halo 3, and NBA Live 09. Being the gamer that I am, I continually feel like I can compete with these guys and gals, especially in the first game of Rock Band 2. However, at the end of each show, I realize I don’t even come close to the talent that these individuals have in all of the various video game genres.

Tuesday night’s episode saw the remaining 6 gamers go through a gauntlet of challenges and only two gamers remained at the end. The gauntlet first tested the gamers in PGR 4 (again) but this time, they were strapped down in their seats and turned upside down so they had to race inverted. The gamer who came in last place in the race was eliminated. The person who won the race received a bonus for the next challenge, which combined Rock Band 2 and Dance Dance Revolution. The gamers had to play both guitar and drums on Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” The twist was that the drums were played like a DDR pad, with your feet. Everyone got to practice the song twice, except for one person who only had one practice round (chosen by the winner of the first challenge). Again, the person with the lowest combined score was eliminated and the person with the highest score received a perk for the final challenge. The final challenge was probably the most physically demanding challenge of the season. The 4 remaining gamers were told they were going to play a marathon session of Halo 3 but they had to stand on a podium while they were playing. Normally this doesn’t sound so bad, but you must consider that all 3 of the challenges were done the same day. The Halo 3 challenge began around 7pm and ended just after 4 in the morning. The winner of the Rock Band challenge had free reign for 5 minutes to rack up as many kills as he could while the other 3 gamers had to stand there and wait (and watch themselves get killed). At the conclusion of this challenge, 2 gamers will be eliminated and the final 2 will face on in the finale next Tuesday. The show concluded with naming the first person to be eliminated and the person who came in first place in the last challenge.

On a strictly personal note concerning this competition, my 2 favorite gamers have already been eliminated. One of my favorites was eliminated in Week 4 and my other favorite was the first victim of the Halo 3 gauntlet challenge. My prediction for the final will be Robert (who was already named as one of the finalists) vs. Mark. There has been some speculation and even some potential spoilers that one of the competitors will make an appearance in the final. I don’t know the validity of this statement but it will be interesting to say the least. With that being said, I am waiting for the finale and am eager to see who is “the ultimate gamer”

Robert aka Prod1gy X is my choice to win it all

This is a video of my buddy Dan playing Rock Band 2. This video was made for one of my classes at UT. We were just goofing around and not really taking this seriously so don’t judge his skill by this video. He is much better than this video shows. For the sake of time, and other reasons, the video does not include the full 3 song setlist like I mention at the beginning. Hope you enjoy!

Here’s the link

So Week 1 of the 2009 season is in the books and the Braves are sitting pretty tied for the lead in the NL East with a solid 5-1 record. Atlanta opened the season by taking 2 out of 3 from the World Champion Phillies in Philadelphia. The Braves then swept the Washington Nationals in their first home stand of the season.

The starting pitching seems to be solid, with no starter suffering a loss so far in this season. Jair Jurrgens leads the squad with 2 wins in 2 outings followed by Lowe and Kawakami each with a win. Javier Vazquez has pitched 2 games but has 2 no decisions.

The Braves bats have been pretty active the first week of the season as well, with Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson leading the offensive production so far. Escobar is boasting a .357 batting average and Johnson leads the club with 3 long balls and 7 RBIs. As a team, the Braves are batting .300 with 10 home runs and 37 runs scored. These are pretty potent numbers for only 6 games.

On another note, I just read some news that Tom Glavine’s career might be done due to his shoulder injury. This would be a huge blow to the team if he can’t recover.

A personal note about my fantasy baseball team, Evan Longoria is absolutely beastly so far, leading the majors with 5 dingers. Everyone knew the kid could play. Let’s see if he can keep it up for an entire season. Josh Beckett, one of my starting pitchers, will miss his next start cause he intentionally threw at Bobby Abreu. He’ll miss his next start and that will most likely cost me a quality start from my pitching staff. Thanks a lot numbnuts.

Just a quick personal note for this blog. I’ll post my thoughts on the Braves performance during the first week of the season tomorrow.

Yesterday saw a huge burden being lifted off my shoulders when my group and I finished up a big project in one of my classes and presented our report in the morning. I was really caught off guard by how casual the presentation ended up being, but it was a nice and pleasant surprise. So now that that project is out of the way, I have some free time to comment on an Xbox 360 game I will have more time to play. I recently got Resident Evil 5 for a great deal (less than $20) and have not really had a chance to play through it all that much. I finally beat the game yesterday, which saw a huge plot twist (that I predicted), and I must say that I am really glad I got the game. I was hesitant at first because I really didn’t enjoy the demo when I played it, but it really got interesting and easier to play after the first few levels. I’m not going to write a full blown review or anything like that, but I’m just excited that I finally beat the game and have more time to go back and pick up some of the achievements that I missed the first time through.

Yes...he has a chainsaw

Thanks for putting up with the slightly off topic post, but it will be back to the Braves next time.

The 2009 baseball season is officially underway and the Atlanta Braves started out in style by defeating last season’s World Champion Philadelphia Phillies in a 4-1 affair. Derek Lowe pitched 8 shutout innings and received early run support in the form of the long ball. Brian McCann hit the first home run of the 2009 season with a 2-run second deck bomb in the top of the first inning. The Braves added two more runs in the top of the second inning courtesy of two more home runs. The first home run came from Jeff Franceour, and boy was it nice to see that. After having the worst season of his career last year, he made some adjustments to his stance and swing in the offseason and it paid off. The second home run of the inning came from rookie CF Jordan Schafer who took Myers deep to center field in his first major league at bat. That tells you this kid is something special.

Derek Lowe deserves all the credit in the world for shutting down a potent Phillie offense. He pitched 8 shut out innings while only surrendering 2 hits. The only Phillies run came in the bottom of the 9th off of closer Mike Gonzalez. It is disconcerting to see him allow a run in this situation, but the way he handled Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez (strike outs) to end the game brought some sweet relief for Braves fans around the world.

All in all, this was a perfect way to start off the season. Hopefully this is a preview of things to come for the team from ATL because if it is, go ahead and mark us down for NL East contenders. We’ll just have to see how the rest of this series plays out to gauge our improvement.

Opening Day 2009 for the Braves is just around the corner (literally hours away when they open the season at Philadelphia) and expectations for the 2009 season are pretty high after a fairly active offseason that saw the Braves acquire several big name players including pitchers Derek Lowe, Javier Vazquez and Kenshin Kawakami along with veteran outfielder Garret Anderson. The Braves were also able to resign the veteran and fan favorite pitcher Tom Glavine to a 1 year deal. Even though Atlanta added some high profile names to their roster, they lost out on landing some other big name players such as Jake Peavy, AJ Burnett, Ken Griffey Jr. and Rafael Furcal. The offseason also saw pitchers Mike Hampton and John Smoltz and outfielder Josh Anderson leave the team.

With all of this activity, the Braves are optimistic for this season. And quite frankly, so am I. Barring any major injuries to key players, I think Atlanta can hang with the Phillies and Mets in the NL East. Even though the Phillies won the World Series last year, I personally think the Mets are the team to beat this year. Enough about the other teams though, here is my own personal opinion on the Braves team that will take the field tomorrow.

Starting Pitchers

With the addition of Lowe, Vazquez and Kawakami, the starting rotation received a much needed shot in the arm. Jair Jurrgens and Tom Glavine are the only returning starters from last years roster. Glavine is currently on the 15-day DL and Tim Hudson is out for most of the year recovering from Tommy John surgery. He is targeting an August comeback barring any major setbacks. Even without Hudson, the Braves starting pitching is formidable. These arms should log a lot of quality starts and reduce the stress put on the bullpen. If all of our starting pitchers stay healthy, I think the 5 man rotation is one of the best in the National League. These 5 guys will get the job done.

Relief Pitchers

The biggest concern for the bullpen is health issues. Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano are both back and both are looking better than ever.Gonzalez will resume his duties as the closer and Soriano will be the set-up man. Middle relievers Buddy Carlyle, Boone Logan, Blaine Boyer, and Jorge Campillo are back to eat up the middle innings. Eric O’Flaherty and Jeff Bennett will also see some time in the bullpen. I think these guys will have an outstanding season if two things happen: 1. Everyone stays healthy and 2. Starting pitchers can go deeper into games which will reduce the workload of the bullpen.

Catcher

Brian McCann. Do I even need to say anything else? Didn’t think so.

Infield

The infield sees a mix of young and old. Casey Kotchman will play 1B, Kelly Johnson will be at 2B, Yunel Escobar will be the SS and Chipper Jones (who recently signed a 3-year contract extension and will most likely be a Brave for life) mans the 3B position. Omar Infante and Martin Prado are the backups at all of these positions. I like all of these players with the exception of Kotchman. He showed some promise after the trade last year, so hopefully he will be able to continue to build on that this season. Escobar and Johnson are two of the young studs at their positions and Chipper is a surefire Hall of Famer. These guys will all have outstanding seasons. I’m not worried about the infield at all.

Outfield

It looks like every Braves fan out there got their wish! No, Jeff Francoeur did not get traded. Young hotshot Jordan Schafer will be roaming CF this season. This kid is one of the best prospects in the organization and he is getting his shot at starting. Personally, I think he will become one of the best young players at his position. Francoeur will still be out in RF and Matt Diaz and Garret Anderson will platoon LF. If Francoeur can control himself at the plate, this set of outfielders will be solid in the field and at the plate. I really like Garret Anderson so I’m happy to see him in a Braves uni (I would have loved to see Griffey in a Braves jersey though). If Matt Diaz can get back to his stats from a few years ago, he will be a valuable player at the plate. Even though I have some minor concerns about the OF this year, I’m excited to see what they can do.

Since Opening Day 2009 is just around the corner, my blog is going to follow the Atlanta Braves baseball team of the MLB. I grew up a Braves fan so I am excited to get the chance to blog about them. This will basically be my thoughts and impressions of the team and their progress. I am no insider so I won’t have any breaking news. Following the Braves will be the focal point for this blog but I am very likely to post on other topics that I am passionate about including my alma mater (Clemson University), music, video games, and anything else that might catch my fancy. If none of these topics interest you, then I encourage you to find another blog to read.