The Gritty Largesse Recommends South Philly

Had the pleasure of attending Game 3 of the World Series in Philadelphia.  Also had the pleasure of single-handedly altering the outcome of the Series by simply being present with my Jeter shirt on, albeit under several other layers.  Game 3 was rather rainy and cold as you might remember, and it also represented the kickoff of a very intense sporting weekend in Philly (Yanks-Phils on Saturday night, Giants-Eagles Sunday, Yanks-Phils on Sunday night, throw in a Pearl Jam concert and a Flyers game on Saturday and you’ve got yourself quite the 48-hour clusterfuck.)  Given the insanity that was engulfing the entire Sports Complex in South Philly, I decided to get to Game 3 about five hours before the first pitch, find parking, and simply enjoy my surroundings.  I decided to live-blog it.  Below is an account of my time spent roaming the streets of South Philly from 3pm until 8:15pm on Saturday, October 31 – fucking Halloween no less.

The Triple-Option Largesse Recommends Innovative College Football Offenses

Like most Americans, I enjoy watching football on Sundays but nowhere near as much as I do on Saturdays.  What keeps me tuned in on Saturday afternoon?  The tradition? Yes.  The rivalry?  Yes.  The passion?  Yes.  These intangibles absolutely improve the viewing experience, especially in person, but football played on a college field, to me, is much more interesting than that played on a professional one.  College football offers a variety of team philosophies and approaches. From Hawaii’s four WR spread to Georgia Tech’s (formerly Navy’s) Wing –T, any style of football you can imagine is played on Saturday.  On Sundays, with the exception of the wildcat, you will see roughly the same style of game.  Although not generally partial to any logic resembling “different is better”, I think it applies here, augmenting both performance and viewing experience.

The Looping Largesse Recommends Caddying for John Kanzius

A few weeks ago the CBS news program 60 Minutes did a twenty minute segment on a man named John Kanzius.  Mr. Kanzius was an American inventor, a self-described autodidact (look it up), and, in all likelihood, the wealthiest man to ever live in Erie, Pennsylvania.  Mr. Kanzius also took it upon himself to treat his own cancer (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) by building and using radiation machines in his barn, much to the chagrin of his doctors.  This is how we do in Erie, Pennsylvania.  Some call it poverty and a crisis of health care.  I call it ingenuity and man-strength.  This particular version of man-strength is unique to Erie, Pennsylvania.  If you don’t believe me go see for yourself or take a trip along the interweb superhighway to learn more about Mr. Kanzius.  Neither disappoints.

The Fantasty-Inducing Largesse Recommends Keeper Leagues

As our ages inch upwards and our verticals inch downwards, we at The Largesse find the need to compete grows as we get older.  Most of us are now much closer to coaching Little League than we are to having played it, and this time of year is a cruel reminder of what could have been if we had just kept our foot on that bag or taken the bat off our shoulder in that final at-bat and reached the promised land of Williamsport and ESPN.  With our newfound maturity, we seek out new ways to release our competitive energies; from golf to our salaries, everything means everything because we don’t really have more “official” outlets anymore.  We were raised to play sports, most of us (Alistair throws like a girl, but don’t tell anyone), and now that our skills have peaked and deteriorated before anyone else even recognized we possessed them, we are off in search of a way to declare our primacy and belittle those closest to us.  We play, of course, fantasy football.

The Right-Brained Largesse Denounces Sudoku

And here’s why: it is boring as hell.  There is no debate on this topic.  Okay whatever, use the numbers 1-9, horizontal, vertical, 3 x 3 clusters, there are rules for the numbers in the horizontal and vertical, plug and chug, write in the corners, figure it out – holy fucking boring, Batman.  Enough with this.

The Tentacled Largesse Recommends Japanese Entertainment

Ever laughed at someone after seeing them fall and injure themselves?  Of course you have – that shit is hilarious.  The clever Japanese have figured this out, built an entire media empire upon it, and have exported it to our great nation.  It’s not Godzilla crossing the Pacific, it’s the duo of I Survived a Japanese Game Show (ISJGS) and Nintendo.

The Discerning Largesse Recommends Cash Cab

Cash Cab is a TV game show that takes place in a New York City taxi.  Ben Bailey is the weirdo driver of the cab but warrants very little discussion except for two things: 1) he’s a great driver, both a former limousine driver and a current, licensed taxi driver in the big apple, and 2) he seems to have some type of Tic Disorder that affects his face.  High comedy, Ben.  We applaud him for these things and for nothing else.  Just drive dude, read the questions, twitch, and shut up already.

The Largesse Knowingly Recommends Pub Trivia

We go every week, Plax and I.  We even win sometimes.  More frequently, we come in fourth – just out of the money and just close enough to tear ourselves apart for the rest of the week going over the ones we knew but didn’t actually write down.  Did you know that Winnie the Pooh is the biggest merchandising money-maker for Disney?  I did.  We didn’t actually put that down though, so this past Monday, we came in third.  Fuck.  Sure, the camaraderie means something, I suppose, but this is competition.  Cold, gut-wrenching, sweat-inducing competition.   We play to win, and so should you.