The Final Blog

As I have finally completed my Blogs I have just realized something. I realized that I have become more like a sports writer then a normal blogger. Over the past few months I have been keeping up with Sports hottest stories and I have analyzed them like a sports writer would. I did not realize that I was doing this but this is a good thing. As I go on with trying to figure out what I am going to do with my life this may be an option. Writing was not one of my favorite things but when I write about things I like, I get very into it. In the beggining of my blogs I talked about current events on Staten Island. When Professor Farley gave out his reactions to our blogs he said I seemed to be missing something and that it was not a flashy blog. I agreed with him because I was not writing about what I liked. How can my readers enjoy my writings when I don't even enjoy them? I changed my approach and stayed with the theme of the Caputo Chronicles writing more about sports as a sports writer. I am happy I did this and this can be a possible career I may look into as I go on. I hope some of the videos I posted were enjoyable and my blogs were knowledgable and enjoyable at the same time.

Kobe Wins MVP

Kobe Bryant has been selected the NBA's most valuable player for the first time in his 12-year career, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.The newspaper cited sources familiar with the outcome who were not authorized to speak publicly about the award until the official announcement next week.
"We have not been told anything by the league," Lakers spokesman John Black told The Associated Press.Bryant has won three championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and is widely regarded as the league's best player. But he had never come close to winning an MVP before this season. Kobe was in a race with Chris Paul form the New Orleans Hornets for the Award. I am excited that he won it because a player of his caliber deserves it and I believe he finally became a good teammate this year. He passed more and helped his team to the highest record in a tough western conference edging out Paul's Hornets who Finished in second. The MVP has been a controversial trophy in the past not always going to the most valuable player but the best player. I believe without Kobe the Lakers would not be as good as they ar thus him being the most valuable player. This is a video of some of Kobe's great all time dunks.

The Baseball Squad

My Baseball team had our first game of the season yesterday and we destroyed the opposing team. The scoreboard was shut off in the fifth inning cause we were winning by about 15 runs. I had the teams first hit and rbi of the season and two of my fellow classmates were at the game. Lou Musto is the teams first Baseman and Viril does the scorebook. Every year when baseball starts up I am very excited because I love to play. I am a huge sports fan as you can see from my blogs but actually playing makes sports so much better. This season tends to be a great one as I have many of my friends on the team and we seem to be one of the best in the league. I play centerfield and have been on this team for two years now. We have 14 kids on the team and about four new comers from last year. I am excited abotu starting off with a win and our next game is tuesday. After Tuesday we will be 2 and 0 and go on our way to an undefeated season!

A Rod On DL

Alex Rodriguez was placed on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday with a strained right quadriceps, leaving another major hole in the New York Yankees lineup.
Rodriguez hurt his leg April 20 in Baltimore and missed three games last week before returning for a four-game series at Cleveland. "It's painful to see that lineup without me in the cleanup spot and helping my team win every day," Rodriguez said.
The three-time MVP was relieved, however, after a frightening trip to the hospital Tuesday. After spending about three hours getting an MRI exam he thought was going to take about 40 minutes, Rodriguez was told by a technician he could miss the rest of the season."My biggest goal coming into the year, every year, is to play 162 (games) and it's very upsetting to be in this situation," said Rodriguez, who is batting .286 with four homers and 11 RBIs in 24 games this season. As a big Yankee Fan I am hoping that A Rod can get back to the team as soon as possible. The injury bug has plagues the yankees at the beginning of the season with injuries to Derek Jeter and Phil Hughes.

Lakers Sweep Series

The Denver Nuggets finally gave the Los Angeles Lakers a good fight. The Lakers dispatched the fighting Nuggets anyway. Kobe Bryant scored 31 points Monday night, leading the Lakers to a 107-101 victory and a sweep of their first-round series.
"He is unbelievable," Luke Walton said of Bryant, his teammates and one of the MVP favorites. "It's always so comforting knowing you have the best closer in basketball. They were making huge plays down the stretch, but Kobe came right back to do whatever it took: huge plays, steals or an incredible shots like that fadeaway over Kenyon Martin from the top of the key. The Lakers will meet the winner of the Utah-Houston series, which the Jazz lead 3-1, in the Western Conference semifinals.
This seems like the clincher for Kobe to win his first NBA MVP. He has been known as the best player in the NBA for years now and he desrves it. I plan to write a blog on the winner when the results are final.

Hawks Making This A series

Joe Johnson and Josh Smith combined for Atlanta's last 34 points to spirit the Hawks to victory. Johnson, a former Boston first-round draft pick, poured in 20 of his game-high 35 points during the final period. Johnson might have been the biggest difference-maker for the Hawks during crunch time, but Smith enjoyed the better all-around night on both ends of the court. The fourth-year forward finished with 28 points and six rebounds and his game-high seven blocks helped neutralize the Boston offense while setting an appropriately aggressive defensive tone for the undersized Atlanta frontcourt. Atlanta coach Mike Woodson has gone with a reduced rotation in this series. After winning the first two games of this best-of-seven series by 23 and 19 points, respectively, the shell-shocked Celtics must limp back to Beantown for Wednesday's pivotal Game 5. But even if Boston holds serve on its home court and survives this first-round series, the Hawks have done a whole lot to undermine the aura of invincibility the top-seeded Celtics carried into these playoffs in the wake of a 66-16 regular season. Atlanta hasn't necessarily put down a blueprint for beating Boston, but it's proved the Celtics can look merely mortal against athletic, resilient teams capable of taking a punch and punching back.

Just Like The Babe?

This Micah Owings guy is the real deal. Just when matters looked bleakest on for the Diamondbacks against the Astros, their savvy-hitting, right-handed pitcher was plucked off the bench again by manager Bob Melvin to pinch-hit with two out in the sixth inning, a runner on second and his club down by two runs.
Owings homered for the fifth time in 79 big league at-bats, but for the first time as a pinch-hitter, nailing the first offering from reliever Dave Borkowski over the right-field fence to tie the score and help send the D-backs on to a come-from-behind 8-7 victory. This guy is a great hitting pitcher and this is similar to how Babe Ruth started his career. He was an acceptional pitcher but his bat was so great they moved him to the outfield. I do not believe Owings will be moved but he fun to watch and it will be interesting on what they do with him.

Dwight Howard the New Shaq?

The Orlando Magic are well on their way of winning the series against the Raptors and their young star in Dwight Howard is filling the seats. The magic have sold out their home play off games and many are comparing Howard to a young Shaq when he was with the Magic. He has the same kind of star power and the team is similar to Shaq's magic of the early 90's. This young star is performing at a high level and hear is a clip of his dunk at the All Star game.

22 Innings!

The recent game between the Rockies and the Padres that went 22 innings was a controversial topic the next day with the media. On many sports talk shows, reporters discussed how there should be a limit on the game like in Japan. In this case especially, with players flying to the east coast the next day and having no time to gather their things. I agree with some of the reportes especially in a 22 inning game that had no big highlights. It was boring and many fans left the game not interested in one of the longest games in major league history.

Big Fight in Vegas

Joe Calazghe gained universal recognition as the light heavyweight champ of the world with an ugly, but hard-fought split-decision over Bernard Hopkins at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas Saturday night.
Calzaghe, who improved his undefeated record to 45-0 had to get up from a first-round knockdown and overcome the lunges and grappling of the 43-year-old master boxer in order to win the closely contested match on two of the official scorecards.
In the 10th round, Hopkins was hit with a borderline low blow and the grizzled vet went into theatrics behaving as though he had been nailed cleanly on the cup. The excellent acting job bought him a few minutes rest from referee Joe Cortez, but it didn’t prevent Calzaghe from out-hustling him in the championship rounds. I was personally disappointed in Hopkins acting like this and it cost him on the score card as Calazghe edged him out.

A New Curse?

A crafty Red Sox fan working construction on the new Yankee Stadium has tried his best to sabotage future seasons for the team from New York. The die hard member of Red Sox Nation reportedly buried a Red Sox jersey under the visiting team's clubhouse. At least that's the story being told to the New York Post.
According to two construction workers who told their story to the Post, the deceitful feat happened back in August, while concrete was being poured for the clubhouse floor. Now those workers fear they witnessed a curse being cast on their Yankees. The Yankees take on the story? They're calling it all a scam. In a statement released Friday the team said, "We noticed that the NY Post wrote a fun and interesting story about a t-shirt today - but it never happened. Yankee fans know that burying something in concrete in the basement is never a good thing. The owner of the New York Yankees Hank Steinbreiner has already went public about filing a law suit on the man. I agree with Hank and he should be prosecuted!

NBA Draft - New Policy A Good Thing?

Last Year the NBA set up a new bargaining agreement which prevented high school seniors from entering the NBA draft. There are many critics that disagree with this for numerous reasons. Some say it can ruin a players chances of making the NBA if they have a signficant injury while they are playing for college. In many situations, players entering the NBA draft are not financialy stable and who is deny them of a multi million dollar contract? This is how some players think but it is not all bad for the players or for Basketball. This years class of Freshman dominanted the collegiate level and filled college basketball with future NBA all stars. The NBA also believes the players benefit from a year at college experiencing new things and maturing more for a man's game. I disagree with not allowing the players to jump to the NBA when they finish High School and this video clip shiows that Oj Mayo has the star power and game to play in the NBA.

Why Do I Bet?

Last week my fraternity aranged for most of us to go to the Yankee Game. It was a Friday night game against the Tampa Bay Rays and I decided to make the game a little bit more interesting. I bet an undisclosed amount on the Yankees to win by more then one run. I have been an addictive gambler for the past year all stemming back to last years NCAA tournament where I won a large sum of money and basically gave me the confidence that I can not lose. Well the money I won from the tournament has gone and so has my luck. I am basically admitting to you that as much as I love sports I can not get excited unless my money is riding on the game. As we watched the game the Yankees of course broke my heart again and I lost my wager. I did realize though that even after I new the Yankees had no chance of winning (which was in the 4th inning) I enjoyed myself so this may be the turning point I needed to maybe give up gambling for a while. Heres a picture of us at the game.

Hockey or Boxing?

Hockey has never been one of my favorite sports but I have really enjoyed watching it since the new rules were introduced in 2004. The shootout has been one of the most exciting events in sports and now if the score is tied at the end of a five minute overtime then each time has three shots on a one on one against the goalie. This is an exciting event but I have to say that the best part about the NHL is that the players are aloowed to engage in a good old fashioned fight. This is the only sport where the pros can get their anger out on eachother in a bare knuckeled brawl. Here is a nice clip that I enjoyed and hopefully you will to.

The Toughest Conference Ever?

An Expert from Sports Illustrated has recently put out an article about hoo this years Western Conference from the NBA is the toughest the competition has ever been. The possibility of a team being held out of the playoffs with 50 wins has never happened before and this year seems like that is likely to happen as the season winds down. Two of the most exciting teams in the west include the Denver Nuggets and the Golden State Warriors both fighting for the eighth and final playoff spot in the western conference. These teams are very marketable and a recent discussion on a popular sports show had a debate on whether these teams should take over a playoff spot in the weaker eastern conference where each of these teams would be in the top 4in the playoff seeding. I personally would love to see the Warriors back in the playoffs because they are exciting and fun to watch. The NBA would benefit from this fast paced team making the playoffs helping the ratings. This is a clip of a playoff game the team was in last year and how much hype there was around this team. I believe they should be in the playoffs just so everyone can watch them.

Baseball Manager Goes Crazy

I have always been a sportsfan but I truly enjoy when a coach argues with an umpire. A Lot of my friends have just recently got into umpiring baseball including Lou Musto who is in our class. I have seen some outburst from managers and coaches in every sport but when i came across this one I just had to share it with everyone. This clip got me thinking about how Lou might handle a situation like this one.

New Topics

I have recently decided to expand to more interesting topics and not to just focus mainly on Staten Island Events. I am a big Sports fan and I will begin to focus more on that field. I am also going to continue to write about some events that have been going on in Staten Island. Im basically just going to write about what I want to write about on the day I post a new blog. I have also enjoyed humoring people so I am also going to try and write about funny topics that has happened recently.

Stereotyping

Stereotyping is a problem in today’s society that needs to be taken care of. Stereotyping is when someone categorizes individuals or groups according to an oversimplified, standardized image or idea. Stereotyping is wrong because it is not right to judge a person by what they look like or what there nationality is. Stereotypes can be very harmful and offensive to people. The stereotype that I find the most harmful and offensive is prejudism. The reason that I believe that prejudism is the most harmful and offensive form of sterotyping is because it is the most common stereotype. Being prejudice against erent races and ethnicities can be very harmful because it can cause a racial war. Racial wars occur very often all around the world. This can be prevented if people did judge others by the way they look or what race they are. A good way to respond to the people who reveal prejudiced or stereotyped attitudes is to tell those people that everyone is different and just because someone is a certain race does not mean that they are the same. Another way to respond to the people who reveal prejudiced or stereotyped attitudes is to tell those people to take the time to get to know a person from a different race or ethnicity and prove to them that not everyone is the same. Stereotyping is a problem that will probably go on forever. Too many people in the world judge a book by its cover. It is not fair that a person can be discriminated just because of there race or ethnicity. The world would be a more peaceful place if people started looking at others for who they are and not for their race or ethnicity.

Black on Black violence

Black on black violence has been a big problem on Staten Island for many years. Over the years it hasn't improved. Between gunshots and stabbings, the island has become a place of violence. Over the last six months the island has had more bad publicity because of the voilence than ever before. In late January, a fight broke out in St. George between two teenagers. The fight escalated from fist to gunshots in the matter of minutes. Gunshots were fired and authorities were contacted immediately. In October, a young boy was beaten up by his classmates at Dreyfus Intermediate Schoool in Stapelton. The boy was traumatized from the beating and was afraid to return to his classes. In November , a 17 year old boy slashed his classmate with a razor-blade due to an arguement held outside of his school. The altercation has led many people to believe that Staten Island is turning into a place of violence. Black on black violence is a problem in todays society and needs to be controlled before its to late.

Free E-ZPasses?

I recently found out about the 24,ooo drivers that are getting a free E-ZPass from the MTA. Many Staten Island commuters along with elected officials are outraged over the news. Commuters believe that E-ZPass rates should apply to everyone and that no one should get discount let alone free rates.Over 10,000 law enforcement and government employees were given e-zpasses for free. Along with 1,000 retired bridge and tunnel workers. These people were given lifetime privliges to E-ZPass by the Metropolitan Transportation Athority. The MTA looking to raise fares and tolls to help the huge budget deficits that it is in.The 24,000 people which includes current and former MTA board members, have orange passes that alow them to cross the MTA's 9 bridges and tunnels without paying a dime. The MTA did not tell exacly how many passes were given out to each person. They did not provide a breakdown of exactly who were given the free E-ZPasses and probably will never be provided. This decision will be fought and questioned untill an agreement is reached to please everyone.

Solar Panels

I have recently read an article about how a Staten Island resident has installed solar panels in his house in order to help the enviornment. Solar panels are also used for energy saving and help with the economy.The resident who installed the solar panels lives in West Brighton. He became the first resident to install solar panels in their home on Staten Island. The resident installed 32 3-foot-by-5-foot panels in his home.Everyone is always talking about how the enviornment needs to save energy and it seems to me that no one really seems to do anything about it. This resident did something. By installing the panels in his household he is helping the economy, saving energy, and sending a message to the community. The message that is being sent to the community is that installing solar panels works the best for everyone. It helps the economy, the community, and saves money at the same time. Besides what solar panels do for the community they also save lots of money. The money that you spend on electric each month adds up and takes a toll from your wallet. The more people that buy solar panels for their home the better the economy will be.

Bureaucracy

Trying to get an insurance settlement when my car was damaged turned into a bureaucratic nightmare. My car is my prized possession. I drive a black 2005 Cadillac Cts. I leased my car at the Mcgwire dealership on hylan a year and a half ago. Last month the “check engine” light in my car went on. When this happened I panicked and took my car straight to the dealership since i have a warranty on the car. After that I called my insurance company and told them what happened. I told them that my car was going to be in the shop and I did not know how long it would be there. The insurance company told me that they would cover the cost of the damage and the cost of a rental car for one week. The week went by quickly and my car was still in the shop so I was forced to call the insurance company. The insurance company told me that they were unable to cover the cost of the rental car for any longer. I stayed on the phone and argued with them for an hour and no settlement was able to be reached. I had no choice but to try and pay the amount of time that I would have the rental car. On my salary it was very dificult to afford the rental car. I had to cut my losses and I had no money left for myself. My car ended up being in the shop for three weeks. I am paying the bill by not spending a dollar of my check for and borrowing one-hundred dollars from my mother. This was one time that bureaucracy was unfair. This event hurt me in many ways and I truly was a bureaucratic nightmare in my life. This is just something that gets on my nerves and I needed to write about.

Introduction To My Blog

This blog I have decided to start is about local news that goes on in Staten Island and also some issues I deal with during my every day life. I decided to write about some more important issues that actully effect our everyday lives instead of writing about sports and other things that really dont effect our communtiy. To start I just wanna talk about some issues that the society deals with like the power of the dollar and how it effects me.

Today money is the most important thing in society. If one has money he could have anything he wants. Today's economy revolves around money. Money is the key to success and most of the time happiness. As of late I have been having money problems. I support myself financially. I pay for my car, my phone bill, insurance, and going out. I usually need about three hundred dollars a week to pay my bills and have some cash on the side. I work at All star pizzeria as a delivery boy. I tend to just get by with paying the bills and going out. I haven't really been able to save money and i usually just use it to support whats going on in my life at the time. Not having money is the worst feeling in the word. It feels like I am up against a wall and no one can help me. This economy revolves around money. I have learned over the past few years that without money I am not happy. Not because I am materialistic, but money is needed to do even the simplest things. Hopefully things will change one day but untill then this economy will run off the dollar bill.