Monday, October 31, 2011

TDZ Video Game Review: Portal 2

Making a brief departure from the world of sports, TDZ is offering its first official video game review. The subject is Portal 2, made by Valve, which produced other legendary titles such as Portal... not to mention Half-Life, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike. For those who grew up in my generation, there's a 100% probability that you or someone you know was obsessed with one of those games in college.


While other Valve titles are 1st person shooters, the Portal series is better characterized as a first person puzzle shooter. Your "gun" shoots two holes to create a portal - one blue, one orange - giving you the ability to manipulate the movement of objects within a level, including yourself. See the trailer for the original Portal below for an orientation:


Sweet. Now that you've got the basics down, on to the review!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

David Freese - World Series and TDZ MVP

Last night the St. Louis Cardinals capped an amazing season by winning the 2011 World Series. They were 8.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves for a Wild Card on September 6th, but they managed to crash the playoff party. The heavy favorite Philadelphia Phillies couldn't handle them, nor could the Milwaukee Brewers, and then they left the Rangers crestfallen with a second consecutive World Series defeat after being within one strike of being the champs twice in Game 6. That game will likely go down as one of the top 5 World Series games of all-time, and it's due in large part to World Series MVP/TDZ homeslice David Freese.

I propose his new nickname be Shredder.
Here's a quick look at Mr. Freese's season, and an autopsy of TDZ's sleepers and stinkers from the beginning of the year.


Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Super Mario Throes, plus... TDZ Hits 2000!

I believe I've reached the depths of despair for the trivia portion of this blog. No one got the correct answer, which is: true - Wayne Gretzky is the only NHL player ever to reach 200 points. Mario Lemieux reached 199 points in 1988-89 - close, but no cigar.

How did I know about 199? My ol' Panini sticker book told me all about it.
My only solace is that none of my readers care about hockey, so at least they kind of have an excuse, but not really. This week's question will hopefully offer sweet redemption. Here it is:

Dallas Cowboys rookie DeMarco Murray recently rushed for 253 yards, setting a new single game team record. His rushing total also set a new rookie record for the NFL.
  • True
  • False
Talk to the hand, because the cleats ain't listenin'.
Bonus question: Using a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 means "John Lackey" and 10 means "totally awesome," rate the fantasy owner that expertly picked up Murray for $14 off waivers and started him on his record-setting day.

TDZ hits 2,000

Lastly, thanks to all the loyal readers of TDZ for their continued readership. Special thanks to Amanda for blowing up my NHL season preview, which accelerated me toward this new plateau. Feel free to send more blog post ideas and requests my way so that TDZ continues to meet all your online time-wasting needs.

On to 3,000 hits!

Ian Mahinmi Update - NBA Lockout Edition

The NBA lockout may be having a financial toll on some players, but not rising star Ian Mahinmi. He's recently signed with Le Havre back in his native country of France. This signals a return to his 'ancient' team, not surprisingly turning down multiple other offers in the process.

Beau match... beau match... beau match...
Le Havre ("the harbor") is a beautiful town right on the Normandy coast. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it gets plenty of tourists, including a bustling cruise industry that makes full use of its port. I'm sure Mahinmi will have no problem waiting out the lockout in these cozy and familiar surroundings as long as he has to in support of the players union. Because the only thing stronger than his bone-breaking fouls is his solidarity with his fellow players. Keep up the good work, Ian!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

John Lackey out for 2012

Celebrate good times, Red Sox fans! John Lackey and his toxic 6.41 ERA won't be pitching for Boston next year! 2012 champs, WOOOOOOO!

Sorry, John, the universe is giving you the hook for next year.

Monday, October 24, 2011

I am DB (.com) - Baseball Movies

Responding to a request made months and months ago, TDZ was tasked with rating the top sports movies of all-time. Instead of offering just the best sports movies, however, I'll go a step further and create an entire Danger-ized database of sports movies, complete with synopses, ratings, and snarky commentary.


In this inaugural installment to the IamDB database, I review movies honoring our national pasttime: baseball.

Friday, October 21, 2011

NFL Trade Deadline Debauchery

Most years you don't get a newsworthy story at the NFL trade deadline, but this year we got three! Err, scratch that, two. Well, let's call it two and a half. What are they? As usual, TDZ's got you covered.

I'm coming out of un-retirement everybody!
Click below to see this years winners and losers!

Monday, October 17, 2011

In Soviet Russia, Trivia Solves You

This question verified for me what I already knew from reading Russian literature: when you put a bunch of Russian names together, it's impossible to remember who they are. I put in a few gimmes: Stalin, Kruschev, and Gorbachev are all well-known Soviet leaders, so I imagine the two real choices were Chernenko and Shevchenko.

Shevy can't believe what he's seeing in the trivia results!
Andriy Shevchenko was a star forward in what Europeans call football for the Ukrainian national team, AC Milan, and other clubs. Hardly the socialist despot my respondents believed him to be!

This week I'm posing a simple true/false question in honor of the NHL season now underway:

True or false: Wayne Gretzky is the only player to ever reach 200 points in an NHL season.


Good luck!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Crash and Burn - The 2011 Boston Red Sox Aftermath

Weeks after the team's collapse, the Red Sox continue to make news as personnel changes take place and reporters give their accounts of the news. Perhaps the most widely read story was "Inside the Collapse" by Bob Hohler of the Boston Globe, which I would like to address.



Part of me would prefer to ignore this past season entirely and look forward to next year, but given the nature of the stories I've been reading, I'd be a poor fan not to acknowledge what's being said and dissect it for myself. Below are my thoughts.


Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Another Job Opening

Reports are hitting the internets that Theo Epstein may leave the Red Sox to become General Manager of the Chicago Cubs. It's a good move for the Cubbies: Theo already helped end one curse, why not another? I also predicted that the Cubs would win the 2014 World Series back in 2005, and this might boost the odds a bit more in my favor.

We're supposed to believe that a smelly goat 37 years after their last championship is responsible for their 100+ year title drought? Yeah, ok Chi-town.
As for this new opening with the Red Sox, I know one candidate who's perfect for the job: me. I'm available, able, and I would bring all the trenchant analysis and hot-nasty strategy to bear that you've come to expect here at TDZ. I will not comment on speculation that I would build the team around a "Big Bigs" strategy, only that the idea is under serious consideration.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Country Roads, Take Me Home...

West Virginia is the correct answer of this week's trivia question. As you can see in the map below, one of West Virginia's tentacles creeps up the western border of Pennsylvania. I don't know why the border's like that, but my guess is that the state is trying to slap Pittsburgh.


Unfortunately there was only 1 respondent this week, who said Delaware. I know there's more than 1 person reading, so c'mon people. There were 17 Russians who viewed my blog last week alone - where's the geography knowledge, comrades? My Dad answered me via email and got the right answer, but he didn't enter his answer appropriately, so only half props.

Hopefully this trivia question will get more responses from my international viewers:

Had to be done.
Which of the following people was not a leader of the USSR?
  • Nikita Kruschev
  • Andriy Shevchenko
  • Josef Stalin
  • Mikhail Gorbachev
  • Konstantin Chernenko
Good luck!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

The Sports Zoo

Humans have performed amazing physical feats over the millennia but, in spite of all our effort, our athleticism pales in comparison to other animals on our lively orb. Why else would we name so many of our sports teams after them?

Billy the Marlin embodies the traits of... abundant fish protein and, uh, low attendance.
If you were to accuse this blog of being human-centric, you'd be right, so let's take some time to appreciate the critters that crash our sporting events and showcase their amazing skills across the globe.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Job Opening

Without going into morbid detail, the Red Sox recently decided to forego a one year option on Terry Franconca's contract and now have a vacancy at manager. There are plenty of candidates to fill the position, but only one is perfect for the job...



Tuesday, October 4, 2011

NHL 2011-2012 Preview - You Care, You Just Don't Know It Yet

Yes, the distant #4 of the Big 4 sports will be back in session shortly, but it's not the red-headed step-child it once was. Though it lost an entire year due to a lockout, the NHL has grown notably since that time, including a $4.6 million increase in the league's salary cap this year in spite of the nation's stagnant economy (an impressive 7.9% increase). TV viewership is also up, and the league is (in my opinion) the most innovative of the Big 4 at this time.

Above: people caring.
What does this mean for you? You care about hockey. Deep inside each of us is someone who enjoys listening to Rush; thinks Trailer Park Boys compares favorably to It's Always Sunny; respects the sophistication and dignity of the mullet; thinks that Don Cherry is the epitome of fashion; recognizes that Mike Ricci is a handsome man; and knows that hockey is an amazing sport.

The Jagr theorem holds that hockey skills are directly proportional to mulletude.
Without further ado, I'll go aboot discussing the top players to watch for in 2011-2012.


Monday, October 3, 2011

Rocktober Trivia

Congrats to both trivia respondents this week! Kiefer Sutherland is the one actor who has not starred in a movie about baseball. He's been too busy saving America to bother with its national past-time, though he did wield a baseball bat as a mailbox-smashing ne'er-do-well in Stand By Me. This just goes to show you that there are never more than six degrees of separation between a TDZ post and this blog's insufferable nemesis, Wil Wheaton.

Where's the second "l" Wil? Where is it?!
For this week's question we move on to geography: which of the following states reaches the most northern latitude?
  • Colorado
  • Missouri
  • West Virginia
  • Maryland
  • Delaware
*Whispering intensely* Give me the correct answer or I'll cut you!
Good luck...