Some Randomness

Now that I have consistent web access, I'll throw some BS up here. I mean, that's what we Law Students are all about anyway, right?
So, without looking at the standings, I'll make some playoff picks:
NL West: 'Zona
Central: Paulie, hate to do it do you, but Cubbies take it.
East: Phils, just cause.
Wildcard: Pods? I have no idea.

AL West: Vlad (by himself)
Central: Indians.
East: Sox; even after the sweep, the overpaid pinstripe unit can't make up games.
Wildcard: But, they can take the wildcard. Sorry Seattle.

Now, as a student at UMich, I bought season tickets to the Big House. Tomorrow is the first game. I'll be there, with camera.

Question: Dream Playoffs?

Getting everybody (almost, Come on Wally, Hags) to write in their picks was awesome for getting people to post. I think every once in a while, if there's nothing really going down on the site we should ask a question.

Heres my question: Forget who you think will make the playoffs. For these 2007 teams, what would be your ideal playoffs picture?

Feel free to give a break down of how they end up, who wins it all, or just say who's dancing. I want to think this over for a little bit, but you can guess who wins.

Note: Albert getting a little warm. HR in 4 straight or something. Hags, you scared?

There's Only One October, Far Too Much Dane Cook

We all love October, but does anyone like Dane Cook? Maybe he was funny for a week or so, I don't know. His latest comedy endeavour, "Vicious Circle", a feature length comedy performance was filmed in front of thousands of people. The audience and set was huge, which tells you he is making huge bucks, and as a result it looks like his comedic efforts have fallen off. The stuff he does now is just obnoxious. This includes a series of commercials for MLB hyping the postseason.

I could do without him for sure. One of the commercials is some thing about the "unkown brewers" and how exciting they'll be in the postseason. They had the largest division lead in the NL when it came out, which is probably why they went that way, but it looks like a hard sell now. Haha.

Is this off base? Am I the only one that thinks Dane Cook is Douche Cake? Couldn't they have gotten anyone better? I would rather have seen Justin Timberlake. They could have given me Flavor Flav, or Christina Aguilera, or the Coreys Haim and Feldman. I would actually have preferred Rosie O'Donnell, but Dane Cook? bleh.

Cuck the Fubs and Yuck the Fankees

In the heart of a well massive cards cubs series, I was pumped that game 2 would be covered by FOX. I hunkered down to watch what was to be a struggle for the birds, only to find out that instead they would be showing the yankees play the tigers. FUCK! fuck that. The yankees? Every yankees game is on here in NY, obviously. it is NY. But come on! NY is the largest city in America, and it's full of people who have moved there from elsewhere in the states. It must have the most diverse group of baseball fans in the US right? And still I have to watch the fucking yankees. I haven't watched one yet, and I wasn't going to start now.

So I resigned myself to watching TiVo and taking update calls from Wayne. He usually gives good play by play over the phone. He called to let me know Prince Albert had spanked his 27th to make it a 3-5 ball game late. With long-baller Chris Duncan playing the role of the tying run at the plate, and me clutching my "Cubs Suck" shirt in NY, they walked off the field on a 1-2 count and held the game. FUCK!

Not a fun day for me.

Home Sweet Home

I’m at Logan airport in Boston, trying to get home to Chicago. My flight was scheduled for 7 am, but due to maintenance issues, the plane isn’t taking off for an indeterminate amount of time, if at all. Good times. My WiFi antenna is also on the fritz, so I don’t have any access to the super highway. Better times. The only option left to me is to write my first blog entry, and as Paul would say, I have to free-style this one.

So here are my picks, boys:

AL East: Boston
AL Central: Cleveland
AL West: Seattle
Wild card: Detroit

NL East: Atlanta
NL Central: Chicago
NL West: Arizona
Wild Card: San Diego

Boston: A no-brainer. They’ve been a bit sloppy lately, but it’s nothing to worry about. Every team goes through a slump at some point in the season, and the Sawks are no different. From what I remember, they have a pretty easy schedule coming up.

Detroit: I had a tough time choosing between the Tigers and Yanks for the wild card. I think it’s going to be decided in the last few days of the season. The Tigers have been terrible since the break while the Yanks are one of the hottest teams in the league currently, which has allowed the Yanks to get back into the wildcard. But fortunes will reverse, and the Tigers will pull away again. The Yanks can’t stay hot forever, and the Tigers can’t stay cold.

Cleveland: Another team that’s lost their mojo. What is wrong with Pronk? He’s on both of my fantasy teams, and I’ve been holding off on trading him because I didn’t want to sell low, and I thought it was only a matter of time. Call me naïve, but I think he will turn it around by season’s end, and he will push the Tribe to the pennant.

Seattle: Trendy pick.

Atlanta: They made some serious moves at the break, and they have a pretty good track record since 1990.

Chicago: The Cards just don’t have the pitching to get them through September. The Brew Crew is showing their inexperience with the chase, and they’re imploding. I’d say the Cubs are the best of the worst; if they can find a way to win without Soriano, and stay only one or two games out of the lead, then I think they’ll be able to make a late September push to secure the pennant.


Arizona: Burn, baby, Byrne(s).

San Diego: Peavy, the Giles bros.

As you can probably guess, I don’t know shit about the NL. I hate the NL (but that’s for another post).

Later today: I made it home after waiting around at the airport for 6 hours. And this is something that I just can’t understand, but my little brother bought a Yankees cap. I did give him a good scare when I threatened to bend the rim and remove the 50/50 sticker that’s all the rage these days. Matt doesn’t watch baseball either. Just goes to show how much cultural significance the Bombers hold. I've taken the punk to 4 or 5 White Sox games in the last 2 years, and he still picked the Yanks over the Good Guys.

The Boys of Summer

I know most of us watch SportsCenter, and will probably see this play, but I also know Tariq won't. This is for him. The Little League World Series has begun here in the states, and it has started off right. I just saw the web gem of the year, in the first game of the tourney, between the Walpole, MA and Hamilton, OH. The setup reads like a backyard fantasy chant - down a run to MA, runner on 3rd, 2 outs, bottom of the 6th (remember they only play 6), ______ steps up to the plate...

on an 0-2 count, BANG! He hits it high. He hits it deeeeeeep. WHA!?!?

OH MY GOD HE CAUGHT IT!

Michael Rando got up as high as a 12-year old gets up, reached over the wall, and snagged a would-be walk-off 2-run homerun. Unreal.

Post game comments: Rando - "Well before he hit the ball, I was thinking to myself, I'd love to make a great play out here in the outfield."

Remarkable

Pain and Picks

I have promised myself that an XM radio is in my sports future, and Wayne has agreed to pay for the unit. Haven't gotten it yet, so the last month of my life has been Cardsless. Today was the start of a HUGE, EPIC, CLASSIC weekend wrap-around 4-game set at Wrigley. Every game will be televised here in Pawling. If I were a praying man, my prayers would be answered. Unfortunately I just sat down to watch the entirety of a gut-wrencher pitchers' duel that ended well for the cubes. BOO.

There was definitely a playoff atmosphere in my apartment, including all the typical celebration/desperation. I jumped and screamed when albert blasted his 26th, and I covered my face and squinted as he flew out to end the Cardinals' chances in the 8th. A 2-1 loss is better than a 10-0, but everything hurts against the cubs. bleh. Let's get the next couple, k?

Now on to my playoff picks.

Since I was the only one with the guts to put my pre-season picks out there, I will not accept any heat for my Marlins pick, which is now hurting somewhere 11.5 out of the division. With that exception, the rest of my picks are still pretty conceivable. Part of me wants to throw 'em back out here with pride, and hope for the best. Another part of me really wants the Baby Backs in October. Here they are:

NL East: Marlins Braves
NL Central: Cardinals (original pick)
NL West: Diamond Backs
NL Wildcard: Mets

Gotta stick by the Cardinals. What else could I live for? It looks now like the Brewers have little to no shot in staving off the creeping Cards and the Cubs, who now share the lead. The Cubs could win it, but even if they will, you can't PICK the Cubs. You can't actually PICK the cubs, tariq, even if they'll win. Cardinals! I do hate the Mets, and I would love to pick the Padres to come back a little bit and nab that best-of-the-rest spot for the west, but the Mets are a strong team. I'll take them. (boo)

AL East: Boston (original pick)
AL Central: Indians (original pick)
AL West: Angels (original pick)
AL Wildcard: Yankees?...

I REALLY want to see the Mariners in the postseason, but it's hard to say that they will get the 3 games they need from a team like the whatever Angels of wherever, and it's just about impossible to say they will outplay the yankees down the stretch, not the way the yankins have been crankin. Then again the yankees have that potential to go from flaming hot to choking cold at the drop of a series. It's tough.

REVISION
AL Wildcard: Mariners
Gambare Ichiro-san! Figh-to! Figh-to! Figh-to!

Stepping up to the plate

(even if it means just swinging wildly at every pitch I see)

If this is Bart's idea, how come he isn't leading the charge?

This is typical of our family (You guys realise this blog is family property, right?). Everyone wants to tell everyone else what to do, but no one wants to actually do anything. It reminds me of a poll I saw in one of the daily papers earlier this week. 100% of the college kids surveyed said changes were needed in Indian politics. Yet just 0.17% of those same college kids were willing to join politics to try and change things themselves. Moral of the story: Let someone else do the heavy lifting.

Well, I've decided to do some of that lifting. And not just because Paul called me out (although that did hurt).

AL
Boston in the East
Detroit in the Central
Anaheim in the West
New York the Wild Card

NL
Mets in the East
Cubs in the Central (sorry Paul)
San Diego in the West
Arizona the Wild Card

Now, I wanna point out my predictions don't mean much. They are based primarily on the standings, my personal loyalties, and my gut. I've only been able to watch a handful of Yankees games this year, and I haven't had much time to look at team (or individual) stats either. So guessing is as good as it gets with me.

But if it kickstarts the rest of you slackers, then opening myself up to ridicule will be worth it.

And for the hell of it, here's another Peanuts cartoon, courtesy the Yahoo comic site.

Bart, you're up!

A Calling Out

I recently visited my good friend Bartlomiej Borej (I hope I pronounced that correctly) in Boston, MA. We had a gay old time. Bart wants to actually start writing for the blog, which I fully support. DO IT BOT! He had another good idea too. In attempt to get us all to check in and write something, he suggested we ALL post our playoff picks from here on out. Knowing what we know, calls em likes we sees em. I tried to do this at the start of the season, but it was just me and the injun then, and he got real dandruffy on it. Tariq, Bart, Charles, Wayland (if you exist; you have sort of replaced the NHL's myth status) POST IN THIS BLOG! Take your picks now! I've finally written again, now it's your turn. Do it. Do it.

Come on.

Do it.

The Natural

After a 16 hour move from my beloved Saint Louis to the heart of AL country and Yanks-Sawks battleground, I just couldn't bring myself to write. But then... If there was one thing that could bring my atrophied pen back to the Indo-American you KNEW it was Rick Ankiel. What a fellah, what a story!

I hope you have heard by now all about the 13-win lefty from 2001 with a lightning fastball and a dominant curve ball. In the 2001 NLDS he threw 9 wild pitches in 4 innings, setting 2 records (WP in an inning, WP in a game). It wasn't choking. It was something much much worse. It was a total collapse. Rick Ankiel was worse than beat. He was defeated.

Time off must have been hard for him, but the Cardinals signed him to a minor league contract as an OF, and he worked and worked relentlessly. For me, now an icon of determination and hard work, Rick worked his way up. He could hit! 32 AAA HR this year. My dad and I kept checking in, praying he would be brought up, waiting for that moment.

Then like that it happened. Where else would I have hear, but the ESPN bottom line? I yelled. I jumped off the couch. I grabbed my phone and called the trifecta of STL sports fans, Wayne, Will, and Denes. No one had heard yet. whoo! could not wait. Denes actually went to the game.

I don't know if some lesser fans would have booed a guy they put so much stake in. Maybe a comeback like that gets a warm reception anywhere. In Saint Louis, it gets a standing ovation. Rick was our guy, and no one was happier to see him back than us. CRACK!!! Ankiel straight Gibsoned a 3-run slider out to right. I have NEVER seen Tony La Russa that happy or excited. That includes the recent championship. No one could have been more proud than Tony La Russa, and no one deserved it more than Rick Ankiel.

Then he hit 2 more bombs. Tony said, "that's it. He's a big leaguer from here on. Forever." He definitely strikes out a lot, but the promises of power are real. He's given a HUGE jolt to that ball club, and it could not have come at a better time. 5.5 back of the brewers and 4 back of the cubs, the next 7 days is a 4-game set in Milwaukee, and a 3-gamer at Wrigley.

Rick Ankiel, lefty strikeout artist of old, taken from the game, climbs his way back to the bigs hitting homers. I have heard that story before, but that was a movie. Roy Hobbes did it for the NY Knights and won the pennant for Pop. That can happen in movies and books you see. Roy Hobbes can actually carry a team all the way to the top. Could that happen in Saint Louis? Could Rick Ankiel single-handedly lift the Cardinals to the division lead?

no.

That doesn't happen in real life. Rick's just one guy, and baseball is a team sport. Lucky for Rick his team happens to include Albert Pujols, and Scott Rolen (who is finally getting hot), so he doesn't have to do it all himself. You can't name the starting rotation, but the team has come alive at a time when the brewers and cubs lost 4 straight a piece. This will be a huge week, and it could be the starting block for a great stretch run in the NL central. It'll be tough for Rick and Birds the do it, but Roy Hobbes said it best before that playoff game, "well, it'll be a team effort."

I'm just glad Rick's on that team.

More Charlie Brown and baseball

What happened to the catcher?

I love baseball