My Suicide Pool Picks So Far

After 10 weeks, here are the teams I have counted on to keep me “alive”:

1. Minnesota Vikings
2. Washington Redskins
3. New York Giants
4. Indianapolis Colts
5. Philadelphia Eagles
6. Pittsburgh Steelers
7. New England Patriots
8. Dallas Cowboys
9. New Orleans Saints
10. Baltimore Ravens

In week 10, there was also a “roadblock game”, which basically means you have to pick a very tough game as determined by the guy running the league in order to try to thin the number or contestants still remaining.  They chose the Patrio/Colts game, and I went with the undefeated Colts.  Luckily, Peyton had my back and squeezed out a 35-34 win in the last seconds (literally).

I have to confess, getting this far wasn’t that hard, and it shouldn’t be for anyone with a little big of football knowledge.  The real test is at the end of the season, when you’ve used all the good teams and you have to start taking some chances.  I have 7 more weeks to survive, and in my opinion there are only a few good teams left.  What that means is I’ll have to eventually pick some games that are either very closely matched or even an upset or two.  This is the first year I’m doing this, and I don’t have any delusions of winning.  But, I’m still proud of getting this far and I guess it’s possible to get lucky a few times and see what happens.  The teams left that I consider to be decent are:

• Arizona Cardinals
• Denver Broncos
• San Diego Chargers
• Green Bay Packers

I wouldn’t exactly say they are worthy of being counted on to win any given week, but I will most likely have to depend on them at some point in the rest of this season if I’m going to have a chance.

Anyone else in a suicide pool?  Let me know what teams you had and are still holding on to for later in the year, as well as what kind of pool you are in.  And good luck (unless you’re in mine)!

Phillies Phail In 2009

As promised, here’s my overly emotional and harsh critique on the Phillies from this season.  Let me first start off with my opinion of Charlie Manuel.  I know as I type this people are building a statue of him for winning a World Series last year, for the first time in over 25 years in this city, but I have never been a big fan of his managing style.  In particular, I can’t stand how he handles his pitching staff.  Charlie is a hitting coach, so maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on him.  The only problem is, in the playoffs, as was proved the past 2 years as much as ever, good pitching beats good hitting.

Lineup:

SS – Jimmy Rollins: in a perfect world, Jimmy would hit 7th in my lineup.  He would never get anywhere near the top of the order.  While he insists he is a lead off hitter, he does not take the approach at the plate necessary to be successful in a way that most benefits the team.  The bottom line is that instead of being patient at the plate and trying to get on base any way he can, he too often tries to imitate Ryan Howard and ends up popping a ton of balls into the outfield.  By doing that he also wastes his second biggest asset to this team: his ability to steal bases.  The best thing I can say about him is that no matter what he’s doing at the plate, he’s a gold glove type of fielder and the leader of this infield.  Frustrated By Him.

I Got 99 Problems But Being A Yankees Fan Ain’t One

One thing I certainly got tired enough of during the World Series were shots of celebrities in NY.  The only place worse than New York is LA.  To combat the in-game agitations I did not watch a single second of the pregame shows.  In fact I actually missed the first pitch to Rollins in Game 2 because I wouldn’t turn the TV on until I was sure I wouldn’t be wasting any additional time watching the non-baseball parts of the coverage.

While I know I’m in the ever shrinking minority, I do not want or need any of the “fluff” that comes with professional sports coverage.  I would love to be able to go to a game and hear nothing but the crowd noise instead of random rap songs in between pitches.

So this year I had to resort to turning the volume down to 0, which had the bonus effect of also not being able to hear the commentators.  It’s become increasingly easy to bash them, which should tell Fox something about the quality they are putting out there in front of a national audience.  This year, I even heard people complaining about them who aren’t really baseball fans.  That’s when you know it’s time for a change.

Back to the title of this article.  I could talk about a lot of things but I pretty much covered everything I hate about the Yankees in the last post.  All I really wanted to add is that I do not think I would want to be a Yankees fan.  I’m not sure I would be able to root for a team who, year after year, tried to buy championships.  What enjoyment can you take in rooting for a player in the playoffs who you’ve only since pitch 20 or 30 times for your team?  I know we brought in Lee and Ibanez late in the season this year, but knowing they will part of this team for a few years makes it easy to root for them.  And when you trade for a player instead of just overpaying him to bring him to your club, there is definitely a sense of appreciation you can have for what your club was willing to risk giving up to get him.

Anyway, maybe I’m just bitter.  Maybe if I grew up in NY I would be a Yankees fan.  Maybe I would hate myself, too.  Or, maybe I would be lucky enough to move to Philadelphia and be adopted by this great city so I could root for the teams who go out and work hard to earn everything they get.

What’s Not To Hate About The Yankees

Position players:

SS – Derek Jeter – he is the poster boy for New York.  All through the World Series we had to watch that annoying commercial for razors of him diving into the stands and getting bloody, while Cole Hamels was standing on the mound when some random guy came out of the stands who thought he was a manager.  Hate him.

The End Is Near

The Phillies season is almost over. When it is, we’ll look back and remember all the ups and downs from Opening Day, right down to the closing moments of the World Series. Last year’s season was magical. This one has been special, but the end has not yet been written.

Sixers Start How They Finished

So, I know there are 82 games in a season and all, and I really didn’t expect the Sixers to beat the Magic, but did they even show up?  They basically got blown out.  I hope they figure out a way to work Brand into the game, and someone learns how to play defense, but I didn’t see much I was impressed with in the opener.

The Split in New York

After 2 games, the Phillies certainly sit in a comfortable position, having taken 1 game and home field advantage from the Yankees.  But, are you satisfied with the split?  I am not, nor should the Phillies be either.

What’s Happ-ening?

In my preseason prediction of how many wins each starting pitcher would have, J.A. Happ was not even on the list.  That’s because Chan Ho Park won out the 5th starter job, but gave it away once the season started.  Now, Happ is an unbelievable 6-0 for the season with a whopping ERA of 2.90 (league average is 4.31)!  Where did he come from, and more importantly, is this for real or another case of beginner’s luck (remember Kyle Kendrik)?