The Great Debate

if you all haven't noticed, I welcome debate ... I love it ... especially when I have to go it alone, even against the world it seems ... among those battles I've taken on my shoulders:

-my distaste for Euro ball players as a whole ... zero toughness, zero defense and IMO the only reason why they're in the league now is because the NBA changed their rules to cater to soft players ... most specifically, my well documented beef is with Jose Frauderon, who's been touted as a premiere PG in the NBA, by the idiots here in Toronto ... but last season proved my point that he's nothing more than a glorified backup at best ... this season will simply re-inforce that point ...

-most recently my HV teammates and myself have been in a debate over the greatest female R&B vocalist of all time ... I'm officially ready to hand the crown to Alicia Keys, but my boy Skip is siding with Mariah Carey, while NC is holding firm with Lauryn Hill ... short and sweet, all three of Alicia's albums have far surpassed any albums Mariah has put out post 1997 ...

-Boxing vs. MMA ... Dana White = Eric Bischoff ... so many parallels with their outright arrogance ... before Saturday White claimed "boxing is in trouble"? ... well the public has spoken with a resounding HELL NO!!! ... Money May nearly tripled UFC's PPV in buys ... UFC and MMA are fads ... much like AND1 Streetball a few years back and where the hell are they now? ... like I told Zona: MMA is for the unintelligible, Boxing is for everyone ... seeing the audience shift in interest at Boston Pizza last Saturday, combined with these PPV numbers is a sweet victory ...

next debate I plan on undertaking is baseball vs. soccer ... most people I talk to, love to bash baseball for being "boring" ... I'm of the opinion that soccer is THE most boring sport on the planet ... I guess by saying that, I'm also saying that most people in the world are delusional, considering soccer being the most "global" of all sports ... but J-Smooth vs. The World, I wouldn't have it any other way ...

~J-Smooth~

Welcome Back Money May!

on the surface it was a mugging, but at the core that was boxing in its purest form and I loved it ... Floyd "Money" Mayweather is the Detroit Pistons of boxing ... he'll bore most people, but hey, I guess that means winning and domination is boring ... sure, Juan Manuel Marquez was too small, too slow at 147 and completely outclassed, but you can't take away the fact that Floyd is a boxing genius ...

I watched the fight at a Boston Pizza in the hometown B-Town, with Anthro's bro Mags ... now the Floyd fight was being broadcast on side-by-side screens with UFC's PPV ... and the crowd was pro-UFC, I could tell because everyone was into each of the bouts ... but when the Money May fight started, something strange happened, nobody gave a sh!t about the UFC card, and with the exception of two people, the attention shifted to boxing ... DAMN RIGHT!!! ... I'm glad that I watched the fight there, and seeing the two sports broadcast side-by-side, because the difference in skill level was so evident that even Ray Charles could've seen it ... every fight on the UFC card, turned into a stand-up toe-to-toe bout and I could write a dissertation on how horrible it was ...

veering a bit ... I should've expected it, being in B-Town and all ... it was a high school reunion of sorts, because I ran into a few people at Boston Pizza ...

back to Floyd ... he's definitely back and hasn't missed a beat ... but in order to solidify his legacy in mine and most people's eyes he has to defeat "legit" opponents such as Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley ... I missed it, but apparently the latter came in the ring after tonight's fight and challenged Money May, eventually leading to the two being separated ... I never agree with Max Kellerman, but he hit the nail on the head when he said the biggest "mega fights" that can be made are any permutation of Mayweather, Pacquiao and Mosley ... isn't that what I've been saying for months? ... talent-wise, I think Floyd and Manny are the best, but I honestly think Mosley can beat them both ... but Pacquiao/Mayweather is what everyone wants to see ... and despite what happened to Marquez tonight (nice knowing you Juan, by the way), Pacquiao is a different monster all together ...

tonight affirmed one thing for me, boxing is the number one combat sport and it's not going anywhere ... I don't care what the final PPV numbers turn out to be ... HBO Boxing put out the better product tonight, no question ...

~J-Smooth~

Queen Alicia

just listened to Alicia Keys' new single Doesn't Mean Anything just now ... I'm honestly feelin' the song ... as I said on a tweet, if the album is just as good, Alicia takes the crown of the Greatest of All-Time, as far as female R&B artists go ... why? Songs in A Minor was not just a great debut, but a great album, period! ... and when most artists usually go through a sophomore jinx, Alicia I.M.O. topped her debut with The Diary of Alicia Keys ... while her third solo album As I Am was a slight step below her second, it was an affirmation that Alicia is leaps and bounds ahead of her contemporaries ... now if she's able to string 4 great albums in a row, there's no way she doesn't belong in the discussion with the likes of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston ... I definitely plan on picking up the album on the first day ... good on her for keeping R&B alive, not an easy task with artists like Rihanna and Chris Brown doing some irrepairable damage to it ...

other music notes:

-Kanye West, never liked him or his music ... the media and public have come down on him hard and rightfully so ... I know his ego craves the attention and spotlight, but I know I wouldn't want President Obama calling me a "jack*ss" ...

-getting slightly less pub was Lil Mama's hijacking of Alicia Keys and Jay-Z's performance ... just looking at her or when she opens her mouth is like nails on the chalkboard ...

-I've really been sleeping on the 2009 album releases, ie. Busta Rhymes, Method Man & Redman, Raekwon, Jay-Z ... I'll get on them soon and put up reviews for you all ...

-finally, one of Jay-Z's lines on his new joint Thank You elevates him to my top 5 All-Time emcees list ... "Name keep popping up, face keep popping up, on the tube I'm just watching Pacquiao box 'em up" ...

~J-Smooth~

at the ballpark

first semi-long blog in a while, but a convo with Anthro has compelled me to do a post on America's favorite past time ...

-congrats to Derek Jeter for becoming the all-time Yankees hits leader ... not that the media hasn't done it enough, but to put things in perspective his accomplishment is nothing short of extraordinary, considering all of the legends that have donned the Yankee pinstripes ... and in "the asterisk era" with all these 'roided up cheaters (ie. A-Rod, ManRam, Bonds, Big Mac), it's nice to see a guy who played the game clean standing on top ...

-as for the Toronto Blue Jays ... 11K for a ballgame at the Dome ... pathetic! ... the natural inclination at this juncture is to call for the firing of J.P. Fraud-ciardi (what I've been saying for years), but even if they did now, it's 4 years late in my opinion ... the damage he's done to the organization will take at least another "5 years" to undo and fix ... among his most idiotic moves: letting go of Carlos Delgado and Chris Carpenter for nothing and the signing of Frank Thomas ... Roy Halladay has every reason to want out ...

-speaking of which ... who's the best pitcher in baseball? ... Anthro argues to the death for one of his man-loves Roy Halladay, plus he likes to rub in his "I called it from day one" ... don't get me wrong, Halladay is great, I'm a fan, but I'd have to give the nod to Johan Santana ... in my opinion, Santana's just got better "stuff" ... is it his fault that the Mets have been injury depleted the entire year? ... the Halladay argument that I hear all the time is that he's winning on a bad team ... but for people who ACTUALLY KNOW SOMETHING about the game, my question is then "what the hell was Santana doing on the Twins for years?" ... the proof is in the pudding, he was racking up wins on a mediocre team at best ... and last time I checked, they've always had a smaller payroll than the Jays, but Santana still got them into the post season four times (so the low budget, can't compete with the Yankees and Red Sox excuse doesn't work here) ...

-and there's more to being a great pitcher aside from wins ... it's also about stepping up big, in big games ... Game 7 of the World Series, I'd take a prime Randy Johnson, any day of the week, twice on Sunday ... others: Dave Stewart and Curt Schilling ... and another thing, Cy's don't lie ... that's why I don't think the Atlanta Braves' pitching staff of the 90's, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz, will ever be touched, 7 Cy Young awards between them ... what's even more impressive is that these guys (with the exception of Smoltz) didn't do it by over-powering guys ... Glavine and Maddux, two of the best control and pure pitchers in history, period! ... getting back to Santana vs. Halladay, last time I checked Santana has 2 Cy's (on the Twins), Halladay only 1 ...

-can't end this without a mention of my all-time favorite players ... I'll name the top 3 ... 2A and 2B are Jeter and Delgado ... Jeter, because he's the textbook definition of a 5-tool player ... Delgado, because he's the only power hitter of the asterisk era with legit stats, a threat for 40 HR and 120 RBI on the yearly, I just think of all the honors he was robbed of, which will likely end up costing him a spot in the Hall of Fame ... number 1 on my list is definitely Joe Carter ...

~J-Smooth~

NYC '09 Recap

NYC Highlights:

-I did get myself a new wardrobe to accomodate the slimmed down version of J-Smooth ... but NYC was more of a sightseeing trip this time around ... among the sites I took in: The Waldorf Astoria, Wall Street and Battery Park ...

-Jollibee, I can't even tell you how nice that food went down ... ditto on White Castle ... the funny thing is, I ate so much junk while over there, but I still managed to drop 2 pounds ...

-Based on some of my convos, not with just Pinoys but Puerto Ricans and black people, Miguel Cotto alone is bigger than UFC in NYC ... YESSIR, Real Sports Fans! ... my aunt's Puerto Rican friend is a huge Cotto fan, but loves Manny too, he said he's not betting on that fight, LOL ...

-my evenings were spent in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach at my aunt's ... she subscribes to the Filipino channels, so I managed to catch Manny Pacquiao's new sitcom "Show me the Manny" ... F'n Hilarious! ...

-St. Patrick's Cathedral is definitely a wonder ... I recommend that whenever you are in New York City (Catholic or not) to check it out ... the place is HUGE! ... something I'd expect to see in Europe as opposed to NYC ...

-Finally, there was Yankee Stadium ... this was planned from time as I'd purchased tickets to the game months ago ... Wow!, a city and stadium where baseball is still relevant ... the fans are so into the game ... now I can say that I saw the great Derek Jeter play ... it was a great feeling just being there, and with my dad ...

-one thing that happened Labor Day Weekend in Toronto that I missed was Marvin Sonsona's fight at Casino Rama ... I always said if a Pinoy was fighting there, I'd go ... no worries, he's slated to come back in November a week after Pacquiao/Cotto ... as for my opinion on Sonsona, he still needs some polishing, but he's nice, pretty good "pop" in both hands, plus a good chin ...

-some sad events took place when I was away as well ... a senior member of CPO, "Doc", passed away ... it was expected, however still sad ... "Doc" and his wife are good friends of my parents ... I found out from a voicemail when I returned on Tuesday morning ... the viewing was held later that night and it was nice catching up with my old CPO Fam despite the circumstances ... "Doc" was one of the nicest and warmest people I've met, my deepest sympathies and condolences to his wife and daughter, RIP and God Speed ...

~J-Smooth~

I Love New York

2nd post of the afternoon, since I likely won't have internet access this weekend ... as most people close to me would know, Labour Day Weekend means that I'm in NYC ... for those that care, my itinerary is as follows:

Friday Night: overnight drive

Saturday: shopping at Woodbury Outlets, Jollibee in Queens and time permitting Manhattan

Sunday: Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, wandering Manhattan

Monday: my first ever New York Yankees game at the new Yankee Stadium with my dad

Monday Night: overnight drive home

for those that care even more, I'll likely text a tweet, or two, or three ... so if you're in need of your up-to-the-minute dose of J-Smooth check my Twitter, LMFAO ... I want to wish everyone a safe Labour Day Weekend ...

~J-Smooth~

Mission Accomplished

one year ago on the Labour Day weekend, yours truly made the conscientious decision towards a "fast food sobriety" ... well, despite all my doubters and detractors, I've successfully pulled it off ... well, with one exception, I did consume Subway sandwiches throughout the year ... I figured, it's no different from myself purchasing the ingredients on my own and preparing my own sub sandwich ... but what I call the "cardiac cousins" McDonald's and KFC, among others, have been avoided all together ... I can honestly say that I'm proud of myself and it really shows what I can accomplish when I'm driven ... on top of that, my dedication to fitness and nutrition has really become a lifestyle change, moreso an obsession ... the results have been in my view gradual, but staggering ... The proof is in the pudding: I'm at the lowest body weight I've been in 5 years (dropping 35 pounds in the last 6 months), shedding at least 3 waist sizes, finally my strength and conditioning is the best it's EVER been in my life (I never thought I could run distances I have, or be able to lift what I'm lifting) ... the payoff has been: a trimmer figure (something noticeable and surprising to those around me), an enhancement to my level of play in sports and a new burst of confidence (LOL, not that I was lacking any to begin with) ... now one year later, being in the Labour Day weekend (my annual NYC trip), I'm definitely rewarding myself ... I know for a fact that the White Castle, Nathan's and Jollibee are gonna go down nice ... guilty pleasures no more ...

~J-Smooth~

You know you're ghetto when ...

(courtesy of Twitter)

-you boil water to take a bath in

-you think you're getting a stimulus package

-you use water instead of milk with cereal

-you still have a beeper

-your mom is dating your ex

-you eat mayonnaise sandwiches

-you and your dog eat the same food

-you sew the holes in your socks

-you brush your teeth with a washrag

and mine,

-you're going to school for VCR repair

I needed a good laugh ...

~J-Smooth~