Hello, My Name Is Scooter McGavin...

... and I am a statistics-addict. It probably started in my youth, on Sundays the local paper had a full page of baseball leaders, ranking the top one hundred best players ranked by batting average for the hitters and earned run average for the pitchers as well as team averages for both leagues. I would scour over that page for hours analyzing every detail and every column.

Just to show you how stats obsessed I am, while in college I took a statistics course just for fun. Then while working for the intramural department, I implemented a program where we would keep track of stats in most major sports, and by we I mean me who created an extensive Excel spreadsheet and then went through all the game sheets and enter each stat into the spreadsheet.

This has gone into my adulthood where I play way too many fantasy sports, usually multiple teams per season. You want to know how bad it is: I actually play fantasy hockey (speaking of which, anyone who want to join my league, shout me a holla). I have cut it down to just one football league this season, but I bet had my draft not been rescheduled I would have most likely done a second one this past Wednesday.

This gets me to why I am writing this post, my latest stats time waster, the stats for this blog. I have six different stat counters hidden in the code for the 9th Green. Many apologies to the people who drop by everyday and have to wait an extra second or two for the page to load while those counters get the information. Although you can always subscribe (see the top of the side-bar) and see each new post without coming here by subscribing to a feed reader, and yes I have something that keeps track of all the subscribers, who accesses the feed and click on it.

This morning I did my daily ritual of enjoying breakfast while checking out my recent stats when I noticed that I had four times the usual hits I get by this time. This was constant with all of my counters. Under further inspection I saw that sixty-five percent of the pages that people landed on were on two different pages: my review of Vanessa Hudgens’s album V (see It Takes a Girl to Understand) and the archive of the week that post was part of.

Like I said in her album review, “If Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale both walked in on me right now I would be able to tell you which one is which.” And it took my rereading my review, which for the record I wrote way back in October of last year right in the middle of a run when I made a Chris Hansen reference every other post (including the one in question), to be reminded that both are cast members of High School Musical.

So this gets me wondering, why is an eleven month old post all the sudden so popular? Is there something I missed, did she release a new song from the album? Or was one of the songs recently used as a soundtrack to a montage on some crappy medical drama because the writers were too lazy to write any more dialogue? I sure hope she didn’t die or get kidnapped by Osama bin Ladin. This is something that may keep me up all night if I don’t figure it out. Feel free to give me any theories you may have.

Feed Your iPod vol. VI: You Never Know

Earlier this week I highlighted a video that turned out to be a big misstep by Dave Matthews (see below for link). Yeah Eh Hee is a decent jam in the context of a concert but a song by itself it just doesn’t work and the creepy video just made it worse. But there are still plenty of hidden gems in the Dave Matthews Band archives that never got any airplay that fit into my Feed Your iPod criteria.

One such song that has gotten plenty of play on my iPod in recent years is You Never Know off the Busted Stuff album. It was one of only two new songs that weren’t reworked from the previously shelved Lilywhite Sessions. As I grow older, the song takes on more significance, most notable the line, “Everyday should be a good day to die.” For some that may sound bleak, but for me it reminds me that you can go at any moment so live every day to its fullest so even if you suddenly die tomorrow, you can still look back and say, even if it was cut short, you lived a good life.

Below is a live version of the song which features a great opening from Carter Beauford, someone who is vastly overlooked when people talk about great drummer. Unfortunately Dave and the boys don’t (yet) sell their live albums on iTunes but you can pick up a live version of You Never Know on their Live at the Gorge album (see below for link).

You Never Know - Dave Matthews Band

Landry's Revenge

Tonight is the official kickoff of the NFL season and that means it is also the start of fantasy football. I had my draft a day later than scheduled thanks to the Yahoo servers crashing. But I think that was a good thing because I was so out of it due to the massive amounts of (legal) drugs I was on. I was so loopy that I actually put a post-it note on my monitor reminding me not to draft Michael Vick. And despite picking eighth (out of ten) I think I came out with a decent draft. There was only one round where someone took who I was eyeing before I had the chance (I had to settle for Kitna when someone nabbed Donavan McNabb right before me). In fact I was so confident with my draft I even have Brady Quinn a pity draft with my last pick. Here is this year’s roster for Landry’s Revenge:

QB Jon Kitna (Detroit Lions)
WR Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals)
WR Roy Williams (Detroit Lions)
WR Chris Chambers (Miami Dolphins)
RB Rudi Johnson (Cincinnati Bangles)
RB Reggie Bush (New Orleans Saints)
TE Tony Gonzalez (Kansas City Chiefs)
K Josh Scobee (Jacksonville Jaguars)
DEF Baltimore Ravens

Bench
QB Philip Rivers (San Diego Chargers)
RB DeAngelo Williams (Carolina Panthers)
RB Warrick Dunn (Atlanta Falcons)
TE Benjamin Watson (New England Patriots)
WR Joe Horn (Atlanta Falcons)
QB Brady Quinn (Cleveland Browns)


Usually this is where I give my Super Bowl prediction but during last years post I mentioned that football is the hardest of all the sports to predict. Oh, and do you know what else I said last year: Colts over Bears. Yeah, that worked out well for me, so let’s see if I can make it two years in a row.

AFC
East: New York Jets
North: Cincinnati Bangles
South: Indianapolis Colts
West: San Diego Chargers
Wild Card: New England Patriots, Pittsburg Steelers

NFC
East: Philadelphia Eagles
North: Chicago Bears
South: New Orleans Saints
West: Seattle Seahawks
Wild Card: Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings

AFC Championship: Colts over Patriots
NFC Championship: Eagles over Saints
Super Bowl: Colts over Eagles

I Want My Music Television vol. III

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Eh Hee - Dave Matthews



Yesterday I mentioned you could download this video for free on iTunes but I didn’t actually watch it because I was too loopy on drugs to do so (currently I’m just down to Day and NyQuil, or as I like to call it: my Elvis regiment). Wow was this creepy, in a bad way. It is like U2’s Numb but without the unintentional comedy. The video was directed by Dave Matthews himself, who also played all the instruments too. Let’s hope he keeps the rest of his band around so he doesn’t do something like this again.


Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band




Your token Bruce Springsteen video, the song rocks but the video is pretty standard. Can’t they call Courtney Cox to make another cameo? Hopefully you picked up this song on iTunes last week when it was free, if not you can still pre-order the album.


Into the Night - Santana with Chad Kroeger



This is a new track from Santana’s upcoming greatest hits package. The dude from Nickelback had already show up on one of Santana’s previous all-star albums (a song much better than this one) but for some reason the song was released to the radio with the dude from The Calling singing. And like most new songs added to a greatest hits album, the song doesn’t live up to the being part of the greatest hits. And if any of you out their actually know the dude from Nickelback, please tell him never to straighten his hair ever again. He’s scaring the children.


In a story I broke this weekend, starting yesterday you could rent through Blockbuster a DVD that featured the first episodes of NBC’s Chuck, Journeyman, and Life. For those without a Blockbuster card, starting September 10 (next Monday) you can download all three of those shows, as well as Bionic Woman, from Amazon Unbox for free. And for you pretentious types that have Tivo’s, you can transfer any Unbox download to your Tivo so you can watch it on your televisions. In other television news, The CW sent me more exclusive videos of Reaper except I have been too lazy to watch them. But they also mentioned that they started up an Official Reaper YouTube Channel although I’m not sure if the “exclusive” videos they send me are the same anyone can regularly get in the YouTube channel. And they even started up special toll free number (1-877-IN 4 HELL) to call for further information about the show from Lucifer himself. Or at least the dude who plays the devil on the show.

Now Get Back to Work

Scooter’s note: I’m a little hopped up on a combination of Sudafed, Claritin, and Day/NyQuil, but I have had this post saved for a while now, so I though I post it. Now if you excuse me I need to get back to my death bed.

Everyday after firing up my internets, before checking my e-mail, the latest sports scores or my favorite blogs, my first destination is to check out the latest episode of The 9. No, not the ABC series that was canceled The Nine but the daily video podcast hosted by Yahoo. Everyday they countdown nine (obviously) cool, sometimes corny videos, stories, and the occasional shameless plug for various Yahoo sites condensed into around five minutes and you each day you can vote for your favorite.

If you have yet seen an episode you may think to yourself why would anyone enjoy this to the point that they make it the first place they go. The answer is simple, presentation which is thanks most in part to host Maria Sansone who is quite possible the cutest thing around and her cheesy delivery is what will keep you coming back. If fact I dare you after watching one episode not to spend the next day going back through the archives.


Oh and one more thing before I head back to my death bed, last week over on iTunes they offered up the new Bruce Springsteen song for free and this week you can get the brand new Dave Matthews video Eh Hee video for free. Hooray free stuff.

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. XXXIV

Big News of the Week: You Can See the Latest NBC Shows at Blockbuster but not iTunes: Two big news items from NBC this week and I’ll start with the smaller item. Starting this Tuesday you can rent from Blockbuster stores as well as thru their online service a DVD that includes the first episodes of Chuck, Journeyman, and Life as well as a preview of Bionic Woman. If I am not mistaken, they did a similar thing last year on Netflix for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and we all know how that turned out. I always found this an odd marketing strategies as it may decrease initial rating which may hurt on the fence viewers who may not turn into the second episode fearing it would be canceled.

The bigger news is that NBC Universal has decided not to renew their contract that ends at the end of this year. And since the contract ends in the middle of the television schedule NBC has decided not to have any more new shows added to the iTunes library. I can’t say I’m too surprised by this because it seemed a little odd that it cost the same, $1.99, to buy three minute music videos, twenty minute sitcoms, and forty minute dramas. But I won’t be at all surprised if Apple unveils a pricing plan before then as Universal Music Group (are they related to NBC), the biggest record company, said they are pulling out also.

But the biggest surprise for me in this news was that NBC accounted for forty percent of all television downloads considering how they are supposedly the fourth network interims of rating. This just goes to show how big a sham the Neilson Ratings are. You are trying to tell me that a network is by far has the biggest segment of downloads, which are based on actual numbers would be all the way down at fourth in a glorified poll that are the Neilson Ratings. Seriously, what is the Neilson’s margin of error, 10%? Actually, that is a good question; does anyone know what the actual margin of error is for the Neilson Ratings? It is pretty shady that they don’t have that listed anywhere.


I have had the 9th Green Reader’s Poll up on my sidebar for album a month so I think I am going to take it down at the end of the month. If you have not taken it yet, please do so in the next week. It should only take a minute or so. And a big thanks to everyone who as already taken. Also this is your last chance to join my fantasy Dillon Panthers Football league. The live draft will take part on Yahoo this Tuesday at 9:00 PM EST. Drop me an e-mail (see sidebar) if you are interested in participating and I will give you the league ID and password.


Greek: I don’t know way, but the line Ashleigh said about needing more sleep because she was growing out her bangs out had me laughing all week. And even though they weren’t as cool as Crucifictorious but Darwin Lied was a pretty ingenious band name for a religious band. Which brings me to the best part of the episode, a new courtship for Casey in Dale. Now I know longer had to decide to root for Tool #1 (Even) or Tool #2 (Cappie) and can now root for a Dale-Casey hook-up. Speaking of hook-ups, what is with all the infidelity? Not really all the infidelity, but how all these characters can look past their partner’s infidelity so quickly? Download the current season of Greek on iTunes.


Rescue Me: You know the sign of a great character is when you start to smile just at the sight of them like with the captain’s daughter. Let’s hope the rest of the season (all two episodes) features more Amy Sedaris and less Gina Gershon.




Pick of the Week: MTV Music Video Awards, Sunday at 9:00 on MTV: I was actually excited when the show was announced, but two reasons why I was excited (Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, have both dropped out and were replaced by T-Pain and Akon. What’s worse there is a rumor that the big “surprise” opening this year will be Britney Spears. Or as Kevin Federline will call the performance, Exhibit T in his full custody battle case. Expect a much smaller even this year as previous VMA’s had clocked in at five hours between pre, post, and the big show but is down to three hours with the pre-show starting at 8:00.


I had this up last week and I though I would put it in this post again to give something to play with as I’ll be taking tomorrow off. Below is a widget where you can vote for the Most Anticipated New Shows of Fall 2007. You can simply give it up or down votes or go to the UnSpun website and rank them in order or add new shows that aren’t on the list yet.