Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader had hoped to play hookie from his responsibilities today and sneak out to catch the Nationals home opener against the Mets. But it was not to be. The Wee Villain is still home today and has some Doctors appointments. As well, Villainette #1 is home from school with some viral thingie. So your Maximum Leader is home attending to his offspring.

Perhaps he’ll get lucky and be able to catch tomorrows game. Tomorrows game should be the more interesting one as Pedro Martinez is slated to start for the Mets. In last weeks series he beamed a Vidro and Guillen and is due for some retribution as best your Maximum Leader can figure it. That would be sweet to see…

Sweet.

Your Maximum Leader isn’t a big Pedro fan anyho… He is a great pitcher and all… But your Maximum Leader doesn’t care much for him. That tune might change if he ever played for the Nationals. Then your Maximum Leader would tolerate him. As Jerry Seinfeld once mentioned, you’re only rooting for the shirts.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that it will be the Dolphins and the Steelers on NFL Opening Day this fall. Also there will be three (count ‘em - 3) games on Thanksgiving. The Manning Brothers will duke it out in the Meadowlands. The Redskins will be 9-7. And Brett Favre’s final season in the league as a starter will be lackluster…

Okay… Those last two items weren’t in the AP story. But your Maximum Leader prognosticates for you anyway.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader lied to you. His seats were 4 rows behind the Canadiens bench, not the Capitals bench. The were good seats. Indeed, your Maximum Leader is contemplating joining in with his friend on season tickets next year in those seats.

As good as the seats were, the game (if you were a Caps fan) wasn’t all that great. The Habs won 4-2.

And to add insult to injury, your Maximum Leader left with 3 mins left in the game - and missed the Ovechkin goal.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wanted to take a moment to blog about sports. Well, actually make a few quick statements about sports. (As opposed to a series of cogent thoughts that would ordinarially make up a serious blog post).

First off, if you are a hockey fan (and your Maximum Leader knows there must be a few of you left) and are watching the Washington Capitals play the Montreal Canadiens tonight on TV; look out for your Maximum Leader. He will be a few rows up behind the glass next to the Capitals bench. He will be wearing his old-style (throwback) number 15 Guy Charron jersey. Of course, when your Maximum Leader bought the sweater (so to speak) it wasn’t a throwback style one. It was the day-to-day (home) jersey. And Guy Charron was your Maximum Leader’s favourite player. That was way back when…

Reading over that last bit caused your Maximum Leader to think… If you aren’t in the DC area what is the chance of the Caps v. Habs game even being on the TV? Hell… If you are in the DC area what are the chances of the game being on TV? Humm… It might be on in Montreal… Perhaps CBC’s Hockey night in Canada? Nope… Humm… Well… Let’s just say the chances of you all catching a glimpse of your Maximum Leader are small…

So. Moving along…

It is Japan vs. Cuba in the World Baseball Classic.

To be honest, your Maximum Leader (who is a baseball fan) just can’t seem to get worked up about the World Baseball Classic. He has watched precisely zero games and has read box scores of games played precisely two times. It was a very underwhelming tourney. And your Maximum Leader is not just saying that because of the completely pathetic play of the US team. He feels as though the timing is off somehow. This doesn’t seem like the time to play some sort of big international tournement. This is Spring Training time! Not win one for your national honour time…

Your Maximum Leader will, as you can imagine, be rooting for the Japanese. He hopes that the game turns out to be very lopsided. Sort of like a toiling peasant after being whacked by a samurai sword. Or something like that.

And finally…

Your Maximum Leader isn’t much of a baseketball fan. But he is rooting on the Georgetown Hoyas and the George Mason Patriots in the NCAA tourney. He roots for George Mason out of sectarian loyalities more than anything else. He roots for Georgetown because it’s the Big Hominid’s Alma Mater. (And Georgetown was really good when your Maximum Leader was a young autocrat-in-training during the Reagan years… He has fond memories of those times… Ah… The Reagan Years…)

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader extends his hearty congratulations to Jeff King, who just won his fourth Iditarod dog-sled race.

Your Maximum Leader didn’t realize that the Iditarod has only been around since 1973. He had always assumed that it had been around since the 1930s at least. He seemed to remember reading somewhere that the race was to commemorate the rush of medicine from Anchorage to Nome in the 1920’s to fight an epidemic. But he assumed that the race was older than it was.

Your Maximum Leader just looked up the official Iditarod site, which is appropriately www.iditarod.com. The history of the race is here. You can look here for complete standings on the race. (Some competitors will not reach Nome for a few more days…)

Very cool stuff…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is saddened by the death of Kirby Puckett. As much as your Maximum Leader would have liked for Puckett to disappear from the face of the earth back in 1991 as he single-handedly turned the tide of the World Series against the Atlanta Braves and pretty much won the pennant for the Minnesota Twins, Kirby Puckett was too young. (Just like Dana Reeve in the last entry.)

Kirby Puckett always seemed like a good and decent man. In many ways the type of guy you want to see playing baseball. He always looked like he was having fun. He always seemed to be good with the fans. And he was inspirational through his on and off-field actions with his fellow players. He deserved his Hall of Fame election and baseball was made better by his presence in the game.

Carry on.

As a Packers and Redskins fan, I don’t expect to be in the playoffs much.

The Redskins got really lucky last week. I expect that they will be crushed by the Seahawks. Already outmatched, we will need all of out players.

But I still say that Taylor ought to be suspended for the spitting incident. If the league issued suspensions rather than fines, Taylor’s brand of obnoxiousness would end. Even if it removes any chance of the Redskins advancing, suspending spitters would be good for the game.

Most sports leagues make the mistake of believing that their declining conduct standards are acceptable as long as people keep watching. I suspect people would embrace sports more strongly if we could admire the athletes’ character as well as their physical ability.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sends his warm congratulations to the Texas Longhorns and their fans/adherents on winning the college football national championship. Your Maximum Leader sat down in the Villainschloss to watch the game - but fell asleep on the couch in the middle of the second quarter. This was due, in large part, to his being up until 1:00am the night before watching the Penn State/FSU game. Your Maximum Leader awoke at 2:45am and had to catch highlights on ESPN. This is one of those times your Maximum Leader wishes he had Tivo.

Anyhoo…

Congrats Longhorns! You’ve finally won the big one.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees a story on the news wires saying that some International Olympic Committee member pushed the wrong button during one of the rounds of voting to determine the host city for the 2012 Olympics. That voting error may have contributed to the victory of London over Paris.

Concerning this story your Maximum Leader has one thing to say. This is whole thing is probably just the Paris Organizing Committee’s way of whining.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s thoughts go out to the family of Phyllis Gretzky, including her son Wayne Gretzky. Mrs. Gretzky died of cancer yesterday.

Your Maximum Leader, a hockey fan, certainly hopes that the Gretzky family knows that millions of fans are keeping them in their thoughts and prayers.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader didn’t mention earlier that he was feeling sick this morning. The cause of this malady.

The Green Bay Packers vs Baltimore Ravens.

If you don’t know your Maximum Leader personally you may not know of his great (GREAT!) dislike of the city of Baltimore and its sports teams. So, that feeling made this drubbing even more painful to watch. So painful, in fact, that your Maximum Leader had to throw in the towel on viewing the game in the 3rd Quarter.

It pained him so…

Carry on.

The department of social services showed up at my house this morning and took the wee ones into protective custody. Mrs. Smallholder and I were charged with felony child abuse.

Someone called the government and reported us for malicious cruelty.

We were raising the kids as Green Bay Packers fans.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader loves the Olympics. He loves the spectacle. He loves the competition. He just loves the Olympics.

So you can imagine that he is very excited about the upcoming Turin Winter Games. He will watch every hockey game they put on. He will also watch all the downhill skiing and biathelon they broadcast too.

But it is not because of his love of the games that he is writing this post. No… Your Maximum Leader is peeved. As you may know, the Olympic flame will be lit in Greece. If you click through on the link you will be able to read all about it. You will read about how they will use mirrors to start the fire. Yadda… Yadda… Then the Priestesses of Hera will do chanting and make offerings to the Gods. Yadda… Yadda… Then they will put the flame on a special airplane and fly it to Italy.

Wha? Wait a minute little doggie? Fly the flame to Italy? What the hell? Why are they flying the flame to Italy? There is a land rout you know… Couldn’t you run it over? Hell you could drive it over if needed… Does your Maximum Leader need to get someone driving directions? (Directions below the fold.)

What is up with flying the flame to Italy? This peeves him. It peeves him greatly. What would be better and more symbolic of the Olympic movement than to actually run the flame from Greece to Italy. You would have to go through Albania (a country atrophied by years of Communist oppression - now growing under freedom), Serbia (a nation ravaged by war and now international troops assure peace while the nation rebuilds), and (depending on the route) you would also go through Bosnia & Herzegovina. What could be more moving than the Olympic flame being run across Europe in the spirit of peaceful competition?

It seems wrong that the flame is going by plane to Italy. It seems so wrong that your Maximum Leader now declares that in the Mike World Order (MWO for those of you who have forgotten) if it is possible for the Olympic flame to be moved from Greece to the site of the Olympics by land, then it must be moved by land. Your Maximum Leader wants to see the torch passed from hand to hand as it makes it way from Greece to the site of competition. Your Maximum Leader will go so far as to suggest that the Chinese look into a torch relay from Olympia to Beijing for the 2008 games. Wouldn’t that be cool? If you could find a way to live-cam it over the internet that woul be even cooler…

Carry on.
(more…)

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that the Chicago White Sox have just won their first World Series since 1917.

Congratulations. The Chi Sox beat a formidable Houston team.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t know what to write. He is almost at a complete loss for words…

Why? He just finished reading about a professional computer game player making over $40k a year.

Your Maximum Leader has heard of (and have even known a few) computer professionals who do game testing and design. They play lots of computer games - because they create and program and test them. But the fellow in the post article is just a playa. He enters tournaments and plays games for money…

He wins a lot… He drives a BMW and has a (long distance) girlfriend.

Damn.

At least your Maximum Leader doesn’t live in his parents basement…

Carry on.