I Call It 'Celebration!'

The unfamiliar handle was "Reyes Chokes"; the comment, "7 up with 17 to play...". With that, I knew something was afoot.

I immediately suspected a Yankees blog had picked up on Ched's tour de force from Friday when he besmirched the house of Duncan, but it turned out to be so much more. Yes sir, Cheddar popped his Deadspin cherry on Sunday. Our little Cheddar's all growns up -- mazel tov. Thanks as always to Deadpsin for throwing some love toward the little website that could.

This weekend featured Johan on Saturday and Pedro on Sunday, a combination that could be very fun to watch in the year ahead. Fun, that is, provided Johan stops getting lit up and Petey stays healthy / he continues to get away with his 86 mph "heat".

Of course I'm being a little cynical there. Johan I'm not worried about at all. The guy has been too good for too long for any of us to start worrying about a few spring training outings (right? RIGHT!?!?!?!?!?!). No seriously, I'm not worried about him in the least.

As for Pedro, it was great to see him go out there and throw four scoreless innings. He worked out of a real tight spot in the second, got tough when he needed to. With Pedro I just don't get it; I see the radar gun and I just don't understand how he continues to be effective.

But somehow he pulls it off, and I'm through questioning it for now. There's a part of me that still needs to see him have, like, two solid months before fully trusting that he can be a front of the rotation guy, but I liked what we saw from him last September and today was more of the same.

Anyway, took a little break from the movie crusade this week, but I do have a couple music recs to put out there.

The first is a disc called Up Against the Legends by The Legends. Not really sure who I'd liken them to; other people say they're similar to Jesus and Mary Chain, but I'm not really familiar with them. The highlight is "Nothing to Be Done", but other standouts are "When the Day is Done", "Call It Ours", "Breaking Time, Breaking Lines" and "No Way Out".

The other one is Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut. Yes, like every other blogger out there I'm giving them some love. Just a really solid album, excellent start to finish with the definite exception of the unaccountable "One (Blake's Got a New Face)". The standouts are "A-Punk", "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and "Walcott", but it's just a really enjoyable listen from end to end. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoyed Paul Simon's Graceland, and really, who didn't?

In other news, Wedding Crashers is on again. It's starting to remind me of that enchanted fall of 2006, when Wedding Crashers was seemingly on every day of the week. Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams are making gooey eyes at each other.

That movie still gives me hope.

- A.F.O.M.G.