Sadly I have to announce the demise of Hein Gericke. They are still trading but not the same operation they were before the ructions which took place with the German parent some little while back. Before whatever shit hit the fan on the continent HG shops stock was about 90% their own brand, helmets excepted, all quality gear at very reasonable prices. I have a two piece Pro-Sports Tribal race suit, PSX1 boots, Tuareg waterproof jacket, back protector and Racing Hiprotec gloves all HG brand, between 5-8 years old, and all of it, apart from expected wear and tear, most of which occurred when I lobbed it a few years back, is still in great condition. The fit is just as it was when I bought it all, armour is comfortable and not moved and the stitching is all fully intact. All this cost about £520. Had to go for a bit of a blast this morning, the weather looked so good, so I went over to the Peterborough branch to see what was on offer, not looking for anything in particular but would have been interested to price up some boots or a one piece race suit. Oh dear. No HG one piece suits at all, only Arlen Ness or Alpine Stars, cheapest available £550. Only HG boots were some drab all weather ones, all the rest were either Alpine Stars, cheapest £169 or Puma (since when have they done bike stuff?) £129. The only HG branded stuff I saw was a single style of two piece race suit, some waterproof gear and undergarments. Shopping for bike gear used to be a no-brainer, go to Hein Gericke, get what you wanted, get a quality product and get it at a very good price. No more it seems. So went next door to Infinity, they didn’t have any one piece race suits at all!?

It’s fairy tale! But sadly not the sort where everything has magically turned around, more like Chase Utley and the 19 ugly sisters, not counting Granderson amongst the uglies, he’s only just back and doing OK but hasn’t had time to impact the overall position. The day ny day production from the hitters seems to have steadied a little and one night I went 120+ points over the season average, 3 HR and 10 RBI on about 13 hits and dropped 2.5 points, couldn’t lose and positions as I was in the basement and still am. The problem was the pitching, I can’t get a win. Relievers continue to do quite nicely, though Gagne has blown saves this week, Bell got lit up one night and Chamberlain and Broxton had wobbles but also some decent appearences but no vulture wins and no wins from the spot starters. Lester got shelled in his start, he gone, Wellemayer did a little better, but not much, Loshe’s start was rubbish. Harrang went last night, came up with a quality start, 3 runs in 7.1 innings of work which you might reasonably think equated to a win against the Giants; not so, lost 3:1. Got a spot start for John Danks going tonight but couldn’t find even a marginal starter for tomorrow night. Despite the Brewers paying Gagne $10m for the priviledge of not having to hand the ball to Riske, Turnbow or Torres at the end of the game, I’ve blinked and picked up Salomon Torres as a hedge against Gagne becoming even more of a pumpkin, a spot opened up when Bruney went on to the DL. Still single digits for Wins, Saves and stolen bases. Was hoping Felipe Lopez would give me some steals and average but whilst the average has been OK, still no steals and none from Swisher, who’s leading off and having reduced RBI potential but is not stealing and offering little by way of power or average relative to his draft position. Frank Thomas back in Oakland, as predicted right here, don’t think I’ll make any more predictions, quit whilst I’m ahead, but I imagine he’ll have to split time with Jack Cust, just starting against the lefties and I can’t imagine checking probable pitchers everyday to see whether to leave him in the line-up so unless he shows signs of life very soon I’ll be looking to spot start a bat as well as pitchers.

I see from some wire reports that Frank Thomas has been released from his contract with the Blue Jays, seems he was not happy with the ‘at bats’ he was getting and believing that this was due to a clause in his contract which is worth $10m if he reaches 370 ABs this season. As an owner of Thomas in my fantasy league I think it might be something to do with his .168 batting average but I could be wrong. Seems that everyone in Yahoo leagues is getting rid of him faster than shit off a shovel but I think I might hang on for a little while. A pissed off Frank Thomas could be a productive Frank Thomas but he does have a big contract and I can’t wait too long for him to be picked up by a new club and show he still has some value. Maybe the A’s have been on the phone, had a couple of productive seasons there.

Well that’s an hour of my life I won’t be getting back, at least it was recorded so I could fast forward through much of it. The reason for this being such a dire spectacle rests squarely with Hopkins, you can’t blame the guy for going in to the ring with the intention of not getting smacked about, and he had flagged his approach all through the build up, so it’s now down to promoters not to put up the big money purses for fights involving Hopkins, and there are many others like him, for the third man in the ring to exercise the control that is going to ensure that the holding and headwork that was prevalent last night attracts the appropriate punishments which will render such tactics ineffectual in obtaining a result. And lastly for the pay-per-view customers to stop putting their hands in their pockets and paying for such dross because whilst they continue to do so they will keep getting this crud served up to them and boxing will remain a niche sport.

Whilst I don’t blame Calzaghe for the lack of spectacle, is this the sort of fight that he really needs? He has been quite open about wanting to hang them up in the not too distant future and as someone who is still underrated, even in this country let alone the U.S. this sort of fight is not going to address his relative anonymity. After watching the fight I heard Steve Bunce on Five Live suggest that a rematch at the Millennium Stadium was on the cards for later in the year. Nooooooooooo! And not Roy Jones either. The man they should be perusing, to fight over here or in the U.S. is Kelly Pavlik, there would be a lot of horse trading to be done about the weight the match would be made at but their styles would be the perfect antidote to the Hopkins yawn fest. Now there’s a pay-per-view bout I would cough up for.

Customer service; what’s it for, what does it mean, does it, in fact, exist? Certainly not at H Samuel and/or Ronson, nor at Comet and/or Apple. Took a cigarette lighter back to Samuel’s around the end of February or beginning of March and after explaining the basics of consumer law to the aloof and uncommunicative 20 year old assistant, i.e. that I was not the one who needed to return it to Ronson, they were, I was told it would take over 6 weeks to get it back. Now I know that as a smoker in this day and age, I can expect to be treated like a pariah, but 6 weeks?! I finally got it back yesterday, not repaired but a new one, no complaints about that but surely the timeframe ought to be somewhat less when it’s not a repair but a simple replacement?
And now to Comet/Apple. I don’t really have much idea where the blame lies here, my iPod went back to Comet about the same time as the lighter and they indicated about 14 days turnaround, after three weeks I went and queried progress and was told that they didn’t know anything about how it was getting on but would ring Apple the following Monday and get back to me. Did this happen? Just one guess allowed here. Congratulations, you win; no, of course it didn’t. Went back a bit over a week later, promised another call. This one did eventually happen and I was informed that Apple had told Comet that it was out of warranty?! I think they mean that the little chip that goes in iPods and blows them up after 13 months had gone off prematurely. We are now getting into the realms of conjecture, Comet claim to have told Apple that it was in warranty and JFDI and I heard nothing more until I went up there again this week to see what’s what. And lo, my iPod was back and in exactly the same condition as that when I handed it in. Comet insists it was sent off, Apple say they’ve never seen it but one way or another it was back with Comet but it’s condition unchanged. Who are you to believe? Given my disposition I choose to believe that they are all a bunch of useless tossers, but whilst they are in possession of my iPod I haven’t told them this in quite these terms. Though I came very close when, after the Comet woman had been on the phone to Apple for about 30 minutes (no exaggeration there) some twat on the other end of the phone decided to talk to me to suggest I take it away again and go through the troubleshooting process. I explained, in a calm and rational manner, that snowmen would be frolicking in Hades first and after another 15 minutes or so pick up was arranged for it to go off to Apple, again or for the first time depending who you choose to believe. So I have been given yet another dubious 14 day timescale for it’s return. Somehow I think this may be on the optimistic side for one very good reason; when it first stopped working it was well within warranty, however, the warranty expired at 10.08 a.m. on the day I took it back in. Do you think this may cause a little rumpus?

Back in the world of real sport, this might be just about the best time of the year. The baseball season is well under way and most of the rust is just about shaken off and we can start to see what’s what, Moto GP and WSB have a few races under their collective belts and the delayed start to the Bennett’s British Superbike season kicks off at Thruxton this weekend, absence of blizzard permitting. And if that’s not enough the bikes are at Le Mans for the first endurance World Championship round. There’s plenty of other stuff going on, Snooker World Championship starts today, the interminable football season still rolls on, 20/Twenty cricket in the IPL is kicking up the dust in the established cricket hierarchy and talking of dust, the old goats at the RFU are seemingly very busy trying to retrieve a little dignity after the shoddy way they gave Ashton the shaft. But, head and shoulders above all these, are the Stanley Cup playoffs. If you think that the players are committed to the prospect of having their names inscribed on Lord Stanley’s Cup during the regular season, you should see it now! The only disappointing match up is over already with the sorry Ottawa Senators contemplating a summer where they need new coaches and new ideas, they looked like the closest I’ve seen to a playoff team mailing it in. Pittsburgh are a good team, but still lacking in playoff experience with key players and Ottawa looked to have gone out there without any semblance of a game plan. I’m a bit behind on exactly where we are today, I’ve got about half a dozen games still to watch, Sky+ permitting, so the Stars may have rolled over the Ducks by now, but I hope not as the games I’ve watched so far have been exemplary as was the single game of the Sharks/Flames that I’ve seen so far. The Red Wings continue to mystify, as they do so often when they win the Presidents Cup, taking OT and about 60 shots to get just two behind Dan Ellis. This is raw, passionate and committed sport with fans to match but come on guys, with all the testosterone flowing the playoff beards should be making a much better showing by now, even if it is the first round.

Despite my earlier disillusionment with Barry Zito he was clearly the talisman that was keeping me in 10th place last week. I’m now 14th and last! But I’m still not having Zito back although he is still available. Didn’t get a start out of Wellemayer, picked him up for what I thought was his start on Sunday, which was the first day I could get him in the lineup, but he went on Saturday, thanks Yahoo. Didn’t miss out on too much, think it was a no decision with OKish WHIP & ERA, much the same as Kyle Loshe, who I did pick up for a start. Gone for yet another St Louis starter for a spot start this weekend, Braden Looper, picking on the Giants again, for his start tomorrow. Also grabbed Yankee’s reliever Brian Bruney to add to Heath Bell and Jonathon Broxton, which is about as strong a middle relief corps as there is in the league but no one is getting me any vulture wins or saves. Gagne came up with a couple of saves and he has given me all four saves I have but still leaves me dead last in the category. Batting average is the other category that stinks with only Utley giving draft round value at .313 and Giambi and Thomas both sub .200 and little by way of power. Just as I was last week I’m so looking forward to the return of Curtis Granderson, he’s out on a rehab assignment, first at Low A yesterday or today and then a AAA game over the weekend and expected, assuming all goes well, to be back in a Tigers line-up, that is showing signs of life, sometime next week.
The strategy for the coming week will be to see how Granderson gets on before going to town on the batting average issue, more pitch and ditch, using Kennedy’s spot as well as the spot vacated by Zito and keep fingers crossed for some useful counting numbers dropping into my lap from the relievers.

The weird business of the bike cutting out seems to have resolved itself, it was still there when I fired it up this morning but after leaving it to warm up whilst I got my leathers onit had sorted itself. I’m intrigued now as to what it was but probably won’t find out as I won’t have to take it in to the shop to be checked out. The down side it that I’ve now no excuse not to do the oil change myself, or change the chain, which still has the tight spot.

After sticking with BP fuels to check the mileage I was getting on the new car, and deciding that Ultimate was not worth the premium, I put through a couple of tanks of Sainsbury’s City Diesel and it gave almost the same MPG as Ultimate but without the premium, so I will be filling up at Sainsbury’s for the foreseeable future. I also put a K & N air filter in to replace the paper one. I’ve heard many claims for these over the years and it would seem that at least one of them is correct. These things use an oiled cotton matrix to filter the air entering the inlet manifold and offer less restriction to the airflow. My first thought on this setup is that it would offer improved throttle response but not much else but this has not been the case. There's maybe a little improvement but if so it’s not terribly noticeable, but the improved fuel economy is. Still using City Diesel the consumption has improved from 55.2 MPG to around 60 MPG which is about 8.5% improvement, which means on current usage the filter, which cost £42, will pay for itself within 4-5 months, which would be worth it even if it got changed at each 12000 mile service, but it doesn’t need to be changed, it has a lifetime guarantee and a little sticker to go on the airbox to tell the grease monkeys not to touch it. It does need cleaning and re-oiling, but only after 50000 miles and the kit for this is £15. It was a doddle to fit, take out the paper filter and the K & N slips straight in without any modification. The biggest problem I had was the first supplier I rang tried to sell me the induction kit?! There are tales that the filtration they give is not adequate and result in increased engine wear but I’ve not seen anything conclusive to support this but with the savings on fuel and replacement filters I can well afford to clean and re-oil it at 25000 miles.

It’s a very strange proper baseball season so far, Tigers looking anything but contenders and the A’s and O’s signally failing to suck. Moving on to things that do suck, it’s adios to Barry Zito. After a decent start last night, only giving up one earned run but still taking the loss, I’m going to ditch him and do a little pitch or ditch using his spot. Going to try picking on the Giants, starting with Wellemayer tonight, and see where we get. With Granderson still out of the lineup it’s difficult to say what the true worth of the team is and this is not helped by Joe Torre bouncing Russell Martin up and down the lineup and going 5/32 for the season with just 3 RBIs and a single steal, it’s got so bad that I’m thinking about putting in Napoli for a couple of days. Now that’s bad! Torre also seems to have made Matt Kemp the 4th outfielder. Talking of managers going out of their way to inconvenience me, LaRussa indicated a while back that he may well give Glaus a day off in every series! This will mean only about 120 starts, hasn’t happened yet but the time must be coming and I’ll have to check the lineup for the Cards every day. Utley is doing what a first round pick should do, but so is everyone else’s first rounder, getting just about what I expected from Swisher, Peralta and Hart and getting what the draft position of Griffey would suggest but was hoping that he would prove to be a steal and give me quite a bit more. Gagne sucking big style, Kennedy disappointing so far, Chamberlain has been good but Mussina has been serviceable so not looking like he is going to find a place in the rotation anytime soon, unless it’s at the expense of Kennedy! Harrang got his first win this week and Broxton and Bell have been up to snuff. Sitting in 10th and still disinclined to make any trades at this point.

Finally got the bike out of mothballs this evening. Started OK, took a while, as usual after a long layoff, I suspect that the petrol deteriorates in some fashion as it doesn’t last long on the first run either. Did all the usual checks, brakes, oil, water and tyres, all OK but did notice that the chain appeared to have a bit of a tight spot. Rather more strangely when I rocked it to get it off the centre stand, it stalled. I thought it hadn’t warmed up sufficiently and I had knocked off the choke too soon so I left it on the stand and fired it up again, gave it a little rock and it stuttered to a halt again, tried it a few times and it did it every time? Decided to take it out for a run, it’s fine at speed but when it gets below about 30 MPH the flat spot is quite noticeable so it can’t be doing the gearbox any favours and it will have to go. Was thinking about this as I brought it back, otherwise it had run fine, and rolled across the gravel still giving it a little gas and feathering the clutch, got to the spot where I park, squeezed the brake, it gently rocks forward as the front suspension compresses and stalls again. Really can’t think what this could be, it ran as well as it ever does for the first time out for a while, no apparent problem with the fuelling, ticks over fine but the slightest rocking whilst ticking over and it dies?? A bit ticked off with the chain, this was a top spec X-ring and not half way through it’s serviceable life, in terms of stretch, and not yet 2 years old. Might as well go for a much cheaper option and if I have to change it every year then still not going to be out of pocket and if I get two years out of it then I would be well up on the deal.

The first meaningful results are in for the new baseball season and the news is…………..Barry Zito sucks, at least he did last night. This is not much of a surprise, just have to hope that he can turn it around as there is no one on the waiver wire or free agent being paid anywhere near as much, er I mean that offers the potential that Zito should. Harang looks like he was a little unlucky picking up the loss, just a couple of earned runs over six innings but I did get a win last night, from just about the most unlikely source, Eric Gagne. Haven’t checked the box score but I guess he blew the save, ERA 27.00 & WHIP 4.00, and then got bailed out by the hitters at the bottom of the innings. My other pick up, Heath Bell, faired a little better than Zito with a scoreless inning with a walk but no Ks. But I had also forgotten to put him in the lineup. Doh!

The position players faired a little better but Russell Martin failed to take advantage of having Zito on the mound against him going 0/4 and I had left Jeff Kent on the bench as he got a couple of hits off Zito, including a home run. Everyone else who played got at least one hit, the only HR coming from Utley, Griffey Jr. the only one going hitless but did pick up a run scored.

A lot of off days this week so there will be a lot of juggling with the lineup to get the most out of the roster and start to find out how this bunch are going to shape up.