What Happens in Cabo...

Before I start off, I just want to wish everyone a belated happy new year. I want to thank AFOMG for filling in for me for the last week or so and I hope 2006 has treated all of you as well as it has treated the Sip so far.

So as you all know, I was out in Cabo for the past week. And the thing I can say for certain is this: what happens in Cabo stays with you wherever you go. In fact, it is pretty much the exact opposite of what a young Kristin Cavallari said only some 12 months ago, before she captured our hearts in the beloved spank banks of many the Yankees2000 authors. For more information, see below:



Anyway, we love nothing so much around here at Y2K as a good list, so here it is: 5 Things that were there in Cabo and came back with me to the States.

1. My newfound gut.

Holy geez. Not sure I've ever been this fat. I'm not even at that point where I have a tan so it looks ok. I look like a fat guy with a tan. It's pretty sad.

On a positive note my new pal, Brucey, can be chalked up to 7 of the best days of my life. A special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Steve Smith (not of the Carolina Panthers, 3 point speciailist or USC Trojan kind, but rather the huge beast of a No. Cal businessman type). These were the greatest hosts imaginable.

They put me and 12 others up at their Cabo Estate for a week of intense Frataticism. Tons of booze, football in the pool, amazing food etc. Really was just the perfect trip, but now I am paying the price for it.

2. My hatred for Delta Airlines and further endorsement for Jet Blue, the official airline of Y2k.

So first off Delta. They suck. I pulled an all-nighter last week before my 6:20 a.m. flight with plans of sleeping all the way to Salt Lake and then from Salt Lake to Cabo. Couldn't do it. This was thanks to the most turbulence-filled flight of my life. I got to the point where I was ready to die and almost wish I had. In retrospect, I am glad I did not.

But the way home is what took the cake.

So we had it all planned out. We had a 6:30-9:06 Mountain Time layover in Salt Lake City before our flight back to SF. It was me and Big Maciej, two excited sports fans ready for what was built up as one of the bigger college football games ever.

So we got to Utah and watched the first half. All was good, sure, fine, yeah. The plan, which we made sure was totally secure was to DVR the second half and come home and watch it.

That was fine. But not the rest. About 40 minutes into the flight there is an announcement from the pilot: "For all you who have tivoed the Rose Bowl close your ears." So i did. "The USC Trojans are up on Texas 31-23," I heard, even with my ears closed.

What a d-bag I thought, and kind of uttered the thought out loud, which caught the attention of an agreeing flight attendant. I was pissed, but not too mad.

I looked at Tim and we both came up with the idea that we would put on our headphones so as to drown out any future updates from the pilot. I listened to the Delta music channels because my laptop and Wayne's World (plan A) had run out of batteries thanks to a Cabo-to-Utah viewing of "Friday Night Lights" (AKA: a poor man's more serious version of "Varsity Blues").

This didn't work. Every time the pilot wanted to, he would make his announcement and the Delta music would shut off. Only with his next 6 announcements, there was no warning.

It was just:

USC 31-26
Texas 41-38 with :20

This was the first time in my entire life that I wanted to tell the pilot after a flight how much I hated it.

This guy ruined an ESPN instant classic.

I immediately saw text messages from Camper Zach that read "Vince Young is the OBF king."

In English, that's Vince young is amazing.

Nonetheless, I am asking that all Y2k readers boycott Delta. They suck. If I was on Jet Blue I could have watched history. Instead, it was spoiled by some dickwad pilot who somehow could listen to the game but I could not.

3. The greatness of the word 'salt'.

Just a quick one, but boy did I catch some zings with the, "Yeah, we have a lay over in Tim Lake City." Let's just say, people were impressed.

4. My gambling mishaps don't leave.

First off. South Carolina...Goooollllyyy. These guys are laying 4 and are 28-0 in the 2nd quarter. How do you guys not cover that game? I didn't think I could hate Steve Spurrier more than I did before the game even started, but a couple units later sure upped the Steve Spurrier hatred quotient right quick.

Then there was my beloved Dogs. You guys fought your hearts out. And you guys almost managed to come back from a 28-0 deficit, yeah, not nearly enough for the backdoor cover. Coach Richt, didn't you see that WV ran the same play every single time? Can't stop that.

Oh well, I made it out of Cabo still a ton of units in the green to the Friendly Bookie so I guess I have to stay happy.

5. I remain skeptical of Omar "Wheel and Deal" Minaya.

Had to talk about the Jae Seo deal. While the end result, another arm in the bullpen is nice, Wheel and Deal once again gave up too much, or did not get enough back.

Jae Seo isnt eligible for arbitration yet (he comes really cheap) and is coming off a very impressive season, READ: he is a cheap young pitcher with promise. In today's market, where Matt Morris is getting 9 mil per, Jae Seo is EXTREMELY VALUABLE. Is he that good? No. You can't expect him to repeat 2005.

But this guy is definitely a solid 4/5 for any team in baseball. With teams paying 6 million for these guys, to get him for around 1 mil is highway robbery.

Yet all Wheel and Deal could get was an unproven bullpen arm. Sure everything you read about Duaner Sanchez looks somewhat promising, but is this really all we can get?

Is it not worth it to have Seo coming out of the pen or having him down in Norfolk as an insurance 6th starter?

It's not like we are getting a proven commodity here. If not for his name, I would have hardly remembered this guy and I watch a ton of meaningless late night Wednesday night baseball games.

Again, Omar gave up too much. You don't trade starters for bullpen help unless:

1. You need to shed payroll (this deal would make sense if we were giving up Benson or if it was setting up something else )
2. You have 5 better starters (Zambrano is not better than Seo)
3. You are significantly upgrading your pen (read: trading for a Tom Gordon-like setup guy)

But if Peter Gammons has a hard on for cheap pitching, then so do I, which is why I don't like this deal.

And in retrospect, I hate the Cameron deal more too. At 6 mil per, Cameron is now a steal in CF, but that is a whole other topic of convo.

Anyway, it's great to be back in the States. It's turning into crunch time here with this whole job situation. If any of you know any team anywhere in the country or know someone, drop me a line. Time to get down to business, put the women and children to bed, and go looking for some fucking dinner.

'06 is '06

SM