Shaun of the Dead

See this movie.



British horror/comedy Shaun of the Dead is a scream in all senses of the word. Brain-hungry zombies shamble through the streets of London, but all unambitious electronics salesman Shaun (Simon Pegg) cares about is his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield), who just dumped him. With the help of his slacker roommate Ed (Nick Frost), Shaun fights his way across town to rescue Liz, but the petty concerns of life keep getting in the way: When they're trying to use vinyl records to decapitate a pair of zombies, Shaun and Ed bicker about which bands deserve preservation--New Order they keep, but Sade becomes a lethal frisbee. Many zombie movies are comedies by accident, but Shaun of the Dead is deliberately and brilliantly funny, while still delivering a few delicious jolts of fear. Also featuring the stealthy comic presence of Bill Nighy (Love Actually) and some familiar faces from The Office. --Bret Fetzer

This was funny, really funny. Maybe it was because I was not expecting it to be, but it was. Just a funny-ass movie.

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Something that looked like a crazy contract demand now all of sudden sounds like a great investment.

"I did it last year and it really helped me stay on the ball longer," Beltran said. "Before I used it, I used to strike out a lot. I cut down last year, though, and improved in the walks. It makes you concentrate on the ball more and not worry about your stance.

"When it's coming at you 80 or 90 mph, you recognize it, but not at 150. But after seeing it at 150, when it slows down again, it seems like the ball is coming in at 40 mph. It helped me lay off a lot of bad pitches in the dirt."

Jerry Crasnick goes over the Angels batting order which has some serious firepower.

1. Chone Figgins, 2B
2. Darin Erstad, 1B
3. Vladimir Guerrero, RF
4. Garret Anderson, LF
5. Steve Finley, CF
6. Orlando Cabrera, SS
7. Dallas McPherson, 3B
8. Bengie Molina, C
9. Robb Quinlan/Juan Rivera/Jeff DaVanon, DH

Vladdy hit 39 last year, Anderson averaged 30.25 homers from 2000 through 2003, Finley hit 36 last season, and McPherson hit 43 homers in 151 games between AA, AAA, and the majors. Now about that pitching. I really thought Matt Clement would have been tremendous for that club. They were on the verge of signing him and he could have been one of the biggest, if not the biggest acquisition of the off-season in terms of completing a team aside from RJ to the Spankees. A top trio of Clement, Colon, and Escobar is pretty solid and Washburn and Lackey rounding out the rotation is pretty solid 1 through 5.

But that didn't happen and they got Paul Byrd instead. They still have the ability to be a solid rotation if Colon can pick up where he left off in the second half. Colon really turned it on in the second half going 12-4 with a 3.63 ERA and .232 BAA (.296 BAA 1st half). The biggest difference between his horrible 1st half and his tremendous second half was the 27 long balls Pre-All Star as compared to the 11 Post All-Star. You think something clicked with him? They need him to be the ace and Kelvim could certainly be a solid #2.

The Straw regrets leaving the Mets, but can anyone blame him? He went to play for his home town team like a lot of people would love to do.

"We all feel good to be back," Strawberry said. He left the Mets as a free agent following the 1990 season, a decision he says he now regrets.

"I had great times after I left. But this is where I belong. This is where I started," he said. "This is where it started for the three of us."

Los Mets?

"People who make those comments have a racial bent to their thinking," Minaya says. "When you hear that, you ask yourself, 'Do they make those comments when the staffs are all another race?' But look, when you are doing something that has never been done before, people are going to make comments. A lot of times it's part of being a minority."

Ummm, not really. Actually it was started when you did your press conference in Puerto Rico to introduce Carlos Beltran.

“Since we are in Puerto Rico,” he said, “I think we should do this in Spanish.”

Then Los Mets was born.

Glavine goes Wednesday, Benson goes Thursday, and Pedro goes Friday.

Adamn Rubin throws Leiter under the bus, but the best part of the article was this quote:

"Don't do that. You might look like A-Rod." - Martinez joking with Mike Cameron, after Cameron tried to swat at a glove during a rundown drill.

A-Rod will not live down the slap heard around the world anytime soon.

"I like Matsui," Steinbrenner told reporters as his security guard frantically pushed the elevator buttons. "The agent ... he's no good."

From Newsday:

The Mets will face competition from the Cubs as they try to upgrade their bullpen. While the Cubs are curious to see how Ryan Dempster does as their closer, they are speaking regularly with Detroit about Ugueth Urbina and Oakland about Octavio Dotel.

Willie Mo may be on the move:

The rumor mill never ends. One report said Reds outfielder Wily Mo Pena is one of the three major-league players most likely to be traded this spring, probably to the Washington Nationals.

The Nationals, of course, have former Reds general manager Jim Bowden as their interim GM, and it was Bowden who acquired Pena from the Yankees.