The blog is dead! Long live the blog!

We here at Snacky Boy have officially closed our doors to business and are teaming up with the fine gentlemen over at BigRedEgg to pump out even more nonsensical drivel and reactionary thought. 

At our new home, you can expect the same blithering randomness you got from here, only with more frequent posts and something approaching focus.  Novel concepts, all!

So come join us.  It should be fun.

More Stupid Stupidness from the Stupid.

When I returned to college at the age of 28, I went with the bright-eyed naiveté usually reserved from newly matriculated 18 year-olds.

I was a political junkie and satisfied half of my political science major six years earlier, so it seemed wise to polish that off, but I was not prepared for how the political debate among the young'uns had changed from 1992 to 1999.

There was always a glut of dopes reciting Zinn without context, the occasional moron saying the latest currency fluctuation signaled the end of capitalism and the group of dippy sorority girls attempting to exercise some newly-found spine and belching out rambling incoherence. .

But in 1999, it changed.

And it changed to something akin to this:



And discussions usually devolved into fatuousness like this:



Now this is nothing new but I loved politics. It was like grown-up sports but it mattered. But something happened in the mid 90s; something that made willful ignorance an acceptable life course, something that's even more disturbing when it happens to 20 somethings.

It wasn't everybody, but the numbers were sufficient enough to drive any serious discussion about anything into a spiral of digressive stupidness. As with anything in life, even for the most serious of serious ventures, it has to have a component of fun. For me, it just didn't anymore.

I could blame the Republicans for being the evil fucks that they are. I could blame the Democrats for continuing to do their best rendition of Italian politics circa 1950. But mostly I blame the big, fat, stinkin' Belgians.

BTW, Sherri Shepherd plays Tracy Morgan's wife on 30 Rock, easily the funniest comedy on TV right now, even if the competition is a little weak, though it's superlatively funny. But I digress.

January 6, 2008 is my New Year.

In an age where it's impossible to truly know if the guy sitting next to you is a person of integrity or a unbelievable douchebag, it's refreshing to know that, for some, there are still a few benchmarks.

We create our own, usually closely tied to our own predilections, quirks or spitting hatreds, but the instant recognition of something in someone, however small, swings the pendulum almost immediately. A certain clarity emerges, the questions fade away and the path of future interaction is settled. You now know where this person stands in your own small little world.

For me, it's the answer to the question "Do you like The Wire?"

Created by David Simon, a police reporter for the Baltimore Sun covering the crime beat for 12 years, the show chronicles the decay and deprivation brought on by drugs and the war on drugs from nearly every angle relating to the city of Baltimore.

It is taut. It is deep. It is nuanced. It is paced, powerful and as meta as it get.

There is no lead character. No stand-alone episodes. No pandering to a comfort zone.

It does not believe the viewer is stupid/slow/inattentive. In fact, it expects the viewer to pay the fuck attention. Everything's critical. It challenges you in a way the discerning mind has been screaming for all this time. Never do you feel a false note and never will you be able to put it in a box. In short, if you complain about the inanity of television and haven't watched The Wire, you are no longer part of the discussion. Go now, please.

Here's a snapshot of a famous scene (do not play in office):



The fifth and last season wrapped recently in Baltimore. The New Yorker wrote a great piece that sums up the show and David Simon quite nicely. It's a great read and makes you admire the hell out of the show and Simon in particular. Read this interview (Part I & Part II) as well for further insight into his motivations behind the writing.

I've bellowed from the highest mountaintops for people to watch this show. Of the few that took the advice, the accounts were almost identical in nature. They watched the first episode and instantly set aside the next month to watch the next 40 episodes, handing over whole days to the viewing of the show. It's exactly what happened to me.

It's simply the best show ever put on television and if asked what my favorite movie is, I qualify it by saying it still comes after The Wire.

On January 6, 2008, the fifth and final season begins on HBO, plenty of time to catch up if interested. Netflix and Blockbuster.com have the first three seasons available with the fourth season being released on December 4. If you are supremely interested, DeepDiscount.com recently reduced the first three seasons, bundled together, to a silly-low $77 (update: they caught their error and now sells for $140).

It will be the best time and/or money you ever spent.

Because it's funny!

I've lost much of my spitting hatred for Notre Dame over the years. It just isn't much fun to hate on something so mediocre, but this is worth it.

"BC's got better Christians!!!"

And Then There's the Senior Circuit.

In the race for the 'Biggest Boob in TV sports broadcasting' trophy, Tim McCarver gets the nod over Big Joe. His lack of basic knowledge of how to pronounce players' names is legendary. His stubborn refusal to even acknowledge a better system of baseball statistics is asinine.

To wit: "I only care about on-base percentage if you can run. If you can't run, I could care less about on-base percentage."

Um, what?

Or saying silliness like this: "I think if Norman Rockwell were alive the guy that he would paint more than anyone else would be David Eckstein."

But, in my world, it's his continued belief that the NL is a better league than the AL that makes him the biggest terdball in this or any other universe. When pressed, he substitutes 'better' with 'exciting'. What a douche.

With that, here's the right and proper answers to the question, "Who are the best players in a terribly average league."


NATIONAL LEAGUE


Most Valuable Player: Matt Holliday, LF, Colorado Rockies

The Rockies won 14 of their last 15 (including last night) to win the Wild Card. Holliday, during that stretch, hit .442 with 5hr and 17rbi. His .340 AVG. was tops in the NL. His 137rbi was tops as well. His SLG and OPS were second to Prince Fielder by a few hundredths of a point in both categories. In short, the Rockies are a .500 team without him.

Runner-ups:

Jimmy Rollins: A fairly close second, Rollins played in every game this year, no small feat at the hardest position to play in baseball. He hit .296/.344/.531-30-94-41, numbers that were significant improvements over last year. He has become a star. But he hit a very ordinary .272 with RISP and .255 Late & Close. Holliday hit .330 with RISP and .294 L&C. Take away 25 stolen bases (a very overrated stat) and Ryan Braun has better overall numbers. Close but not really.

Jake Peavy: Meh.

Ryan Howard: .268/.392/.584-47-136-1. And he missed almost a month. Hit 47hr but struck out 200 times, a Major League record. Hit 47hr and still managed to have an OPS under 1.000. A bit one-dimensional.

Prince Fielder: .288/.395/.618-50-119-2. Great year. Not better than Holliday or Rollins.

Trivia Question: Who led the NL in OPS? Highlight ---> Chipper Jones (1.029)


Cy Young Award Winner: Jake Peavy, RHP, San Diego Padres

19-6, 2.54ERA, 1.06WHIP, 240K in 223 innings. First in wins, ERA, WHIP, SO. ERA was a half run better than Brandon Webb. Consistent throughout the season, going 9-3 (2.19ERA) in the first half and followed it by going 10-3 (2.57ERA). Had an ERA of 2.10 on September 1. Not a tough one.

Runner-ups:

Brandon Webb: 18-10, 3.01ERA, 1.19WHIP, 194K in 236 innings. Had what will most likely be a typical Webb season and is really a John Lackey clone in more ways than one. Had a 42 inning scoreless in July and August, corresponding with Arizona's resurgence. Just 8-6 at the break, but was 8-2 in the last two months of the season. Threw four complete games including three shutouts. That's good.

Cole Hamels: 15-5, 3.39ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 177K in 183 innings. Long-shot, but he really came into his own. Legitimate ace at just 23.


Rookie of the Year: Ryan Braun, 3b, Milwaukee Brewers

The most heated and stupid argument currently in rotation. He hit .324/.370/.634-34-97-15. He did all this in 451 at-bats and played his first game of the year on May 25!!!! If he qualified, his BA would have been fifth in the NL, his SLG would have been the best by a fairly large margin. He finished tied for 5th in home runs...in 451 ab!!! Oh, and had 60RBI with runners on...in only 122 abs!!! Okay, no más punta del exclamation. His fielding is atrocious but who cares?!

Runner-up:

Troy Tulowitzki: .291/.359/.479-24-99-7. He may be the next great shortstop. He is that good. Aside from his overall numbers, he went .295-15-60 after the break. Silly baseball minds (Mr. Boers) want to give him the award for the world's great human because of his fielding. He handled the most chances in the league and committed only seven errors, helping to boost his WARP3 to an astounding 10.3. For a shortstop, especially a rookie, that is unheard of and should be heavily considered. But it does not make him a better rookie than Braun, who had more extra base hits in nearly 200 fewer plate appearances than Tulowitzki. When the pitching and nearly every other player in the lineup laid an egg for Milwaukee during the middle of the season, Braun and Fielder single-handedly kept them in it.


Comeback Player of the Year: Dmitri Young, 1b, Washington Nationals

Playing on a team that everyone predicted would be historically bad, Young was one of the reasons they weren't. In fact, they showed signs of being a fairly decent team with eight teams having a worse record than the Nats (including the White Sox). Going .320/.378/.491-13-74 overall, Young hit .397 in May, .377 in June and .373 in August. If he didn't hit .159 in September and just hit his average, Young would have finished second to Holliday. Not bad for someone that everybody wrote off as done.

Runner-ups:

Aaron Rowand: Threatening to fade into obscurity, Rowand had a year nearly identical to his 2004 year. He hit .309/.374/.515-27-89-6 and, as White Sox fans know, was inexplicably consistent throughout the year, never hitting below .264 (August) and hit as high as .378 (April). It WAS a contract year, but he had the kind of year that gets you 5/$50 mil.

Derrek Lee: I hardly think anyone should be considered for 'comeback POY' if he was injured but I'd give Lee consideration based solely on the fact it was a major wrist injury to his lead hand. He hit .317/.400/.513-22-82-6 and seemed to find his home run stroke again later in the year (16 hrs after the break). He also hit .365-7-14 in September, a time when the Cubs made their (f'-in') run.


Manager of the Year: Manny Acta, Washington Nationals

This one's not really close. This team on paper should have lost 110 games. And their best pitcher (by far! - Patterson) barely pitched. Mostly, they held serve, going 40-41 at home. The bullpen had the ninth-best ERA in the majors and were 27-24 in one-run games. How a team that was outscored by more than 100 runs won 73 games is beyond me but Manny Acta is the reason.

Runner-ups:

Charlie Manuel: The Phillies started 4-11, at one point, he wanted to beat up a sports talk show host and they were .500 at the break, but they completed the most remarkable comeback with 15 days left in the season in the history of baseball. Manuel should be given some credit for that, even if it's mostly for staying out of the way.


Coming Soon: Team-by-team reflections and a look back on preseason predictions.

Thanks for reading.

Individual AL Awards. And this is gospel.

Idiots abound on these internets (I'm looking squarely at you, Mr. Morgan). And it is no more acute than in the world of internet sports writing. Expect that idiocy to be amped up in the coming days and weeks as the creepy-crawlies come out of the woodwork to make their picks for individual MLB awards. Oh, the contrarianism! So as a preëmptive strike, I shall give mine. If you disagree, you are wrong. Crawl into a corner, wish for death and hope you come back as a smarter person. HA!


AMERICAN LEAGUE


Most Valuable Player: Alex Rodriguez, 3b, New York Yankees

The most obvious pick and cannot be argued. Don't try. It only makes you look stupid. He hit .314/.422/.645-54-156-24 this year. And for you people out there that continue to refer to A-Rod as a choker, his September numbers, in the thick of a very tight wild-card race until the last week, were .362/.470/.723-10-31-4. He was ridiculously good and put up historic numbers without any suspicion of being juicy. He was the shit. And I don't even like him.

Runner-ups:

Magglio Ordoñez: .363/.434/.595-28-139-4. Average 40 points higher than next best season.

Carlos Peña: .282/.411/.627-46-121-1. Silly good OBP with that average. Only 29.


Cy Young Award Winner: C.C. Sabathia, LHP, Cleveland Indians

I'm not falling prey to the arbitrary 20 win plateau as an argument. As the Indians pulled away from the Tigers in the last month and a half of the season, Sabathia went 6-1 with a 2.49 ERA, allowing only three home runs in 80 innings and beat Johan Santana twice. Finished 19-7, 3.21 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 209 K and went 2-1 with a 1.17 ERA against this year's playoff teams. The Indians scored three runs or less in ten of his starts.

Runner-ups:

Josh Beckett: 20-7, 3.27 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 194 K. Red Sox went from very good to dominant with him. Very close second, but had 1.5 more runs of support to work with than Sabathia. The Red Sox scored seven runs or more in 12 of his starts.

John Lackey: 19-9, 3.01 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 179 K. Very good year, but numbers inflated by three late-season wins when the games meant nothing to the team. The Angels scored three runs or less in a whopping 13 of his 33 starts, though.


Rookie of the Year: Brian Bannister, RHP, Kansas City Royals

He went 12-9 on a team that went 69-93. Coupled with a 3.78 ERA and 1.21 WHIP, he wins it hands-down over Pedroia/Matsuzaka. It could have been better. On September 2, he was 12-7 with a 3.16 ERA that would have been fourth best in the AL this year.

Runner-ups:

Dustin Pedroia: .317/.380/.442-8-50-7. Great average for a rookie. Very durable. Solidied a position that was a HUGE question mark for Boston coming into the season.

Daisuke Matsuzaka: 15-12, 4.40 ERA, 1.32 WHIP. Yo-yo type year. On pace to win 20 early on and then blew up.


Comeback Player of the Year: Carlos Peña, 1b, Tampa Bay Devil Rays

After 33 at-bats with the Red Sox last year, Peña finally did what he's been telling everyone within shouting distance he could do. After a slow start, he had an OPS over 1.000 in four of the last five months, walked 103 times on the year and hit 13 hrs in September with a .484 OBP. This one wasn't even close.

Runner-ups:

Chone Figgins: .330/.393/.432-3-58-41. Was hitting .347 as late as September 22 before going 0-18. Broke hand in Spring Training, came back to go 12 for his first 90 (.133) and then hit .461 in June, .351 in July and .342 in August.

Javier Vazquez: The 'comeback' moniker is so arbitrary, but if it means the biggest disparity between consecutive years, Vazquez should be mentioned. Finished 15-8 (on a team that finished 72-90) with a 3.74 ERA, a 1.14 WHIP and 213 k in 216 innings. And the White Sox scored one run or less in seven of his starts. He returned to the form that made teams salivate over him four years ago in Montreal.


Manager of the Year: Mike Scioscia, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

He took a team with absolutely no power and got 94 wins out of them. Finishing 27th in the MLB in home runs but 6th in runs, no other manager got more from less, played four rookies (basically) in the starting lineup and dealt with more strange injuries in key positions than any Angels team in recent memory.

Runner-up:

Joe Torre: Yes, I said it. This team was in shambles as late as the end of May. And that pitching was brutal. Something was settled down and someone figured out how to manage the egos.


The terribly average National League tomorrow. NL ROY is the flashpoint for stupidity.

Thanks for reading.

Well...The Fuckers Did It.

It took three seconds.

Trevor Hoffman's cutter dropping low and in to Rickie Weeks resulted in sorry flail of a swing and a third strike, setting off celebrations in Chicago and Cincinnati.

And in my neighborhood.

Within three seconds, I heard what sounded like four gunshots, at least twenty 'WOOOOO's and a bevy of helicopters took to the sky.

Within five minutes, the sirens started. 'Whoop-whoop's from prowlers howled while flying through stop signs on the way to Wrigleyville or wherever. The long and persistent wails of ambulances - screaming in the distance - followed and continued unabated for a half hour.

Within three seconds of the Padres' win, the local TV coverage began. I must confess, this was the part of the night I anticipated the most. Always one to take enormous pleasure in the haphazard nature of live, on-the-fly local news events, they didn't disappoint (Last year's New Year's Eve on ABC7 was a classic). NBC5 went immediately to the Cubby Bear where a reporter asked random women if they ever gave up on the Cubs. One response, with a sort of Proust-like bon mot, said, "WOOOO Nay, the Cubs are the BESTWOOOOOO!!!!!! ALL THE WAY, BABYWOOOOO!!!!"

The intrepid reporter moved on to a man next to the girl and, before a question could be asked, the guy pointed to the reporter and avered, "This guy's gay." And then said it again and again and again. Oh, and after a couple of minutes, jumped in front of the camera, said it again.

As expected, Clark and Addison turned into a zoo, most probably prompted by every TV station showing an empty corner on every TV in every bar within a ten block radius. It took longer than expected but it happened. The drunken hordes descended on that shithole of a stadium, bellowing WOOOOOOs all the way. Most didn't really do anything, except scream WOOOO!!! and jump up and down. They're Cub fans. It's what they do.

Back in 2003, it was a nearly identical scene, but something felt a bit more forced this time. Something felt off. Maybe it was the unfortunate timing of the clinch, happening at 10:10 pm on a Friday with all the late-night talk shows waiting to air. Maybe it was overshadowed by the historic collapse taking place at the same time in New York with the Mets losing to the Marlins, falling a game back in the East.

Or maybe it was the fact that the Cubs won one of the worst divisions in the last twenty years (though the title would go to the 1994 AL West, thank the strike for putting that horse out of its misery).

Here's a little ditty for ya:

CENTRAL	W	L	PCT	GB	EAST	CENT	WEST	INTR	RHP	LHP
x-Chicago Cubs	84	76	.525	-	15-21	44-33	17-18	8-4	65-52	19-24
Milwaukee	81	79	.506	3	16-17	43-36	14-19	8-7	53-56	28-23
St. Louis	76	84	.475	8	14-21	41-37	15-17	6-9	48-55	28-29
Cincinnati	71	89	.444	13	15-19	35-42	14-17	7-11	48-54	23-35
Houston	71	89	.444	13	11-18	35-44	16-18	9-9	50-66	21-23
Pittsburgh	68	92	.425	16	13-18	36-42	14-22	5-10	45-67	23-25

Check out every team's record outside of the division against other NL teams - NOT ONE WINNING RECORD!

It's cute they won the division. I don't hate the Cubs anymore. In fact, I wanted them to win. It's hard not to root for this team. Good for them. But that pitching with El Loco out front only begs for disappointment. And who's the third pitcher? Hill?

World Series prediction: Red Sox vs. Phillies. Phillies in seven.

More in-depth predictions and a reflection on pre-season predictions to come.