Super Bowl Picks

49ers vs. Ravens.THE HARBAUGH BOWL. Whatever will Mr. and Mrs. Harbaugh do?!

That's my pick, but it's too bad because if it ends up being Falcons vs. Ravens we can call it the Dirty Birds vs. the Murder Birds.
---

It's the first day of classes for spring semester at my alma mater, Miami University. That, coupled with the wheelchair kid Will Privette (@thrill21) rushing the court after NC State beat Duke and dropping this gem: "It was the dumbest thing I've done in college but it was awesome," made me miss college.

I love my life, have an awesome job, girlfriend, friends, dog and more. But college was the best wasn't it? I can't imagine how much I'd miss it if I was one of those who hated their jobs and lives and friends. Sucks to suck.

Going to try to blog more in the '13.

2012 MLB Playoff Predictions

WildCard Showdown

Man, I almost wish the Yankees were playing in that because it sounds much more exciting than AL Divisional Series. Nah, just kidding, WildCards are for suckers. 

Rangers over Orioles, 6-4

Cardinals over Braves, 3-2

Divisional Series

Or is it Division Series, I'm not really sure. Either way, it will be interesting with the new BBAAA format with B being the lower seed. The previous AABBA schedule was the norm for nearly 20 years of Divisional play. I think a dream scenario for the higher seeds is ABBAA. What do the hotels and airlines think of this with one less flight? The higher seeded teams sure don't like it from a business side because they only have one guaranteed home game in the first round.

Reds over Giants in 5

Cardinals over Nationals in 4

Yankees over Rangers in 4

Athletics over Tigers in 4

Championship Series 

Should this not actually be called the Pennant Series? You don't win the real Championship, only the League Championship, which is commonly referred to as the Pennant. I guess in the NFL they call it the AFC and NFC Championship Game, but in NHL and NBA it's dubbed the Eastern and Western Conference Finals. I like that better, but Pennant would be unique and baseball loves being unique.

Yankees over Athletics in 6

Cardinals over Reds in 6

World Series

So cocky. Only one team outside of America could possibly play in the series and we've proven over the last few World Baseball Classics that America isn't even the best baseball country on the planet. Whatever, part of being American is being overconfident, so I'm down with it.

Yankees over Cardinals in 6*

*did you expect me to pick another team to win it???

How are our Yankee Predictions Doing?

Pelle, Alex, Christian and I made 2012 season Yankee predictions for a number of different stats and figures in March. Let's take a mid/late season look at where they're at now. Actual number and projected number are below our picks.

Wins
Pelle: 98
Alex: 95
Christian: 96
Jesse: 102
Actual: 72/Projected: 95
Alex looks like the closest here, but Christian isn't far off. They'll need a 30-9 run for me to be right.

Andy Pettitte Wins
P: 9
A: 10
C: 8 
J: 11
Actual: 3/Projected: 4
Woof. Dandy Andy would have likely had at least 7-8 by now if not for his broken ankle. With a September return on the horizon, he's got no chance to make any of these numbers.

CC Sabathia Wins
P: 17
A: 18
C: 19
J: 21
Actual: 12/Projected: 16
CC spent a month on the DL during two stints but should have seven starts remaining beginning this Friday. No chance he gets to my number, doubtful he's at Christian's.

Phil Hughes Wins
P: 15
A:  11
C: 13
J: 15
Actual: 12/Projected: 16
Hughes, as he is wont to do, has been up and down this year. Looks like we were right in the neighborhood with his win total and Pelle and I have the best chance to nail it.

Mariano Rivera Saves
P: 41
A: 43
C: 39
J: 38
Actual: 5/Projected: 5
With his season over right around the same time the Knicks' was, Mo ended 2012 with 5 saves. His replacement, Rafael Soriano has done excellently this year, with 31 saves thus far, projecting for 41.

Mariano Rivera ERA of 1.50
P: over
A: over  
C: over
J: over
Actual: 2.16/Projected: 2.16
He gave up two runs in 8.1 innings. Looks like we were all correct, but the sample size was too small to accurately judge.

Brett Gardner Steals
P: 53
A: 44
C: 39
J: 46
Actual: 2/Projected: 2
Another Yankee out for the year. GGBG had 2 steals in 9 games before sustaining an injury. In that minuscule sample size, he would have been on pace for 43 if he kept it up.

A-Bombs (Alex Rodriguez home runs)
P: 28
A:  31
C: 33
J: 33
Actual: 15/Projected: 18
Woof, again. A-Rod is in the middle of a 4-6 week recovery for a broken wrist. Even while he was healthy, he looked old and didn't have much pop at all. No shot at getting anyone's prediction.

Derek Jeter batting average of .310
P: under
A: under
C: under
J: over
Actual: .324/Projected: .324
Jeter was on fire in April (.389), good in May, (.293), awful in June (.232) and scorching again in July (.346) and August (.386). If Mike Trout would just stick to being the future of baseball and not the present as well, Jeter would be competing for a batting title this year with Joe Mauer and Miguel Cabrera. Jeter's career September average is .324 on the nose, so he will look to finish right around where he's at now.

Yankee with most home runs
P: Cano
A: Granderson 
C: Granderson
J: Teixeira
Actual: Granderson/Projected: Granderson
The Grandy Man has 32 bombs this year. Cano is second on the club with 25 (after having just one through Cinco de Mayo). Teix is third with 23. Looks like Alex and Christian are spot on.

# of HR for Yankee leader
P: 41
A:  38
C: 39
J: 39
Actual: 32/Projected: 42
Grandy should hit the 40+ plateau for the second straight year if he has an average September. We were all right in the neighborhood but Pelle was the only one with the stones to guess 40+.

Yankee with most MVP votes
P: Cano (winner)
A: Cano  
C: Cano
J: Cano
Actual: N/A/ Projected: Cano
Cano leads the club and is third in the league in WAR with 4.3.

Three Gold Glove winners
P: push
A: push
C: push
J: under
Acutal: N/A/Projected: 3
Too early to tell, but a number of Yankees are in the top three of FanGraphs fielding rankings including Teixeira, Cano, Ichiro and CC.

# of All-Stars
P: seven
A: six 
C: seven
J: six
Actual: 4/Projected: 4
Whoops, looks like we were a little too confident. Granderson, Jeter and Cano started with CC also named to the team.

Yankees with 100+ RBI
P: three
A: four
C: four
J: four
Actual: 0/Projected: 1
Only Teixeira, who has 80 now, is on pace for triple digit RBIs. Granderson is close, pacing out to 96 with a current total of 73, but that's it. Cano (68) and Swisher (69) will have to catch fire to come close and may not even break 90.

Yankees with 100+ runs
P: three
A: four
C: four
J: four
Actual: 0/Projected: 3
Cano, Jeter and Granderson are all on pace for 100+ runs in 2012. Teix has just 64 and no chance to join the club. I'm going to act like FOX News on election night and declare Pelle an early winner of this category.

Yankees batting .300+
P: two
A: three 
C: one
J: two
Actual: 2/Projected: 2
Cano (.302) and Jeter (.324) should both be on the good side of .300 at the end of the season,  but no one else will be close. Ichiro is batting .312 in pinstripes but just .271 on the year. A-Rod is the next closest regular with a .276 average, but he'll need to RAKE to get to .300 in the few final weeks of the season once he returns. Pelle and I look smart here.

Numbers from my Trip to the Little League World Series

Michael on the field prior to Saturday's game vs. Indiana

This weekend, we went to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn. to watch my youngest cousin, Michael Ghiorzi, and his team from Fairfield American LL in Fairfield, Conn. compete. We left Saturday morning, heading north on I-71, then west on I-76 and I-80 to the small city in the middle of Pennsylvania. The team played in a pair of elimination games (after losing its opener vs. California, Thursday, August 16) while we were there, winning them both. Here are some stats, dollars and other figures from the trip.

50,000+- pins traded by kids and adults during any number of formal and informal pin trading sessions throughout our time there.

777- miles from Columbus to Williamsport, around town and back home.
28.1- MPG for the trip. Not terrible, but nothing to write home about...just blog about.

$32- price of the New England jersey I bought as soon as I got there.

$16.87- what I paid for a black velvet blazer at Kohl's originally priced at $225. Guess people from Williamsport don't have anywhere to wear such a thing so it was on mega sale.

12- runs Connecticut scored during the Saturday, August 18 game vs. Nebraska before it was stopped do to the mercy rule in the 5th inning.

11.5- estimated drive time round trip, in hours.

6'2"- height of Michael's older brother, my cousin Christian. Who we got to hang out with and learned that he's starting at FB for his HS Varsity team as a Sophomore.
6- Michael's uniform number.

4th- Fairfield's final ranking on the list of best teams in the country after losing vs. California (again, ugh) on Tuesday, August 21.

2B- position Michael plays.

1- nice person from Williamsport that we met in three days and two nights there. Mostly people were curt and just generally mean.

0- runs Connecticut gave up in the two games we saw.

0- hits allowed by Will Lucas in an elimination game vs. Indiana on Monday, August 20. The 49th no-hitter in LLWS history.

ConfessLINs [REMIX]

These are my confessLINs
Just when I thought I said all I could say
Knicks get dumber every single day
These are my confessLINs
Man I'm pissed and I dont know what to do
I guess I gotta give part 2 of my confessLINs
How we ever going to beat the Heat?
Darn near cried when I saw that last tweet
I'm so pissed and I don't know what to do
But to give you part 2 of my confessLINs

[Verse 1]
Now this gotta be the dumbest thing I think the Knicks ever do
Letting go of Jeremy Lin and signing a fat number 2
'bout that Knick on part 1 I told you who was our hero our hero
Jimmy Dolan just let him walk out the door for zero for zero
The first thing that came to mind was why?
Second thing was is a NBA team about to make me cry?
Third thing was me wishin' that I never caught Linsanity
And how I'm thinking about ending my Knicks relationship

[Chorus]

[Verse 2]
Looking at the roster, it's stupid, tryna figure out
A drunk point and one who can't stop shoving food in his mouth  
Said it ain't gon' be easy
To move on from LinsanityI gotta get over it
I'm going through my closet
Looking for your jersey
Talkin' to myself
Thinking how can I toss this outI pull out the hanger and I just want to put it on
Hold it close to me, I'll throw it out after this song

[Chorus]

[Breakdown]
This by far is the hardest thing I think I've ever had to do
To tell you, the Jeremy I love
That my favorite team just kicked you out the door because of spite
I hope you can accept the fact that Dolan is immature enough to do this
And hopefully I can still root for you in H-town
This ain't about your career
This ain't about your life
It's about James Dolan and his ego
Please

I just made this. I'm so upset with James Dolan and the New York Knicks organization. Also upset with the Miami University athletic department at how difficult it makes going to see my RedHawks in Columbus in seven weeks. But back to the Knicks... this is one of the pettiest things I've ever seen happen in athletics. It's been written a thousand places, so I won't bother retelling the story here, but it's heartbreaking to be reminded once again that your team is run by a child, hated both in the cable industry and the sports world.

Top 5 Meatballs of All Time

This blog started in fall 2008. Since then, we've had nearly 300 posts of varying length and interest. Some got a few clicks, others got thousands. These are the top five most viewed posts in our history, so read them now, before everyone else on Earth does.

1- Urinal Review, February 2009

2- Meatballs + Alex BBM Chat Transcript ALCS Game 6, October 2009

3- Our Nate Davis is Better than Your Nate Davis, November 2009

4- GUEST POST (Lube Tube), May 2009

5- What Your Dog Says About You, February 2009

So did we peak years ago OR have these blogs just been up long enough so good, older stories are going to get more hits? I think hope it's the latter.