AnotherHotCornerHasBeen

I have never played any fantasy sports, mostly because there was a fee and an element of gambling, that I have made a personal decision to avoid in my life. But I recently saw that there was a free league that anyone could join at ESPN.com. I went to check it out and decided to get involved.

I chose a league that did an auto-draft rather than a live draft, where I had no experience. There are ten teams in the league. My roster looks pretty good to me, but I guess I will learn a lot in the next few weeks. The name of my team is Belarus Bombers.

Here is my roster:

Brian McCann, Atl C
Jimmy Rollins, Phi SS
Alexei Ramirez, CWS 2B
Jermaine Dye, CWS OF
Mark DeRosa, Cle 2B, 3B, OF
Brad Hawpe, Col OF DTD
Todd Helton, Col 1B
Chris Young, Ari OF
Chase Utley, Phi 2B
Alex Rios, Tor OF
Alex Gordon, KC 3B
Shane Victorino, Phi OF
Bobby Abreu, LAA OF
B.J. Upton, TB OF
Mike Napoli, LAA C
Shin-Soo Choo, Cle OF

Chris Volstad, Fla SP
Brandon Lyon, Det RP
Justin Verlander, Det SP
Brad Lidge, Phi RP
Erik Bedard, Sea SP
Jair Jurrjens, Atl SP
Carlos Zambrano, ChC SP
Ricky Nolasco, Fla SP
Roy Halladay, Tor SP

What do you think?

(first posted at qassia)

I have watched the Houston Astros throughout their history. The one position for which they have never raised a star player is catcher (I know Biggio began as a catcher). The best catchers have been Brad Ausmus and Alan Ashby. Neither was much of an offensive threat. I am in hopes that the young man the ‘Stros drafted last year out of Stanford, Jason Castro, will be that star catcher we have been waiting for for all these years.
Today it was announced that the Astros have reached an agreement for a one-year contract with Ivan Rodriguez.

He is one of the top catchers of all time. And I believe he will add more offense to the lineup than the departed Ausmus, even though I-rod is well past his prime. Perhaps it was a marketing move based on the horrendous record of the team in Spring Training. I hope Ivan can stay healthy for the season and have a renaissance season that makes the move a remarkable one.

Right now there is extreme competition going on in at least a couple of realms. One is the NCAA basketball world. March Madness is just beginning and will infect the country for the next three weeks. The jockeying for a place in the 65-team tournament field is important to the athletes and to the institutions for which they play. The players will gain fame, and in many cases, fortune based on their performance in the pressure games against the best talent.  And, of course, the colleges and universities that play in the tournament get to share in the revenues generated by the spectacle. Talk about competition!

And in the spring training camps for the major league baseball teams there is a lot on the line for the young players and the marginal players trying to make a roster. The money for a major league player is substantial, but for a minor leaguer, it is much more difficult to make ends meet. And for the younger guys, there is the worry that their talents may not allow them to fulfill the dream they have had for as long as they can remember.

Since 1998 I have hated the staggered playoff schedule that has, until this year been limited to the first round of the baseball playoffs. That year the Astros played the Padres in the first round and lost to Kevin Brown. Because of the extra day off that was inserted between game one and game 2, Brown was able to come back earlier than he would in the traditional format.

Now they bigwigs of baseball have bowed to the TV gods again and allowed a break in the LCS schedule that should not be there! Tampa Bay is on a roll and should not have to take a day off, allowing extra rest for the Sox’ pitchers!

It is infuriating!

Have you ever heard of Charles O. Finley? Unless you are an old baseball fan, probably you do not. He was the owner of the
Kansas City A’s, which moved to Oakland, and he was quite a proponent of innovation and showmanship. I knew he was primarily responsible for the introduction of the designated hitter into the game, and for white shoes on the ball players of the 70’s. He instigated bright colors for his uniforms and came up with the idea of variations on the uniforms for day games, weekends, and holidays.

 

But in a book on baseball trivia that I recently received as a gift I found out a couple of things about Charley O. that made me say “Really, I never heard that before.” The first was that in home games at the A’s stadium, Finley hired a lady named Debbie Fields to present the umpires with her homemade cookies and a drink of water in the fifth inning. Debbie went on to establish her own success, with her Mrs. Fields’ line of baked goods!

 

The second was that in 1968, Finley had a batboy that had other talents. Stanley Burrell would entertain the players with his singing and dancing in the locker room before and after games. That talented young man is much better known today, as M.C. Hammer!

Every trip to the ball park makes the day a good one. A couple of weeks ago my family attended the Thursday night game at Minute Maid Park in Houston, despite the fact that Hurricane Ike would be slamming into our area.

Last night we went again to see the Astros, our first time since the storm. It was a fun game, with the Astros winning over the Atlanta Braves on a home run in the bottom of the ninth by Darin Erstad. I even caught a ball off the bat of Chipper Jones during batting practice.

But once every season there is a bittersweet day at the ball park. It is on the day that you know it will be next April before you will get to go to a ball game again. That was how it was last night. By the time I got to the car, the Brewers had finished their game with a win, thus eliminating Houston from the post season(I knew that the Cubs, who had already clinched the division title, would lose a game against since the  loss would make it unnecessary to come to Houston on Monday for a make-up game).

I will watch the playoffs and the World Series, but I won’t get to see a game in person again till spring! Heavy sigh!

It has been a long time since I posted anything here about the Astros. I was gone for a week, then when I got home the team was in such a funk that it was hard to find anything to post. They lost 20 0f 24 games during the stretch.

I had not been to a game at Minute Maid in six weeks, until Saturday night. And what a game to return to active fandom. The game against the Red Sox ended up with an 11-10 victory for Houston. The stadium was full and the intensity was really high. I believe part of the reason for the energy was the number of Sox fans in attendance.

I was very proud of the ‘Stros for not giving up when they went down by two runs late in the game. And I am glad the Houston fans did not leave then, but stayed around to witness the outstanding finish!

The Houston Astros need a win tonight. They are 3 and 6 on the young season. A loss tonight would mean they had lost all three series to begin the 2008 campaign. That is not the way to get to the playoffs and to instill confidence of the fans in the stands! So a win tonight would indeed be welcome.

A virtual friend of mine and I made a little blogging bet on the upcoming baseball season. She is a big Cubs fan and I am a huge fan of the Houston Astros. They compete in the Central Division of the National League. Last year we had a writing wager on which team would finish higher in the standings. I ended up having to write an ode praising the Cubbies. This year’s wager is on which team will have the pitcher with the most wins. I am taking Roy Oswalt. She is going with Carlos Zambrano. It should be an iteresting race.

I thought that the St Louis Cardinals were going to conduct a major shake up when they ousted Walt Jockety from the General Manager’s position. I thought Tony La Russa would leave the team and they would have all new leadership. But La Rusa re-signed last week and now the Cards have promoted their assistant GM to the top spot, so the leadership will be largely the same for the team!