Date Night

 Pretty lucky that this lovely little lady wanted to have a date with me tonight.

2018 Summer Movie Awards

Movies Seen : Avengers : Infinity War, Deadpool 2, Solo, Ready Player One, Incredibles 2, AntMan & Wasp, Jurassic World 2:Fallen Kingdom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, Teen Titans Go to the Movies 

Not Seen : Oceans 8, Mission Impossible : Fallout, Christopher Robin

Best Flick - Avengers : Infinity War

Best Dude – Josh Brolin : Thanos : Avengers Infinity War – Yes I’m giving it to a villain.  Infinity War is Thanos’s film, and you get a sense of what he wants to do and what he will do to get it done.  He has some backstory to his goals and the treachery he goes to do that, including some heartbreak he delivers it excellent.

Chris Hemsworth : Thor : Avengers Infinity War – How far has Thor come in the MCU.  He was looked at as a character who’s arc was overshadowed by that of his brother, Loki, in these films and then after how Hemsworth and Waititi changed him in Ragnarok, you really just want to see more.  He I thought was the best Avenger in this flick. 

HM – Chris Pratt : Star Lord ;  Robert Downey Jr : IronMan ; Donald Glover : Lando Calrissian

Best Dudette – Elizabeth Olson : Scarlet Witch : Avengers Infinity War – Of all the female characters in Infinity War, I felt hers was the best and the most emotional and heart breaking.  Having to kill Vision, then see him being killed again.  And her action sequences were awesome to.   Olson’s 2^nd win as Best Dudette

Best Scene – IronMan, SpiderMan and Star Lord discussing their plan.  The best of this was when Drax said “Mention the dance off to save the universe”, Spidey responds “like Footloose?”  Star Lord – “Exactly like footloose!  Is that still the best movie ever?”  Spidey – “It never was”

                  – AntMan & the Wasp End Credit Scene – as much as the movie didn’t blow me away, this was EXCELENT and ties to Infinity War perfectly

Best Fight – The first fight for Vision’s mind stone and the reappearance of Captain America and his Avengers crew.  AND Iron Man, Dr Strange, Wong and Spidey fighting for the Time Stone.

Biggest Dud – Teen Titans Go To the Movies : I can normally take this show in small doses in the 15-30 minute time frame, but I really just didn’t like this movie.  There were some funny moments but nothing that made me wanna go see it again

                    – Incredibles 2 : Pixar gave us a lil bit of the Cars 2 hangover with focusing too much I felt on Jack Jack, instead of the whole crew.  It was a lot better than Cars 2 and a decent sequel but I think it could have been better.

Anticipated Sequel – Captain Marvel (prequel) & Avengers 4

How to fix Major League Baseball, after it expand to 32 teams

Expansion

Proposed Portland Stadium

With the push that is coming out of the Northeast and Portland to get an expansion baseball team, it looks like baseball will sooner than later expand to 32 teams.  There is also noise being made north of the border in Montreal for a group to bring the Expos back.  All of this is rumored to not be completed till after stadiums are figured out in Tampa and Oakland.  Now no one goes to games a lot in either market but I can’t see Oakland losing their team.  Tampa on the other hand should not be there and I’m projecting with the expansion into Portland and Montreal, that Nashville will be the other city to get a team. 

Charlotte Baseball

Charlotte and Vegas are also mentioned with Nashville as an expansion target.  Vegas is getting the Raiders and have done well with the Golden Knights, but I don’t see them ever getting a baseball team.  If they do that is the day that Pete Rose is let back into Baseball and inducted into the Hall of Fame.  It’s down to Charlotte and Nashville.  Both cities have an it factor, and either can edge each other out.  For my example you can interchange either, but I’m going to use Nashville as my example. 

Realignment

With the addition and movement of franchises, the divisions are going to get changed up and teams moving leagues.  It’s happened before with the Astros and Brewers, and I’m not moving stalwarts.    

Montreal will go back to the NL and get its NL East rivals back.  Portland moves to the AL West and gets a close rival with Seattle.  The Tampa franchise that moves to Nashville will jump to the National League to the SouthEast and get to play more regional rivals.  Colorado moves to the AL and gets the DH in Coors Field and that thin air all the time now.

Each league would be Four 4 team divisions, regionally based and structured. 

The schedule

Cut the season down from 162 to 154 games.  There are roughly 26 weeks between first week of April and the last week of September, DO NOT START GAMES IN MARCH.  It takes 22 weeks to play 154 games straight through, without byes or days off.  4 weeks off should be plenty of time, also with the All-Star break in there.  (Schedule breakdown coming). 

Teams would play more games within its own division than other opponents.  Here is what the 154 game schedule breakdown would look like:

66 games vs Division opponents (22 vs each team)

72 games vs League opponents (3 game series vs each team Home and Home with all)

12 games vs a Cross League division.  (2 Home 3-game series and 2 Away 3-game series)

4 games vs a Cross League rival (Cubs-White Sox / Yankees Mets) OR 2 2-game series vs Random Cross League teams (San Diego-Portland / San Diego-Seattle)

With the last point, there will be seasons where teams would have a natural geographic rival in the Cross League Division, then random fits would be slotted in.

Players would get 8 games cut off the season, and as Anthony Rizzo mentioned, the should take less (prorated) for playing fewer games. 

The Playoffs

Each league would have 6 playoff teams.  The 4 division winners and the next 2 best records in the league. 

2 Best Division Champions in the league would get a bye.

2 Lesser Division Champions would get Home Field advantage in a best of 3 series vs the 2 Wild Card

The DS would still be best of 5, CS best of 7 and World Series best of 7. 

Schedule of the Playoffs

With this the World Series would go into November more.  But the schedule should be set to where it can be moved up if sweeps happen.  If series would go the full 3 and 5 games in the first 2 rounds, they would be finished up within the first 14 days of the playoffs. 

This all seems too easy for someone in a cube and with 3 kids to manage to figure out so FOR SURE MLB would not go this route.  But laid out, this option for the league and fans would be a great fit. 

Best and Worst of the MCU - Part 3

And now the current and most recent Phase leading up to the showdown with Thanos.  This could be the best of all the Phases with all the quality movies in the MCU here.  There are still a few films to come out in this phase Ant-Man and the Wasp in fall of 2018 and Captain Marvel in 2019, but the last 10 years have built up to the battle with Thanos.  

Captain America : Civil War

Doctor Strange

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

Spider-Man Homecoming

Thor Ragnorak

Black Panther

Best Movie

This phase also has the best lot of movies to pick from.  Thor is pure fun to watch, Doctor Strange, though a lot like the Iron Man as an origin is full of great views involving the magic, and also setting up #2, Civil War is almost Avengers 2.5 with the ensemble cast and fights among good guys, and Black Panther was great also, BUT my favorite of these is SpiderMan Homecoming.  Spidey comes home to the MCU and is mentored by Iron Man, and has to grow up.  He's not thrown into crime fighting right after Civil War.  Tom Holland is PERFECT as young Peter Parker and growing up.  Michael Keaton is an amazing villain, and just seeing Peter actually in school the whole flick unlike being rushed in the past series, this is what Spidey should be. 

Best Hero

Where I put him down in Phase 1 and Phase 2, Thor in Ragnorak was unlike any other version of Thor we've seen.  With Taika Waititi taking over directing Hemsworth, he was allowed to be fun and add some comedy and more fun to Asgard.  I think adding in the Hulk and having a buddy-buddy comedy helped.  And as good as Loki has been, Thor got to fight and interact with more than just his brother.  

Best Villain 

 This Phase has the best set of villains, Killmonger and Klaw in Black Panther, Hella, and Baron Zemo, but the best is the Vulture.  Michael Keaton is EXCELLENT in SpiderMan Homecoming.  He's driven to the other side of the tracks to support his family and he is fighting none other than Tony Stark.  Spidey gets involved and entangled in more ways then one.  He has a slight turn in an after credits scene, but also still probably has some unfinished business with Spidey

Best Moment

Peter picking up his date, Liz, in Spiderman Homecoming and opening the door is none other than Adrian Toomes, the Vulture.  

Worst Movie

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 had a lot to live up to with the surprise success that was GotG Volume 1.  Now as different as the first movie was from the rest of the MCU, James Gunn made the second one the same way, and that's not a bad thing, but this one just missed with me.  It gave us more of Star Lord with the search for his dad, and Nebula's character was given more and a bigger focuse on Yondu too,  but what other character or moment was great from this?  Rocket and Drax felt pushed back from where they were in the first and Baby Groot was cute, but maybe over done. 

Worst Hero

Every flick in this list has a great hero or heroes so there will be theme in the 'Worsts' so I'm going with Rocket Raccoon and Drax.  Really they weren't given anything to further their story or character.  Both I felt were gems in the first flick and something different, but they weren't given enough here in the second I felt or did anything memorable.  

Worst Villain

Again, I'm going to stay with Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 here, and go with Ego as the worst villain.  I felt his mission was kinda ehh, I mean it wasn't over a infinity stone so that was different, but the mind games I felt he played with Star Lord and Yondu and the team felt choppy after the initial meeting.  The final battle felt more like Pixels than a Marvel final battle too.  I mean if you look at Civil War, Baron Zemo was playing mind games too, but that never felt choppy in the flick.  

Best of the MCU - Part 2

 After the monster that was The Avengers raking in over 1.5 billion dollars, Phase 2 was kicked off advancing the characters and moving them towards the next team up flick of Avengers 2.

Each of the main 3 got a new film in their trilogies and then the universe got bigger with the Guardians being introduced.  Then to round out the trilogy Ant-Man was brought into the MCU.

Iron Man 3

Thor : The Dark World

Captain America : The Winter Soldier

Guardians of the Galaxy

Avengers : Age of Ultron 

Ant-Man

Best Movie

Arguably the best movie of them all 18 MCU films, Captain America : The Winter Soldier is the best of these 6 films.  Take away the super heroes and its a great spy thriller.  Sebastian Shaw as Winter Soldier is a great antagonist for Capt.  Add in the Hydra angle, and Robert Redford, this film is re-watchable many times and could even stand on its on.  

Best Hero

As fun as Chris Pratt's Star Lord is in Guardians, the other Chris takes the cake in Phase 2.  Chris Evans IS and will always be Captain America as RDJ is Iron Man and Heath Ledger is The Joker.  He just embodies what is it that makes Capt, Capt.  And it comes out more in his struggles with fighting Bucky at the climax of the Winter Soldier.  Add in Ultron, he takes on the leadership role of the Avengers more so.  Also this is the best Capt costume he's had in any flick.

Best Villain 

Sticking with the theme of Phase 2, the Winter Soldier / Bucky Barnes is the best villain.  He takes out Nick Fury and helps Alexander Pierce to take out SHIELD form the inside.  He pushes Capt to diff level too though Capt doesn't wanna fight him.  In the end you get to see him turn though.  

Best Moment

Before we get started....does anyone want to get out?  The elevator fight scene at the Triskelion with Capt and a bunch of SHIELD/Hydra Agents.

Worst Movie

This Phase has some flicks that could have used some more work, IMO.  Thor : The Dark World feels like a need to push the Jane Foster relationship more.  It also has the worst villain in the arguably the MCU in Malekith.  It also feels like in this phase a lot of the films are forced to also include infinity stones to build up toward Thanos and this is one of them too.  As a positive, this does give us the introduction to the Collector.

Worst Hero

You could argue Thor again as his film is probably more memorable for Loki, again.  And again his appearance in Age of Ultron is kind of ugh too outside of the Party scene in the first 20 minutes.  Also there is War Machine/Iron Patriot in Iron Man 3. But I think the worst hero though is Hulk.  I didn't care for the whole relationship with Black Widow at all, again it feels forced.  And what about Betty Ross?  Is that forgotten now?  His fight with the Hulkbuster is his best part of Hulk's phase 2.  

Worst Villain

This Phase struggles with a lot of bad villains.  Iron Man 3 messed up the the Mandarin, Ultron I was disappointed it, the Yellow Jacket is another of the hinge guy in a suit (see Iron Man and Iron Man 2) and what is Ronan without the Power Stone?  But the worst is Malekith in Thor the Dark World.  Along with GotG this is forced to introduce another infinity stone that Malekith is going after.  He just seems bland and nothing to write home about. 

Best of the MCU - Part 1

Arguably the biggest film since maybe Avatar, or the 1st Avengers movie comes out in 4 days.  What I'm going to try to do here is go through what I liked and didn't like about the MCU Phase by Phase.

Iron Man famously started the MCU and the machine that all these flicks have been on in 2008.  Along with Iron Man the following all showed up in Phase 1.

Iron Man

The Incredible Hulk

Iron Man 2

Thor

Captain America : The First Avenger 

The Avengers

Best Movie

My favorite movie of these is Iron Man.  The Avengers won my Summer Movie Award for Best Flick in 2012 but it all couldn't have happened with out Iron Man.  Downey Jr was perfect for this role and Favreau created something that it seems most Marvel origins copy.  The more that I watch it Captain America holds up great too, and has seeds through out all the phases.  And how much did everyone love the end credit scene with Nick Fury opening up the MCU.  

Best Hero

Again, this is going to Downey Jr and Iron Man.  He appears the most in this Phase with two Iron Man flicks and the team up Avengers.  His portrayal of Tony Stark is perfect and it rolls througout the MCU.

Best Villain 

Loki, more so for his role in Avengers but has seeds sown in Thor.  He has fun being evil and mischievous.  As great as Downey is as Iron Man, Tom Hiddleston shines as Loki. (Actually the whole MCU is really well cast) Along with Heath Ledger's Joker, these 2 may be the best villains in a comic book movie/series. 

Best Moment

The first of many after credits scene, Nick Fury shows up and let's everyone know that the world is about to get bigger.  

Worst Movie

Iron Man 2 - This movie was basically a set up for Avengers.  It was able to show Tony Stark with some flaws and ability to work through them.  And it is weak with Whiplash as villain.  Sam Rockwell is great as Justin Hammer, but gets shoved aside somewhat for Whiplash.  They also recast Rhodey with Don Cheadle and I think that is a bit of a drop off.  The movie does introduce us to Black Widow and gives us more Nick Fury.  

Worst Hero

Thor is dominant as a hero and strong being the God of Thunder, but his character is pretty bland and normal in Thor, the origin flick.  The relationship with he and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) seems more forced than natural.  Chris Hemsworth gets to open him up a little more and give him more personality in Avengers.  

Worst Villain

Whiplash - Iron Man 2.  Coming off The Wrestler, Mickey Rouke was cast as Whiplash in what should have been a great role and villain for Iron Man, but he was basically just put in another Iron Man suit for War Machine and Iron Man to fight in the end.  If he was given something more unique with the Whiplash character and the story/plot, he would have been able to shine more.

2018 MLB Predictions

AL EAST - Red Sox

AL CENTRAL - Indians

AL WEST - Astros

AL WILDCARD - Angels

AL WILDCARD - Yankees

NL EAST -Nationals

NL CENTRAL - Cubs

NL WEST - Dodgers

NL WILDCARD - Rockies

NL WILDCARD - Brewers

AL Division Series

Indians over Yankees

Red Sox over Astros

NL Division Series

Cubs over Rockies

Dodgers over Nationals

AL Championship Series

Red Sox over Indians

NL Championship Series

Cubs over Dodgers

WORLD SERIES

Cubs over Red Sox