Well my team drafted and i'm not too crazy about it. i'm weak in two key areas compared to my competition: pitching and offense.

Batters
C V. Martínez (Cle - C)
1B P. Konerko (CWS - 1B)
2B B. Boone (Sea - 2B)
3B A. Béltre (Sea - 3B)
SS B. Crosby (Oak - SS)
OF J. Pierre (Fla - OF)
OF J. Edmonds (StL - OF)
OF S. Podsednik (CWS - OF)
Util M. Lowell (Fla - 3B)
BN T. Iguchi (CWS - 2B)
BN A. Boone (Cle - 3B)
BN M. Lawton (Pit - OF)
BN Á. Sánchez (TB - OF)
BN Mi. Sweeney (KC - 1B)

Pitchers
SP B. Zito (Oak - SP)
SP M. Clement (Bos - SP)
SP Od. Pérez (LAD - SP)
RP E. Gagne (LAD - RP)
P T. Hoffman (SD - RP)
P S. Takatsu (CWS - RP)
P A. Leiter (Fla - SP)

With Pierre and Podsednik, i'm probably good on stolen bases, i think. But i need starting pitchers who can get wins.

Posted by: annika at 10:27 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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i am now dead last in Six Meat Buffet's Basketball Challenge Pool.

Dead fucking last.

Posted by: annika at 09:00 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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In Six Meat Buffet's "Basketball Challenge," i'm now tied for last place with Vandelay Industries. (No, not George Costanza, but Chad Evans from In The Bullpen.)

In the Bear Flag League's "Blogger March Madness Poo" (not a typo), i'm right in the middle, tied at fifth with Justene and Nick Queen.

However, you might remember that two days ago, i predicted the following:

1. Washington would lose to Louisville
2. Arizona would beat OK State
3. Texas Tech would lose to West Virginia

So why does my bracket suck?

Posted by: annika at 09:21 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Not that i have any credibility left after the devastation my bracket suffered this last weekend. But i will offer you some predictions for the rest of the tournament.

Two Pac-10 teams are in the Sweet Sixteen. Arizona and Washington. Kiss 'em goodbye. No way Washington is going to beat Louisville, who polled at number four pre-tournament. And it's never a good idea to bet on Arizona. They almost always disappoint. The Wildcats may make it past OK State, but they won't beat Illinois, who are the closest thing to an NBA team in the tournament this year.

Arch rivals North Carolina and Duke have played each other 219 times, but never in the NCAA Tournament. Isn't that an incredible stat? i want to see it happen this year, and therefore i am predicting it to happen.

And Bobby Knight must not win. Must... not... win.

Okay so this post is more about wishful thinking than actual predictions based on evidence. Or actual basketball knowledge.

Plus i like Duke's uniform, so they will win the championship.

Posted by: annika at 03:57 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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My bracket is fucked.

That is all.

Posted by: annika at 11:48 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Just a reminder to you participants in the MLBloggers fantasy baseball league. Draft day is next Sunday, so get your pre-rankings done and saved before then. i will switch the league settings to "ready to draft" at the end of the day, say close to midnight, so you can make last minute changes to your list in between egg painting or whatever else you're doing that day.

Posted by: annika at 09:08 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Keep in mind that i know nothing about college hoops.

My final four picks are as follows:

Illinois (1)
Georgia Tech (5)
UConn (2) Kansas (3)
Duke (1)

UConn will beat cinderella Georgia Tech again for the National Championship by a score of 83 to 71.

Update: Okay okay. People think i'm crazy. i get it. Thankfully, i can change my mind all the way up 'til Thursday.

i still think the Albuquerque bracket is weak enough for Ga Tech to sneak through. They did split the two games against Wake Forest this year.

But on UConn, i just read that their freshman backup point guard got suspended for "an unspecified violation of team rules." He wasn't valuable to the team, with only 3 points and 3 assists off the bench. But these things have a way of fucking with team chemistry, and the competition in the Syracuse bracket looks to be the toughest of the tournament.

So my new scenario has UConn losing to Kansas, who then beats dark horse Florida to advance to the final four. Duke then beats Kansas in a squeaker to avenge their 2003 loss and advance to an all ACC final. Duke then beats Ga Tech by a score of 80 to 65, to win their fourth National Championship.

Posted by: annika at 09:28 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Is there anyone who can suck the fun out of NCAA basketball than Greg Gumble? Sheesh dude, it's March Madness, not a funeral. Mix in a smile.

Posted by: annika at 10:01 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Say it ain't so Phil?!

Please tell me that was photoshopped...

p.s. i know there's a "skins" joke in there somewhere...

Posted by: annika at 01:51 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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i've started a fantasy baseball league for bloggers on Yahoo! The League is called MLBloggers (Major League Bloggers, get it?).

It's a rotisserie league with a non-live draft. Rotisserie is cool because it's less time consuming than head-to-head leagues. You can tinker with your line-up as much or as little as you want.

So far ten bloggers have signed up:

Dawn Summers' of Clareified has the East Coco Beach Metropolitans;

Victor the Rat-Boy of Publius and Company has the Rats of Chaos;

Ted of Rocket Jones has the Rockets;

Paul of Sanity's Edge has the Sanity's Edge... ers;

Matt of Irreverent Probity has the Biloxi Turds (eeew);

Greg of The End Zone has Hank's Homey's, and explains the name thusly;

Zombyboy of Resurrection Song has the Zombyesque Zombies;

The Maximum Leader of Nakedvillainy has the Bashers;

Physics Geek of Physics Geek has the Physics Geeks;

And then there's my own annika's A's.

There's room for two more bloggers in the league. If you wanna join Major League Bloggers just shoot me an email and i'll send you the password. You have to have a Yahoo! id to sign up.

Fantasy baseball is a grat way to follow the season, and it's fun to get interested in different players that you wouldn't normally care about if they're not on your hometown team.

Oh, and as an added inducement, i'll award a championship stein from cafepress to the winner at the end of the season. As if bragging rights weren't enough!

On a related note, don't forget this Wednesday is the annie's journal blogversary poker party. Details will be posted later on.

Posted by: annika at 09:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Okay Randy Moss is a punk, but he's a silver and black punk now, so that makes him okay in my book. And he's an awesome receiver, the real deal. Hopefully Davis won't decide to bench him like he did with some other stars i can name: Allen, Brown, Rice.

There are always guys who have that certain something that makes you know they will end up as Raiders someday. Kevin Greene had the hair. Sapp and Romo had the 'tude. Rice had the Bay Area love. And Moss has the bad-ass. When he faked dropping trou at Green Bay last year i said to myself, that guy belongs in Oakland.

Welcome Randy. The black hole is gonna love you!

Posted by: annika at 11:31 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 And Alzado had the steroids. Say what you will about them, the Raiders are the only team today that even tries to have a distinctive personality. If someone decided one morning to send the Baltimore Ravens back to Cleveland and send the "new" Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in exchange, I doubt that anyone would be able to tell the difference.

Posted by: Ontario Emperor at March 03, 2005 12:11 PM (v9NCH)

2 Now all they need is Maurice Claret to round things out.

Posted by: Casca at March 03, 2005 03:50 PM (cdv3B)

3 Casca, ROFL did you catch his 40 times at the combine. first pass was a blistering 4.86. he followed that with a 4.72. not bad for a d-tackle. the 6'-6" stork of a q-back from arkansas posted a 4.4. geez.

Posted by: louielouie at March 03, 2005 05:10 PM (i7mWl)

4 He's a lazy stupid cocksucker, or perhaps you hadn't noticed. Better than his pathetic performance was his excuse. You see, he had overtrained, and was too muscular. Can you tell that Jim Brown is his mentor? I predict that Mo rees goes undrafted, and doesn't make it as a free agent through ANYBODY'S camp. He'll be bagging groceries at Ruly's by September. Stupid fuck.

Posted by: Casca at March 03, 2005 10:17 PM (cdv3B)

5 Why the fuck is Moss wearing #18?? This Vikings fan is afraid that we got rid of him just as he was about to mature.

Posted by: Todd at March 04, 2005 08:51 PM (rywVr)

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