The Khalid El-Amin award goes to...

And this year's "Khalid El-Amin Award" for the pudgy, bitchy, Big East point guard everybody hates, but somehow manages to make big plays in the clutch goes to...Levance Fields of Pitt.

I swear it's like El-Amin was reincarnated. Are we sure he didn't just grow out his hair and assume a fake name to get 4 more years of college eligibility?

come on memphis

cause if you don't win, my bracket is a: really fucked (because I have the Tigers in the final), and b: mizzou, heated rival of my KU Jayhawks will still be alive.

i survived a good scare from Pitt (I have them winning) for the third time.

Allison Hannigan....

.....turned 35 yesterday. Really? Damn. It doesn't seem that long ago that Hubka was completely in love with her character Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She certainly didn't seem old then, but then again, that was like 10 years ago.

While searching for a picture, I have discovered that she is knocked up. Congratulations I guess.

How does this work exactly?

Look I know this is about women's basketball so no one cares, but I couldn't help but wonder while I watched the highlights last night on SportsCenter: how exactly does the NCAA women's basketball tournament get away with letting a 9 seed host a 1 seed in the 2nd round? How did Duke not get to host being a 1 seed? This type of thing would never happen in the men's tournament and the advantage for Michigan St is pretty clear. I guess one of the reasons that women's basketball isn't taken as seriously.

My draft strategy just took a major hit

Sal Fasano, a Colorado Rockie? You know what this means, I'll be taking Sal Fasano and his glorious moustache in the 21st round of the fantasy draft on Friday.

attn: CBS

Stop sucking. I realize I live in Big 12 country, but really, do I want to watch A&M stick it to BYU? It's a 16 poitn game, so why would I be interested in watching that when I could be seeing Memphis tied up with the Cal State Northridge Matadors, or could be watching Butler come storming back from getting hit right in the mouth by LSU.

screw you cbs

DJ the Hammer's Bracket....

Via email, here is the Hammer's bracket....

You know I am a Pac-10 homer so I have USC winning 3 games, Zona ASU and Washington all winning 2, Cal winning 1 and I have VCU beating UCLA in the first round. That Manor kid from VCU is very good.

My final four is Louisville, Pitt, Memphis and Oklahoma with Oklahoma beating Louisville in the final.

I have all 4 #9s winning. I have Western Kentucky and Utah St winning as well.

I too have Zaga beating UNC. I have Oklahoma winning the whole thing so UNC would lose in the next round anyway assuming I am correct and I don't trust Roy Williams and Lawson's toe. We will see. It will be fun to watch.

I also have Huggy and WVU beating Kansas in the second round. Too much D from WVU and I think Kansas is too young.

Fish's Bracket

Here’s my Final Four: Pitt, Ok, Memphis, Louisville, with Pitt over Memphis in the final.

Note on the Pac 10 (Maybe underrated this year): I’ve got USC pulling the upset on BC (always got to take the 10s over the 7s), although I couldn’t bring myself to have Arizona winning, or Cal (because they are a 7). But ASU winning in the first day. Harden is a beast.

My stupid upset: Portland State over Xavier (go Vikings, and I've got to represent my former town)

Note on the weak ass Big 10: (and no, I have no idea how they got 8 teams, stupid) I have Michigan State going out early to KU (and yes I'm a Jayhawk, so there's that), Purdue winning one game, but only because they're playing N Iowa, Michigan pulling the upset on Clemson (because they're the 10, and I like them), Illinois wins one game before losing to my Zags, and all the other teams losing out. I'd like to see Tubby Smith beat Texas, and I think it might happen, but Texas should win, or they'll underachieve like they have all season.

Some keys: I’ve got Duke going out to Nova, because they are douchebags, and I have Gonzaga taking out UNC, because UNC is broken and because I am stupid.

Final score: Pitt 76, Memphis 72.

rumble, let the games begin

One for Hubka

Hubs has got to be proud of his boy Adam Waddell on the UW Cowboys for this awesme dunk. I'm surprised he was able to get back up so quickly.

2 things

1. In case there was any doubt, you can never go wrong with Morehead. Yes! My bracket is still perfect.

2. Suck on that bottom of the 9th rally Puerto Rico. That's what you get for trying to beat your mother country and for also those horrible Best Buy ads. Bow down and obey.

I've Got to get to Best Buy

Ok, so I've got the World Baseball Classic on right now,* but when the game's done, I'm going to rush over to Best Buy to go buy something. I don't know what it is I'm going to buy, but I know I've got to get there. Why, you ask? It's because Puerto Rico baseball** has apparently decided that they need money, because they are sporting fetching advertisements for Best Buy with a path on their left sleeve.

Horrible. Horrendous (just like my spelling). Ugly, terrible. What the fuck is this, NASCAR? And when was the last time you saw a national (or quasi national team) wear an ad on their uniforms? I can't think of any. I don't think this would be much of a problem if this was MLB or something, but having an ad on a national uniform just seems sleazy. I know the economy is bad, but damn. What, is nobody drinking Puerto Rican rum these days? One would think if the economy was so bad Puerto Rico had to whore their uniforms out to Best Buy that everybody would be drinking their rum. But I guess I'm wrong.

And since I couldn't find a picture of said ugly uniforms, here's something that should inspire you all to go and sign up for a Best Buy credit card and buy a ridiculously huge tv and home hi fi system.....

* no, I don't know why - actually it's on while I'm listening to a great avant garde jazz CD I just got in the mail for free today, can't beat that, and one of the reasons I have the tv sound off is because Rick Sutcliffe is the color commentator, ugh, but I digress

** and no, I don't think they should be allowed to field their own teams in international competition, seeing as how they are one of the U.S.'s still remaining colonial possessions

Another one for the Who Fucking Cares?/Mel Kuiper Jr. is a Douchebag Categories

Ok, so a few days ago as I was leaving to let my dog out to take a dump and right before I turned off the tv, I heard the following teaser for the upcoming 6pm ET sports center: "Stay tuned to find out who Mel Kuiper Jr. says what player in the upcoming NFL draft most reminds him of Terrel Suggs."

Are you fucking kidding me? I don't even know who Terrel Suggs is. Best I can guess is defense? And if I did know, I still wouldn't even fucking care. As far as having the most useless knowledge, nobody can top Mel Kuiper Jr., and really I don't think that's a category one should be proud to be at the top of. Abso-fucking-useless. He should put that totally awesome fake hair to good use, by I don't know, cutting it all off and throwing it in his mouth with the hope that he chokes to death on it.

Here's a Sports Center teaser I'd actually be interested in hearing: "Stay tuned to hear what ridiculously hot and smart woman with legs up to her ears wants to shack up with Fish."

Teaser 1b: "Stay tuned to hear your options for how you'd like to see Mel Kuiper Jr. get fired and then devolve into deeply self destructive alcoholism. Text message your vote now!"

Ayn F'ing Rand

She is now being quote on Fox News. Atlas Shrugged was everything South Park made it out to be.
Seriously though Rand though not a great writer had her moments and why Atlas Shrugged was a totally biased and long winded attack on Communism/ Socialism it did have the the advantage of not being authored by Fox News. "Going Galt" should not be a phrase battling efforts to combat the total fail of uncontrolled capitalism; instead "Who is John Galt?" Should be a struggle against totalitism. We should at least have read the book (disclaimer I shipper 60 or so pages of John Galts 90 page speech, I think it just repeated itself every 5 pages spoiler alert communism is bad, come on I read the other 1,100 or so pages) before we start quoting it.
I know researching our news stories is too much to ask but please; that is the difference between blogging, (what I am doing now) and real reporting. I work in retail grocery and bitch on the world wide web. I don't call myself a reporter and neither should anyone at Fox News. (And for that matter ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and onward.) We should demand more from our news. Our most researched new should not be from Comedy Central. Sadly Ayn Rand and John Galt would be ashamed and if at this late hour my mind does not fail me Eddie Willards would be ashamed for he is the real hero of that book.
E

damn you hubka

I've had a serious jonesing for Jack In the Box for months. The nearest one is 4 hours away. Me and a buddy from California have talked about making the trip to St. Louis more than a couple times.

Meaty Cheesy Boys

I've had this jingle in my head for the last month (explanation can be found over at my blog) and thought others would appreciate the trip down memory lane.

Five thoughts on wrestling and girls

Click below to read the original newspaper article for background and the blog post response I reference in my take.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/40691197.html

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1664_over_my_dead_body_son/

1. Honestly, I didn’t realize this was still an issue. It seems archaic to me. I remember it being a hot topic in my early adolescent days when I was still reading SI for Kids. I’ve never personally met any female wrestlers. I never wrestled, not even in junior high so all my opinions and thoughts are by a complete outsider and require an exercise in imagination to a certain degree. Good for Elissa Reinsma for being the first girl in Minnesota to compete in the state high school wrestling tournament. But the uproar (and it could be an isolated uproar from the minority, but it caught my eye nonetheless) around it seems misplaced or past its time. Isn’t this like being pissed at Willie Mays in 1957 because he’s black when the color barrier was broken a decade prior?

2. The blog I linked to is by a published author that I respect. I learned a lot from reading his book, Knowing God. Having said that, I completely disagree with his opinion on this matter. One of the biggest problems is his religious status within the American Christian community. He is looked to for guidance and information on spiritual issues. I mean the title of his blog is “Desiring God”. The problem is his opinion can be too easily associated with a perceived notion of God’s opinion. He doesn’t explicitly say, “God has told me that no man should wrestle a woman,” but it’s easy to make that assumption. And I don’t agree that Biblically, spiritually, or religiously there is something preventing a man from wrestling a woman in equal combat.

3. I have no qualms with Piper’s assertion that men should honor women and that generally as a society we fail at that. I agree it is a father’s responsibility to teach his son the proper way to behave toward and around girls. But the problem I have is that wrestling a girl somehow breaks the rule of what is considered appropriate behavior toward girls. There are rules we follow in everyday life that do not apply during athletic competition. You teach your children it is not okay to hit others. But in boxing and football intentional physical contact are foundational aspects of the competition; the rule against hitting isn’t applicable in those situations. The rule becomes modified to the situation – it is now not acceptable to hit someone after the bell or below the belt or with a purposeful intent to harm them. Thus while it is important to teach our kids rules, it is equally important to teach them how to analyze a situation and make adjustments. In everyday life it is important to honor women: to not physically harm them, to not inappropriately touch them, to be respectful of their space and their identity. But on an athletic field, when a woman has decided of her own free will to compete against men, those same rules should be modified. If you are wrestling a girl you must still honor and respect her, but the same touch prohibitions are out the window. It now becomes a matter of intent. Do not touch a girl during the course of a match in anyway that you wouldn’t touch a male opponent. It’s a simple adjustment to the rule, but it still honors the girl and what she is trying to accomplish.

4. Piper attempts to make refusing to wrestle girls not seem like a sexist act, but his argument backfires when he brings sexuality into it. This paragraph gives it away:

Get real, dads. You know exactly what almost every healthy boy is thinking. If a
jock from Northern Minnesota encircles her around the breasts and twists his leg
around her thighs, trust me, he will dream about that tonight. Only in his dream
she won’t have clothes on. And if he doesn’t dream it, half the boys in the
crowd will. Wake up dads. You know this.

All of a sudden wrestling is sexual in nature. Men shouldn’t wrestle women because they may or may not enjoy it in a sinfully sexual way or they might cause other men watching to do so. But whey does wrestling all of a sudden become a metaphor for man’s sexual desires when it involves a woman and not when it’s two dudes rolling around the mat, squeezing each other between their legs and pressing their genitalia against one another. If Piper’s argument is correct then the same wrestlers should refuse a match with a homosexual opponent because rules are rules regardless of the situation (see point # 3 above).

5. To me the whole article is insulting to me as a man, (pseudo)athlete, and father of a daughter. I know as much as anyone that sexual urges are hard to control. It’s easy to fantasize and lust after attractive members of the opposite sex. If anything we are over-stimulated, sexually, as a society. I could stand to see less skimpy-dressed models on TV cavorting around and using their sexuality to schill some product. But to assume that as a man I am a slave to those desires is wrong. It’s difficult, but give me some credit.

Especially if I am on the athletic field. I’ve played against numerous girls over the years. Being generally one of the shorter players on the court in basketball I’m more often than not matched up with the other team’s girl to play defense. It wouldn’t matter who it was once play starts because at that point all I’m concerned about is: a) not being humiliated by a girl, and b) not being freaking humiliated by a girl. Is that a sexist thought? Most definitely. But it’s not sexual. There is a difference.

As the father of a little girl I am most disappointed for the female wrestler. I doubt she wanted any controversy, she probably just wanted to compete. She is matched with wrestlers of similar weight. She practices and trains just like all the other boys. She wanted to wrestle. How is it honoring her by denying that wish? How is it respectful to her to tell her she can’t compete against you because she has breasts and a vagina? If my daughter someday wants to wrestle, play baseball, or football I hope the other schools see her not as a girl, but as an opponent, an adversary, one just as worthy of good sportsmanship and respect as a guy.

Last House on the Left

I've seen the original Last House on the Left, so I know how it ends. I also know how the remake ends because I went and saw the remake of Friday the 13Th, (I'm lucky enough to have a girl friend who shares my love of crappy horror movies). Seriously the preview of your movie shouldn't include the ending. Same f'ing thing for Quarantine. Just a hint if your movie is supposed to be suspenseful maybe you shouldn't ruin that before you get people to pay to go see it. (Full disclosure I am an idiot and am still planning to pay to see the new Last House on the Left.) Last but not least, I hate you Michael Bay, I truly hate you, you ruin everything you ever touch, I hope you die of gonorrhea and rot in hell.
E

Why the WBC is worthless.

Starting Shortstop for the United States team in the WBC? Derek Jeter
Derek Jeter's VORP (offensive value over replacement player) last two year? 48.7 34.1
His WARP( wins offensive + defensive over replacement level)? 3.5 2.5
His defensive efficiency? (0 being average) -18, -12
Jose Reyes VORP? 46.9, 62.6
His WARP? 6.7, 5.8
His defensive efficiency? 8, -11
Jimmy Rollings VORP? 68.0, 44.4
His WARP? 8.0, 5.2
His defensive efficiency?8, 4

Who should be the starting shortstop for team USA it depends how much value you put on Jimmy rollings offensive explosion two years ago or Jose Reyes defensive slump last year, the easy answer is anyone but Derek Jeter.

Die newspapers die!

Of course that is German for the newspapers the, and no one who speaks German can be a bad man. A lot has been made about the death of newspapers recently, sadly most of this clamour has been in the sporting press. (I don't know mayor elections or high school sports, what is really more important in life.) To be honest in a pure sports evaluation fuck the newspapers. After "A-Roid" had his steroid test illegally revealed the Seattle papers were flushed with A-roid is the devil/ spawn of all evil/ is the cause of the recession/ voted for Bush not once but twice, stories; is this worth crying over? The sport section of the news paper has been dying for years becoming ever more focused on local sports instead of national sports in a world where roots are meaningless, because people move constantly. I graduated from Fife High School and Linfield College, if either of these schools won a national championship you would have to tell me, because I don't follow them, to steal a phrase from the late Kurt Vonnegut they are grandfaloon's, or false relationships, or worthless.
Long story short (too late I know) newspapers failed because they went to the local well one too many times when people lived in a national or even global world. Give me insight over pandering any day. Which is why is pay for Baseball Prospectus and throw the unread Seattle Post Intelligencer sports section in the trash.
E

Steve Phillips is Useless

So I have Panama vs. Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic on right now, and no, I don't know why. But, in case you didn't know, or needed a reminder, Steve Phillips, aka the Silver Fox, aka he's not good enough to be a G.M. anymore, aka I wish they'd replace him on Baseball Tonight with Harold Reynolds (hey, if Marv Albert can bite a chick and get his job back, certainly Harold Reynolds can come back-somebody's got to put John Kruk in is place), is a completely fucking useless moron.

Exhibit A: Baseball "needs" Ivan Rodriguez and Pedro Martinez. Why does baseball "need" two players past their prime?

Exhibit B: He referred to Puerto Rico as a country. Yes, Puerto Rico gets its own teams in international competition, but Steve, I hate to break it to you, it's not a country.

T.O.'s Recession

“There are several teams that are interested in signing Terrell,” agent
Drew Rosenhaus wrote in a text message Friday to The Associated Press. “I have
been in negotiations with these teams. I will not identify these teams at this
time. Terrell and I expect to have a deal in place by the end of next week if
not sooner.”

This is like trying to check if former Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne has any new job offers by asking his mom; can it be considered newsworthy if the source of the news benefits from it? Cayne and Owens will both have a hard time finding work because of the destruction of their past employers. But if you’re out looking for a job, or negotiating on a house or car, what is your biggest bargaining chip…other offers! Nothing makes you more attractive for employment than competitors trying to secure your services. Nothing makes it easier to buy a house or car than a glut of similar cars and houses on the market that are willing to give you more for less, fabricated or not. Of course there are several teams who want T.O. according to his AGENT, who by the way, will make some decent pocket-change off any of the suckers he snake-charms into believing this.

But back to whether this should have even been reported in the first place: if your source for a story will benefit in any way from the publication of the news is it ethical to publish it? This is exactly what happens when journalists query a CEO about his company’s fiscal health. The CEO most likely owns a great deal of stock in the company. That stock will rise if his company is given a sound financial prediction. He will make money off it (at least in the form of increased stock prices, it won’t become actual money unless he sells those shares), so why would you ask him how his company is doing? Shouldn’t a second, verifiable source be checked? Like public financial records in the case of corporations or NFL front offices in the case of T.O.

My Baby Brother wrote an interesting blog post about the death of a newspaper we both grew up around. I disagreed with the overall tone and some of his points, but one point he made corresponds well with this type of story: the need for news organizations to fill “space”. In TV news it is air-time, in print media it is number of pages to justify more advertisements. I know there is a concern among news organizations about being scooped by your competition. But the real losers with this kind of reporting is the overall field of journalism, it makes it harder for your competitors to do the right thing and follow-up on a 2nd, corroborating source when you aren’t doing it. But that is the nature of our current culture of information.

In related news, a new study reveals that sexual activity among 16 year old males is at 100% (source: 16 year old males).

Put this one up in the "who fucking cares?" category

The Seinfeld stars are reuniting. On Curb Your Enthusiasm, which I don't think is really that funny. Really, who fucking cares? I don't.

Congrats Bill Self, Yahoo Basketball Coach of the Year

Rock, Chalk Jayhawk.

So people out there might question Bill Self being named the Yahoo! Coach of the Year - because how hard is it to be a good coach when you're the defending national champs? Well, here's Selfs' winning forumla: lose all 5 starters, 80% of your scoring, return with a ridiculously young and inexperienced team, be ranked throughout most of the season, and with a win vs. Texas tomorrow will wrap up the regular season Big 12 Title.

Craig Robinson of Oregon State, and not to mention Michelle Obama's brother (I'm a Beaver Believer) was also a finalist, but OSU might not quite have made enough of a turnaround this year, but lookout next year, as the Beavs will be right there.

Mike Anderson of Mizzou was also a finalist, but being a Jayhawk I have two words: Muck Fizzou. Nuff said.

Someone who wasn't a finalist (although he's a finalist for the Iba award) was Calipari (sorry coach, forgot your first name) from Memphis. He's in the same boat as Self as far as losing most of his talent from last year and then coming back with a vengeance. I wouldn't be surprised if Memphis got a 1 seed this year. There was some talk of KU getting a 1 seed, but that's just plain sillyness, especially after we followed up that royal beat down of Mizzou with an embarrasing lost to atrocious Texas Tech. Nobody who loses to the Red Raiders deserves a 1 seed. I'd be good with a 2 or a 3 in an easy bracket.

And I'm out (and I apologize for the shitty writing - brain is still not warmed up)

Sports Center Stupid Question of the Day

On the 6pm Sports Center today one of their teasers before going to commerical was, and get this: "Does the North Carolina men's basketball team have a weakness?"

My answer: Yes . . . . of course they have weaknesses . . . . they've been beat . . . . . . more than once . . . . . .

Now a team that that question might be relevant would be the 30-0 women's team from UConn. Do they have a weakness? Of course, every team has a weakness, even if they haven't been beat. It might not be a big weakness, or easy exploitable.

Sports Center: stop being stupid. Ask questions that require more than a 3 year old intelligence to figure out . . . . that maybe require "analysts" (if you could call John Kruk an analysit, that is) to answer.

Baseball Uniform Heaven

Sunday afternoon I was trying to finish up some laundry while the little one napped. I came across a college baseball game on Comcast Sports. Granted it wasn't my preferred local team of choice, but I hadn't watched live, competitive baseball in 4 months and I love college baseball, so I was hooked.
I've made my distaste for Oregon's new baseball uniforms clear, so I was shocked at the beauty I was presented with during Sunday's game. Oregon was wearing some alternate uniform combination-- college teams have so many (that's 7 different jerseys for South Carolina in the background of this photo) that it's hard to say it is "Alternate 1" or "Home-Sunday Alternate" or something like that--but it was beautiful.
Let me back up for a second. I haven't put this down in writing, but when it comes to baseball I'm what I would describe as an eclectic traditionalist. What I mean is my favorite styles of baseball uniforms are more traditional looks (by styles I'm referring to stripes, cut, font, and design - I'm not a clothes designer so I don't know the field-specific terms so you'll have to follow along as best you can), but with more eclectic combinations. I'm not afraid of baseball teams wearing colors other than white and gray (as many teams in Major League Baseball were afraid to do until recently); heck I'm even for teams wearing colored pants.
That was probably too short an explanation, but it provides some background for my reasoning behind the two things I fell in love with from Oregon on Sunday.
First was the alternate hat they wore (shown below).

It's a thing of beauty. Every time I design the University of Wyoming's baseball uniforms in my head (and when I say 'every time' I'm not talking about once or twice - I think about this once a month or so) their main cap has this same back-ground color pattern, except brown instead of green and white instead of yellow (if you followed that, give yourself a high five). When UW cut their college baseball program in the early 90's my allegiances switched to Wichita St for a lot of superficial reasons (a. their colors are similar to Wyoming's, b. they have a "W" on their cap, c. they were successful in the College World Series when that was the only college baseball ever shown on television, and d. they were relatively close to Wyoming compared with the other college baseball powers that mostly resided in warm-weather states). So I've always wanted to use the same cap style from the Shockers for Wyoming's imaginary return to the sport. I like this color pattern better than when teams add a different color bill. I'm not sure why more teams don't go this route.
Secondly, was their choice for stockings. In the contemporary baseball world where some players pull their pants down over their socks and the rest all wear solid color socks (like a girls soccer team would wear over their shinguards) it was gloriously refreshing to see actual stirrups being sported by a couple members of the Oregon baseball team (unfortunately I couldn't find any photos online to show you so you'll have to use your imagination). But it wasn't just stirrups - they not only wore green stirrups, but they had on lightning yellow socks underneath to produce an effect similar to this.

I'm pretty sure my obsession with stirrups, and more-to-the-point, multiple stirrups with different color socks underneath, comes from my dad. When I was growing up he was the head coach/GM/uniform supplier/utility-man for my church's softball team. The fact that my dad at the time played for a church softball team might be kind of funny in retrospect, but that's beside the point. When you think of rec-league or church softball it's generally a bunch of guys that look like this. They show up with the same lazily put together t-shirt, but everything else is different. Some wear sweats, some shorts, some even show up in jeans. No one wears the same hat if they wear a hat at all. Don't even begin to think about wearing stirrups. So it was quite extraordinary that my dad, for at least 3 or 4 years, had our church softball team outfitted in baseball-looking uniforms. They had real baseball pants, stirrups, and jerseys complete with logo and number. I wish I had some pictures, but I'll have to do this from memory. My dad fashioned the jersey's based on the 70's Oakland A's and the Baltimore Orioles. Our church's colors were orange and brown (big reason why those are two of my favorite colors still). We had a white jersey that said "Alliance" in brown script and an orange jersey with a stylized "A" logo on the left side (similar to what the Detroit Tigers or Cubs have on their home jerseys); we had white pants and brown pants; we had orange stirrups, brown stirrups, and solid orange socks; and we had two different caps - an all brown model and a white model with an orange front and bill. All these options meant our softball team had 24 different uniform combinations. My dad would sit down prior to the start of the year and plan out what uniforms we would wear for each game taking into consideration not wearing the same combination against the same team twice. It was all really amazing and probably what started my obsession with uniforms. Anyway, I digress. The point of all that was one of the stirrups/socks combinations was brown stirrups over orange socks, which sounds hideous, but I was personally fascinated by. No one in major league baseball wears a combination like this anymore and it is rare to see a team of any level do this.
The uniform combinations Oregon wore were, strangely for a completely new team, nostalgic for me. It made me think of watching Wichita St on my black and white 13 in. tv in my bedroom as they won the CWS. It made me think of watching my dad dressed up in a professional looking baseball uniform, not much older then than I am now, and how much fun it was to watch him play. He was wildly more talented than I am. I remember watching very little of his actual games because as soon as I got to the softball fields I would immediately (in my own rudimentary uniform replicas) take off to play waffle ball with my friends and imagine I was my Dad belting homers, hustling like Pete Rose, and in hindsight, being a little too competitive for church softball.