The Windy City

As I was in Chicago for a conference, I decided to take in a baseball game at the Friendly Confines. Finding great seats and a pair of Old Styles, a colleague and I sat in for a perfect summer evening contest. I called E-on, and he warned, "Hey, you might want to watch out, there's a bad storm arriving in an hour." Literally 59 minutes later, the grounds crew came out and covered the field. What happens next was legendary. Universally agreed as the worst storm to hit Wrigley since Lucky Charlie Weegham broke ground on the park in February 1914. Enjoy the above video for a taste of the terror.

Brett Favre is a Giant Douche

Seriously, it is one thing to be that guy who holds on too long and eventually has to go play for the Chiefs or Tampa Bay, but what Brett Favre is doing is completely rediculous. If you retire, retire. If you want to keep playing, keep playing. But if you don't know what you want to do, wait until the off season is well underway before making an announcement. The number of athletes who retire after the season, but then after an offseason to recover and watching all the guys start to return to camp they can't stay away. I understand that it is tough to let go, I still play soccer and have been known to get in some verbal spats, but to flip flop so much is crazy.

The worst part of this whole thing is Favre has the potential to screw over the Packers for the forseeable future just one season after he made them into a young contender poised to be a great team for years to come. How? If he actually plays he will probably win the starting job, because right now he is actually the best QB. But next year he will really be done, and retire into the night and leave the Pack High and dry.

Aaron Rodgers is in he last year of his deal and the Packers will have to pay a pretty high price for a QB who has never played, or he will leave because he feels betrayed after all the false starting opportunities. They will go directly from having 2 good options to 0 good options and end up like the Bears.

Another possibility is that Favre and the Pack play so well that all the young talent have false numbers in another big year because of Favre's added production. So when he leaves and all those young players clamor for a big deal (I'm looking at you Ryan Grabt) the Packers will not be able to afford them and they will lose their new players.

I love Favre, but its time to move on, and every day this whole thing goes on he loses just a little more of his luster.

Fantasy Football

After a poor attempt at fantasy baseball this season (other than a select few) we all need to rededicate ourselves to fantasy football. Dav I expect Dave's fantasy pickem to be back in full force and for our season to be even more exciting and unpredictable than Bret Favre's text messages!

so here is the login info:

yahoo fantasy sports

League ID#: 273750
Password: mariemont

I have sent invitations to Ian, Phil, Dave, Mike, Martin, Myself, Moester, TQ, Lynch, and Hampton. If you think anyone else should be in the game reply to this post and I will make sure they get the info.

Who Dey

Uh Oh.

"I cannot stand the Buckeyes. ... It's amazing to hear what those guys think about that university and what they think about that football program and Tressel and all the crap I gotta put up with being back there."

D'oh!
So who's the face of the team now? Nobody can stand 85, Carson has maligned the Bucks and T.J. is a secret muslim (he was educated in an Indonesian madrassa! That may have been someone else).

Run, that knee's got to feel better by now, boy, run!

Do we think this is all that damaging? I think it is if they keep losing.

Flip Stickin' It

Flip goes pin seeking at the Pit.

U-G-G-L-A, You Ain't Got No Alibi.

So we all presumably have seen this guy's line by now:
0-4 3K's, GIDP, 3 ERR. He also left a whopping 6(!!) men on base, most in the game, and double what anyone else in the NL did.

His 3 K's put him in good company: other members of the Silver Sombrero club in the summer classic are Johnny Bench, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle (whose only other plate appearance was a HR) and Willie McCovey, among others. The closest of those to Uggla's performance is probably Gehrig, who also committed an error, but he at least scored a run.
Roberto Clemente had the only Golden Sombrero in the history of the game (but it happened in the other 15 inning game in 1967, and he played the whole game [6 AB's, 1 hit, so really, it's only a technical Golden Sombrero]— while Uggla came in in the 6th)

But none of those guys completely booted every ball that was hit their way. Between he and Hanley Ramirez I'm surprised they both remembered to bring their gloves.

Is that the worst night ever? Yeah. It is. It's the worst for a position player, anyway. In fairness, that last error was borderline (but I think Utley makes that play)

This fella here:


Gave up 7 earned runs in the Year of Our Lord 1983 (in one inning of work, no less), but that's deceptive because he was also victimized by the first Grand Slam in the history of the game, and he didn't even get the loss (Mario Soto). I'm curious how he stays in the game for long enough to give it up, frankly.


Truthfully, I was worried everyone was going to be talking about the bloop homer Voltron gave up, but Wagner and Uggla took care of that. A ball was bound to leave, it just so happened that he was the unlucky guy and grooved the wrong pitch.

Show of hands, who among you were actually awake when Justin Morneaughxbdfn crossed the plate?

A New Asterisks for MLB

The Josh Hamilton fairy-tale is obviously one of the most talked about stories of the first half of this MLB season. A former first pick that was out of the game for 3 years taking the American League and Major League Baseball by storm in his first full season back in the Majors has to make sports writers everywhere giddy with the possibilities. And on top of the incredible RBI pace, and the all-star selection, the 28 home runs traveling an average of over 450 feet in 1 round of the Derby is just another chapter in this amazing story. When the capacity crowd at Yankee stadium started to cheer his name I literally got chills. But is he really a positive role model?

Hamilton missed three years not because he was serving our country like the greats of WWII and the Korean War, not because he was coming back from some horrific injury or disease like paralysis or cancer, and not because of some injustice from the league or the government, but because he was a drug addict. I know when he was out of the game he had no formal training regiment, and the only batting practice he did was by feeding quarters into a cage at the local sports club, and I am not trying to diminish his accomplishment, it is amazing, but that doesn’t make him a role model for everyone. And his recovery and return to grace is a great story, and must be written and told throughout the US and the world as an example of what perseverance can do, and that no matter what your current situation, you have the ability to be great.

However, the way in which this story is told is just as important as the story itself. The important lesson is that he came back and became what he should have been all along, and if he hadn’t succumbed to addiction just imagine what he could have accomplished. Many of the stories and broadcasts from the past months are ready to coronate Hamilton as the next face of MLB. But many of them fall short of explaining the full lesson here.

It is not okay to lose 3 years of your life to drugs and alcohol.

We cannot teach our children that being a druggie and a slacker is ok as long as you eventually come out of it. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with Josh Hamilton, I think he is a great example of what a person should do if they find themselves overcome with drugs and alcohol. My problem is with the media who is so ready for a positive role model to take over from the steroids era that they will take anyone who comes along. What about the real winner last night Justin Morneau, or David Wright, or Chase Utley, or any other guy who has done it the right way?

Every person, young or old, who has or will ever suffer from addiction problems, can use Hamilton as a positive example of what can happen when you commit yourself to sobriety. It proves the resiliency of the human spirit that you can come back from the depths and achieve your greatest potential. I sincerely hope that this is not an anomaly, and that Josh Hamilton will continue to become one the great ball players of this generation, but we must be careful to put these lessons in the proper context. I never want my child to grow up like Josh Hamilton.