What does daily mean exactly?
As you've seen, I've been in a Barry Bondsesque slump with this blog. While SportsCenter has not had nightly profiles of the horrors of my poor performance, a few of you have made comments. I appreciate that you seem to have noticed, and that you haven't accused my recent lack of posts to some post-steroid use physical ailment. Rest assured: I'm still very much on the juice, but sometimes even then you go through your valleys.
Anyway, it's evident at this point that I can't in good conscience call this a "daily" blog, and effective immediately I'll no longer bill it that way. But I will still be updating with respectable frequency (and no, I don't think once a week cuts it), and perhaps without the pressure of daily posts I'll actually be more inclined to post more. This, by the way, is the same logic I used for why I stopped going to shul every morning, and I no longer have a clue where my tefillin are located.
Ok then. The Yankees. Wow. As some of you know, I have a very strict don't leave a game early policy, regardless of the score or situation. This game tonight is why. 10-1 Rangers in the 3rd and some might have headed for the exits into the Bronx night. Un-freaking-believable. What amazes me is not only that the Yanks rallied, but after gaining the lead they lost it 2 more times and came back both times. You'd think that maybe they'd have used all their energy just getting back into the game. It's tempting to say that only a terrible team could possibly lose a game in which they led 10-1, then still had leads of 12-11 and 13-12. However, I'm sure we all remember the Greatest Comeback Ever - Indians-Mariners, August 5, 2001 (shoutout to Michael Hoenig who was in attendance and has the ticket stub to prove it). The Indians trailed 14-2 in the 7th and won 15-14 in 11 innings. And as we know, the Mariners were a pretty good team that year, winning 116 times. A record TYING 116 times, mind you, so that loss should really sting. Anyway, the point is, you can be damn good and still lose like the Rangers did tonight, so I'm not going to blast them for exposing their true colors despite a decent start, blah blah blah.
We have roughly a quarter of the season behind us now, which is a good time to assess the biggest surprises so far. It's also a good time for me to take the easy way out and only assess one surprise, no s, so far. So my vote for the biggest surprise is the Detroit Tigers, now standing in a tie atop the AL Central with a 25-13 record. At the start of the year I predicted a .500 season for the Tigers, which I thought was kind of a bold pick. I also thought (and think I noted in the blog) that it wouldn't be a very competitive .500, but more the never in the race but all of a sudden in late September they win a meaningless 6 straight and wind up even kind of thing. 25-13 is much better than that. And to this point, it hasn't been predicated on some out of whack underlying stats - a reasonable 7-4 record in one run ballgames, and a pythagorian win-loss of 26-12. Will the Tigers stay this good? I don't see how they can. Do you think they're very good? I think we've got the 2006 version of the 2005 Nationals in that they'll come back to earth ultimately (and yes, I know the whole thing with the Nats was the far too good to sustain record in one run games, which is precisely what I just said isn't the thing with the Tigers). But maybe Jim Leyland knows how to squeeze the most out of this team, in anticipation of his likely quitting at the end of the year. Jim Leyland is very good at quitting.
Anyway, it's evident at this point that I can't in good conscience call this a "daily" blog, and effective immediately I'll no longer bill it that way. But I will still be updating with respectable frequency (and no, I don't think once a week cuts it), and perhaps without the pressure of daily posts I'll actually be more inclined to post more. This, by the way, is the same logic I used for why I stopped going to shul every morning, and I no longer have a clue where my tefillin are located.
Ok then. The Yankees. Wow. As some of you know, I have a very strict don't leave a game early policy, regardless of the score or situation. This game tonight is why. 10-1 Rangers in the 3rd and some might have headed for the exits into the Bronx night. Un-freaking-believable. What amazes me is not only that the Yanks rallied, but after gaining the lead they lost it 2 more times and came back both times. You'd think that maybe they'd have used all their energy just getting back into the game. It's tempting to say that only a terrible team could possibly lose a game in which they led 10-1, then still had leads of 12-11 and 13-12. However, I'm sure we all remember the Greatest Comeback Ever - Indians-Mariners, August 5, 2001 (shoutout to Michael Hoenig who was in attendance and has the ticket stub to prove it). The Indians trailed 14-2 in the 7th and won 15-14 in 11 innings. And as we know, the Mariners were a pretty good team that year, winning 116 times. A record TYING 116 times, mind you, so that loss should really sting. Anyway, the point is, you can be damn good and still lose like the Rangers did tonight, so I'm not going to blast them for exposing their true colors despite a decent start, blah blah blah.
We have roughly a quarter of the season behind us now, which is a good time to assess the biggest surprises so far. It's also a good time for me to take the easy way out and only assess one surprise, no s, so far. So my vote for the biggest surprise is the Detroit Tigers, now standing in a tie atop the AL Central with a 25-13 record. At the start of the year I predicted a .500 season for the Tigers, which I thought was kind of a bold pick. I also thought (and think I noted in the blog) that it wouldn't be a very competitive .500, but more the never in the race but all of a sudden in late September they win a meaningless 6 straight and wind up even kind of thing. 25-13 is much better than that. And to this point, it hasn't been predicated on some out of whack underlying stats - a reasonable 7-4 record in one run ballgames, and a pythagorian win-loss of 26-12. Will the Tigers stay this good? I don't see how they can. Do you think they're very good? I think we've got the 2006 version of the 2005 Nationals in that they'll come back to earth ultimately (and yes, I know the whole thing with the Nats was the far too good to sustain record in one run games, which is precisely what I just said isn't the thing with the Tigers). But maybe Jim Leyland knows how to squeeze the most out of this team, in anticipation of his likely quitting at the end of the year. Jim Leyland is very good at quitting.
posted by Eric at 11:47 PM
3 Comments:
You came out firing like the Rocket. Right now you're about Rick Ankiel quality. Don't retire another Donny Moore.
The Fades blogged three times in the span between the Idiot's two most recent posts.
I for one condemn the downgrade. I liked the daily blog and think you lose something when you don't blog everyday, as Gary Cohen so vehemently (kind of) attests to.
Plus I count on it for a daily read. How about giving some other people access to the blog as well so that we can have "guest bloggers" on the days you're not going to be posting?
adam thank you for reading my blog and for noticing when I put up new postings. Sorry I will not trade with you in our fantasy baseball league. In terms of Jim leyland, he pisses me off. If he was my grandfather, I would poison his food. Also, even if he wasn't...the only reason I made him my grandfather in the hypothetical was so that I would have access to his food. U get it?
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