Friday, August 04, 2006
Meet Your Blogger
Earl Sleek has apparently "tagged" me for some game, which I suppose I will complete. It also means that I am about to tag five others who I know will be annoyed at me for doing so. I am going to do a slight twist on the original game however, to make it more sports orientated. Hopefully that will ease all of our pain. Here goes:
1) How many fantasy sports leagues were you in over the past year (leagues started after September 1, 2005 only)? How well did you do, listing both regular season and overall performance (i.e. after playoffs), as well as the number of teams in the league.
• Football: 1st in Regular Season, 3rd Overall (12 Teams Total)
• Hockey: 5th in Regular Season, 3rd Overall (10 Teams Total)
• Basketball: 6th in Regular Season, 4th Overall (8 Teams Total)
• March Madness: 4th Overall (10 Teams Total)
• Baseball: Currently 3rd in Division, 6th in League (6 teams in Division, 12 in League)
2) What was the first jersey/sports clothing item you ever owned?
I believe the first sports clothing item I ever owned was some Montreal Canadiens pajamas. I loved Guy Lafleur as a child. He looked like Jesus on ice with that hair. The first jersey I ever owned was an Eric Davis Cincinnati Reds jersey.
3) Name your top five favorite sports books (fiction or non-fiction).
i. The Value of Courage: The Story of Jackie Robinson, by Spencer Johnson, MD (Value Tale Book)
ii. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
iii. The Boys of Summer, by Roger Kahn
iv. Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe , by Sam Walker
v. The Best Game You Can Name, by Dave Bidini
4) Name your ten favorite athletes of all time.
i. Jackie Robinson
ii. Mark Messier
iii. Michael Jordan
iv. David Ortiz
v. Warren Moon
vi. Reggie White
vii. Ron Francis
viii. Larry Bird
ix. Eric Davis
x. Grant Fuhr
Honourable Mention (Maximum 5): Wayne Gretzky, Muhammad Ali, Georges Laraque, Barry Sanders, Tim Raines
5) Name three athletes you secretly like but are ashamed to admit to for fear of ridicule (current or all-time).
i. Tom Brady, New England Patriots
ii. Hideki Matsui, New York Yankees
iii. Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames
6) The five people you "tag" are:
• Abboud, at SportsMatters
• Tyler, at mc79hockey
• Pleasure Motors, at Covered In Oil
• Lain, at Lowetide
• Cosh, at Colby Cosh
# posted by andy grabia @ 12:59 am 
Comments:
If you liked Bidini's book then you should read his latest opus: 'Baseballissimo', where he spends six months following an Italian semi-pro baseball team. His 'Tropic of Hockey' is also a great read.
Even though I hate these quizzes, I've posted my answers.
Also, hearing that you like Tom Brady totally makes it worth it.
I don't think you were supposed to draw up the "athletes I secretly like" list on the basis of "although he's a New York Yankee, his balsa-wood wrists helped me squeeze into the playoffs in my fantasy league."
I don't think you were supposed to draw up the "athletes I secretly like" list on the basis of "although he's a New York Yankee, his balsa-wood wrists helped me squeeze into the playoffs in my fantasy league."
If I had done that, I'd have taken your entire roster. Don't get mad at me because you don't know how to draft a team.
The Tropic of Hockey is far superior to The Best Game.... I mean, unless you like the NHL more than hockey.
The Tropic of Hockey is what made me fall "god-awful in love with the game" again, to borrow another of Bidini's phrases.
Ah yes, the value tales series. I knew I wasn't destined to be the first professional female bull rider when I didn't have an imaginary friend in the shape of a spur. And while Jackie Robinson and "Rags" were great, Terry Fox being afraid of "Speedy" and "Spunky" was absolutely fantastic. Excellent blog btw.
I'm responding to the tag in-thread because I resent being asked to spend my own bandwidth at the request of some random jackass.
FANTASY LEAGUES: I suspect this part of the questionnaire was designed to make me feel bad. So I'll just say that my baseball team (the first fantasy team of any kind I've ever run, not counting NHL playoff pools) is behind Grabia's but ahead of Fenwick's.
FIRST SPORTS CLOTHING: Another one designed to embarrass. In '82, at age 11, I went kind of feral after the trauma of the Miracle on Manchester and I jumped on the Canucks bandwagon for five weeks. It reached the point of watching every game on a black-and-white Fleetwood TV in the basement--and using magic markers to turn a T-shirt into a simulacrum of the classic Canuck tricoloured clown costume. Actually, mine probably looked slightly better than the real one.
BOOKS
1986 Bill James Baseball Abstract
1989 Bill James Baseball Abstract
1985 Bill James Baseball Abstract
The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (orig.)
Wait Till Next Year, William Goldman & Mike Lupica
[Aside from the James stuff, which would also occupy much of slots 6-15, other top choices would include Bang the Drum Slowly; Shoeless Joe; Instant Replay, which I hear is finally coming back into print; and Ball Four]
FAVOURITE ATHLETES
Gilles Villeneuve
Gary Carter
Dan Kepley
Grant Fuhr
Tim Raines
Larry Walker
Esa Tikkanen
Wayne Gretzky
Brian Kelly
Paul Coffey
ARGUABLY SHAMEFUL SECRET CRUSHES
Randy Moss
Michelle Wie
Dion Phaneuf
Well, the problem is I don't really tend to make a secret of these things. You could swap in Jere Lehtinen, Anthony Calvillo, or Darcy Tucker as honourable-mention choices.
I'm responding to the tag in-thread because I resent being asked to spend my own bandwidth at the request of some random jackass.
I suspect this part of the questionnaire was designed to make me feel bad.
Oh, stop being such a solipsist.
Post a Comment
<< Home
If you liked Bidini's book then you should read his latest opus: 'Baseballissimo', where he spends six months following an Italian semi-pro baseball team. His 'Tropic of Hockey' is also a great read.
Even though I hate these quizzes, I've posted my answers.
Also, hearing that you like Tom Brady totally makes it worth it.
I don't think you were supposed to draw up the "athletes I secretly like" list on the basis of "although he's a New York Yankee, his balsa-wood wrists helped me squeeze into the playoffs in my fantasy league."
# posted by 
: August 04, 2006 12:18 pm
: August 04, 2006 12:18 pm I don't think you were supposed to draw up the "athletes I secretly like" list on the basis of "although he's a New York Yankee, his balsa-wood wrists helped me squeeze into the playoffs in my fantasy league."
If I had done that, I'd have taken your entire roster. Don't get mad at me because you don't know how to draft a team.
The Tropic of Hockey is far superior to The Best Game.... I mean, unless you like the NHL more than hockey.
The Tropic of Hockey is what made me fall "god-awful in love with the game" again, to borrow another of Bidini's phrases.
# posted by : August 04, 2006 2:29 pm
: August 04, 2006 2:29 pm Ah yes, the value tales series. I knew I wasn't destined to be the first professional female bull rider when I didn't have an imaginary friend in the shape of a spur. And while Jackie Robinson and "Rags" were great, Terry Fox being afraid of "Speedy" and "Spunky" was absolutely fantastic. Excellent blog btw.
# posted by : August 04, 2006 8:56 pm
: August 04, 2006 8:56 pm I'm responding to the tag in-thread because I resent being asked to spend my own bandwidth at the request of some random jackass.
FANTASY LEAGUES: I suspect this part of the questionnaire was designed to make me feel bad. So I'll just say that my baseball team (the first fantasy team of any kind I've ever run, not counting NHL playoff pools) is behind Grabia's but ahead of Fenwick's.
FIRST SPORTS CLOTHING: Another one designed to embarrass. In '82, at age 11, I went kind of feral after the trauma of the Miracle on Manchester and I jumped on the Canucks bandwagon for five weeks. It reached the point of watching every game on a black-and-white Fleetwood TV in the basement--and using magic markers to turn a T-shirt into a simulacrum of the classic Canuck tricoloured clown costume. Actually, mine probably looked slightly better than the real one.
BOOKS
1986 Bill James Baseball Abstract
1989 Bill James Baseball Abstract
1985 Bill James Baseball Abstract
The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (orig.)
Wait Till Next Year, William Goldman & Mike Lupica
[Aside from the James stuff, which would also occupy much of slots 6-15, other top choices would include Bang the Drum Slowly; Shoeless Joe; Instant Replay, which I hear is finally coming back into print; and Ball Four]
FAVOURITE ATHLETES
Gilles Villeneuve
Gary Carter
Dan Kepley
Grant Fuhr
Tim Raines
Larry Walker
Esa Tikkanen
Wayne Gretzky
Brian Kelly
Paul Coffey
ARGUABLY SHAMEFUL SECRET CRUSHES
Randy Moss
Michelle Wie
Dion Phaneuf
# posted by : August 05, 2006 4:17 am
: August 05, 2006 4:17 am Well, the problem is I don't really tend to make a secret of these things. You could swap in Jere Lehtinen, Anthony Calvillo, or Darcy Tucker as honourable-mention choices.
# posted by : August 05, 2006 2:56 pm
: August 05, 2006 2:56 pm I'm responding to the tag in-thread because I resent being asked to spend my own bandwidth at the request of some random jackass.
I suspect this part of the questionnaire was designed to make me feel bad.
Oh, stop being such a solipsist.
Post a Comment
<< Home
