This little guy has been sitting in a tree outside of our office at work for the past week or so. Or at least that’s the first I’ve noticed of him. Baby Great Horned Owl. My battered four-megapixel camera did not take this picture.
Speaking of things that just sit there and don’t drive in runners from second base, how about those Tigers? $138 million doesn’t go quite as far as it used to I guess. That vaunted Murder’s Row is hitting .235, has only scored 15 runs, and is now 0-7 on the year.
This past week I read a two different articles on the state of Cubs’ fans in the face of constant disappointment. I don’t remember what the first article was about, but the second one talked about how constant failure can actually have a soothing effect on the brain. How when you don’t have to worry about the outcome (as fate has already determined that it’s only a matter of time until something Bartman-esque comes along) that you can settle back focus on the aesthetic minutia. Basically it was saying that Cub fans have more fun rooting for the Cubs, than say Yankee fans rooting for the Yankees.
When the season started this year I felt far too much like a Yankee fan, ready to scream for blood when the $60 million man doesn’t pull his weight. It’s no fun being the big money thug, especially when you’re losing. Where’s Milt Cuyler?
There is something to be said for the constant failure theory though lack of hope can’t be the greatest feeling. At our house, fantasy baseball has ruined baseball. All they care about anymore is their individual players and their stats. Well, not all they care about – there are still the Angels.
I played fantasy baseball for three years at baseballmanager.com which was super fun for someone obsessed with stats, as the scoring system used the real-time stats of your players to compile daily nine-inning game scores. Really fun, but I’d stay up until the last west coast game was finished to set the following days lineups. I probably could’ve told you within a couple points any American League player’s batting average against lefty pitching. And you’d end up rooting for strange things… Ok, I just need Wilson Alvarez to go 6+ strong innings then leave the game so the Tigers can come back and win against the White Sox bullpen.
You’d get a long fine at our house. That sounds very familiar.