Why We Watch - 2008 Colorado Rockies

February 21st, 2008 by Tuffy

There’s 200 days or so of baseball to come this season and it can be quite intimidating to jump into the deep end of the baseball viewing pool.

To help, Refrigerator Logic is providing a list of reasons to watch every Major League Baseball team for the 2008 season. Anyone that’s read all the team lists should be able to pull up the MLB schedule on any day in early June and find reasons to enjoy any contest on the board that night.

Please join in the comments to add your own reasons. Tell everyone why your team is worth three and a half hours of their lives on any given day. Make us care and we’ll be there with a tasty beverage and an appreciation for what you feel each time your team takes the field.

Second Verse, Same as the First?

Jaws 2. The Matrix Reloaded. The Sting II. Speed 2: Cruise Control. Weekend at Bernie’s II. Blues Brothers 2000. Mannequin 2: On the Move. Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.

The 2008 Colorado Rockies?

Admittedly, it’s hard to follow up their first act: winning 274 of their last 89 games to plow to the World Series, where they succumbed quite meekly to the Boston Juggernaut in straight sets.

Everyone can relate on some level to the dream introduced and then deferred nearly as swiftly. The Rockies weren’t seriously considering the playoffs in August, felt predestined for greatness in September, and were planning their winter home improvement projects by Game 3.

It’s difficult to quantify the effects of this on the newfound fans in Denver. Do they drift back to their ski lifts without a second thought? Will Dan O’Dowd see them back in the stands and in the television ratings in the spring, giving him a little more room to work in July?

For the casual fan flipping through the channels, will the Rockies still resonate? Do we still remember the impressive young Tulo and lovable veteran Todd Helton and Yorvit! the Playoff Hero? (If nothing, we should remember the latter for his short-lived Saturday morning cartoon on CBS this winter.)

It would have been hard to believe at the time, but these Colorado Rockies are actually the most nondescript league champions one could ask for. It’s difficult to imagine connecting with those emotional heights again in April or May. Perhaps the first home game in Denver will change all that.

Still… hell, as long as it’s not baseball’s version of Mac and Me, it’ll still be a treat to watch.
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Waiting for Magglio

February 21st, 2008 by Tuffy

Today in Tuffy History: We wait for the Big Tilde to arrive in camp with a bit of tilde-foolery.

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Shameless Commerce Division of Big Tilde

February 20th, 2008 by Tuffy

Today in Tuffy History: I take a mini-look at a mini-promotion for the Mega-Tilde.

(Sorry, no mini-ponies.)

(Okay, one mini-pony.)

Posted in baseball, mlb | 7 Comments »

Why We Watch - 2008 San Francisco Giants

February 20th, 2008 by Tuffy

There’s 200 days or so of baseball to come this season and it can be quite intimidating to jump into the deep end of the baseball viewing pool.

To help, Refrigerator Logic is providing a list of reasons to watch every Major League Baseball team for the 2008 season. Anyone that’s read all the team lists should be able to pull up the MLB schedule on any day in early June and find reasons to enjoy any contest on the board that night.

Please join in the comments to add your own reasons. Tell everyone why your team is worth three and a half hours of their lives on any given day. Make us care and we’ll be there with a tasty beverage and an appreciation for what you feel each time your team takes the field.

The Hardest Working Man in the Business We Call Baseball

Meet Dave Groeschner. Having taken the mantle of head trainer from the legendary Stan Conte last season, he now faces a starting lineup that could have seven starters at least 33 years of age and a bullpen more fragile than a sugar egg in a San Francisco drizzle.

Also, Ray Durham travels on road trips snuggled in bubble wrap and crumpled newspaper.

If Groeschner is successful, he’ll keep the old and mediocre talent out on the field. If he can’t keep the elderly mobile, the young unimpressive talent drafted after the first round each year (as GM Brian Sabean dumped first rounder after first rounder in almost every draft) will get a chance to work their way up to mere sufficiency at a much lower cost.

Albert Einstein (the official cheap quote machine of Refrigerator Logic!) once suggested that insanity could be defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Hopefully, Groeschner can keep the Veteran Goodness healthy long enough to make them decent trade bait for Sabean to flip for the real future in San Francisco… Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in baseball, mlb, why we watch | 4 Comments »

Why We Watch - 2008 Seattle Mariners

February 19th, 2008 by Tuffy

There’s 200 days or so of baseball to come this season and it can be quite intimidating to jump into the deep end of the baseball viewing pool.

To help, Refrigerator Logic is providing a list of reasons to watch every Major League Baseball team for the 2008 season. Anyone that’s read all the team lists should be able to pull up the MLB schedule on any day in early June and find reasons to enjoy any contest on the board that night.

Please join in the comments to add your own reasons. Tell everyone why your team is worth three and a half hours of their lives on any given day. Make us care and we’ll be there with a tasty beverage and an appreciation for what you feel each time your team takes the field.

Crown His Arm

King Felix demands your fealty

2005: Shoulder bursitis
2006: Weight of expectations disease, shin splints
2007: Strained forearm flexor, repetitive pitch sequence syndrome
2008: Upper back pain from carrying the Seattle Mariners; pulled side muscle from catalog model posing; strained facial muscles from smiling so often after wins; cranial chafing from regal crown
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Podcast Pot-pour-y

February 18th, 2008 by Tuffy

Tune into the Treehouse Fort tonight for coverage of the weekend’s events, including basketball, baseball, auto racing, soccer, and booze.  Mostly booze.

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Why We Watch - 2008 New York Mets

February 18th, 2008 by Tuffy

There’s 200 days or so of baseball to come this season and it can be quite intimidating to jump into the deep end of the baseball viewing pool.

To help, Refrigerator Logic is providing a list of reasons to watch every Major League Baseball team for the 2008 season. Anyone that’s read all the team lists should be able to pull up the MLB schedule on any day in early June and find reasons to enjoy any contest on the board that night.

Please join in the comments to add your own reasons. Tell everyone why your team is worth three and a half hours of their lives on any given day. Make us care and we’ll be there with a tasty beverage and an appreciation for what you feel each time your team takes the field.

Don’t Be Negative

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
-Albert Einstein

Nate Silver at Baseball Prospectus continues to wrestle with the vaunted player PECOTA cards this winter, trying to get them up in time to keep the nerdy hordes at bay with their ASCII torches on their TI-89 Titaniums. (Full disclosure: it took me forever to get the flicker just right on mine.)

Unfortunately, he’s still working on them. He seems to have run into complications that are keeping him from publishing the cards quite yet. It’s still unknown what might be holding back the statistical goodness.

However, my spies have hacked into Nate Silver’s computing powerhouse and have found the offending PECOTA card preventing Silver from publishing all the cards in good conscience:

Johan Santana: 225.2 IP, 431 K, 17 BB, -0.74 ERA

That’s right; PECOTA predicts the move to the National League for Johan Santana will yield the first negative ERA in Major League Baseball history. Santana will embarrass the likes of the Washinton Nationals so badly that runs will have to be taken off the scoreboard. The cost to National League ballparks could run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

No pressure, big man. No pressure.
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Posted in baseball, mlb, why we watch | 4 Comments »

Baseball Chatterin’ Ensues

February 15th, 2008 by Tuffy

Just a quick plug that the ol’ Treehouse Fort podcast tonight will be all baseball, all the time.  Bring the kids if your kids enjoy vulgarities in 5 or greater syllables.

Posted in podcast | 4 Comments »

Why We Watch - 2008 Toronto Blue Jays

February 15th, 2008 by Tuffy

There’s 200 days or so of baseball to come this season and it can be quite intimidating to jump into the deep end of the baseball viewing pool.

To help, Refrigerator Logic is providing a list of reasons to watch every Major League Baseball team for the 2008 season. Anyone that’s read all the team lists should be able to pull up the MLB schedule on any day in early June and find reasons to enjoy any contest on the board that night.

Please join in the comments to add your own reasons. Tell everyone why your team is worth three and a half hours of their lives on any given day. Make us care and we’ll be there with a tasty beverage and an appreciation for what you feel each time your team takes the field.

Best. Anthem. Ever.

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Always Take Tuffy’s Advice

February 15th, 2008 by Tuffy

Naughty naughty applicant city bid chairman…

(Chicago 2016 Olympic bid chairman Patrick) Ryan traveled to Qatar with Northwestern University president Henry Bienen to discuss plans for the Northwestern branch campus to open on the outskirts of the Qatari capital, Doha. Ryan and Bienen also went to Kuwait, where they met IOC member Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, former OPEC chairman and a member of the Kuwaiti ruling family.

Article 11 of the IOC’s Rules of Conduct Applicable to All Cities Wishing to Organize the Olympic Games says: “There shall be no visits by IOC members to the cities, nor by the cities to IOC members.”

First, how great is Philip Hersh? His 2016 videomindchiplog for the ChicagoTribuneEmbed will be fantastic.

Again, though, I must remind Patrick Ryan that I left him explicit instructions on how to handle this bid. If you need me to fax it over again, Pat, let me know.

Posted in olympics | 2 Comments »