?

After the huge contract extension for Miguel Cabrera and the total misfire on the giant Prince Fielder contract are you starting to have doubts about Dave Dombrowski? I understand why you'd want to do an extension, but that number for that many years is insane.

Busted

While I feel like I should be writing something about the NCAA Tourney since it tips off tomorrow I don't really have anything interesting to say. Well, besides that my brackets is awfully similar to the President's, which would be one of the few times we've agreed on anything. Anyway, if you were watching ABC last night they ran a special called "Marvel Studios: Assembling A Universe." It was mostly a lot of patting themselves on the back for the success of their movies (and they do deserve a lot of credit), but they did show some new material from the two upcoming films and some concept art from Avengers: Age of Ultron. You can see most of it here at Marvel's site, but they did leave out one important image:

Iron Man is wearing the "Hulkbuster" armor. It debuted back in Iron Man #304 (May 1994, and yes, I know everyone really appreciates that detail):

It's been something of a fan favorite since it was introduced and often finds its way into toy lines, cartoons, and pretty much anywhere they can make an excuse to use it. Because it's awesome. One more picture:

I'm not sure exactly how it will fit into the movie, but Marvel's really pulling out all the stops if they can find a way to make it work in the movie.

Rise of the Machines

I happened to be looking at the sports feed on my Yahoo! homepage (not sure why it's still home, force of habit I guess) and noticed this article about Rajon Rondo and the Celtics. Now I don't particularly care about the NBA, the Celtics, or even Rondo and his Star Wars-ish name. What caught my eye was who, or what, wrote the article: Automated Insights.

Your next sports anchor?

You probably remember Automated Insights from the fantasy football season. They provide those fantasy matchup rundowns that appear after every game. That's a fun gimmick for a game, but it's a bit startling to see them providing recaps of actual contests. Is your local sports anchor soon to be obsolete? Could Sportsbot 5000 really take the place of the likes of Art Neil?

I've Got An Idea

Roger Goodell has been talking about changing the extra point to make it more exciting. I think all of the proposal aren't exciting enough. My idea? During an extra point attempt when the ball is snapped you unleash hungry tigers onto the field. Not sure on the exact number; I'm thinking three might be best but I could be convinced to go higher. I'd also be willing to listen to someone make a case for lions or possibly bears. Whichever way you go, if you want excitement, that's excitement.

Ugh

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers used to have great uniforms. Not anymore:

Seriously, who approves this stuff?

Obviously these are designed by Nike. They can do good work, but they seem to be obsessed with drawing attention rather than making a sharp uniform, even if they end up with an eyesore instead. I don't get it.

Arkham Knight

?

My interest level in the NBA is somewhere between golf and tennis, but even I was surprised to hear the rumors about Isiah Thomas and the Pistons. The general consensus is that there's no way the Pistons would bring him on as GM and that there's nothing to it. That's got to right, doesn't it? Even I know Thomas was a historically bad GM (largely because Russillo has talked about it). And following Dumars? I know things are a little crazy in Detroit right now, but not that crazy... right?

"I Heard Things"

Warning: Viewer discretion is advised. Language

I recently watched "Raging Bull" on Netflix. I had never seen it before and it was one of those movies that is usually in a top list of all-time sports movies, so I thought I'd put it to the test. Over-rated. I didn't get it. I didn't really know anything about the movie other than it was sports related, possibly boxing, and starred Robert De Niro.

Something else I hadn't paid attention to but started to wonder in the first five minutes of the movie was the director. With that many "F" bombs and that old of a movie, there could be only one possible director: Martin Scorsese. I was immediately turned off. I've seen enough (and that's not a lot) Scorsese films to know he loves using it as much as possible.

I watched the entire movie but didn't find it to be anything special. It did, however, help me better understand the SNL sketch "The Joe Pesci Show" from Season 22 (I couldn't find a clip). De Niro and Pesci make cameo appearances and De Niro keeps saying "I heard things." I realized it was probably some movie line, but at the time didn't know the reference.

Now I know...and now I want two hours of my life back.

"We Brotha's"

With all the discussion lately of the NFL banning the "N" word, I couldn't help put this on the blog. Honestly, I can't believe I haven't heard ONE reference to this movie. I know it's not an extremely popular movie, but I think it has it's own underground, cult-classic following in case it's not too mainstream.