The 2008 season started with the Red Sox as champs. They were beaten by the A's, who were beaten back by Boston, who were then swept by Toronto, who lost to Oakland, who lost to Cleveland, and so on, until we reached our current champion.
The Heavyweight of the Year is the team that wins the most title bouts at the end of the season.
2008 Title Bout Records:
| Mets | 23 | 17 |
| Athletics | 13 | 13 |
| Red Sox | 11 | 7 |
| Cubs | 9 | 1 |
| Padres | 8 | 6 |
| Rockies | 7 | 14 |
| Angels | 6 | 4 |
| Indians | 6 | 11 |
| Brewers | 5 | 0 |
| Cardinals | 5 | 5 |
| Reds | 5 | 5 |
| Dodgers | 5 | 7 |
| Marlins | 4 | 3 |
| Rangers | 4 | 6 |
| Blue Jays | 3 | 3 |
| Nationals | 3 | 5 |
| Mariners | 2 | 1 |
| Yankees | 2 | 3 |
| Phillies | 2 | 5 |
| Tigers | 1 | 2 |
| Giants | 0 | 3 |
| Orioles | 0 | 3 |
2006 Heavyweight of the Year:
Oakland Athletics
2005 Heavyweight of the Year:
Oakland Athletics
Ken: catfish AT zombia d.o.t. com
Ryan: rarmbrust AT gmail d.o.t. com
Philip: kingchimp AT alamedanet d.o.t net
2008 Stats
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For more information, please visit the Fairpole blog, or read the FAQ.
I took a lot of photos at the games I went to this year; most of them didn't make it to the web site. I thought I'd start posting some of the outtakes, maybe one a day, to help us get through the winter.
Here's the first one, of Akinori Otsuka, taken on April 16:
Akinori's balance looks perfect. That's interesting in and of itself, but I'm more interested in the umpire.
My question is this: why do umpires wear their pants too long? You always see them doing what this umpire does: pulling their pants up as they crouch into position, because otherwise, they might step on their own pants. Wouldn't it be better if their pants were an inch or two shorter?
Stand up. Bend at the waist and pinch your pants at the knee. Still pinching, sit or squat. See where your pinch is now? The habit of hiking up ones pants before squating is simply in anticipation that movement.
(I also think Rickey Henderson used to tug at the thighs of his pants when getting into his basestealing squat, and that had a big effect on me--though I also recall that he wore his pants skin tight, so I could be misremembering something)
He used to do the Nomar thing too - where he would lift his feet and bang his toes into the ground, while taking a lead.
I used to get a kick out of that.
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