Basebol

How can we talk baseball when the Stanley Cup Finals are going to Game 6 after the Penguins stunning, "Let's blow a two-goal lead, then tie it up with :35 seconds left in our season, then win it in triple OT - on the road" game last night? I know no one cares, especially Keith, but that's because you're all ignorant.

I had to get up early this morning, but that game was so compelling I couldn't stop watching. My insomniac wife told me all she heard from the bedroom was me popping beers and leaving the house to smoke cigarettes. Normally she'd have my ass for that, but when I told her I was watching a triple OT playoff hockey game she actually understood. I guess all the years of psychological abuse I've inflicted on her has worked.

Where were we? Oh right, baseball. The KH intern didn't come up with anyone else besides Keith Hernandez who won World Series with the Mets and Cardinals (however, the blowjob was delicious!), but I looked it up and it appears pitcher Al Jackson won with the '67 Cards and '69 Mets. But who the fuck is Al Jackson, right?

Anyway, Keith's last post is heartwarming. I'm glad my team isn't hateable, and I really hope he wins that bet with the annoying Yankee fan. Also, I'd like to add "Fuck the Cardinals!"

Is that too rash? Too immature? I guess. I mean, I suppose I don't really hate this year's team that much, although Braden Looper can definitely go suck a cock. (Is Looper still on the team? I don't follow the Cards.) It's the fans I can't stand. That's always the great equalizer when it comes to sports hatred.

Of course there are players I can't stand (Kobe, Sidney Crosby), but a lot of times it has nothing to do with them. Even when I like the players on a rival team I can always muster up enough animosity because of who roots for them. And let's be serious here, Cards fans are a bunch of stuck up know-it-alls. They're great, loyal, passionate, knowledgeable fans for sure, but they irritate me with that, "I can cite every statistic about the players on my team AND every other player in the league" bullshit. I've never met a Cards fan who wasn't that way. I guess it's because there's not actually anything to DO in and arround St. Louis except obsess over a baseball team.

Here's where it gets interesting, because as much as I hate Cardinals fans, I hate Mets fans even more. We're complete and total assholes. Well, they are, not me. I started thinking about this last week when Mets fans gave Joe Torre a standing ovation when he came out for a pitching change in the first game of the Dodgers/Mets series at Shea. It was an incredibly cool thing to do, the fact that Mets fans should NEVER be cheering that overrated media ass kisser notwithstanding.

It was cool because it went off script. The people at Shea certainly weren't Yankee fans, and the older ones remember how horrible Torre was as Mets manager, so my only explanation is that it was a big old Yo! to a hometown guy. Either that or they just wanted to make Willie Randolph jealous.

That last possibility isn't out of the question because Mets fans are assholes. They're reactionary, they're unrealistic, they're too emotionally invested, they're mean spirited and vindictive, and many of them are borderline retarded. But I can overlook that stuff because they root for MY team, and that's all that matters. And hey, at least we're not Cardinals fans.

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The second part of this post is supposed to be about Europe 08, and while I'm extremely psyched for the tournament, I can't handicap it. I mean, the Greeks won it last time, so fuck me up the ass if I can predict this year's champ.

I'll only say that I'm rooting for the Netherlands and the Czech's because those are my two favorite countries in Europe. Holland also plays a really free-flowing, pretty style that's pleasing to watch. Which means they'll never win. It'll probably be some greaseball Italians holding the trophy.