The Home Stretch: In Search of a New Rooting Interest

Caught a little bit of the Cubs-Pirates game last night but the rout was on pretty early. The Cubs were up 6-0 after 4 innings and that score held until the end. Unfortunately, the Rockies won their game, too, so playoff hopes are over for this year. Unlike the O's, the Cubs weaknesses are on the offensive side. Looking at the stats for the year, I'd say the heart of their order is pretty strong. If they're to go shopping in the off-season, I'd say look for a better leadoff hitter. Team speed in general could be a big help - not necessarily more steals but certainly a stronger threat to steal. Having power in your lineup is great, but it helps to have decent runners on the base paths to extend an inning.

Of course, the big question for the Cubs is what new ownership will bring. The Cubs are a strong brand in baseball. Unfortunately, the caretakers of the past have been more than happy to market the team on the lovable loser label. It has been a profitable approach for a long time. Hopefully the new folks will take more interest in actually winning. Championships can be great for the bottom line, too. Given the chance, there's no reason why the Cubs couldn't become the new Yankees.

With the Cubs eliminated, I lack an obvious rooting interest for the playoffs. Here I am deep in the heart of Red Sox Nation and I just can't bring myself to become a Boston fan. I've tried. I always root for them to beat the Yankees (lesser of two evils). I was delighted when they finally won the World Series and I rooted for them against the Rockies for the second one. But when they took on the Rays last year, I just couldn't do it. The Cinderella story was too good. A rooting interest is a complex emotional reaction. Sometimes, it's best not to question it.

If the current standings hold, I think I'll go with the Rockies to start. I like it when teams who've never won finally do.

All Part of My Fantasy: Mork Calling Orson

Score for the week: Orson Welles 66.87, Squid 56.34
My MVP: Derrick Mason (WR, Baltimore) with 5 receptions, 118 yards and 1 touchdown
Melodrama: Vernon Davis (TE, San Francisco) had a monster game with 7 receptions, 96 yards and 2 touchdowns. Why is this melodramatic? Because I had him sitting on the bench. That's 15.84 points in our league and I couldn't use them.

I cooked up a trade with the Commish to resolve my quarterback fiasco. I gave up more than I wanted but in the end, I had Philip Rivers - not too bad. Unfortunately, I'm now looking at an 0-3 record. What burns me is that I've racked up more points than some of the teams who are enjoying 2-1 records. I would have beaten two of the teams who won this week with the points I had. The schedule has not been my friend.

Can't help wondering what a fantasy league might look like in a completely different arena: Fantasy Symphony, for instance.

"I've got problems, man. My 2nd chair french horn (Vienna) is out with the flu and I don't think I can make up the points with my weak viola section. I guess I could pick up that bassoonist on waivers who's playing at Carnegie on Saturday."

Or Fantasy Congress (one that passes good laws in a timely manner - yuk, yuk):

3 points for voting YES on a bill that passes
5 points for writing the bill
2 points for appearing on Meet the Press
4 for appearing on Colbert
-10 for an indictment
and so on...

The Home Stretch: My Wife and Her Cubbies

I caught about 6 innings of the Cubs game with the Giants today, which they ultimately lost 5-1. The Cubs are my National League team as they are my wife's team. I would forgive you for forgetting that the Orioles were once a great team but everyone who knows anything about baseball knows the Cubbies' sob story. With today's loss, the chances of making the playoffs fade just a little bit more and with them, a shot at ending the 101-year-long World Series drought. They're 6.5 games out with 7 to play. If the Rockies win and/or the Cubs lose on Tuesday, it's just wait until next year all over again.

For me, the Cubs have always seemed my best shot at drawing my wife into my sports interests. She calls herself a Cubs fan. She's certainly a fan of the brand: a sticker on her car and a plastic beer mug. She even gave me a t-shirt. But in reality, I think she mostly likes the Cubs because they remind her of Chicago. She used to live near Wrigley. She doesn't actually like to watch the games, you see. She thinks of them as a great opportunity to take a nap, even believing that if she watches, they're sure to lose. That's the funny part to me. She wants them to win. She just doesn't want to have to watch.

Nonetheless, I think I have a shot if they ever make it back to the World Series. Even today, she looked up from War and Peace a couple of times to cheer an extra-base hit by the Cubs or boo a single by the Giants. Will she ever be a summer-long fan? I am quite sure the answer is no. But someday, I hold out hope that we'll find ourselves watching a game together in late October and she'll have more than a passing interest.

All Part of My Fantasy: My First Foray

As I have written in a previous post, I have joined a fantasy football league for the first time in my life this year. I'm in a league with a bunch of old college friends. They've been doing this for years. I'm pretty sure I remember an early incarnation of the league holding their first draft in a dorm lounge some 17 years ago. I was invited, too - not sure why I didn't take them up on it. In fact, I really have no idea what's taken me so long. Part of it is the fact that I haven't followed pro football so closely since the First Gibbs Era in Washington. The commissioner, an old and dear friend, finally talked me into it this year and I'm glad he did.

There are 18 teams in the league: gargantuan by fantasy standards. 16 men and 2 women. All but one attended a small, quirky liberal arts college in the midwest in the early '90s. There is quite a range in how well I know them. A few, I would consider close friends. Others, I barely remember. Some, not at all.

It has been a great addition to my life in that it provides a means by which to be in touch with all of them again. For that reason alone, I regret not having done it sooner. I am a little freaked out, however, by how easy it is to take all of this way too seriously.

My first week opponent was the Commish himself. I first remember meeting him in the dining hall freshman year. I was friends with the kicker for the football team (also in the fantasy league) and he introduced us. Commish and his lovely future wife (fellow alum and league member) were very hospitable to me when I moved to New York at 25 and, more importantly, introduced me to my own bride.

Score for the week: Commish 69.16, Squid 59.24
My MVP: Santonio Holmes (WR, Pittsburgh) with 9 receptions, 131 yards, 1 touchdown
Melodrama: Donovan McNabb, my starting QB, goes out with a broken rib.

Fantasy football makes you wish for weird things. I had the lead going into the Monday night games but he had three players left to play whereas I had none. I was hoping for alien abductions before kickoff but that plan fell through.

My second week opponent was someone I've not seen since graduation. Good guy, though, and we share a love for Japan. He was there for all of his junior year. I spent two years there after college.

Score for the week: Waseda Alum 52.24, Squid 51.16
My MVP: Kellen Winslow (TE, Tampa Bay) with 7 receptions for 90 yards and a touchdown
Melodrama: Matt Hasselbeck, my backup QB, starting for the week, goes out with a broken rib. I have no third QB. Commish tells me he's never seen anything like it before. The mad scramble begins.

This one was quite exciting - suspenseful until the very last play on Monday night. I had a hefty lead going into the game. I had the Indianapolis defense. Waseda had Miami RB Ronnie Brown. Unfortunately for me, Brown had a phenomenal game: 24 carries, 136 yards, 2 touchdowns. The Colts had an interception on the last play of the game which won me a point but it wasn't enough.

Now I have the QB problem. I think I've worked out a deal to solve it but nothing's definite yet.

Checking in with the Orioles: The Importance of Shrinky Dinks

I only made it through the second inning with the O's today. Starting pitcher Jason Berken only lasted an inning longer. David Hernandez did have a quality start last night but the Birds lost anyway. Series sweep for the Sox. In all, Baltimore only beat Boston twice this summer. They lost 16 times.

But there were more important things to do today. Today was my daughter's first Shrinky Dinks experience. It was also, evidently, my wife's. I will say, the process is far less aggravating than it was when I was a kid. Pre-cut: genius! Still pretty cool to sit in front of the oven and watch the magic. Who needs baseball?

Off My Duff: iPicking Macs

Checking in with the Orioles: Dennis Eckersley Is a Betazoid

"Captain, I sense malice. I think we can expect some chin music on the next pitch."

I am the sports fan equivalent of an ex-pat. Even worse, I have spent most of my adult life in enemy territory. Living in northwest Vermont, most people's sports allegiances reside in either Boston or New York, homes to many of the most hated teams for a kid growing up in the Maryland suburbs. I don't get to watch my long-suffering Orioles on television very often but several times a summer, they do take on the Boston Red Sox and NESN provides.

This weekend, the two teams are playing in Baltimore. I tend not to watch the entire game as my wife has limited interest and all things being equal, I'd rather watch something we both like. But I do catch snippets here and there, enough to match faces to the names I see in the box scores.

Not that watching the Orioles is much fun these days, anyway. The main suspense is seeing whether or not their starting pitcher will make it through the first six innings - he usually doesn't. The team last won the World Series 26 years ago. I was 10. From the time the team had first moved to Baltimore until that moment, they had been one of the most successful franchises in the major leagues. Both pitchers and hitters had spent Hall of Fame careers there. They were a well-run organization - the sort of team which engendered the loyalty of good players. No one could have known on that glorious day what would come next. In the years since they have, far more often than not, been absolutely horrible. Cal Ripken, Jr. was wonderful, of course. The man could run for governor and probably win unopposed. But otherwise, there's been little to cheer.

The Orioles' deficiency this year has been starting pitching. It's a bad sign when the ace of your staff leads the majors in home runs allowed. A ridiculous number of pitchers have made their first major league start with the Orioles this year and while there does seem to be young talent in the organization, current ownership is not known for its patience. I'd love to see them invest in player development so they could be respectable again in a few years but recent history has not tended that way.

They lost last night's game 3-1. Guthrie, the starter, fell one out short of six innings.

"I sense that he's hiding something, Captain. I think the ump should check his sleeves for an emery board."

On a brighter note, if you've never heard Dennis Eckersley do color commentary, don't pass on the opportunity. Those who watch NESN regularly know that it's not his usual role. Most nights, he's sitting at a table in the studio doing the postmortem with fellow Hall of Famer Jim Rice. He really should be doing color more often for the simple reason that the man is freakishly good at calling pitches. I listened to him through one long at-bat with Clay Buchholz on the mound. Eckersley called every single pitch exactly right. He was getting pitch and location, usually before the sign went down. I've seen other commentators try to call pitches but they're nearly always wrong. I've never seen any of them go through a batter the way Eck did. One could easily imagine that, body willing, he could have gone down and pitched the game himself. I almost never feel that way about the color guy.

That's gotta be a marketable skill! Maybe he's perfectly happy doing what he's doing but I can think of a certain Baltimore team in particular which could do with his consulting services. They have a very young staff with a lot to learn about how to make it through a major league game one batter at a time. I think they should give him a call. The man is a savant. Plus, he has a man crush on right fielder Nick Markakis so there's an added bonus for him.