My (Two) Weekends Were Better Than Yours

To your left, you see the reasons for my truancy over the last two weeks. Actually, it's the wrong picture because the wristband from the Strawberry Park Bluegrass Festival is not included, but I was there, too. But you get the idea. I also didn't get a picture of the tick that I extracted from my bodice last weekend, but I'm not sure he really would have worked with the collage, potentially making for a muddled... assortment of... various... artifacts. Too late.

Anyway, I've spent so much time on Landsdowne St. over the last few days that they're considering naming a street corner after me... Probably the one that I managed to vomit upon not once, but two times during my various exploits over the last few weeks.

This kind of post comes dangerously close to those bullshit, masturbatory tweets that the kids seem to love so much these days, but I felt the need to explain myself a little better in lieu of the rapid drop off in posted content. Or, I just wanted to let you know how much cooler I am than you are. So fuck off.

This weekend is recoup time, so I'm gonna rest up and come up with some good ideas to get this show back on the road and once again make sure that this blog is better than yours... Not that the opposite was ever the case. What's that? Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs is on tonight? Sounds like a one-way ticket to the Boneyard. More to come...

Pardon the Homerism

So, we never began this project with the intention of turning it into a polistic meditation on local sports teams, our individual hopes and fears, combined with a glaring distaste for divisional, regional, and historical rivals. In fact, the original intent was to be as anonymously mysterious as possible as to our whereabouts, affiliations, and orientation. We were to utilize this literary platform as an outlet to express our opinions, realize our creative capacities, and in some instances, just blow off some steam.


However, it seems that the playoffs bring out the animal within us all, forcing our passions to the forefront and bumping the balancing tendencies of our wisdom to the back of the bus. Our victory-starved attentions are devoted strictly to the prize at hand and we cannot be concerned with the menial details that often command our excitement-seeking minds, that are so easily led to wander during the stillness of the pre-elite season.

But the question is begged, does this apparent bias necessarily impact the quality and output of the project at hand, specifically the material put forth on this blog? The blogosphere is rife with sites devoted specifically to local coverage, and while some are crass exercises in over-the-top, manicheanism, specialization should not be dismissed outright. After all, while proximity can certainly restrain one from seeing the big picture, it can also produce a valuable microscopic viewpoint that allows the casual viewer the insight into the details that make a team or individual support-worthy and/or worthy of disdain... or even indifference.

What is more, is it easier to present a less biased scope of material if you happen to reside in an area, or if your support rests in an historically unsuccessful region? It is an absolute rule, that when your hometown team is not performing, your interest, and interest at large, declines. Call it being a fair-weather fan, but this phenomenon is completely natural. Sure, you still love your team, but in order to maintain a heightened interest in your sport of choice, you latch onto different aspects of the game. Maybe you begin closely following just one player from your team (In 2006, I became an early Rondo advocate in lieu of the C's dreadful performances) players from other teams in the league (the year prior I became a big Nash fan). It is almost as if your love of the game, while not allowing you to continuously support the floating turd that is your home team, pushes you toward something positive within that game. For the positive force of pulling for something, is so much greater than the negative energy of pushing against something. Generally, speaking.

On the flip side, and forgive this, but if you live in Boston where the Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics have been having great success in recent years, the positive is provided to you without needing to hit the road in search of a new object in which to invest your passion. Therefore, your passions are occupied with something familiar, which you have essentially been trained, and even brain-washed, to love throughout your entire life. And so, you enjoy talking about it, and you are capable of doing so, and therefore, you do so. And if you are good at it, well then maybe you open a new minds in the process, or at least spur some healthy debate.

I am not saying that this validates the noticeable turn in content on this site. However, I am saying that there is a reason, which is at the very least is debatable, and should not be dismissed in this case. We will strive toward the objective more and more in the future as we mature, but allegiances will be apparent regardless of our best practices, and biases will be presented no matter how hard we fight against them. However, unless these tendencies lead to a clear and demonstrable reduction in quality of content, then all normative judgments should be left aside... and/or to yours truly.

MLB Divisional Previews

This week we here at FSD will be bringing you all that you need to know about the upcoming baseball season, division by division. We will tell you how each team will do, how the divisions will shape up, as well as how low Jason Varitek's batting average will drop to this season. Next!

Angels In the Outhouse (Because they're surrounded by shit)
What can be said about the AL West that should never have been said already? You got three below average teams who, lately, have just been downright putrid. Moneyball has been transformed into an annual fire sale, the Rangers powerball system has been about as fortunate as I am with a lottery ticket, and sushiball, well let's just say it stinks. And look what we have at the top of the division, a team more interested in making excuses for their post-season misfortunes due to the fact that they are annually OWNED by the Bo Sox. So in essence, the great contribution the West has made to baseball in the last 10 years has been the Rally Monkey... I'm no longer sure that I have the will to continue with this preview.

Quick question before we begin for those fans of AL West ball clubs; have you even started reading this preview yet, or have you already skipped to the 4th and 5th paragraphs, as it is customary to never start from the beginning when it comes to baseball with you clowns? Just checking. Hmmmm... How will this spiral of suck shape up in the end?

4. Drunken Sailors

Erik Bedard makes $7 million a year to pitch occassionally. King Felix dominates regularly and makes a half million per year. Gotta love baseball because it makes basketball looks reasonable, and anything that is capable of such a feat should impress each and everyone one of us. Okay, okay... How can I avoid talking about the rest of this team...? Hmmmm... Let's talk history! Remember when Bret Boone came to the Mariners back in '01 and started tearing the cover off the ball? The previous year he hit 19 homers. The NEXT year he hits 37 and drives in 141 runners. Congrats, Mr. Boone, and welcome to Brady Anderson's "Wow, I didn't do a very good job of concealing the fact that I'm on steroids" Club.

They don't have the power to do any damage. They don't have the pitching staff to shutdown opponents. And they didn't make any big moves in the offseason in order to address any of these concerns. But, you do have the necessary nostalgia to get you through the first months of the season by having Junior back. Unfortunately, nostalgia blinds us all. And by the time everyone snaps out of it, the season will all be over and we'll be debating who wants to beat up Ichiro the most. Can't wait for July!


3. Mean Gene Oakland

Now, I really feel like I should be dropping these jerks even lower after what their GM did last year. Let's look at who the A's no longer have on their pitching staff:

Harden
Blanton
Gaudin
Haren
Zito
Mulder
Hudson
Lilly
Harang

Now, some of those guys never would have worn an A's uniform unless one of the others was traded. And also, it looks as if shedding some of these contracts was a good idea, but just look at those names! You can see how Bill Beane got his reputation, and now you can see why he is about to lose it, because I am not even sure what to make of the A's pitching staff this year. Now, I also didn't recognize any of the aforementioned names prior to them pitching for Oakland, so maybe he's got something in store for us... But I doubt it.

However, he did manage to make an absolute mockery of his payroll by pulling down burnt out stars and semi-stars such as Jason Giambi, Nomar, and Orlando Cabrera. Oh and let us not forget how he picked up Matt Holliday for one year's mercenary work before he goes over to the American League to play for either the Red Sox or Yankees. Nice work, Billy boy. Enjoy that return to obscurity.


2. The Gun Show

Color me absolutely intrigued by the Texas Rangers. I know. I know. They've been applying the same muscle-bound, brainless policies for about a decade now with little, to lots of embarrassing results. Sign home run hitters, let them swing away, lost every game 9-7 because our pitching is atrocious. Now, they really haven't done much to address their pitching staff. From what I can gather Kerry Millwood is still their ace. Stop. Read that previous sentence again. Okay, proceed... This year it seems that combined with the sorry state of the AL West, and the bats that the Rangers have compiled over the last two years, they could possibly make a decent run at the Wild Card. I mean, they won't. But, it's fun to think about.

Byrd, Young, Cruz, Murphy, Kinsler, Blalock, Salty, ANDRUW JONES. With the exception of the latter, these boys are all young and can stroke it at least on occasion. This will be a very difficult order to run through unscathed. The only problem is, will there pus-filled rotation and bullpen be able to preserve the leads that they will surely generate? Forgive me, but if you think that a guy named Joakim is gonna sure up either your 8 or 9-hole, and if you think you're getting anything but meltdowns from Spazbow, then I'm sorry, but you set yourself up for this huge letdown. And which pitcher makes the most money in the rotation? Vicente Padilla? Yikes. Here's your safest bet; in the early going, take the over anytime the Rangers are playing. Oh, and I was just kidding about that Wild Card thing.


1. The Whahmbulance Chasers

Big question; are the Angels, with the loss of both K Rod and Tex, weaker than they were last year? Bigger question; due to the appallingly low level of talent in the rest of the division, does that even matter? Texieira and Rodriguez have been replaced by Brian Fuentes and Bobby Abreu, both of which are probably the equivalent of trying to fill potholes with play-doh. But when the rest of your division is forced to play on dirt roads, you can afford a few cracks in the asphalt.

The Angels have a superior pitching staff to most teams in the Bigs, even with Lackey and Santana a bit dinged up to start the season. And even with the loss of K Rod, their bullpen is still solid with Shieldsy holding down the setup role, and even if/when Fuents falters, this Arredondo guy looks like he could step in at anytime. Not sure who their first baseman is this year, but the infield looks to be solid, as well as interchangeable (Figgins, Izturis, Kendrick, Aybar, Figueroa). With the lack of power coming from an aging and overrated outfield, it looks like small ball will be the name of the game for Los Angeles. But again, even if Vlady's caveman-like life expectancy should prove true and Torii never fully recovers his vision, the Angels should have the juice to wrap up the division, even though they're going to lose in the first round of the playoffs again.