Cubs Don't Win

The advantage of having back-to-back series with a team is the opportunity for instant revenge. If you were crushed in the initial series, all can be forgiven in the rematch. The White Sox were in a tough place after losing three in Wrigley last week. They had lost six in a row and nine of ten in the series. Also, the red-hot Twins were nipping at their heels. In fact, former top prospect in all of baseball Delmon Young just hit his second home run for the Twins in their win today. Did Young become a backup catcher, or did I miss something? I'm a big fan of Baseball Reference not just for their stats. Anyone can "sponsor" a page. The sponsor of the Young page put in the following comment "Delmon: Congratulations on your liberation from baseball purgatory." True, the Twins are one game out of first as of this blog. The Rays have the second-best record in the American League, and if the season ended today, they would be the Wild Card entrant in the playoffs and probably the AL favorite.

Actually the Rays are living like the Twins, building a team through prospects and occasionally locking them down long-term while it's still financially feasible. Counting a rare start by Brian Anderson, the White Sox have three home-grown players in tonight's lineup.

Yesterday's game was worthy of a playoff seventh game. The teams went back and forth until Carlos Quentin hit a game-winning home run in the 7th. Matt Thornton, Scott Linebrink, and Bobby Jenks all threw in the mid-90s.

Mark Buerhle just walked the bases loaded in the top of the second. It's Ronny Cedeno, not woo-woo. The run does not score.

Hey baseball, can we go with one set of rules for all teams? I'm tired of this DH or no DH crap when it's time for interleague. The AL teams are at a disadvantage in NL parks because pitchers don't hit. The NL teams are at a disadvantage when they're at AL parks because guys like Daryl Ward have to DH. Tonight the Cubs put Geovany Soto, their starting catcher, at DH and put their backup catcher in a starting role. He's only one home run behind Delmon Young.

Congrats to Spain for winning Euro 2008. It has to be the first time in a decade that a team won a soccer title outside of penalty kicks. Penalty kicks are like the NFC making whoever scores the touchdown kick the extra point.

Cubs Win

Are there two worse words to hear together in the English language? I suppose "chick flick" and "baby shower" are close to the top. Last night ESPN teased me by showing the White Sox take a 3-1 lead followed by some excellent defensive plays. Octavio Dotel and Scott Linebrink, the two guys Kenny Williams overpaid to bolster the bullpen, gave up three homers and that was that. Today, Jose Contreras got rocked and the Sox were unable to rally from a 10-4 deficit. I did see a mild rally in the ninth inning as Kerry Wood was called upon for the one-out save, a fantasy owner's dream. I'm not sweating it too much, although I hate to see the Sox lose to the Cubs in a way that no opponent of the Titans brings out. The Jags, Texans, and Colts don't have the personalities to draw out enough hate. I miss having the Ravens in the same division.

The Sox still have the best run differential in the American league. Only the surprising As have given up fewer runs. We'll survive this hiccup, although winning tomorrow is critical. Javier Vazquez has given up 10 runs in his last two starts over 12 innings. I'm not loving that.

Fantasy magazines are starting to appear on newstands. The break between minicamps and training camp is good for all of us. We can relax and read critical stories of the day, like Adam (no longer Pacman) Jones defaulting on his mortgage. This economy affects us all.

Relationships

Here's the one political thing I will say in this blog. As much as we say we do, we do not want a President that we can relate to. Other than the dozens of generic topics chambered in the frontal lobe of a candidate, who always has something to say, a theoretical conversation would be boring and short. I'm OK with that.

Somehow we're still set up to believe that we can relate to professional athletes. If the player we most admire is a "good guy," it's easier to root for him/her. Players like Plaxico Burress and Brian Urlacher, who have recently received eight-figure signing bonuses, want another one. Guess what, I can't relate to that. I can't relate to seeing an upcoming salary of 3.5 million and thinking "I am underpaid." I do not understand how a guy like Javon Walker, who just received another eight-figure signing bonus, would put himself in a situation where he could get robbed, mugged, and almost killed in Vegas this week.

Signing bonuses make sense in the NFL because it benefits both sides. The player gets guaranteed money, and the team gets to prorate that money over time. The downside is when that bonus lowers the annual salary, making a player feel underpaid toward the end of the deal. $10 million seems like a lot of money to blow, but just ask Evander Holyfield how easy it is to spend a fortune ten times that much. The signing bonus, and the headlines that accompany them, can be the issue. Albert Haynesworth is upset that the Titans will only pay him $8+ million as the Franchise Player, because a long-term deal would mean that he's going to see at least twice that much up front. He should be expected to receive pay on par with the top defensive tackles in the NFL because that's what he is, at least conveniently in time for his rookie contract to run out. He shouldn't get huffy when the Titans decide to offer him a deal that's best in the short term.

Last week, Tiger Woods was interviewed, and the reporter asked him about the Stanley Cup Finals. He asked "people still watch hockey?" Although I enjoyed him displaying a personality, which is rare, I also thought "F him." I'd rather watch a high-school pick-up hockey game than any golf tournament, unless I wanted to take a nap. Frankly, golf is a hindrance to my napping since the noise is only sporadic. I can sleep just fine to a football game. Don't make any noise on his backswing, he might get distracted. F that. No one tells a hostile crowd to shut up as Tom Brady's throwing a pass one second before a 300-pound defensive tackle comes in at his knees. If your sport has a Senior tour, it's not a sport.

I've noticed one thing while beginning to do my pre-season fantasy football rankings. I am like most football fans in that I was totally enamored by the rookie Vince Young and completely turned off by the sophomore version. When it comes to projections, it seems like people are forgetting that Young injured his quad in week six. The projections for his rushing totals seem to be low. Now I'm thinking that he might be a value in redrafts. When Steve McNair was 24, he threw for 14 touchdowns and added 8 on the ground. That's what I think people can expect from Young this year. Just don't quote me on that.

An NFL player gets a QB rating of 38.6 when he throws one incomplete pass. Young did have three games last year in which his QB rating was lower than 38.6. The Titans won two of those games, and in the third they lost a 17-0 fourth-quarter lead. Chris Chambers so didn't catch that fourth-down pass. It's time to get over 2007.

Time's a wastin'

For me, fantasy sports remain a hobby. There are times when the hobby infringes on my daily life, such as when I take a few minutes at work to check on my teams and on our annual AUFL draft weekend, when I'm pretty much out of contact from the world for four days. While it's hard to say when enough is enough, there are clear signs.

I thought that sticking around in a dynasty/auction/contract baseball league would be a good way to stay in touch with my best friend from college. I haven't really kept up with the league, although I'm still at around .500. His team is in dead last because in addition for working for himself, he has two young kids to corral. This league is currently in the midst of the annual prospects draft. It's a five-round draft, and any guy not currently on a roster who is in the minor leagues is eligible. Since we do this every year, a lot of the "top prospects" are already gone. Who has time to scour sites for minor league baseball stats? Apparently I do.

Minor league baseball is fascinating. MLB finally wised up and got its draft on TV. Still, due to the strange salary demands (no slotting like the NFL), the top guy could be taken at pick ten because teams are unsure about dishing out a seven-figure deal for a guy who won't be in the majors for possibly three years. In our draft, the first-round picks from last year were the most popular guys because there's a little bit of name recognition. More interesting are the guys signed out of Dominican Republic at age 16 who five years later are putting together a solid season in high A ball. More depressing is seeing how barren the White Sox's system is. They have a few semi-interesting pitchers, but the position players are all but extinct. Even Josh Fields, who performed so well in the absence of Joe Crede last year, isn't doing well in AAA.

The Sox took Gordon Beckham, a shortstop from the University of Georgia with their first-round pick. Let me congratulate the Sox for taking a non-pitcher with their first pick for the first time in five years. The Sox have not drafted a shortstop who made the majors since 1977. He is a college player, so maybe he'll get a call-up in 2009 if he's a real stud.

The White Sox drafted sons of general manager Kenny William and Ozzie Guillen. This is another sign that the baseball draft is a different animal than the football one. There are 50 rounds and if three guys have any kind of major league career, it's a good haul. For draft perspective, the 1990 White Sox draft produced four All-Stars, which is tied for the best in history. The New York Giants had contributions from all seven of their draft picks last year, and that was in their inaugural year.

In other news, we're seven weeks from the AUFL draft. I'm trying to trade one of my excess running backs to get an extra draft pick. We have one owner who has the misfortune of having Travis Henry, Cedric Benson, Kevin Jones, and Ron Dayne on his roster. No one in league history has had four running backs lose their job in the offseason. I'm trying to pull the trigger before any other owners figure out his predicament. My initial thought was to keep Willis McGahee and drop MJD. We're in year three of a five-year keeper cycle, so the thought of having MJD after Fred Taylor retires gives me pause. I don't see Jones-Drew becoming a 25-carry a game guy, but if he does, he should be a top-ten guy, if not top five.

Who did I get in the draft? I have three pitchers, two of whom are not of drinking age yet, and a catcher. Catchers are tough in the minors. If they can hit, they usually end up at another position a la Carlos Delgado. If they can play defense, they usually end up hitting .220 in double A. It's still very mysterious to me.

End of an error

After our team's first kickball playoff experience, some of the players wanted to dump the contents of their cooler on me. It was a kind gesture. Luckily for me they stopped before dumping the football-sized chunk of ice on my back.

Considering how we played, they probably would have missed. The final game of the season was a first-round matchup with us against the gold team that had defeated us twice and scorned us in a controversial reffing decision. It was 90 degrees with a heat index of about 200. We had the sun in our eyes. Our opponent nearly forfeited before getting a full squad at the last minute.

All year the first inning has been our inning. We've scored most of our runs in the first inning. This time, we managed only one. I thought we might be in trouble. After my friend grounded out in the second inning, the ref at first base gave us some kicking advice. Keep your head down and point your foot where you want the ball to go. I was able to make contact and not man bunt.

The defense was letting us down tremendously. Every fly ball was an adventure. I forgot to go after the lead runner and we were down 6-2. I thought that our grand adventure was over.

In the bottom of the fourth, we tied the game. For a team that averaged three runs a game, getting four runs in a frame was magical. Sadly, the baserunning errors started. Our 14th person in the lineup hit a deep fly ball. It went beyond the outfielders. Problem was, he rounded first base and missed it by five feet. We yelled and he kept running. After he crossed the plate he decided to go for round two. Sadly, according to the rules he had to go back. He was out.

In the sixth we trailed by a run. The lead guy got a single. The other team yelled "go to second". He did, and the outfielder ran all the way to tag him out. Our best kicker came up and would have knocked him in. I hit a sharp grounder to second and eventually scored the tying run.

It was the seventh inning, the final inning of the game. I had consumed three pints of water and would later drink half a gallon of fluid to catch up. We got two outs right away. Two drops and three throwing errors later, it was 9-7.

There would be no dramatic rally. Our lead guy man-bunted but that was it. We gathered and quickly got in the shade. I have a beach trip starting tomorrow so there was no time for a quick beer. I'm glad the season is over, since we weren't going to win the threepeat next week and I don't want heat stroke.

It took me nine weeks to figure out how to kick a kickball correctly. Nothing is beyond my capabilities now.

Ghost of appendix's past

My appendix has attacked me from beyond the grave. First of all, my cousin had his appendix removed last Friday (sorry about that, Damian). The next insult was in the belly button.

There are three incisions in the laparoscopic procedure. One is a couple of inches to the left of the belly button. One is a couple of inches below the belly button. One is the belly button. Week one after surgery, there was no discomfort other than the usual minor soreness in any of the sports. In week two, I started having pain in the belly button region. I thought it was due to the unfortunately located button on my pants. On Friday night, after seeing Sex and the City with the wife (I was one of at least three husbands in America to do so), I took off my clothes to see that the wound had swollen up and started oozing fluid.

The wife attacked the wound with hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin. We had some leftover sterile pads from a previous surgery.

Is this the point to apologize to the two people who usually read this blog to hear me talk about bidding for Xavier Omon in my rookie draft?

The pussing and the bleeding persisted all weekend. On Monday I called the doctor's office. Apparently hydrogen peroxide is a really bad idea, as it keeps the wound from healing. I got some strong antibiotics that cost more on my insurance than buying some Viagra on a street corner and within a week I should be healed.

When I looked up the antibiotics, the first two diseases mentioned in concert were tuberculosis and Chlamydia. I'm in good company.

It's the first drug I've ever taken with three warning labels. I should not take dairy products, iron supplements, or antacids within an hour of the antibiotic. Yes, this was the first of three warnings. Prolonged or excessive sunlight is prohibited. Good thing I'm going to the beach in three days. Finally, I should not operate heavy machinery or possibly research 2008 sleeper running backs while on this medication.

Just to be safe, I'm avoiding full moons until my belly button goes from an outie back to an innie.