Pardon the imageshack.  Has anyone else seen this google layout?

Visit pbtoms’s (my) ImageShack profile

Quickpost these images to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

The worst experience I had in Fenway was in the right field box seats. They face center field, so I was forced to watch the entire game in the same posture that I use to back out of my driveway. I could only see home plate through the foul pole grating, which completely obstructed the view of all hitters standing in the righthanded batter’s box. Worst of all, I’m not NBA tall or anything, but there was NO POSSIBLE POSITION for me to sit in without the row of seats in front of me digging into my patella tendons. You know, because the park was designed when the average American male was 5′3″. This cut off circulation to my lower legs for the duration of the game, and for the next 36 hours I could not walk properly. That park almost took my legs. All for the low price of $50! (Jeremy K.)

Now that I’ve heard what we gave up for him (Justin Williams) and what we fully got back (Cole + a fifth, essentially), I’m less impressed.

Because it’s not just a typical ‘Canes move, picking up players and trying to recapture their former glory (Jeff O’Neill, coach Paul Maurice being the most recent few).  And while he’ll package it as a move for this season and the playoffs, it’s clear that isn’t even the case.

What is clear, however, is that in 20 games, Erik Cole’s salary will be off the Hurricanes’ books.  And two years of Justin Williams’ salary are gone too.  In their place?  A slightly lower 2nd round pick and an extra 5th rounder.  Hardly a king’s ransom.

Driving rhythms and heavy harmonies.  Check them out.

But this weekend’s Ryder Cup matchups in Louisville have made those other sports look like the minor leagues.

Call me what you will — a WASP-y republican white boy would do the trick — but there’s no denying that international competition can spice up any sport.  Add in a team golf aspect, and this one carried way more weight than your standard PGA tournament.  Similar to the Olympics, the only thing on the line in the Ryder Cup is a little bit of gold and a lot of pride.  Also similar to the Olympics?  The competitors seemed to care more about that gold than they ever have about the cash.

But what was most exciting about the Ryder Cup to me was that the United States — huge underdogs coming into the weekend — managed to beat the Euro team by putting together a squad consisting of three unabashed rednecks for a match played in Kentucky.  And what a success it was.

The three rednecks were Boo Weekley, J.B. Holmes, and Kenny Perry — all rookies in Ryder Cup play..  Their weekend record was 6-1-3, for a total of 7.5 points.  But it was over after day one, when Weekley had already gotten under Europe’s Lee Westwood’s skin, after celebrating a chip in in an early fourball match.  From that point on, the crowd was as loud and rowdy as any crowd I’ve ever heard, and you can’t help but see that as a big factor in the win for the US.

All told, the United States ended up beating Europe 16.5 to 11.5 to end their 8 year drought.  But more than that, they proved that team golf is a sport worth watching, and that, hey, maybe golf without Tiger Woods isn’t so bad after all.

Let’s see if I can get any closer than week 1, here.  I’ve got Boldin and Fitzgerald eating the Washington defense alive.

UPDATE: 0-2.  There’s always next week.

If you’ve been reading any of the news surrounding Apple’s newest refresh of their iPod product line, you may have noticed that they’re beginning to take this gaming thing seriously.  In fact, since as far back as their App Store launch in late June, Apple has been pushing their two touchscreen devices as more powerful than the competitors’, hoping to become somehow relevant in the shadow of two portable gaming behemoths, Nintendo and Sony.

But it wasn’t until last Tuesday’s “Let’s Rock” media event – in which Apple refreshed their entire line of iPod hardware, right on schedule – that they really threw down the gauntlet.  Along with the introduction of the new iPod Touch hardware, Steve Jobs went so far as to say that the iPhone and iPod Touch are “the best portable [devices] for playing games.”  And to back it up, Jobs spent most of the event playing with demos of Spore Origins, Real Soccer 2009, and Need for Speed, all in front of an audience that was eating it all up.

But – all PR spin and corporate jockeying aside – it begs the question: does Apple have what it takes to make a successful gaming device?

From a hardware perspective, the iPhone is no slouch.  Boasting a powerful graphics processor and Apple’s popular multi-touch screen, there’s no question that the iPhone has what it takes to run games well.  But if there’s one thing that we’ve learned from the current console generation, it’s that system power isn’t everything.  If it were, PC gaming wouldn’t be in its current swoon, and the PlayStation 3 and PSP – not the technically inferior Nintendo Wii and DS – would be topping the sales charts every month.

But what about software?  One of the largest hindrances of any system’s growth is the ease with which developers can create games for it.  It seems simple, but I think the concept is underrated – if a team has to spend twice as many resources developing a game for one system versus another, there needs to be an equally large financial incentive for them to do so, or it wouldn’t be worth it.  

And, according to Spore’s Will Wright, there is no such barrier to entry with the iPhone. In a recent interview with PocketGamer.co.uk, Wright criticized other phones for their limited bandwidth and poor interfaces.  With the iPhone, however, you “start to see the power. With the CPU power, you can do some really cool stuff.”

Even further, one of the iPhone’s great advantages over their competition in the software area is the ease with which developers can distribute their games.  That is, there’s no hassle with packaging and shipping to retail outlets in the distribution of their games.  They build them, they upload them to the App Store, and they sell them.  Done.

What I perceive to be the iPhone’s largest challenge in entering the gaming area could also be their largest advantage – the control scheme.  Deep down, the traditionalist inside of me is still having a hard time understanding how developers are going to be able to develop an intuitive control scheme using nothing but a touch screen and an accelerometer.  

And I realize that people had the same concerns for both the Wii and the Nintendo DS, even though now they’re the two most popular consoles in the world.  But still – how in the hell are you supposed to see what you’re doing if you’re too busy poking and jiggling the screen?

When it comes to their reputation, Apple may not be a traditional player in the gaming market but there’s no question that they have established their legacy as a producer of high quality hardware with mass market appeal.  Much like the way that Sony smashed into the gaming market 15 years ago with the PlayStation, it seems almost inevitable that Apple will force their way into this market or spend a lot of money trying.  And I think that this established appeal will be a huge boon to Apple in the coming months.  Because, contrary to other multi-purpose devices like the N-Gage or Gizmondo, the iPod brand is an almost necessary part of any person’s gadget lineup.  

But can Apple do it all with the iPhone?  The cynic in me still says no.  I think that there are simply too many variables in play for Apple to be able to successfully integrate gaming into their already saturated multimedia devices.  Instead, I think we’ll see Apple get their feet wet with the iPod Touch and iPhone, and follow those up with a legitimate gaming device in late 2009 or early 2010.