The Verdant Dude

So I belong to a competitive Fantasy Baseball league that a friend of mine runs, and it's a blast! For those of you who don't know what Fantasy Baseball is, here is a wiki link.

Fantasy Baseball, and the most popular variety called Rotisserie, has been around for around 30 years now. I've been participating in leagues for about 22 years, and they are always fun for the baseball fan.  The league I participate in now is a keeper weekly Head-to-Heat points league with playoffs.  The "keeper" there means that we can offer players on our teams 2 or 3 year contracts within the rule structures of the league.  We choose players in an auction and each team has a salary cap.  So you have to fill your fantasy roster with real players using fake money. Basically, if you really want Albert Pujols on your team you can spend the most money to get him, but it's probably gonna hurt the overall team you "field".  It's all kinda complicated, but fun.

But I've been thinking back to a simpler time and I think I'd like to participate in an old-school 5X5 Roto league with a plain, old draft.  Just for shits and giggles.  So I thought I'd see if there was anyone here who reads this pathetic blog who would like to join me in this endeavor.  I figure if I get another 9 or so people who want to join, then I will go ahead and do it.

My Rules

• You don't have to be a big baseball fan to join. Just someone who thinks they might enjoy interacting and playing along with other like-minded folk.  It's all in good fun.
• It will be a 5X5 Rotisserie League, probably run through Yahoo! Sports. If you don't know what a 5X5 Roto League is, but you are interested, you can email me and I will edumacate you.
• It will be an online draft.  I'll select a time that is agreeable to all.  All you will need is a couple of hours in front of your computer sometime in late March to be involved.  There is an option with these leagues to set your draft order and let the software auto-draft for you, but what fun is that?
• The draft order will be randomly selected. Basically, I will randomly select the preference order and then ask each team, in order, where they want to pick. If there are 10 teams, then the team that picks #1 overall gets the 1st pick in the 1st round, the last pick in the 2nd round, the 1st pick in the third round, etc...  The team that picks last gets the last pick in the 1st round, but the 1st pick in the second round.  It's called a "snake draft". There is some strategy here. Some people prefer to pick in the middle of a round, some at the beginning, some at the end.  
• This league will only be for fun. No money or prizes. Just something to make the long baseball league a bit more interesting for those involved.

That's it. Everything else will be determined once I see if there are enough folks interested.  

Even if you aren't interested, maybe you can forward this around to some of your bloggy friends who might be interested.  I can't imagine getting 9 other people from just my small number of readers. But I'll ask through Twitter as well, and maybe some of you kind folks can re-Tweet that shit and we'll see where we wind up. If there is enough interest after a week or so, I'll contact those who want to be involved and set the whole thing up.  Easy peasy.

So what say you? Anyone interested?

I've generally ignored the "Shit ____ Say" meme or trend or phenomena or whatever. The first couple I saw were kinda funny, but they degenerated quickly into a tiresome form of comedy that just wasn't funny. And I generally like my comedy to be of the funny variety.

Enter Tony Plush.

First, a little background. Tony Plush is the online/social media altar-ego of Major League Ballplayer and current Milwaukee Brewer Nyjer Morgan.  Now, his name was already cool to begin with. Nyjer. He was also already the coolest cat to interview after a game.  And he is one of the growing number of young, black men in this country who also could have had a career playing hockey professionally.  He played semi-pro hockey as recently as 11 years ago before turning his attention to baseball full-time. Pretty damn cool.

But, really, it's when he slips into the Tony Plush persona that Nyjer Morgan really shines. His "gentleman's name", as he likes to call it. His Twitter feed is often hilarious (just as often...not), regaling us with his gentlemanly adventures. Either on his own or with his adopted cat, Slick Willy.

Since it's the off-season, he decided that Tony Plush needed to jump in on the "Shit ____ Say" bandwagon with a video of his own.

For your viewing pleasure, here's Tony Plush with "Shit Black Guys Do".  You won't regret watching this. Even if you don't enjoy Nyjer Morgan's fun energy or rather impressive baseball skillz.

For those of you with Netflix accounts, check out the full first season of Lilyhammer. The first original programming offered by Netflix, and a damn fine offering at that.


It tells the tale of a mob guy named Frankie the Fixer and his relocation to Lillehammer, Norway as a part of the Witness Protection Services.  He was forced to turn rat after an unsuccessful attempt was made on his life by his co-horts in crime.  He chose Lillehammer because of his fascination with the 1994 Winter Olympics that were held in and near that town.  It's a classic "fish out of water" story.  Definitely a comedy, but not outrageously so. The comedy comes more from the situations that arise when a tough NY mob guy has to adjust to life in idyllic, rural-sh Norway.

Steve Van Zandt riffs off of his character from The Sopranos as Frankie the Fixer turned Giovanni Henrikksen. And even though he is basically playing the same character, he gets to stretch his wings quite a bit more in this one.  His Frankie/Giovanni is much more interesting than Silvio Dante. Less and more dangerous at the same time, he is a man who falls in love with a town, a people, a woman and her son. Offering wiseguy advice and logic and learning a thing or two himself.

One of the interesting things about the show is the Norwegian cast. Van Zandt plays the only character who speaks English on a full-time basis. As a part of his relocation, he learned the language but not enough to speak it himself. So he understands everyone and they all understand him, even though they speak Norwegian most of the time. So it's basically a foreign show in subtitles. Don't worry, it's not distracting at all.

It's not the most original concept in the world. It's been done time and time again from Northern Exposure to My Cousin Vinny. But it works. And I'm fascinated by Norway, so it offered that extra appeal for me. 

The show has been getting good reviews and it has been renewed for another season.  But you can check out the first 8 episodes online right now.  Capisce?

I don't know a hell of a lot about Papa Mali yet. But I plan on digging a little deeper as he seems like a cool cat. Check him and the band doing "Early in the Morning" down below.

Dig.

Bennington and Gogo

I did this a while back with our Avery and how his name somehow morphed into Bootsy Collins. It happens with all of them. Avery becomes Bootsy. Wolowitz becomes Dr. Wu. Bennington becomes LG...short for Little Guy. Even though he's probably the biggest of the pride now.  But he is he youngest, and at one point he was the littlest.

But Gogo's nickname transformation makes me laugh all the time. Somehow, she has become Feta Cheese. Yeah...Gogo to Feta Cheese. How does that happen?  Let's take a look, shall we?

• Gogo becomes Gogo-Nut, because she's bat-shit crazy. That didn't stick.
• Then we start calling her Bobo, for some reason. Didn't stick either.
• But the "Bobo" gave us inspiration for Gogo Fett. Well, Boba Fett helped a bit with that one.
• From there it's easy. Goga Fett becomes Gogo Feta which, of course, becomes Feta Cheese.

See? That wasn't so difficult.

Dear God...I've become an insane cat person. Help. Me.

PS - Can you handle the redonk cuteness of that pic above? Now Bennington is large and Gogo is tiny, but that picture really highlights the difference. What you can't see is that he is basically sitting ON her. A situation that would normally turn her into Black Annis. All fury and claws. But she was oddly content for 15 minutes or so like this.

I don't know when it happened, but somehow Twilight Zone: The Movie went from "Holy Shit...that's the flick where John Landis killed Vic Morrow!" to that flick with Dan Ackroyd and Albert Brooks were singing "Midnight Special". I mean, I guess Landis didn't really kill Morrow (along with two others) HIMSELF. And he was eventually found Not Guilty in the trial. But, c'mon...that was the flick that Vic Morrow was decapitated, and there is no reason that I should have forgotten that. At the very least, that memory shouldn't have been replaced by another memory of two actors singing along to Creedance.

Memory is a weird thing like that.

I re-watched it the other night. Probably for the first time in nearly 20 years. And damn if it didn't start off right away with Creedance, Ackroyd and Brooks singing "Midnight Special". Just like my dominant memory, um, remembered. Then came the Burgess Meredith voice-over mentioning the angriest man in the world, and all of a sudden the forgotten memory of Vic Morrow's death came flooding back.

Now I'm set for the next dozen years or so.

But really, Ackroyd and Brooks singing together is a much happier memory. Until that damned tape deck eats the cassette. Thank God those things don't really exist anymore. Ruining a perfectly happy memory like that. And who knows? If it hadn't eaten that cassette, maybe Ackroyd wouldn't have turned into some feral creature and eaten Brooks.  Then again, it WAS a movie. I probably shouldn't wonder about "real-life" timeline changes like that.

Although that would be a fun thing too, wouldn't it? What would have happened if Beatrix Kiddo had just told Bill that the baby was his a bit earlier on? Maybe all those folks wouldn't have had to die at her hands.  And the movie would have probably sucked. I really have no idea where I was going with this.

Oh, there was a television show as well. I guess most people remember the television show over the movie. That's another place where my memory goes all spastic. I should remember the television show first, but my first thought always seems to be "Let the Midnight Special....". Blah blah blah.

Do you remember the Dutch band Golden Earring? They had a modest hit with a song called "Twilight Zone" in the mid-80's as well. They are more well-known for their mega-hit "Radar Love". I remember that there was this rumor that they spoke no English at all and they recorded that song phonetically. I dunno if that's true or not. I do know that I had the album, "Moontan", that the song came from and there were other songs on it. All in English. I also know that whenever anyone looked at my music collection back then, they would wonder why I had a Golden Earring album from 1973. No one I've ever met has owned that album.

Nobody but me.

Fuck it. Let's just watch Uma (and Zoe Bell) fuck some shit up. Tarantino-style.

"Pitchers and catchers."  Those three little words mean just as much to obsessive baseball fans as those other"three little words everyone knows about. I'm talking about "bacon and bourbon", of course.

We've hit February, and February is the month that pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, and baseball begins anew.  We are less the three weeks away. I can see February 19th on my calendar.  I can see it! It's coming!

And I can't wait.

In the meantime, here's a little story about a good-guy outfielder with a history of some bad game. Except for his exceptional arm in right field and the extraordinary optimism about his own talents. His name is Jeff Francoeur, nickname "Frenchy", and he plays for the Kansas City Royals.  Last year, he had his finest year in the bigs since his out-of-the-blue rookie season in 2005 for his hometown Atlanta Braves. The expectations many had for him after that excellent rookie season have largely gone down the drain along with his high strikeout rates and low OBP skills. Yet, he keeps trying. And teams keep giving him chances. He still doesn't know how to take a walk, but he hit for average and power last year. All while playing an excellent RF.

That story should bring a smile to anyone who enjoys baseball. And bacon, for that matter.  Yes, bacon is involved. Oddly.  And I actually watched the second game in the story last year, for one reason or another. I remember because the play described in the last sentence is one of the defensive highlights of the past year.  Something you rarely see, but something you always wish would happen. Very cool stuff.

Oh, and Frenchy has long been a favorite of mine and a favorite of others. Even with his lack of truly exceptional skills. Joe Posnanski wrote about him last spring. If you liked that first story, you should read Joe Poz' take on him as well.  Great stuff.

You might just become a fan of Frenchy after reading both of those. You should become a fan of his. Because he's one of the good ones. Even for occasional baseball cynics like me.