Your list is here, and I'm freely going to admit this... I'm disgusted with myself for giving that bunch of losers even more pub. But #2 is a point that not enough people make, really. (NOIS, where are you on this?)
Your list is here. Bonus couple of things... 11) "No one's supposed to know this, but Player X is gay. I can't imagine anyone cares, but he is." 12) "And with Favorite up by 21 points with 10 minutes left to play, televisions across America are switching off our game. So long, suckers!"
After going a perfect 0-for-4 in the first round of my MLB picks, I'm dying to get back in the mix of things as part of our little game of humiliation. Luckily, with the points doubling in this round, there's still time for a rousing comeback. (Well, OK, no. But a man can dream.)
As before, pick the winner and the number of games. If you're right on the team, it's worth 20 points; if you are right on the games, another 20. One off on games gets you 10. Picks need to be in before the next round starts.
For everyone that picked before, it's time for your next round, in the comments. Remember, a free FTT T-shirt goes to the non-Tool winner, so even if you didn't get in last round, pick now.
Round 1 Standings
Joeski 60
BD 35
Andrew 35
Ninja 30
Klondike 30
DC Scrap 25
Vegas 25
Original DJ 20
Zach 15
Truth 15
SDuck 10
JCobra 0
DMtShooter 0
Update... for the record, I called Holliday's kill shot homer last night, live, before it happened. Because I Am Just That Prescient. (And because Micah Owings has ownings me before...)
In our little game, Joeski still leads with 60 points, but DC Scrap jumped 30 points to 55. Only three of us picked the Rocks to win round 2, proving that teams that win 21 of 22 just don't get the respect they deserve, really...
At the end of a remarkably entertaining evening in sports, I'm watching Joe Torre -- calm, resolute, and with the sly hint of a smile that says he's looking back in all of this even as it's happening -- handle the post-game press conference. It's probably all over for him now, and he'll go down in history as better than Martin, worse than Stengel. Better than just about anyone else who has ever managed a baseball team, but not good enough to keep the job in the most rigged game in town.
This year, as in the past half dozen years, he had a Frankenstein of a team -- solo homers, fantasy league superstars, bad defense and brand-name pitching that's just not very good anymore -- that was perversely designed to win in the regular season, and fail in the playoffs. It's the polar opposite of the Yankee teams that won. He even just cracked a joke about The Vigil that is sure to happen outside of his home once the off-season starts and the Death Watch begins.
The fact is that he got this team -- a team where a 45-year-old was supposed to save everything -- to 94 wins. He lost to a team that had the two best starting pitchers, which is what usually happens in the playoffs, let alone the team that had the plus defensive players. And while it's always true that five game playoffs are a dice roll at best, it's also true that he didn't have the better team.
Oh, and by the way, if he does go manage somewhere else, he'll be just another manager there, too. Because as good as Torre is, the players win the games. And the Yankees didn't have enough players to do that.
Meanwhile, big ballsy ups to Tribe manager Eric Wedge, whose support of the doubtable Paul Byrd and Joe Borowski paid off, and gives his team the same 1-2 set-up of Sabathia and Carmona that tied the Yankees up in knots. I still think Boston's better, but then again, I thought the Yankees were better, too. (Clearly, I know nothing.)
