A New Day

Got almost no sleep last night, for reasons unclear to me, but it gives me time to write early, in a Gleemanesque kind of way(Aaron's Baseball Blog). And I'm full of good cheer. Yesterday was the first day in about ten that I didn't take any percoset, which also made it the first day I've had a beer in a while. But what I'm most pleased with is the activity at the site. We got a bunch of hits yesterday, fantastic for a new site, and hopefully some of you will return today, and get to read this.

I started off the Great Series Prediction Contest miserably. These are my picks:

SF for 440
Seattle for 440
Atl for 120

Seattle I think can still bounce back. But Atlanta lost with Maddux on the mound and still must face Zito, and the White Sox have Buerhle and Colon on the hill for their last two games with the Giants, so it doesn't look good. On top of that, I actually put real money (in comparatively miniscule amounts) on not only the Giants, but Arizona to win their series as underdogs at KC, and they lost, too.

The winners of the contest will be announced here on Friday.


The Paul DePodesta Medal of Honor, which, for any newcomers, is given to any player who makes a positive contribution with every at bat in the game, and does nothing else stupid, like get thrown out attempting to stretch his single into a double, has one very special winner today. His name is Howie Clark (Applause, Applause).

Howie Clark is filling in at third base for the Toronto Blue Jays while Eric Hinske is recovering from injury. What makes Howie so special is he is a winner of this medal, at 29 years old, with only 67 career at bats. I am quite certain that this is the only award ever bestowed upon Mr. Clark during his major league tenure, so hopefully word gets back to him in some way.


Imagine a world where there is an election amongst shareholders going on for President of the Tokyo Giants, and one of the Presidential candidates, who was initially way ahead but has now fallen behind, comes out and says "Vote for me, and I'll bring Barry Bonds to Tokyo!". He calls the San Francisco Giants, and offers them 48 million dollars for the rights to Bonds. San Francisco, overwhelmed by the size of the offer, excepts the deal.

Of course, the offer is no good unless the candidate wins the Presidency, but his pursuit of Bonds has made the race a deadheat. Meanwhile, no one has spoken to Bonds about this other than the press, to whom he says he's not necessarily agreeing to go anywhere, as well as "I love it in San Francisco, but I've never said I would finish my career here".

Impossible you say? Well, this is exactly what is happening with English superstar David Beckham and his current team, Manchester United, and his suitors, the good people of Barcelona, Spain.

The soccer world. Puts our rivalries and scandals to shame.