2.27.2008

Funny Moments in Sports #1,333,445,689


(Photo h/t/t AP photo / Charles Dharapak )

I don't know, this picture just strikes me as funny because my first thought was, "David Ortiz probably can't understand a single word President Bush is saying- and I DO NOT mean that as a slight on my man Big Papi or Ortiz's English (which is excellent).

A Sprint Customer Satisfied... At Least For Now.

I don’t know if this will work for everyone with a Sprint cellular account, but I have been able to make it work twice now in the past 6 months on my company’s business account.

I have 3 cell phone lines through my small business account with Sprint and I have had to upgrade 2 of the phones in the past 6 months- 1 because it got dropped off of a marina dock and got wet, and one because I simply needed to upgrade my own phone for something with newer features/better call quality.

Both times I had absolutely NO success using the Sprint website to upgrade my phone. Trust me, the website stinks. You can never log in as a business customer and I think they do not use a cross platform between their online account management tools and the phone services such as the online store. It’s horrible, do not even try. Secondly, the service number is no use either; they simply pass you off to another department when you need a new phone. And do not get me started on the actual business-dedicated support via phone, email, or local reps. In my experience, they are all pretty useless.

But the good news here is the actual phone sales/upgrade toll-free line (800-SPRINT1) is better at providing you new phones than any other method. On my latest upgrade (my own personal phone), they even went so far as to take my information and call me back when the phone I was looking for was not immediately available- the new Samsung ACE.

It gets better… In addition to the friendly and helpful demeanor of the reps on the sales toll-free line both times, they also converted the mail-in rebates on both upgrades into instant rebates and took the cost of the phones down to the promotional prices immediately- i.e., no hassles filling out a form, providing proof of purchase, and waiting 6-8 weeks for a rebate check! One more thing- on the Samsung ACE upgrade I just did this week, I asked for the instant rebate conversion of the mail-in rebate because I knew they did it for me before (hey, if you don’t ask, you’ll never know, right?). Anyway, ON TOP OF THAT, the rep even told me he would STILL give me the mail-in rebate in my new phone shipment and that the instant rebate would be listed in my next month’s bill as “customer retention” service.

So the final price of my new “ACE” looks like this: $449 retail- $150 promotional - $100 customer retention -$100 mail-in rebate = $99!

Wow. From a company that usually gets poor CRM ratings and from which I personally have had some below-average experiences with along the way, I have been impressed with at least the tool-free phone sales line.

2.22.2008

If the Feds Can't Get You, the 11 Year-Old Will.

Reality is by far better than fiction. You really could not make up a story as bizarre as some innocent little 11 year-old kid who was at Jose Canseco's infamous party in 1998 taking snapshots of all his baseball heroes... including Roger Clemens!

Yup, looks like there is now evidence that Roger Dodger was at Canseco's pad way back in 1998 when Brian McNamee claims he was.

Make no mistake, the truth always comes out in these situations. I'm not shocked that there is now alleged incriminating evidence against the dirtbag former Cy Young Award winner. What shocks me is that Clemens has a big enough ego that he went to Capitol Hill and quite possibly was brazen enough to purger himself in front of Congress.

I mean, it is one thing to "deny deny deny" to the media as a P.R. move prior to raising your hand under oath. It is quite another to play the victim, demand a Congressional hearing to exonerate yourself, then LIE when you could be looking at prison time if the Feds feel like pursuing a felony against one of baseball's all-time greats (and believe me they will after this embarrassment).

If this plays out the way it's headed, Roger Clemens just lost the biggest gamble of his life. But hey, his ego can handle it, right? We'll just have to ask his roommate on Cell Block D in a few years.



(oops!)

2.18.2008

Pats Win! Pats Win!

Well, not really, but one can dream right? At least kids in Central America get to dream about it. From the A/P (h/t Projo.com and Mat McDermott)...

February 15, 2008

Travel here, and imagine the Patriots really won

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - The New England Patriots won the Super Bowl and ended the season with a perfect 19-0 record - at least it looks that way in Nicaragua.

The NFL donated 290 Patriots hats and an equal number of team jerseys trumpeting the slogans "Super Bowl Champions, 19-0" to impoverished children from two small communities in southern Nicaragua.

Thursday's gifts could not change history - the Patriots lost the Feb. 3 game to the New York Giants 17-14 - but they made a lot of youngsters in the communities of San Gregorio and Buena Vista very happy, said Miriam Diaz, spokeswoman for the humanitarian organization World Vision, which arranged the donation with the NFL.

"They (Patriots) lost, but the children won," Diaz said.

The only "football" most of the children know is soccer, but they were very enthusiastic about the U.S. version of the game once the rules were explained to them, she said.

"They were very happy to receive the hats and jerseys," Diaz said. "They said they did not expect such a surprise."

Neither did the Patriots.

2.01.2008

The Dumbest Things I have Read about Super Bowl XLII

And there are many of them. So I decided now I will keep a running log of many of the quotes and quips from the past 2 weeks that make me go, "Huh?".

  • THE dumbest thing said thus far... Bill Williamson on MSNBC.com, "The rest of the NFL is thankful the Patriots’ record doesn’t carry over into the 2008 season. And there is no guarantee the 2008 Patriots will be this dominating. In fact, there are indications New England could regress a bit."
Well shit, Bill, thanks for clearing that up. And here my feeble little mind all but guaranteed we'd be perfect again next season after no other team has gone undefeated through a 16-game regular season in NFL history. The fact that the Pats are on the precipice of securing a perfect season- the first in 36 years, makes me pretty darn sure they will regress a bit next year. Just a hunch there, Billy.

  • Ines, the TV Azteca girl, "Marry me Tom."
Spoken to Kyle Brady before she got it right and went seeking the real Tom Brady.

  • "23-17"
Need I say more?

to be continued...