October 18, 2005

MLBloggers Fantasy League Final Results

mlbresults.gifWell, the baseball season is now weeks over, and the Fall Classic is almost ready to start. i think sufficient time has passed and my embarrassment has waned enough for me to post about the final standings in my own fantasy baseball league, MLBloggers.

i started the league last spring and nine other fine bloggers signed up to play. i quickly plummeted to the bottom of the standings, where i stayed pretty much from wire to wire. But here are the final results:

Greg of The End Zone had Hank's Homey's, and finished in first place. Congratulations Greg! You now win the coveted annika's journal fantasy baseball memorial stein. As soon as i design and manufacture it. This is Greg's second annika's journal contest win. You might remember that he won the infamous Joe Don Baker haiku contest back in September '04. Interestingly, Greg says he had no experience in haiku or fantasy baseball before entering either contest. Greg, you might want to try tackling world hunger next. Give it a shot.

The Maximum Leader of Nakedvillainy came in second.

Paul of the now defunct Sanity's Edge came in third. He has returned to blogging, by the way.

Munuviana's elder statesman, Ted of Rocket Jones finished in fourth place, even though he's not a baseball fan.

Dawn Summers of Clareified came in fifth place with her East Coco Beach Metropolitans.

The Biloxi Turds of Matt from Irreverent Probity came in sixth.

Victor's Windbreakers finished seventh.

Resurrection Song's Zombyboy finished eighth with his Zombyesque Zombies.

And Physics Geek of Physics Geek finished ninth with his Physics Geeks;

And finally, there's my own annika's A's in last place.

Thanks to everyone for playing.

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October 10, 2005

MNF Pick, Week 5

i'm late, but you'll just have to trust me. i got SD to win minus 3 points.

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October 05, 2005

The End Of An Era

It saddens me to report the end of the "All the way with Tim Rattay" era for the San Francisco 49ers.

Okay, i'm not really sad.

On a related sports note, has anyone noticed that ESPN.com has basically become a pay site this year. Useless for anything but statistics, and maddeningly slow to load too.

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October 03, 2005

MNF Pick, Week 4

Week 4? Is that right? i guess so. It seems like the season just started. But it's been going on long enough for one thing to be clear: both Green Bay and Carolina suck this year.

Carolina, at home, is favored by a big 7½ points. Will they cover? i been burned by Brett Favre and the Packers on Monday Night before, but i've also won too.

The Packers and 7½ points is too tempting to pass up. i'll go against conventional wisdom and say that Carolina will not cover. Bet Green Bay, take the points and laugh at the suckers later. ha-ha.

Update: i'm now 1 and 2.

Update 2: What? No "congratulations annika on your amazing prognosticative powers?" No "annika you're so awesome?" No "annika, we're sorry we ever doubted you?"

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September 29, 2005

BCS Poll Changes

To improve and simplify the system, The Onion reports that the BCS Committee is considering some changes.

Hat tip to Casca.

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September 26, 2005

MNF Pick, Week 3

Kansas City plus 2½ points? That's a no-brainer. Sure, Mile-High is always a factor, but so are Trent Green and Priest Holmes. Take KC over Denver. Insist on the points so you can laugh at the suckers later.

First Quarter Update: Fuck.

Halftime Update: Double fuck.

(That Clay Aiken's got a pretty good arm. Who knew?)

Third Quarter Update: Looks like we're going to need the greatest comeback in MNF history for those 2½ points to matter.

Final Score Update: Okay, so i'm 0 and 2. Denver was 0 and 2 before Monday Night, but i don't see you mocking them now. Just wait until next week.

Update to the Update: Crap, wrong again. Denver was 1-1.

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September 19, 2005

The Return Of annika's MNF Pick

Dallas is favored by 5½ points. i'd take Dallas minus the points because they plan to honor Troy, Michael and Emmitt tonight. The Cowboys should be up for this home game and besides, the Redskins aren't going anywhere this year.

Unrelated football note: L.A. has been without a football team for what, ten years now? New Orleans doesn't even exist, but they have a football team. How embarrassing is that.

Update: Amy was at the game!

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July 19, 2005

Supreme Court Update

siren.gif

WHITE HOUSE SAYS
CLEMENT NOT NOMINEE

Despite early reports today, speculation that right hander Matt Clement was picked to be the ninth man in the Supreme Court rotation are apparently untrue.

Sources within the administration, speaking on condition of anonymity, told annika's journal that Matt Clement was never under serious consideration.

clement.jpg

However, some experts say Clement would have been an awesome choice, despite his 4.21 ERA and mediocre WHIP. Said annika: "Heck, he's been on my fantasy team three years in a row. i don't know what kind of justice he'd make, but he's got ten wins and 101 K's this year. And the way my team's been doing, i've needed every damn one of 'em."

Developing . . .


Update: Speculation continues to circulate around Gonzalez as a possible nominee. Some pundits say President Bush is under pressure to nominate another Arizonan to replace Justice O'Connor, who grew up in Duncan, Arizona. However, some conservative activists are wary of the veteran outfielder for the Diamondbacks.

Said prominent right wing blogger annika: "Sure Luis throws right handed, but he bats lefty. And everytime i've seen him, he's way out in left field. Can we really trust him?"

Developing . . .


Update 2: The news is out! It's Roberts! i'm ecstatic. His stats aren't outrageous, but he's got good speed and was a quality guy when he played for the Dodgers. This year Dave's been a solid contributor to the first place Padre team. Democrats who wanted a center fielder should be happy with this lefty batter.

Developing . . .


[If there's a rule about beating a joke to death, you might want to invoke it now.]


Update 3: Preston wanted a justice with strings attached. Or someone who can pull all the right strings. Or something like that.

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July 11, 2005

Tour de France Trivia

On this off day for the Tour, i thought you all might enjoy this bit of Tour de France historical trivia.

Question: What dinosaur was also an excellent biker in the time trial events?

Answer in the extended entry. more...

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July 06, 2005

le Tour Update

DMC at Ridgecrest Blog has a couple of really good Tour de France updates.

The first is something Tour fans already know. Lance Armstrong is a class act.

Today Lance Armstrong showed up for the big roll out wearing his normal Discovery Channel jersey, not the yellow jersey of the race leader that he was entitiled to wear.

. . .

After the rollout the race referees told Lance that he would have to wear the yellow or risk being disqualified from the race. So Armstong is racing with the yellow jersey pulled on over his discovery jerset. Let's hope it doesn't get hot today.

So there you go, in a day of overpaid, over egoed proffesional athletes we have one here that tries to take the high road and do the right thing and the race officials have to get involved and drag him back into the muck.

The second update concerns a questionable judgment call on the part of David Zabriskie's team leader, Bjarni Riis.
To Bjarne Riis, you made a tough call ordering the team to ride on withour Zabriskie. But was it the right call? YOu should have left a rider behind to help him. To bad you don't respect the yellow jersey as much as the guy who was wearing it and the man today who is reluctantly wearing it today.
Go check out Ridgecrest Blog. It's good stuff.

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July 05, 2005

Fantasy Baseball Update

We're a week away from the All-Star break, and i'm sure everybody's wondering how annika's A's are doing in annika's own fantasy baseball league, MLBloggers.

i suck.

Every other owner has been in first at least once. i've set a record for being in last place the most consecutive weeks.

Yep, pretty much all of them.

i drafted poorly. i built my team around Eric Gagné, who went on the DL almost immediately, came back briefly, and is out again. i got no runners except for Podsednik, with his sub-par offensive stats.

But that's only for starters.

i'm in the bottom three in the following stats: runs, home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases, batting average, on base percentage, wins, saves, strikeouts, earned run average and walk+hit ratio.

Yep, pretty much all of them.

i'm even behind Ted, who doesn't even like baseball. i'm way behind gcotharn, and he's never played fantasy baseball before. (In fact, gcotharn is in first place!)

Victor and Matt tried to help me out with some very generous trades, and yet i still suck. While Dawn and The Maximum Leader never make a roster change and they're beating me.

i'm losing to Paul, who apparently gave up his blog so he could devote more time to kicking my ass!

Even a Geek knows more about baseball than i do.

It's hard to believe, but i'm even losing to a bunch of Zombies and Rats.

Yes, as Charlie Brown said: Rats.

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July 01, 2005

Heroic Cal Football Player

Cal's football team again starts the season highly ranked at number 15 in the Sporting News Poll. But while the Golden Bears' finish last season was less than heroic, their freshman offensive lineman Mike Tepper should be a hero in anyone's book.

A University of California, Berkeley, football player was seriously injured when authorities say he was allegedly intentionally struck by a car driven by a group of men leering at a female friend.

Mike Tepper, 19, was walking with the woman near campus during the weekend. The men began taunting the woman, a Cal volleyball player, and eventually cut the pair off with their car, police said.

When the men refused to leave the woman alone, the 6-foot-6, 312-pound lineman jumped between the car and the woman. The men allegedly then ran over Tepper twice, breaking his leg.

'My season's toast,' Tepper said Wednesday as he recuperated from surgery to repair a broken fibula and torn ankle ligaments. He had nine screws and one plate put in his leg and can't walk on it for eight weeks.

Police have arrested Johnny Ray Smith, 33, and Calvin Joe Kelley, 29, for violating terms of their probation or parole, authorities said. Officers also arrested a third man, but prosecutors declined to file charges against him because of scant evidence.

Police are investigating the incident as an assault with a deadly weapon.

Cal football coach Jeff Tedford said he was 'proud of the courage Mike showed Saturday night.'

Thank God chivalry is not dead. i sure hope Mike Tepper gets to play again, he's a real hero.

Update: Mike's dad describes the incident here.

Mike was walking on Telegraph Saturday night. A good looking girl was on her way home just ahead of him and was trying to cross the street (I think at Dwight) and a car pulled up with 4 or 5 men in it. They started taunting the girl, making unwanted propositions. She said she wasn't interested and was trying to get by. As she started to walk ahead of the car to pass in front of it, they sped up and blocked her.

By this time, Mike caught up with the girl and told the guys she wasnt interested and together they walked behind the car to get by.

As they were crossing the street behind the car, the driver put the car into reverse and punched it, intentionally attempting to hit them. Mike immediately pushed the girl out of the way, but could not get out of the way himself. She landed across the street with scraped knees and a scraped up face.

Mike wasnt as lucky, the car hit him, he fell, then the car ran over mike's leg. Then, the idiots put the car in Drive and ran over him again (over the ankle again).

A police lieutenant witnessed the whole thing from about a block away. He was at Mike's side within seconds and called an ambulance. He took statements from 5 witnesses at the scene. The lieutenant put a turniquette on Mike's leg (he has a very deep gash), because it was bleeding fairly severely. The lieutenant also said that it was intentional.

At the hospital, they x-rayed Mike, and found he had a broken Fibula, and ligament damage. He also has a dislocated Tibia. They had to spend a little time trying to stop the bleeding.

He had an operation this morning, where they put a plate and two screws into the broken bones, and will repair the ligament damage. He will be in a cast for 6-8 weeks before they take the plate off. After that he will be able to jog lightly on it, but will not be in any condition to "play hard" at least until November at the earliest.

The lieutenant called for backup and had the guys arrested within 5 blocks of the incident as he came to Mike's aid. The driver was on parole, and another passenger was on probation.

The driver is going to be charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and both of those guys had had their paroles/probation revoked that night. They will both finish their earlier convictions behind bars, and are behind bars now.

. . .

Personally, I think Mike saved a life that night. Had he not been there, who knows what those scumbags would have done to that girl, the least of being run over by a car. I think he deserves a medal for what he did. I am proud of his behavior.... He is a great kid, and an outstanding citizen, and I am constantly reminding him of that.

In his meeting with the surgeon yesterday, he was told that he would heel 100%, and that 4 or 5 CAL players have had similar surgeries and have gone on to play in the "pros." That was great news, and we are looking to a speedy recovery and a fantastic year, next year. He will be working out with the team, but staying off the foot until such time he can play again.

Good news indeed. Get well soon, dude.

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June 05, 2005

French Open Fashion Break Point

Today's exciting French Open final between two absolute hotties, Argentina's Mariano Puerta and Spain's Rafael Nadal, is a great match. But i had to break away between sets to comment about their awful fashion choices.

frenchopen05.jpg

Puerta chose an orange shirt to wear on a clay court. Not good. Really bad, actually. Maybe that was part of his strategy, to distract Nadal with some sort of ill-conceived camouflage idea.

But Rafael Nadal's outfit takes le cake. A chartreuse sleeveless top with white capris? Qu'est-ce que c'est? Il est terrible! i want to match them with some cute lace-up espadrilles, dude. No guy can pull off that look, not even one as gorgeous as Rafael. Tennis player thighs are the best looking thighs in the world; why cover them up?

And the panty-lines! Guys, white pants are why they invented thongs. Any girl will tell you. That's embarrassing. They should try some lycra boxers or something.

Okay, time for me to get back to the sweaty grunting latins. They're tied, one set all, in the third set.

[Welcome, Slate readers! Why not bookmark annika's journal?]

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May 29, 2005

annika on Danica

Everybody's talking about Danica Patrick, the girl who is starting today's Indianappolis 500 in the second row. Danica is one of eight rookies in the race. She's never driven a 500 mile race before. Don't believe the hype, she's not going to win (i'm picking Helio). So much depends on the car, the team, and luck. But i'll be rooting for Danica. i hope she'll be safe and i hope she does good.

Danica

The Indy 500 is not an easy race. That's five hundred miles - think LA to Phoenix, an 8 hour drive, normally - exept they're doing it at 200 miles an hour. Five hundred miles, two hundred laps, eight hundred left hand turns, two hours of total mental concentration. You ever try concentrating for two hours in a life and death situation? In this race there are a hundred problems that come up, which you gotta deal with, and a million potential problems you gotta worry about the whole time. You gotta have your shit together to win the Borg Warner.

My brother races a little, and he's a huge Danica fan. Mainly because he's a horndog and she is a hottie. On weekends at my parents house, no one is allowed to touch the remote because everyone knows Derrick will be watching the car shows on Spike tv all day long. Danica does the intros for each of the shows (Ride with Funkmaster Flex, Horsepower TV, Extreme 4x4, etc.), so i was familiar with her as a spokesmodel before i ever heard she was a driver.

It was hard for me to believe, when my bro told me that Danica drove Indy cars and that she had talent. He knows about those things, but i still thought he was kidding me, so i looked her up on the web. In fact she's done well in her short career. Derrick says driving is all about aggressiveness and thinking ahead, and he thinks Danica has those qualities.

What's interesting to me is that Danica doesn't try to be "one of the boys." It's a different world now, than it was when girls like Janet Guthrie or drag racer Shirley Muldowney blazed their trails. i can understand the wisdom of using a driver's looks in a sport that depends so heavily on sponsorship money. But i also think its a sign of progress when a girl can do a guy thing and not have to act like a guy or downplay her own femininity. i think that's cool.

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May 24, 2005

The Contender Final Episode

This was just an excuse to mess around on photoshop.

boxing.gif

i watched the final episode of The Contender tonight, although i missed the undercard because of American Idol. The bout between Sergio "Latin Snake" Mora and Peter "Pride of Providence" Manfredo was one of the best fights i've seen in a long time.

The great thing about tonight's episode was that it was unedited, which means real boxing. No slow-mo, and minimal family reaction cut-aways make for better sports action. They should have cut Stallone's mike though. He kept repeating himself. He alternated between the same two lines for seven rounds - it was either "Whoa!" or "there's got to be a re-match." He actually started calling for a re-match in the middle of the second round. Sly needs to worry more about whether the show will be renewed. Ratings apparently were less than expected and putting the final up against tv's most popular show AI, didn't help.

Sergio Mora won the match, and the million dollars. i was impressed by him last week when he advanced to the final with a win against Jesse, whom i had expected to go all the way. Sergio fights with real attitude and he's damn quick. Tonight, when Peter had completely run out of steam in the final round, Sergio was still showering combinations on his head like it was the first.

Peter seemed more of a hard-headed slugger and had Sergio backed against the ropes for much of the fight. Sergio's temple opened up early and looked ugly. But Peter wasn't slowing him down. Sergio clearly was the better conditioned fighter, and if he didn't move as much as i had expected, he still punched almost continuously.

There was an episode of smack talk in one of the middle rounds, when Sergio turned his head to mouth off at Peter's corner. Since it wasn't broadcast live on the West Coast, they cut out the audio and i don't know what he said. But it seemed like a dangerous move, leaving yourself unprotected against a guy like Manfredo, even for a moment. i think Sergio has a little too much attitude for his own good, and that may end up hurting him down the road. He did show class after the fight by apologizing to the other corner and giving Peter the props he deserved.

One of my ex's, Tommy, was an amateur boxer who taught me how to score a fight. i think you get much more out of watching boxing if you make an effort to keep score. i had the match much closer than the judges did. According to my card, the fighters split the first six rounds, and Sergio took it all by showing more aggressiveness and energy in the final round. i had Sergio 67 to Peter 66.

And as for American Idol, we'll find out who that champ is tomorrow. My pick is Carrie Underwood, but rumor has it that Bo's got more fans. It should be interesting.

Matt has a Contender recap too.

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April 25, 2005

The Contender

If you're too lazy to watch an entire boxing match, The Contender is the show for you, because they edit out all the clinches and just show the punching. If you're still too lazy, you can just go to Stop The Bleating, and read the recap.

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April 21, 2005

Fantasy Baseball Update

Here we are, almost three weeks into a new season, and i've been stuck at the bottom of my own ten team league for most of the time. However, after a few key roster moves, one promising trade, and some brilliant free agent acquisitions, i've been able to pull my team up by its bootstraps to fourth place.

i'm behind Paul and Dawn (neither of whom have made a single trade or free agent pick - that's good drafting) and Matt.

My offensive starters as of today are:

Catcher: Victor Martínez, Cleveland, slumping right now, but i hope he can regain his 2004 form soon.

First base: Paul Konerko, Chicago Sox, currently leading the majors with seven home runs.

Second base: Clint Barmes, Colorado, averaging .652 with 8 RBI and an on base percentage of .714 in the last week! He's currently second in the majors in both batting average and on base percentage, behind...

Third base: Edgardo Alfonzo, San Francisco, that's right, i have the number one and number two major league batting average and OBP leaders on my team. They're fucking keeping me afloat. And you know what the funny thing is, i picked up both of them after the draft as free agents. i should be a talent scout.

Shortstop: Pedro Feliz, San Francisco, tied for fourth and eleventh in runs scored and RBI, respectively.

Outfield: Jim Edmonds, St. Louis, love this guy, he's been on my fantasy team every year.

Outfield: Matt Lawton, Pittsburgh, perrenial underachiever on a mediocre team.

Outfield: Sammy Sosa, Baltimore, whom i'm a little worried about, but i couldn't say no to the trade when Victor offered him.

Utility: Adrián Béltre, Seattle, who had a monster year last year, and better deliver this year. i've noticed that former Dodgers often seem to do well during their first year with a new team.

Defensively, my brilliant pickup was Toronto rookie Gustavo Chacín, who was just sitting there in the free agent pool with three wins, nobody noticing. So i snagged him. Similarly ignored is the supremely talented, but sometimes inconsistent Dodger starter Odalis Pérez, who's having a great April.

My disappointments have been the injured Eric Gagne, who was my #1 draft pick, and Barry Zito, who seems to be having trouble adjusting to life without Mulder and Hudson. But he'll come around. So will Mike Lowell, my old standby the last couple of years. He's in the middle of the worst slump i've seen him in since i've been his fan. Snap out of it, mi borinqueño!

If i can get some save production out of Trevor Hoffman and/or Gagne comes back healthy, i might move up even more. If i don't jinx everything with this post, that is. Still, it feels good to be out of the cellar.

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April 13, 2005

Hooligans

How long before the Euros just start shooting the players?

Shameful.

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April 04, 2005

9 Games 9 Fields

i'm toying with the idea of a west coast baseball tour this summer. With Southwest Airlines air fares so low, i think it's do-able. Nine games, nine stadia:

Network Associates Colliseum, Oakland
SBC Park, San Francisco
Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
Angel Stadium, Anaheim
Petco Park, San Diego
Bank One Ballpark, Phoenix
Coors Field, Denver
Ameriquest Field, Arlington
Safeco Field, Seattle

Looking at that list, i realize that some of the nicest ballparks in the major leagues are in the Western Divisions.

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March 29, 2005

Fantasy Baseball Update

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.

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