Some Quotes

It's still sinking in for me, but the Arizona Cardinals are NFC champions. Some of the quotes surrounding the event are as funny as the event is incomprehensible. Here are a few of my favorites:

• A cold front just blew through hell and the devil is frantically searching for a coat. (Revenge of the Birds)
• Sign: "We are who nobody thought we were" (Arizona Republic)
• Adrian Wilson, a relentless big-hitter and Pro Bowler, "If I could capture this moment in my mind and just remember it for the rest of my life . . . " (Arizona Republic)
• The founding member of the Cardinals "Wilson" greatness in the secondary, Larry Wilson, "It's a cold, cold day in hell". (Arizona Republic)
• Most unbelievable line, and this one is the headline of a newspaper story, "Analysis: Get used to this, Cards fans" (Arizona Republic) Slow down. Let's enjoy the next two weeks
• "Arizona Cardinals and Super Bowl in the same sentence -- I like the way that sounds," Kurt Warner (Arizona Republic)
• Speaking of Warner, this isn't a quote, but I don't recall talk of something happening in a Cardinals game that allegedly cemented one's Hall of Fame status. Well, at least nothing that was done by a Cardinal.

Revised Playoff Picks

Ok, I didn't do so great with the first round picks (2 of 4). Wiggins did a little better (3 of 4). Big deal.

I'm getting all the games right from here on out. Starting with this weekend:

NFC
Cardinals at Panthers - Cardinals win, big
Eagles at Giants - Eagles win, convincingly

AFC
Ravens at Titans - Ravens advance, led by the magic of Ed Reed
Chargers at Steelers - Steelers win, everyone wonders if LT even made the trip

Conference Championship Game
Eagles at Cardinals (!) - Cardinals win; they're pretty good at home
Ravens at Steelers - Ravens; just setting up my ideal Super Bowl

Super Bowl
Cardinals vs. Ravens - I don't love the thought of the Cards offense matching up against the Ravens defense, but since I brought the Cardinals this far, I have to take them the rest of the way... Cards win. Hopefully I can be there to see it.

NFL Playoff Picks - by Mike

Wild Card
NFC
Cardinals over Falcons
Vikings over Eagles

AFC
Colts over Bolts
Ravens over Dolphins

Divisional Round
NFC: Cards and Giants advance
AFC: Titans and Colts advance

Conference Champions
NFC: Giants
AFC: Titans

Super Bowl Champions
Titans

Regardless of what happens, I will be comforted all winter by this fact: over the past 10 years, the Cardinals have won more playoff games than the Cowboys.

College Regional Picks - EDIT - now with Wiggins!

I haven't followed college baseball as closely this year as I have in the past. But it's still one of my favorite times of the baseball year (at any level). There's good major league baseball happening, the minors are in full swing, and college baseball is entering an extremely exciting period.

So here are my picks for the regionals and super regionals. While I'm putting up picks to whittle the field down from 64 to 8, I have just about zero confidence in what I'm picking. It sure feels like just about anything could happen.

Anyway, on to the picks... using the official grid from the NCAA web site (going from top left to bottom right):

Regional Champions
Miami
Arizona
South Carolina
Georgia Tech
Fullerton
Stanford
Oklahoma State
Florida State

North Carolina
Coastal Carolina
Cal-Irvine
LSU
Rice
Dallas Baptist
Long Beach State
Arizona State

Super Regional Champions
Miami
Georgia Tech
Stanford
Florida State

North Carolina
Cal-Irvine
Rice
Arizona State

As you can see, my homerism and personal favorites come through. Shocking. That's four ACC schools in Omaha, the college team I grew up with (Arizona State), another I've always liked (Stanford), a school that I should have thought about attending, but didn't until it was too late (Irvine), and a school that you have to respect (Rice).

I have 12 #1 seeds winning their regionals, leaving 4 #2s to pull off upsets. After that, I have two #2 seeds advancing to Omaha.

Hopefully I got a couple picks right.

WIGGINS' PICKS -

I know less... much less... than Mike on this stuff. But I'll take a stab. Then I'll make him make Euro picks next week...

Regional winners -
Miami, Arizona, UNC, East Carolina, ASU, LBSU, FSU, Wichita, Fullerton, Stanford, Rice, Texas A&M, LSU, UC Irvine, Georgia Tech, N.C. State.

Super-Regionals -

Miami, UNC, ASU, Wichita, Fullerton, Rice, UC Irvine, Georgia Tech.

That may go as a reverse jinx on my boys... but I see them slipping up. And not all three top ACC teams are gonna make it. But UM's too hot, and UNC's road is too easy...

Swear I didn't look at yours - we only got two different CWS teams...

Revisiting Picks

Okay... we are only a month and a half into the season (or so), and I feel good about maybe two of my eight picks from earlier (at least Mike's don't look too much better).

Guess it's time to look again at that, eh?

We never did come up with rules for our contest this year, so I guess it's a free-for-all. Until I hear different. Maybe we'll keep track of how many changes we have to make over the course of the year...


For now I got (changes marked with *)

AL EAST - Boston
AL CENTRAL - Cleveland*
AL WEST - Oakland (I believe)*
AL WC - Tampa Bay (why not?)*

NL EAST - Florida (If I'm gonna have faith - might as well start now)*
NL CENTRAL - Milwaukee
NL WEST - Arizona
NL WC - Atlanta (I have NO clue)*

Reality Sets In

Here's an easy way to confirm that the calendar has turned over from April to May - and you don't even need a calendar to do it. Just take a look at the baseball standings:


The Marlins are no longer in first.


The White Sox have resumed scoring solely via the solo home run and are no longer in first place.


And the surest sign of all that we're now in May is that the Devil Rays are presently closer to last place than first place.


Now it's confirmed that baseball season is really in full swing. It's still a lot of fun though. Hopefully some of my teams will start to play better and will keep things interesting through Labor Day.

Although, I suppose if the Sox don't start playing better, Ozzie and the White Sox coaching staff will make things colorful and interesting off the field.

For real?

We're now four weeks into the baseball season. Granted, the sample sizes are still very small. Less than one-sixth of the season has been played. But:

The White Sox are still in first place.
The Marlins are still in first place.
The Rays are in first place.

The Rays are in first place.

Other than what's going on in the NL Central so far (although maybe it's just setting up for an implosion of record proportion), this is the baseball season I've always dreamed of.

Fantasy v. Reality

I'm with Mike.

For some reason this year, I am just not feelin' the fantasy baseball. I am continuing to go through the motions, so far... but even that is slacking off.

I think I might be done.

I am officially immersing myself into -

1. Actual MLB baseball (Go Marlins!!!)

2. College Baseball (I'll ignore that 10-run inning tonight from UM - goddamned Canes)

3. Soccer (Forza Roma!!!!)

Maybe I'll get some work done.

Maybe.

Two Weeks In and All is Well

Stunningly, we're two weeks into the baseball season and both the Marlins and White Sox are... I hope you're sitting down... in first place.

The Marlins have been carried by hot hitting, as have the White Sox to large degree. Although, one could argue that the White Sox' success has been largely aided by beating up on the reeling Tigers. Despite the Tigers pre-season expectations, they have begun the season as mere paper tigers... but that's been nice for the White Sox.

We'll see what the season really has in store for the Sox and Fish. My hopes aren't high yet. A lot of guys are playing over their heads. Time will tell.

On a completely unrelated note, check out this photo of MLB.tv Mosaic connected to a television. That's pretty sweet. I may have to set that up for myself.

Another Glorious Day in the Baseball Season

We're barely a week into the season and my two teams (the Marlins and the White Sox) are in first place. Yes, it's very early. But it's still a lot of fun. I had zero hopes for either team this year. So the fast starts have certainly been fun.

It was also fun to finally catch the new White Sox radio team of Ed Farmer (a holdover) and Steve Stone. I've heard the new Marlins team a number of times throughout the spring and regular season, but the White Sox team had been harder for me to catch (due to the Sox being on the road and other spring training vagaries).

Of course I've heard Farmer for years on Sox broadcasts and nearly anyone who's listened to or watched baseball has heard Steve Stone (of WGN and ESPN fame) call a game or two. But I'd never heard the two together before yesterday's home opener for the Sox. I was a little pessimistic about the team, as both are former pitchers and that can often lead to an overly technical description of the game.

But this call by Stone won me over (I'm recalling it to the best of my memory, but it's not exact): "This is the exact situation where you want to see Juan Uribe come to bat. He's so patient and disciplined as a hitter that it's just a joy to watch... and here's the pitch... Uribe swings for the fences. It looks like his jersey came untucked. And I'm not sure, but I think the force of that swing must have broken a few vertabrae."

It was a fun call of an at bat.

It's early to tell for sure, but the Sox radio team seems to be a nice mix of homers and realists. Not too over the top and not too balanced. I like that mix. Farmer and Stone seem to get along, so they should make the dog days and the blowouts move by a little faster than last year's team.

Man, I love baseball on the radio. Listening to part of the game in my backyard, laying on a hammock was nice... especially when Crede hit the tie-breaking grand slam.

Censoring PSAs

In honor of Jimmy Kimmel's Unnecessary Censorship segment, which I love, but don't catch often enough, we're starting something new here at HB: completely necessary censorship of public service announcements (PSAs).

Here's edition #1 (original here):

"On August 29, Hurricane Katrina unleashed the worst ******* disaster in our history. Thousands of AmeriCorps members immediately *********, helping the survivors of this ********.

AmeriCorps has special working agreements with the American Red Cross, FEMA, Habitat for Humanity and other ******* organizations that allow its members to support mass *******, collect and distribute needed *******, and reunite ********.

The response to this devastating ****** will be the largest volunteer mobilization in our nation’s history, and AmeriCorps will play a critical role in leading and coordinating that ********. But that’s nothing new for AmeriCorps because AmeriCorps responds every day to community ******* throughout the nation ******** kids, building ******** ******, cleaning up *******, and much more.

Get involved with AmeriCorps. Find the *********** that’s right for you by calling 800-942-2677 or visit americorps.gov. We need your ****."

Obviously, the above does not reflect my view, Wiggins' view, or anyone's view on Americorps or anything described above. It's all in good fun. And if you don't like that, go **** yourself.

Getting distracted...

I know baseball is here (finally!!!)... and I really could not be more excited. Yesterday was awesome (thanks, Eric!)...

But today - I have to focus elsewhere.

Roma is welcoming to the Capital - the hated Mancunians.

I'm relatively new to the Roma fever (it's only been a couple of years, and this year has been the first that I've been able to watch the team with much consistency)... but I can say with honesty, that I've never been more amped up for a sporting even than I am for this.

Just getting this far in the Champion's League is a big deal, and I know Roma has the talent and drive to make it all the way. That alone would get anyone going - but after last year and the famous 7-1 result against ManU in this same stage...

We need this. We need redemption. We need to put those idiot prem fanatics in their place, and put Italian football back in the spotlight. Hell - I'll steal from the Roma Offside again and say - we need...

Opening Day 2008!

It's like a time machine, man: Mike's posting about baseball again. What happened? He got married and like fell off the face of the Earth. Crazy stuff.

Anyways, here are a few of my thoughts about opening day:

• Yes, the poetic waxing about Yankee Stadium is already a little much (and it will surely only intensify as we approach the All-Star game and "The Ghosts Come Out in October at Yankee Stadium". But I thought it was pretty cool that yesterday's rainout ensured that a March game never took place at The Stadium. Today's opener will be in April, just like all the others before it. Bummer for the folks who thought they had tickets to the opener, but now don't have tickets for today's game.

• Steve Phillips was almost bearable on the Giants-Dodgers broadcast yesterday. Had it not been opening day, I would have turned it offl; Phillips is that bad. During one random rant, Phillips let this gem loose (I'm still not sure why he was talking about the Cubs or Fukudome): "He's like Ichiro, but won't hit for as much average, and a little like Hideki Matsui, but without as much power..." Umm... thanks, Steve? I think you described most everyone with that description - myself included. Without my parenthetical reference to Fukudome, I doubt many folks would have had a clue as to who you were talking about.

• I'm trying not to be a bitter White Sox fan here, but the Indians radio team was really jacked up yesterday. I can now better empathize with the folks who hate the Sox homer TV announcers. The Indians duo was ecstatic for every moment that was positive for the Indians and despondent each time the Sox did something reasonably well. They were even giving updates throughout the game on the Tigers. Apparently it's never to early to start the scoreboard watching.

• While everyone is talking about the Red Sox repeating this year, they're on pace to win 81 games. That's 15 fewer than last year. Yes, it's early. But the Red Sox started their season a week ago. And they haven't shown any signs of turning things around. If the Red Sox continue at this pace, they could find themselves looking up at the Rays in the standings.

Playoffs?!?!?

In the midst of March Madness, this thought came upon me...

"Do we even need playoffs at all?"

I imagine most people, certainly in this country, would answer with an emphatic 'Yes!' Or, even - 'What the hell are you on, bitch!?!?'

But - leaving the NCAAs aside for now (and yes, I realize I'm one of the first to call for playoffs in college football)... let's talk about pro sports. Specifically, Baseball - and how it relates to others (Basketball and Hockey (and American Soccer) on one side, and World Soccer on the other).

Baseball has a glorious history of post-season action. There were World Series of sorts even before the AL/NL classic that we know now, which has been played (with a couple interruptions) since the early 1900s.

The World Series - it really doesn't get much better than that.

...assuming it is competitive at all..... which it often isn't (how many of the last five have been sweeps?)...

The AL and NL championship series added a good deal of interest as well, allowing
for the divisions to form and the divisional races (expansion forcing things, etc.). There were some truly spectacular divisional races back in the day. Who can forget San Francisco losing out to Atlanta even though they got 103 wins, back in '93?

The new divisional setup and the Wild Card has added a new, different, level of interest. It keeps more teams in the hunt for longer - adds a new level of playoffs, and keeps many more fans interested in things for a much longer period. It also has produced some of the most memorable post-seasons in baseball history (or at least a good few of late have been fantastic, and one could credit the new format a little, right?).

This has to be a good thing, correct?

The thing that worries me is that baseball will see this 'Good Thing' and with all such things they will only think of how they can make it better. I've heard talk at various points of ways to tweak the system to make it better (maybe even to include more teams). I cannot stress enough how damaging this could be. We are already at a point where the field is getting dangerously diluted (Padres of 2005, anyone?). Any more and we are indeed looking at a situation where we get closer to basketball and hockey where the regular season is getting increasingly meaningless. If you let in half the teams to the Post-season, where everyone has a chance - why bother playing much at all for the games before that? In baseball this would be particularly disastrous with as long and difficult as the season already is. If they made it any less meaningful...

The main reason I went on this mental rant this morning is because I was thinking of the difference between MLS and most soccer (football) leagues around the world. Most leagues (EPL, la Liga, Serie A, etc.) simply have every team play every other team twice, home and away. You get three points for a win, one for a tie. The team with the most points at the end of the season, wins the league. Simple, direct, often unbelievably dramatic and always (or almost so) actually gives the title to THE BEST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE.

This is the greatest weakness with ANY playoff system. Sure it is exciting and sure it is fun to watch, and egalitarian... but it so often does not actually give the title to the best team, merely the hottest team at the end of the season. MLS fans know this well. DC United has been the best team in the league the last couple years, but has been knocked out of the playoffs that they have (because, of course - it is an American league, and we Americans can't grasp the concept of a league that doesn't end with a playoff).

This isn't just sour grapes from a DC United fan. The Dynamo won the title (both years) fair and square, under the rules... it just seems odd and pointless to me. Why do we have to destroy a good thing when we have it? The world model works fine, wonderfully (and has for over a hundred years). I won't get into the relegation thing (which is another story, but could make all sports here SO much more interesting, if we had it) - but the fascination with playoffs does bother me.

Does anyone really believe that the Giants were the best team in the NFL last year?

Does anyone believe that the Yankees were the best team in the AL in 2001 (over the 116-win Mariners)?

...and yet you still can't convince me that the Marlins didn't deserve the 2003 title (or the 1997 one for that matter). They WERE the best team at the time. That's what counts, under the rules.

I just need to chew this for a while. I definitely think MLS needs to bag the playoffs, though. If you want the respect of the world soccer community, then don't act like you know better than they do. You won't get the average American interested in soccer just because you have a crappy playoff, anyway. Don't insult our intelligence. (Try having a decent product, first. Gimmicks never work, in the long run.)

I also think MLB needs to make SURE they do NOT dilute their playoff pool any further. There is some real beauty to the regular season as it is. We need that grind and every game meaning something... we can't lose that. And, personally - I'd love to see a team win 100 games and miss the playoffs again. People remember that.

People also remember teams getting IN to the playoffs with 82 wins. For a different reason.

Quick picks

We need to come up with some rules for this - but this year, we'll be doing a competition between Mike and I for ruler of the world. The contest will be making baseball predictions...

I just want to get my basic divisional picks in.

AL -
East - Boston
Central - Detroit
West - Seattle
WC - Angels

NL -
East - Mets
Central - Brewers
West - DBacks
WC - Phillies

Also -

MVPs...

NL - Prince Fielder
AL - Miguel Cabrera

Detroit over Brewers in the WS. Why not?

Baseball is Back

And so is HB.

I swear. Not that ANYONE cares... but I need a place to vent, occasionally - and so does Mike, even if he doesn't know it.

With baseball returning, we will have stuff to write about, and with us both in the same fantasy league - we can make this one of those annoying places where people talk about their teams and just pisses everyone else off.

That would be fun.

Or I could go more fully into my new-found Roma addiction, and De Rossi man-crush. That will definitely need an entry or two. I feel the need to spill. In fact - I think I need to link to a photo right now...














Forza Roma!!!

Anyway... I plan on doing some stuff around here again. Maybe Mike'll join me We should do some baseball predictions again. Those ALWAYS work out well...

Welcome back world. HB is on life-support - but still alive!

Rake's Progress

Since I put up the Hogarth engraving up top... I've been reminded of one of my favorite arias (by Stravinksy, of all people) - and the great Auden text that inspired it. How about we start off the new regime with some culture around here?

Don't worry it won't last long -

Since it is not by merit
We rise or we fall,
But the favour of Fortune
That governs us all,
Why should I labour
For what in the end
She will give me for nothing
If she be my friend?

While if she be not, why,
The wealth I might gain
For a time by my toil would
At last be in vain.

Till I die, then, of fever
Or by lightning am struck,
Let me live my wits
And trust to my luck.
My life lies before me,
The world is so wide:
Come, wishes, be horses;
This beggar shall ride!

The Resurrection of the HB!

We are here - we are back, and there is nothing anyone can do stop us.

Well... except our own general laziness.

The new redesign will help. Getting past the Mitchell Malaise will help. Actual baseball being played (soon... soon...) will help. Mike being past the whole "getting married" thing will help.

I will tough it out through my own marriage. I'll take one for the team and make it happen. Here. On Hooray, beer. Strap yourselves in (both of you - including us). Prepare yourselves, mentally and physically.

We are about to rock your world.

Again.

Have You Seen Our New Site?

Wiggins and I have set up a new blog. It's awesome. My Hero The Goat. We used to hold back with what we posted (here, at FishStripes, and at The Book of Mike). But nothing is held back at My Hero The Goat.

Check it out.

Technical Difficulties

I apologize for the infrequent posting. Apparently there is a bug in our system. We are working on it. If you see anything, please let us know.