End of an Era

Well, I lied. Manny is gone. Traded to the Dodgers. Along with $7 million, and Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss to the Pirates for Jason Bay. Ironically, the move comes 4 years to the day after the Nomar trade. And as with that move, it involves trading away a disgruntled superstar - a Boston icon - in order to remove the problem they pose to the clubhouse.

Something New

Alright, I don't have just one thing to talk about, so I'll go with a list. I like the number 9, so that'll work as the number of things on the list. This'll be a recurring thing, so I'll try to think up a snappy name at some point. Anyways...

1) Manny is not getting traded. From my point of view, the Sox just can't afford to trade away one of the greatest right-handed hitters of all time in the middle of the pennant race for a replacement and prospects. Sure, there's no way he's coming back after this year, because I really believe that he truly wants out this time. And we won't pay him the $20 million next year anyways. Does he act like a space cadet? Yes. Does he laze around sometimes? Yes. But he's Manny. He's still a great hitter, and I've always said he's an underrated left fielder. Trading him would be effectively conceding on paper to the Angels, especially now that they have Teixeira.

2) I count 3 Yankees trades so far. Two born out of injuries, and one completely random one. Wonder if Hank threatened to fire everyone if nothing was done.

My Team Hates Me Part 3

Mercifully, this is the last installment. Like I was worrying about, Jon Rauch was indeed traded by the Nationals yesterday, to the Diamondbacks. He'll step into the set-up role for Brandon Lyon, who has a tenuous grip on the closer's role there, and could get some sporadic save opportunities. But that's bad news for me, since K-Rod is my only other closer. So do I deal for a closer or grab Rauch's replacement? Hmm...anyways, on to the last third of my draft.

Round 15, Pick 14 (210) - Ryan Garko, 1B, Indians
Three taken before him: Dontrelle Willis, SP; Rich Harden, SP; Mark Buerhle, SP
Three taken after him: Andy Pettitte, SP; Brian Fuentes, RP; J.D. Drew, OF
This was supposed to be one of my two sleeper picks. It was supposed to be Garko's breakout year. I figured I'd platoon him every once in a while and be assured of a steady producer. In fact, this pick looked so good that one of my friends, a die-hard Indians fan, told me soon after the pick that "you'll be happy with Garko, he's gonna have a really good year. I like the pick." And then Garko pretty much literally went to sleep in the batter's box. Needless to say, he didn't last very long before I dropped him. To add insult to injury, unlike J.J. and Glaus, he's still having a terrible year.
Grade: D-

My Team Hates Me Part 2

More than a week late, but here it is. Except now I'm tied for 1st and Justin Upton's on the DL, bringing the total to 6 guys in Rehab Land. So much fun.

Round 8, Pick 1 (99) – Troy Glaus, 3B, Cardinals
Three taken before him: Bobby Jenks, RP; Fausto Carmona, SP; J.J. Hardy, SS
Three taken after him: Kelvim Escobar, SP; Andruw Jones, OF; Takashi Saito RP
This "no-stats" thing is quickly going to become a recurrent theme of my draft. I figured I needed a proven power bat in my lineup, since I had speed set (in my mind) with Soriano and Granderson, and Glaus fit the bill. It can't get much better than hitting behind Albert Pujols. Anyways, he started off horribly - he and J.J. must've been sharing tips on how to suck - and when I noticed that Joe Crede was off to a good start and hadn't been picked up, I dropped Glaus and picked up Crede. Glaus eventually warmed up and is now hitting decently, but Crede's been consistent all year.
Grade: D-

All-Star Game Thoughts

Yes, yes, I know, I know - I said I'd be doing politics and life in general (excluding the daily weather, despite the name of the blog), yet all I've done is write about sports. Well, I'm SORRY for deciding to start right around the All-Star break of my favorite sport, and the continuing saga of one of the most beloved football players ever. Whatever. It'll work out in the end. Quick word on Jesse Jackson (yet again) though - does anybody hear echoes of the phrase "double standard" being thrown around? I do, but only in my own mind. Honestly, why doesn't the media call him out more on it? Not that what he said was right, but Imus has hell to pay and gets fired over calling the Rutgers women's basketball players "nappy-headed ho's", and Jackson doesn't ignite a similar controversy over what HE has now said twice??? I wonder sometimes...

Anyways, to my main topic - the Neverending All-Star Game. More specifically, the Yankees, Fox, and the New York fans. First the New York fans. Okay, we get it. You hate the Sox. You hate the Phillies. But the All-Star Game is neither the time nor the place to remind us and their players of it. Totally classless move to boo Chase Utley. Totally classless move to boo every Sox player. It's the one time a year where the Sox and Yanks are on the same team - buck up and swallow your hate for just 9 (in this case 15) innings. It doesn't do anybody good to hear all the boos. The All-Star Game is supposed to be a showcase of the best the game has to offer. Don't remind us of the worst.

The REAL Natural

Normally, I'm going to try and stay away from using too many superlatives, too much gaudy language, too many outrageous stances, and too many words in all caps. I see that as just an extension of the countless screaming matches that pervade both the blogosphere and TV shows these days, and a shameless attempt to drag in more readers. But there are some special cases where that mentality gets thrown out the window, and all the stops just have to be pulled out. What Josh Hamilton did last night at Yankee Stadium ranks as one of them.

Before they become non-topical and/or over-written about

So I promised that I'd keep going with the draft in my next post. Well, it's taking a little longer than I thought to get it together, and there were a few things I felt like commenting about - so the draft will continue probably next time. Anyways -

I said I was going to write about the Jackson/Obama incident. Well, it wasn't long after I said that that I realized all I needed to write was this - Jesse Jackson is crazy. End of story.

My Team Hates Me

So I got the bad news today that Erik Bedard was placed on the DL. And just found out 10 minutes ago that Aaron Harang is also headed for Rehab Land. Well, Harang doesn't matter as much because he was sucking worse than a broken vacuum cleaner, but still. This makes a grand total of 5 players on my fantasy baseball team in my dorm league that now reside in Rehab Land (It would be 6, but I used Harang's trip as a quick excuse to drop him). As my team is now in shambles, it made me want to revisit my draft, which also left my team in shambles afterwards. And somehow I'm comfortably in 3rd place out of 14. So - I'm going to make this a 3-parter, as the draft was 21 rounds long. While I remember, though, I want to say that I find it amusing that I specifically mentioned my pro-Boston sports slant in my first post...yet my second post dealt with the Midwest and this one doesn't even deal with real sports at all. So without further ado...

Round 1, Pick 14 - Chase Utley, 2B, Phillies (.294, 25 HRs, 68 RBIs, 66 runs, 9 SBs, 103 hits)
Three taken before him: Jimmy Rollins, SS; Prince Fielder, 1B; David Ortiz, DH
Three taken after him: Alfonso Soriano, OF; Carl Crawford, OF; Jake Peavy, SP
I'm not going to lie - I slept through the first two rounds of the draft, so I won't take any credit for the computer's autopicks. But I will give credit for this pick to the girl in my league who accidentally took Derrek Lee with the #6 pick, which is where Utley was pre-ranked. How he continued to fall to #14 is beyond me, but I'll take it.
Grade: A+

Memo to Brett Favre: Do Yourself a Favor and Stay Retired

Remember that Brett Favre? Crying through his retirement speech, saying that physically he could go out and compete for another year, but mentally he was spent? Convincing everyone that he was truly done, because no one could give a speech that heartfelt, that sincere, and then turn around a few months later and come back?

Well, if the rumors are true, prepare to forget about that guy, because apparently Favre wants back in. Now, I like Brett Favre, I really do. Hated him after he beat the Pats in the Super Bowl, but I was too young to understand the guy. He's a classy guy, great football player, and a hard competitor. His throwing for 399 yards on MNF after his dad died still sends chills up my spine. His relationship with the fans of the Packers is truly something special in this era of free agency and ever-changing jerseys. But I just can't say I want to see him come back, and I'll tell you why.

The First Post

Hey. So this is my first post, obviously, and I apologize in advance if this blog sucks because I've never done this before. But I figured I'd give it a go since I want to go into journalism, and so here I am. Like it says at the top, I'm going to try to cover as much stuff as I can, but will probably give most of my time over to sports and current events (the current events being lumped under "politics", since politics pervade so much of what goes on on the world/national/local stage). I will also apologize in advance for what I am positive will be a pro-Boston slant on anything dealing with sports, as I am a die-hard Boston sports fan. More so with the Red Sox/Patriots/Celtics/BC Eagles than the Bruins/Revolution/other Boston-area colleges (especially BU) - I still like the latter teams (well, not the college ones since I go to BC), it's just I'm not as invested in them as the former teams. Finally, for those of you wondering, the title of the blog gets its name from my height. I'm 6'4" - 6'5" according to my friends - and as such have been asked many times how "the weather is up there". So anyways, that's a quick primer on what I hope to accomplish with this. Hopefully, it works out like I envision. Should be fun.