hall of fame, yuck!

So I didn't write about my thanksgiving.
It was great,
went to Las Vegas,
then to the OC,
where turkey stuffed with pork beats turducken in my book.

Didn't write about the recent games.
didn't write about the upsetting loss
that was Big Game 2007,
Stanford over Cal, 20-13.

Whenever Cal is favored by 2 or more touchdowns,
and its a "sure thing",
then guaranteed:
1. They won't score as much as they should
2. one of their big players (DeSean Jackson this time) will be hurt
3. they'll barely be in it
4. things will look bright for a win, until
5. Nate Longshore will throw an interception with 2 mins. left
and then 6. Cal fans will be hurting all the way home.

the story of the 2007 Cal football team.
I blame the hippies in the trees of Memorial Stadium.
no team can win
when silly hippies occupy the trees outside their stadium.
well, then I should also blame the Cal organization and university,
because who goes out of their way
to not incorporate a few trees
that are a hundred yrs old, thousand yrs old,
and who lets crazy hippies sit in the trees for a year,
(the protest's 1 yr anniversary was last night)
during football season anyway?!?!


that's real bad karma and luck and such,
and so how was Cal supposed to keep their #2 ranking anyway-
oh well,
they will make the Armed Forces Bowl,
and they'll play the Coast Guard or someone,
and be favored by 20-something points,
and one of their big-guys will get hurt in practice,
and then things won't look too bad,
until Longshore throws a pick with 2 minutes left,
and they'll lose.
so sadly,
I'll have to take the National Guard team over the Golden Bears,
especially if the line is 12 or more.

So on to the main event -
another one of my arguements about the
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME
and why it sucks!

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Five managers and executives were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Monday under revamped rules that created separate Veterans Committee ballots.

World Series-winning managers Billy Southworth and Dick Williams will be joined in the Class of 2008 on July 27 at Cooperstown, N.Y., by former Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and owners Walter O'Malley and Barney Dreyfuss.

Williams, who won the World Series in Oakland and pennants with Boston and San Diego, and Southworth, who won the Series twice with St. Louis, were on a ballot of 10 that combined umpires and managers and included former managers Whitey Herzog, Davey Johnson, Billy Martin and Gene Mauch, plus umpire Doug Harvey.

So they elected a few old guys -
why don't they ever elect the right guys?!
Walter O'Malley moved the Dodgers from the heart of New York, in Brooklyn,
to make tons of cash in Los Angeles, in 1958,
when the western-most team was in Kansas City.
He moved for selfish personal and financial reasons,
leaving a legacy of groveling fans
and a Hollywood-embraced team.
If that's not selling-out, I don't know what is.
He also forced out/bought out Branch Rickey,
who signed Jackie Robinson to a Dodgers contract in 1945,
and integrated Major League Baseball.
So he forced out baseball Gandhi, and made MLB on FOX possible,
that's not right for so many reasons.
Why does he get to be in the hallowed Hall?
Because he expanded the league to the West Coast?
couldn't they just have created the LA Angels a few years earlier?

Then they vote in Bowie Kuhn,
maybe on the sentiment that he just passed away this year (on my birthday!),
and what did he ever do?
argue with Curt Flood about free agency?
and then not go see Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth's Homer record,
because he had something to do in Cleveland?
and then put players on trial during the 1983 season for drug-use,
and not steroids but cocaine?
So he soiled the game thrice,
and three strikes, you're out, right?!
so why does he make the Hall?

and Dick Willams was a damn good manager,
but what about Billy Martin?!
he took the Yankees to the World Series a few times,
while fighting the wrath of Steinbrenner -
that's pretty good too.
and its the Hall of FAME, right?
Billy Martin is more famous than every guy elected today combined!
Who the hell is Barney Dreyfuss anyway?
why do owners who no one knows get into the Hall of Fame?!

I guess Bud Selig will get in the Hall of Fame someday too, huh.
He did everything these guys did-
he was an owner that nobody knew or cared about,
He let the league go on strike and skip a World Series,
he didn't go see Barry Bonds break Hank Aaron's Homer record,
because he had something to do in Cleveland (again? why always Cleveland?)
and then put players on trial during the season for drug-use,
So he soiled the game thrice -
GREAT -
let's put him in there today!
then I'll really not care about the stupid baseball Hall of Fame,
because baseball
especially Major League Baseball,
belongs to us,
the fans,
the people that pay outlandish prices
to sit on top of mountains called stands,
just to watch grown men
play a childrens game
and get paid like nobody's business to do it.

We own it.
We didn't vote on these jokers
(except Williams and Southworth, who were damn good managers)
because except for the managers,
who among us (not LA Dodger fans though)
would vote any of these guys into the Hall?!
I woulda voted Doug Harvey in most of all -
he made "You Make the Call" on TV possible.
Bud Selig just made MLB on Fox possible.
He should be put in the HALL OF LAME!
(okay, not my joke, but my sentiments, exactly!)

with love
from the Hall of eating and drinking (the Mess Hall),
Laffy