Mike Jurewicz’s Blog

Every year people all over the country get to experience the thrill of seeing one of their favorite sports teams win it all whether it be baseball, football, hockey, basketball, etc.  Many fans in many cities get to have that feeling multiple times throughout their life.  People in New York have gotten to see the Yankees, Giants and Rangers win titles in my lifetime.  Boston has enjoyed World Series victories by the Red Sox, Super Bowl wins from the Patriots and just this year a NBA Championship by the Celtics.  Hell even the Florida Marlins with their maybe 2,000 real fans and tens of thousand band wagon jumping fans have won two fall classics.   In my almost 26 years on this planet only one major Philadelphia sports team has won a championship.  The 76ers won the NBA Championship in 1983.  I was not even 1 year old when that occurred so I had no ability to celebrate such a win.

We have had multiple oppurtunities with the Phillies in the World Series in 93, the Flyer making it to the Stanley Cup finals in 97, the 76ers in the NBA finals in 01 and the Eagle making the Super Bowl in 05.  But each time we have come up short.  Yet I sit back and watch people in all these other cities bask in the glory.  We have been subjected to a “curse” of sorts.  Not nearly as long of one as say the Cubs but the Curse of Billy Penn.

The curse is based on the old gentlemens’ agreement in old days that no building shall ever be taller than the city hall, which has a large statue of William Penn atop it.  In 1987 the first building to break this was completed.  Eversince then it has been said that no major Philly sports team will win a championship.  So it has been since then.  Some make arguements that the Philadelphia Wings and Philadelphia Barrage lacrosse temas winning championships show no curse as well as the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League winning the AFL title this year shows no curse.  But with any tale it depends on who you talk to.

But that brings me to today.  Tonight the Philadelphia Phillies open the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays.  It’s their first time to the big show since 1993 when they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays.  Many people are discounting them already to fall to the cinderella story Rays but I feel that this is the best chance any Philly team has had of winning the championship in my time on this Earth.  The team has been phenominal for the last month and I find them as a tough team to beat when on a roll like this.

This playoff run is also really important for me on a personal level as the last few weeks my life has been throwing myself and my family some curve balls.  It is almost therapeutic to watch the Phils as it takes away the pain for a little bit and allows us to be happy watching a team we like succeed.  It would be an absolutely bitter sweet win to me if they pull it out and win the Series.

Tonight is game 1 in Tampa.  You can be sure I will be watching.  I hope by this time next week to be able to be finally experiencing what it is like to see one of my favorite teams win the big one.

I know it has been quite awhile since I wrote anything and I’m sorry.  Work, the other sites and just my personal life have side tracked me a bit.  But with the elections coming up soon I became compelled to write about it.

I personally am registered as no party affiliation and therefore could not vote in the primaries when they came to Florida, even though they didn’t count towards anything because of Florida loosing their delegates for moving up the primary.  I from the start stated my support of Ron Paul for president.  I like a lot of his stances on issues and not because I am Republican or Democrat but because I think it would work.  But alas Dr. Paul came up short for the Republican nomination.

Now there are a lot of 3rd party candidates out there and many of them do have great ideas that would probably help our country.  The only problem is that a majority, better yet even a minority, of our country has no idea who these people are.  Is that the candidates fault?  No not really.  It is just that they can not raise as much money as the big party people can to let their voices be heard.  And if they can’t get a certain number of votes in polling they can’t be in debates to let you know what they stand for.  Is this a problem?  You bet it is and something needs to be done about it, but nothing will happen before this election.  We have to face this as the truth.  Therefore voting for one of these people is pretty much throwing your vote away and possibly helping a person you don’t want in office in there.  We are forced to have to vote for the lesser of two evils a lot of the times and that’s what we must do in this time.

Maybe you don’t like either McCain or Obama a lot but I’m sure one of them have a lot of qualities and ideas that you may agree with.  Look into these things and go with them.  I know I wouldn’t vote for either if my voting for a 3rd party actually would do something but it just won’t.  But I know that I don’t want to see McCain in office based on his ideas being far worse than Obama’s.  So I would much rather vote for Obama to be in then see McCain get in by me not voting for either.

Please look at these two and make your judgement.  Maybe in 4 years it will be better for those who support third party nominees but until that happens you are going to have to make sacrifices.  You can be just as “punk rock” and a “rebel” by making a smart decision.  Vote for who you think is realistically going to help the country.  And by realistically I mean who can actually win the election with your vote.

So I have gotten the website up for my new podcast, From the Basement.  There is still some work being done on the design but this is the basic look.

I will be recording the first episode this weekend and will have it up early next week.  I am very excited about this and look forward to you listening to it and hopfully enjoying it.

So a little while ago I mentioned my desire to do a podcast series. As with life I became very busy and it got put on the back burner. Well I have finally found myself with some time and I have done some playing around with a recording program. I am just going to go buy myself a good set of headphones and mic so I can record.

I haven’t decided on a name yet but basically I will DJ some music.  Each episode will showcase are particular band or artist.  I’m not sure how long each will be or how often yet.  I would like to do an hour each week.  But that will come soon.  But I hope to have something done and out sometime next month.

So I will keep you updated.

Yes it has been awhile since I have wrote and I’m sorry.  Work has been consuming a lot of time along with dealing with things that life seems to throw my way.  But for the past couple days I have come down with a sickness that I get every 4 years, Olympic Fever.

Yeah there is the Winter Olympics but I never really got into those.  The summer games are just all the magic of what you think of when you think of the Olympics.  Countries battling it out to try to show who are superior at a given sport.  Being a former athlete I am just drawn to this because of my dream as kid to one day be on that stage.  Of course I never made there so I might as well watch right?

Right away I have gotten myself hooked on the Michael Phelps craze.  He in this Olympic games could break the record for most gold medals in a single games and the record for most gold of all time.  This kid is amazingly fast and so very fun to watch.  He has 2 golds already with 2 world records for those wins.  Now he has 6 more to go to break the record.

Then I love watching the track and field events which I believe start next week.  Being a former competitor in track this really gets me excited.  Track rarely gets seen on the big stage except for the Olympics.  This year we get to see 3 of the fastest men in the world as American and defending World Champion Tyson Gay looks to go against the 2 very fast Jamacians Asafa Powell and World Record Holder Usain Bolt in the 100 meters.  Then American and defending Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner will attempt to defend his crown in the 400 meters and will try to break the almost 9 year old world record held by Michael Johnson.  Plus you have the 200, 4×100 relay and all the field events.

I have also enjoyed watching some volleyball, fencing, gymnastics and soccer already.  I just love this time that comes around every four years.  It makes me feel like a kid again and relive some of my best moments in sports.  And most importantly it seems for 2 weeks the world seems to put some of their differences behind them for the thrill of competition.

I’m sorry for the lack of updates lately.  I’ve been working a lot and the beer blog is taking off a bit.  Well as much as a small time beer blog could take off.  I’ve also been working on a wrestling related website and trying to catch up on my video watch which I mentioned in my previous blog.  But something historic in my mind happened over this weekend.  The MMA upstart promotion Affliction hosted their first event.

While I will say I have not watch all the fights from this event yet, the two matches I have watched made me realize that this company is the real deal and they are the biggest threat to UFC’s crown as the premier MMA organization in the world.

Affliction Banned is a new promotion that was started by Affliction Clothing with the help of M-1 Global.  Donald Trump bought into the company a week or two before the event.  In my mind, a great move.  They can viably argue that they have the best heavyweight roster in the world with the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Andrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Pedro Rizzo and Ben Rothwell.  All either top 10 or close to top 10 heavyweights int he world.  Also throw in some good to great middleweights like Matt Lindland and Victor Belfort and you have a really good all around roster.

So far I have watched the fights of Fedor vs. Sylvia and Arlovski vs. Rothwell.  Fedor silenced a lot of his critics, that said he hasn’t fought a competetive fighter in years, quite handedly.  His 36 second submission victory over Tim Sylvia was impressive to say the least.  Fedor was aggressive from the start and never let up until Sylvia was tapping from a rear naked choke.

I have been a fan of Andrei Arlovski for a few years now but have been disappointed with his last few fights.  He lacked the intensity that was a trademark of his and that garnered him the nicked “The Pitbull.”  I don’t know if he was frustrated with the treatment he received from the UFC or what but “the Pitbull” was back and in his true form Saturday.  He did not stop coming at Rothwell with flurry after flurry until he bruatlly knocked out his opponent.

I’m looking very much forward to seeing the rest of the bouts because I read that the Barnett vs. Rizzo fight is a great match as well.  Plus I am a fan of Matt Lindland and heard he put in a good effort as well.

Basically I believe that Affliction is a force to be reckoned with and depending on if Randy Couture can get out of his contract with UFC then we may finally get to see him fight that long anticipated match against King Fedor.

I think I’m due for a mark out moment by now.  I have recently made some purchases of wrestling DVDs that have put me so very far behind in my viewings.  Couple this with 3 seasons of Ghost Hunters and I should not buy any DVDs for quite a long time.  Here is a list of what I have to watch and what excites me about these.

• Straight Shootin Series with Shane Douglas & Terry Funk – Terry Funk is straight up a legend in pro wrestling and Shane Douglas was a great wrestler in his time and part of one of the most shocking moments in wrestling history when he threw down the NWA World Title and declared himself the first ECW champion.  This is a shoot interview with the two of them about their times in the business.  Lots of never before heard stories and their accounts on things that went down.
• ROH Presents Best in the World – It contains some of the best matches to occur in Ring of Honor with international talent or mega superstars.  It includes the 5 star classic match of Japanese legend Kenta Kobashi facing Samoa Joe.  I have seen some of the matches on this DVD before but others I have not so I am looking forward to this one.
• ROH Presents Greatest Rivalries – This DVD spotlights exactly what the title says, rivalries, and Ring of Honor has had some great rivalries.  From CM Punk/Raven to Samoa Joe/Homicide to ROH/CZW to the recent Erick Stevens/Roderick Strong it covers some the hardest hitting and bloodiest feuds to enter the ROH ring.
• ROH Dragon Gate Challenge II - This was one of the shows that I went to see on Wrestlemania Weekend in March.  It contained a series of matches placing ROH wrestlers against Dragon Gate wrestlers.  Great matches included Speed Muscle (Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino) vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico, New Hazard (Shingo & BxB Hulk) vs. Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black) and a great main event as the No Remorse Corp (Roderick Strong, Davey Richards, Rocky Romero) faced Erick Stevens, Go Shiozaki and CIMA.
• ROH Supercard of Honor III – The second of two shows I saw Wrestlemania weekend was packed with possibly the best wrestling show I have ever seen.  Almost ever match was great.  Plus I want to see if I can be seen during the Bricoes/Age of the Fall brawl in the crowd.
• ROH Bedlam in Beantown – I got this DVD for the sole purpose of seeing Kevin Steen vs. Necro Butcher in a street fight.  I read that this is a bloody and brutal fight.  I’m not a huge hardcore wrestling fan but Necro is probably the best at brawling in the game.  Also the visiting Japanese sensation Kota Ibushi faces off against Davey Richards in a match that was really talked about.
• ROH Tag Wars 2008 – This marks the return of the Murder City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) for one weekend.  On this show they take on Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black of the Age of the Fall.  This match is being totted as one of the best tag matches of the year.  I love me some fast paced tag action so this is a must.
• ROH Return Engagement - This card seemed packed with big things.  It includes the MCMG vs. the Briscoes in a rematch from their spectacular match from last year and many are saying this one outdoes that match.  This card also includes the start of the current Jimmy Jacobs/Austin Aries fued as well as Kota Ibushi vs. El Generico and Nigel McGuinness vs. Kevin Steen.
• ROH Southern Navigation – This was ROH’s debut show in Virginia and was the first shows of the year with Naomichi Marufuji and former ROH World Champ Takeshi Morishima on them.  Since Morishima’s last match in ROH he has returned full time to his home promotion, Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan, and became the GHC Heavyweight Champion.  There is a stacked 6 man tag main event and a rematch from earlier in the year between Bryan Danielson and Tyler Black.
• ROH A New Level – ROH has run many shows at the Manhatten Center’s Grand Ballroom but this was their first show downstairs in the historic Hammerstein Ballroom.  The card looks good too as Nigel McGuinness defends the ROH World Title against Claudio Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson takes on Marufuji, Morishima brawls with Necro Butcher and more.
• TNA Global Impact Japan – In January TNA went to Japan to do a co promotional event with Japan’s biggest promotion New Japan Pro Wrestling.  Most of the matches pitted TNA vs. NJPW.  I have already seen the Kurt Angle vs. Yuji Nagata match but very much want to see Christoper Daniels vs. Wataru Inoue.

As you can see I have a lot ahead of me to watch and again I have 3 seasons worth of Ghost Hunters DVDs to watch as well.  Guess I’ll get myself some brews and watch some wrestling.

A fellow employee showed me this right before I went on vacation and I have to say it is one of the funniest things I have seen in a good while.  If you are familiar with tech stuff at all you will enjoy this (Wurm).  Even if you don’t I think you can kind of get the jist of it.  Enjoy Web Guy vs. Sales Guy.

So I have been fighting off a cold since Tuesday, feeling better now just have that nagging cough, so I have been able to watch a lot of TV. I’ve watched Ghost Hunters a few times with my dad or brother and always found it entertaining but in the past week I have been into it even more so.

For those unfamilar with the show it is about an organization called The Atlantic Paranormal Society, TAPS for short, based in Rhode Island.  It was start by a couple plumbers named Grant and Jason.  Their fascination with the paranormal drew them to start the group.  Them along with other investegators with the organization go out to places that are thought to be haunted and investigate.  But one thing these guys do differently that I really like is they go in almost wanting to disprove the supposed haunting.  They will do lots of work to try to debunk things that people report and they themselves experience.  Being a skeptic myself this really makes me glad to see that they aren’t just jumping in there and trying to make every little thing they see or hear have to be “a ghost.”

I have to say that some of the episodes are rather weak with a lot of hype put in the commercials but a lot usually deliver something.  You have no idea how many times I get the chills when they catch something on a recorder of a voice.  Gives me the WILLIES!!  But I found myself bringing up and watching full episodes online over the past a few days and am just amazed by some of the stuff that is unexplainable.

I would put a little clip here but there are so many good ones from the show out there I just wouldn’t know which to choose.  But if you like stuff related to the paranormal, you like seeing people with open minds investigate instead of happy go lucky nuts or just like being a little frightened then check out Ghost Hunters every Wednesday on Sci Fi.