I read today an interesting article in the Financial Times on the portrayal of sport in fiction. The main argument of the piece is that American authors have never been afraid to tackle the subject and have covered sport extensively, and well. Meanwhile, British authors have been far less inclined to cover sport in fiction, and have been far less convincing when they’ve tried. Reading this piece alongside an article from the Observer covering similar ground a couple of years ago, has left me wondering about sport in fiction, and how sport could work in British fiction.

I think the FT article covers the whys and wherefores far better than I ever could, but there does seem to be an explanation in the make-up of your archetypal American and British writers. Obviously we’re veering into a whole world of horrible stereotyping, but many American writers seem far more interested in physicality generally and writing appears to have the potential to be a rugged pursuit – maybe Hemingway’s legacy, maybe something older and deeper. It doesn’t seem so weird for an American author to like sport. And sportswriting on the whole seems more respected and something of a craft, and is generally better than what you’ll see in the UK (although there are plenty of exceptions).

British writers (especially of the literary variety), meanwhile, seem much more removed from sport. Perhaps it has its roots in class, maybe something else, but the literary and sporting worlds seem very far apart. There almost seems to be a distrust between the two.

Yet I still hope there is room for an English sporting literature. Sport is pretty much one big analogy for life and life’s struggles, and American literature has shown it is a pretty broad and reliable canvas for covering the big issues and themes that great literature should. And perhaps that is the key to success – the fiction can’t just rely entirely on telling the story of sporting events. On any given day the reality will outstrip the fiction on that front. The fiction needs to use the sporting theme in a more nuanced way. It can’t be all cup finals and gold medals. It needs to tinker around the edges, tease out those details that will make a meaningful book.

I think there is one major issue, beyond the literary establishment appearing not to have much appetite for sport. It is that the obvious sports to cover, football or cricket, whilst ingrained into our culture and microcosms (for want of a better word etc) of that culture, are team sports and so pretty difficult to write well about. There are too many characters, too many teams. Plus, with football the action is too frenetic. Cricket, as a pretty close cousin to the more literarily inclined baseball, has more of a chance, but there is a real risk of a writer falling into village green clichés.

I’m no fan of golf, but as a more solitary pursuit it seems a more likely candidate for producing a great English sporting book. All those long walks ruined would allow plenty of opportunity for soliloquies on whatever the author might fancy. Tennis or boxing as individual sports could work well too, as we’ve seen time and again in American writing.

Maybe a lead needs to be taken from the few successes of British sporting writing. The Damned United fused real people with fiction, and focused on one dominant character in a compelling way. Fever Pitch looked at sport from the spectator’s perspective. The individual within sport seems the more obvious path to success, both critical and commercial.

Or perhaps as sport is such a neglected subject in English literature it offers authors the opportunity to tackle the subject in a far more inventive and experimental way. As there is not the baggage of thousands of great sporting novels to live up (or down) to, it feels like there is a certain freedom on how to approach the subject in a way that would challenge yet connect with a readership.

If a writer could successfully articulate the frenzy of the football pitch or the rugby field, or the tribalism and belonging of fandom, or the media saturation and hype that surrounds us, or ideally all of those themes, they would probably have something pretty special in their hands. Sport is an important part of my life, and I think like many people, I like literature that reflects my life and expands upon it, showing me new avenues, or familiar ones in a new way. I hope something interesting on the British sporting experience emerges soon. I’d buy it.

Image from Galt Museum and Archives, via Flickr

No great sweeping theme for today’s post. Very little content or insight either. Think of it as an embellished placeholder post. Or some awkward filler. I would be a great salesman, y’know. You just want to read on, don’t you?

Tyranny of Stats

I know I harped on about stats the other week, saying how wonderful they are and all that stuff, but they have a dark side, dear reader. And that dark side in WordPress (and I imagine every other blogging platform) presents itself in checking the stats over and over to see if anyone is reading. Get a spike in numbers and feel the endorphins flood your system. People are reading your work! Hurrah! So, you check again and again, to replicate that feeling, get another rush. Nobody interested? You check just as much – you are always just one heavyweight incoming link or Freshly Pressed listing away from that bar chart looking much healthier.

It is not the most constructive behaviour. But I do think it is probably a good motivator to write more. I know success makes me want to write again, and writing helps stave any tetchiness I might have about having zero views that day.

But it probably shouldn’t be the only motivator, or I’ll end up with linkbait-y rubbish, or needy rubbish, or ill-conceived/planned/executed rubbish like this post. Yes, it has been a slow day, stats-wise.

Gone to Lunch

I remember getting my first job, in my mid-teens, and being a little disappointed that I wouldn’t get paid for my lunch break. Obviously some of this was down to a huge level of naïveté about the working world, but in my defence there was an expectation from the employer that I remain on the premises through said lunch break and generally be on hand. Which seemed like a pretty bum deal for £2.22 an hour. Or £0.00 an hour for my lunch break.

So, I’ve always been a little protective of my lunch hour. I’ve read enough stories of bacteria-infected desks and that the average actual lunchtime taken is 22 minutes or whatever to know that you have to be proactive to keep your free hour free.

It is always good to set a precedent, so from day one in a job I’ll go out for lunch. Then there is no chance of being forced to work through it. Plus, I sit staring at a screen all day. An hour off is probably sensible. And if I do that from the start nobody will act surprised when I put my coat on at 12.30.

Now, heading out is fine during the summer. I can go for a walk. I can sit outside. If it is too busy, I can sit inside somewhere, and there is room, as everyone else is outside enjoying the weather.

However, the winter is more challenging. I’m less inclined to stay out in the cold, driving rain. The indoor-y places are full. But full indoors is probably better than damp, cold outdoors. I’d dive in a pub, but that would ruin the healthy drinking plan. So, I head into a coffee shop. And people are either consuming food and drink not bought on the premises, or are eking out a cup of water/tiny cup of coffee for several hours. And taking up precious space! Space for me! If they can afford a Mac they can surely afford to buy a proper coffee, or buy one more than once every three hours. Anyway, I’ve been on this rant before, so I won’t bore you any further…boy am I repetitive.

Fantasy Baseball Failure

So, it’s not that long at all until the new baseball season. And before the new baseball season comes fantasy baseball league drafts. And every year I try to be ahead of the game, find that breakout star, avoid that surprise bust. And inevitably, obviously, I fail. This year I’m leaning heavily on the Bill James Almanac and the Hardball Times Annual. Fascinating stuff, but I think I’m probably beyond help. I may just pick the players with funny names. Or those that are reported to be in the best shape of their lives. Or who wear their socks up. Any of those systems are likely to be as effective as my study, and much less time-intensive.

Wondering what to write next

As all the above illustrates quite nicely, I’m not feeling too inspired this week. I would ask for suggestions or ideas, but I know I am too unreliable for that – I’ll only ignore/forget them and then write some rambling nonsense about something else entirely, and disappoint you, me and my three other readers.

Image from OSU Special Collections & Archives, via Flickr

I’ve always had a hunch that proof is better than assumption. Which is a pretty silly hunch to have, if you think about it. Or a rather sensible one, I don’t know. Maybe I should test it or something.

Anyway, for some time I’ve kind of flown the evidence flag at work and elsewhere. I remember having battles of a sort with marketing teams who were convinced they knew what a particular demographic wanted, despite having no stats to back it up or any anecdotal or qualitative evidence from that group. As far as I can tell, they’d never even met this particular group of people, and had no inclination to do so. They just knew. They were experts. They had qualifications, experience, a feel for such things.

I was much happier looking for some evidence and letting that inform what I did. Maybe I just wasn’t as confident as they were in my own abilities, or in my gut instinct. But I think I just figured that actually seeing what happens was more robust than working on a set of assumptions or basing any decision on how I think, or what I’d like.

Working around evidence and stats and suchlike has been a whole lot easier because I’ve worked mainly in web-based roles, so there is already a lot of analytics-y stuff at my fingertips. Plus I’ve found quoting concrete facts like “95% of people leave your page in 10 seconds” holds a lot more weight in meetings than “I’m not really feeling your page”. Taking all that personal preference stuff out of the equation makes it harder to argue. Objectivity over subjectivity, or something.

That’s not to say I’m some sort of number-crunching robot. I never really liked maths. But I’ve found stats a really useful, and reasonably foolproof, way of getting to the heart of what people need and want. Somehow it feels more human and empathetic than relying on gut instinct or experience or whatever. Working in the charity sector I almost feel like there is less room for error. It matters that I get my job right. And looking at stats, analysing behaviour and asking people what they want and all that other stuff is much more reliable than just deciding I think we should do it this way because I know best…

All of this seemed to me self-evident (take “evidence-based medicine” as a concept, for example – I mean what other sort of medicine is there, or should there be?), but as I said, it was a bit of a hunch. So, it was a relief  of sorts to read Moneyball and see that this philosophy was already pretty well accepted and proved in some quarters.

For those you who have no knowledge of Moneyball or the principles it promoted, or just want to read me flail around trying to explain it, the book chronicles the shift in thinking in baseball from gut instinct and experience to looking for proof. Essentially, how the Oakland Athletics and others moved from scouts to stats. A scout might see a player and think he looks great, but that might not turn out to be the case. Alternatively, a player might not look the part, but stats of his performance might show him to be more effective than appearances suggest. And that gave smaller clubs an advantage – they could spot the players who were good, but not obviously so.

Anyway, Moneyball principles have been applied to all sorts of areas and it seems like evidence-based work is more popular than ever. Knowledge really is power, it seems, to fall back on a comfy cliché.

And I was pleased to read yet more evidence for this kind of stuff, this time from a psychological perspective, in the New York Review of Books review of Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow. The book, and the review, are about ‘cognitive illusions’, ” false belief that we intuitively accept as true”. Kahneman argues that we have two modes of organising and accessing knowledge, System One and System Two.

System One is the intuitive, instinctive mode – where we can instantly come to a decision. This obviously had evolutionary benefits way back when big beasts were out to eat us and seems to happen with very little effort. System Two is more reflective and conscious and critical. This is the mode that finds evidence to help make a decision. Yet System Two involves effort and time, and we’re lazy. Hence System One so often wins out and we’re left with an “illusion of validity”.

Well, that’s my summary of a book review of a book I haven’t yet read, from an author I hadn’t even heard from this morning, psychology not really being my strongpoint. But it appeared to back up what I’ve found and read so far, and certainly gave me a lot more to think about. We all fall back on System One thinking. I know I do all the time, despite painting myself as Mr Evidence or whatever. But I think I feel even more likely to push myself to be less lazy, and think I now have a tinier idea why I should too.

And perhaps it explains some of our behaviour, and trends in behaviour, too – although I’m aware I’m at risk of taking something of an ill-educated leap here. It certainly made me think about this interesting, and dare I say inspirational, post on the future of blogging. Blogging may be less popular, less cool and less widespread than it previously was, but it is no less vital. It feels very much like the thoughtful, considered System Two of social media to the more immediate and frankly easier System One of Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr et al. The latter can be maintained with a few words, a few clicks and we can fall back on instant thought or curation of others’ work rather than our own creativity. Blogging, however, takes much more effort – but is probably more worthwhile and rewarding for it.

I’m quietly hopeful that Moneyball/System Two/whatever-you-want-to-call-it thinking has a future, be it in the workplace, the sports field or in social media. But I do think there is still work in convincing people that this philosophy is just as human, and just as meaningful, as any gut reaction or thought based on experience. Illusions and assumptions are there to be challenged. In being the most effective means of working, we hopefully reach and help more people, and in a better way. And used right, that can’t be a bad thing.

• Top image from the National Archives, via Flickr
• Men with car image from the Reanimation Library
• Baseball image from State Library and Archives of Florida, via Flickr
• Man vs Machine image from the Reanimation Library

And even when it comes to non-heroes, but still famous people, I think they are best avoided. I met Emma Bunton, Baby Spice, a year or two ago. She seemed perfectly pleasant and polite but I pretty much froze. How do you make small talk with a famous person? I couldn’t exactly use my trusty small-talk gambit of “So, what do you do then?” She’d think I was taking the piss. And if I acknowledged the famousness, she’d probably think I was taking the piss too. It was a small taste of how odd it must be to be a well-known face.

So, I probably need to work on my famous-person-small-talk-plan, for if and when I meet someone else well-known.

Or, alternatively, I can hide indoors and play around on the internet. But whaddya know? The internet is full of famous people too. Especially Twitter.

However, the inherent anonymousness, or at least detachment, of the internet makes it less scary. I can plan and plot my sentences. And Mr or Mrs Famous Person has put themselves out there. They are happy to be pestered. Or they can just ignore it.

R.A. Dickey plays baseball for my favourite team, the non-all-conquering New York Mets. He is a knuckleball pitcher. For those unfamiliar with baseball, a knuckleballer is much like a spin bowler in cricket, using a slower ball with added movement to fox their opponent, rather than relying on sheer pace. They are also, much like many spin bowlers, quite often lively characters, and sadly a bit of an endangered species.

Dickey is certainly a fascinating character. He is not your average sportsman. He is missing a ulnar collateral ligament and so really shouldn’t be in any position to throw a ball, let alone be an elite pitcher. He is also an English Literature graduate and a big reader. And he appears to be the most eloquent sportsman ever.

And…he is on Twitter and regularly answers questions from his followers. I figured I’d feel my famous person fear and do it anyway. I’d take the plunge through the safe confines of Twitter.

So, I started with…

@RADickey43 What's the best book you've read this year? Thanks in advance for any answer!—
Steve (@untilnextyear) August 17, 2011

And was surprised and delighted to get a reply right away…

@untilnextyear this year it's been frankl's mans search for meaning.—
R.A. Dickey (@RADickey43) August 17, 2011

…and so responded with…

@RADickey43 Thanks so much for the reply, has made my day! I'll have to check it out.—
Steve (@untilnextyear) August 17, 2011

…because I’m polite and stuff, and I had got a genuine buzz from getting a pretty much instant response from one of my favourite sportsmen – and a great reply too.

And Mr Dickey wasn’t finished…

@untilnextyear it's a bit heavy. But informative and enlightening—
R.A. Dickey (@RADickey43) August 17, 2011

I was discussing literature with R.A. Dickey!

@RADickey43 Just read a review. As Primo Levi is one of my favourite authors, this sounds like a good next step…thanks again.—
Steve (@untilnextyear) August 17, 2011

He signed off from his Q&A session soon afterward. I hope it wasn’t my incessant tweeting that sent him away. Or a fun Q&A developing into a minor discussion about holocaust literature.

But it was an incredible exchange. Just a few years ago it would have been pretty much inconceivable for me to have this kind of access to a high-profile professional sportsman, let alone one who lives halfway around the world. I suspect that is the same for many people. I’m guessing it would have been unlikely for Mr AN Sportsman to proactively want to engage with his fans on a daily basis, let alone be able to in the comfort of their own home/hotel room/locker room/etc. And even now, I can’t imagine many sportsmen replying to a “What has been your favourite book this year?”-type question with such an interesting, unusual and challenging choice.

If R.A. Dickey wasn’t my favourite ballplayer before (and he was certainly up there already), he most certainly is now. And I’ve got yet another book to add to the “to read” list.

After such a lovely experience I was somewhat emboldened.

Teju Cole is another author on my “to read” list, and in the meantime I’ve been following his rather idiosyncratic missives on Twitter. Rather than the usual day-to-day stuff he tends to boil down news article he has read from Nigerian newspapers, in a pithy and interesting way. It makes for excellent,unusual reading.

And on Sunday he challenged his followers to attempt their own “small fates“, saying he would retweet the ones he liked best.

I took on the assignment to summarise the rather odd article Scrabble: Akwa Ibom bars 9 players from Akpabio Classics.

My attempt was…

The Akwa Ibom Scrabble Association chairman, Mr Okoridem, chose his words carefully when asking nine renegade players to stay away. #tcsf—
Steve (@untilnextyear) September 04, 2011

I thought it might have been a little corny, but Mr Cole clearly liked it as it was one of the efforts that he chose to retweet. As silly as it might sound I got a real kick out of it. It might only be a few words, but for someone published and acclaimed to actually, actively, like it felt quite special. Perhaps my writing wasn’t so awful after all. Although I do worry about my comma use in that last sentence. And I think I’ve been muddling my tenses. But I digress.

While I’ll remain wary of approaching famous people in the big, bad scary real world I think I just might brave reaching out digitally again. I might even write a letter. If I can decide on who to write to, and what on Earth I might have to say to them.

Any tales to tell?

Image by Paul Hadsall, via Flickr

Anyway, in the absence of any real content today,  I thought I’d broadcast my navel-gazing and some possible future subjects.

I’m off to Lords on Saturday to catch the third day of the First Test between England and India. I am, understandably, very excited about this as it virtually guaranteed (barring rain, naturally) to be an incredible spectacle and sporting occasion. I also have the following Monday off work, so if the game goes to the fifth day I may well be able to catch that too.

I love watching cricket live, as there is so much to take in, and so much time to take it in. As the action takes place at a leisurely pace there are plenty of opportunities to people-watch, or to take a wander around the ground, let alone to observe the nuances of what is going on on the pitch. I’m hoping I will be able to leave Lords with a number of witty yet pertinent insights to dazzle you with. You won’t need a match report, there are journalists for that. But maybe your life has been lacking ill-considered insight of modern Test Match cricket, from yours truly.

Anyone following me on Twitter will have noticed I enjoy following the horse racing and making a series of monster 10p, 20p and 50p tips. When I am in a particularly frivolous mood I even stretch to a pound. And I think there is a fascinating article to be written about all the weird and wonderful amateur tipsters now populating Twitter. It really is an odd phenomenon. The question is, am I the right person to write said article? Probably not, but I may give it a go anyway.

Finally, the baseball. I’ve actually been able to consume a fair amount of it, either listening to the previous night’s radio broadcasts at work, or watching games at home. This year I’ve dabbled with watching some minor league baseball, and should make the time to record some reflections on it, as it seems really quite distinct from the major league version, and there may even be some kind of point to be made about different levels of sport generally, or something.

I should also perhaps try to find the time to restart my weekly (-ish) baseball column. I will have to offer a huge apology to the good staff of BaseballGB for letting them down this season and see if they will have me back.

And it won’t be long before the new football season is upon us…

It is great to have some ideas in mind, and I have a few non-sporting ones too. But still I use the scoundrel’s excuse of lack of time. Work has been busy and stressful for reasons I’d love to tell you about, but am probably wise not to. Free time has been limited, holiday time non-existent. But maybe with a little motivation and a little inspiration something of interest might pop up soon that isn’t bacon-based gobbledygook.

Image from the US National Archives, via Flickr

Today’s reading is the New Yorker profile of the New York Mets’ chairman and chief executive, Fred Wilpon.

I am currently mulling over:

a) is it a good thing for a team’s owner to run down his best players and call the team “shitty” in the name of honesty and transparency?

or

b) will these comments just make the Mets appear even more of a joke than they already are?

Anyway, in place of any actual analysis¹, I figured I’d just throw up this Family Guy clip.

1. I remember a time when blogs were far more of a dumping ground for stuff. There would often be several short posts a day, or random images, or videos. It seems now that many blogs (at least the ones I read) are far more focused on proper posts, generally of a half-decent length. I guess the random mess of media stuff is now more Tumblr’s realm, plus Twitter has kind of run away with that whole short update, micro-blog thing, eh? Still, sometimes I think I should just throw up odd things here, in the name of keeping the ol’ blog updated, rather than worrying about word counts, or making sure my blog posts have substance or whatever other nonsense. This is a pretty shambolic blog anyway, so I shouldn’t really worry about maintaining its purity or purpose or whatever. However, if me throwing up slapdash stuff like this offends, do let me know, dear reader, through the usual channels. I can’t really decide what sort of format or style I prefer. I love blogs that have real guts and substance and content. I marvel at their ongoing efforts, at their ability to find the time to write something meaningful, their willingness to plan and rewrite, and to not ramble in the manner of this rather indulgent footnote. Yet, I guess I’m happy with any sort of post from my favourite bloggers, and any sort of post, no matter how small or inconsequential, is better than silence. I get mopey when my favourite bloggers are silent. Hmm. I’m not sure where this footnote is going, so bravo if you’re still reading. That’s probably enough, right? 

I will cite the scoundrel’s defence of being busy, although I know that isn’t really a meaningful and acceptable excuse. Last week, I admit, I was part of an am dram production, not only treading the boards, but also helping with set building and then general scene shifting during the performances themselves, under the ever-organised/helpful supervision of my stage manager wife.

I’d even planned some kind of post about the Amateur Theatre Experience, or some such nonsense, but you know how it is. It never happened.

This week…well, there’s been work and catching up on Real Life, but nothing dramatic. However, I thought it might be fun, or would at least pad out the blog and get one post up this week, if I outlined what I’ve  been enjoying of late and then leave it to you good folks to run with it in the comments, should you desire.

What I’ve been eating…

Never fear, the Hot Sauce Odyssey will continue. As I’m considering hot sauce in the broadest sense of the term, I’ve certainly got enough hot sauce experiences to blog about. While it may not be of interest to any regular readers, I can but hope that further posts attract other hot sauce social media departments.

I went to Herman Ze German, the food was as good as the stereotyping.

What I’ve been drinking…

Nothing to really warrant a further booze review. While I would like to rectify this situation, I am also aware of my developing Newly-Wed-Comfort-Weight, so should really knuckle down to some healthy livin’ so I don’t balloon out too much.

What I’ve been listening to…

I have been bingeing on This American Life episodes lately, as I’m sure most right-thinking people with plenty of earphone-time do from time to time. The Very Tough Love episode was incredibly powerful. Beyond that, I am starting to fixate a little too much on Ira Glass announcing episodes or acts in his deadpan/laconic/throwaway style. It makes me giggle, especially when it is a convoluted or complicated title. I am easy pleased.

I have also enjoyed trawling the Year of Mixtapes site. The Post-Disco, Pre-House mix is amazing. Lots of familiar tracks, but none have been overplayed to the point that they are cheesy. Some really clever production too, crisp, punchy, clean, yet undeniably warm and summer-y. These songs also trigger some Wistful Nostalgia Synapse or something, and take me back to some sunny, endless childhood summer. This stuff is like chillwave, but with tunes, and without bullshit.

What I’ve been watching…

Not enough sport. Never enough sport. I have caught a little minor league baseball, and should really start putting together a blog post about it. Lots of material to work with.

What I’ve been writing…

Well, apart from this nonsense, I’ve kept my Twitter account ticking over. I love Twitter, but it does probably stop me doing any worthwhile. I’ve scribbled some fiction-y stuff, but not enough to really say anything beyond that. Really I should spend more time on stories and less time on random name generators finding silly names for my characters.

What I’ve been reading…

Mainly the behemoth that is David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. Obviously, I’m about 15 years late to the party on this one. Plus, I think the internet probably has enough DFW/IJ discourse without me adding to it. But safe to say I’m very much enjoying it and it is not as scary or inaccessible as some might suggest. Parts read a bit like stand-up routines. I’d make a Bill Hicks comparison, but it’s probably been made before, and I don’t want to fall into the trap of lumping Dead Artists together either.

Phew. I wasn’t planning to write that much. But it’s still filler, reading it back. Just more than expected. My laptop is dying, and so is your will to read any more, I fear. Comments/thoughts welcome etc etc.

Image from Library of Congress, via Flickr

AL East

1. Red Sox
2. Rays (Wild Card)
3. Yankees
4. Blue Jays
5. Orioles

The Red Sox look so strong this year, particularly with the additions they’ve made. There are enough question-marks over the Yankees that I think they might miss the play-offs, but that really depends on the Rays having another great year. I think it could be really very close. As always, I feel sorry for the Blue Jays and Orioles – in any other division they might stand a chance of contending.

AL Central

1. White Sox
2. Twins
3. Tigers
4. Indians
5. Royals

This year will be Ozzie Guillén’s year! Well, probably not, but I thought I’d gamble on this rather than the more predictable Twins pick. I imagine the Tigers could be pretty competitive, but I’m not expecting anything from the Indians or the Royals. It will be interesting if the Royals start blooding some of their much-heralded prospects later in the year though.

AL West

1. Rangers
2. Angels
3. Athletics
4. Mariners

I went for the Rangers last year, and I’m sticking with them this year. I expect it to be a whole lot closer though.

NL East

1. Braves
2. Phillies
3. Marlins
4. Mets
5. Nationals

On pitching alone, the Phillies should storm it, but I have some niggling doubts about them getting the runs to back it up. I think the Braves have a pretty good pitching staff themselves, and a very solid offence too. So, I’m going for the upset here. I can’t see the Marlins worrying either side, and the Mets and Nationals seem to be in strict (re)building mode.

NL Central

1. Brewers
2. Reds (Wild Card)
3. Cardinals
4. Cubs
5. Astros
6. Pirates

I think this could be the division to watch this season, as the Brewers, Reds, Cardinals and Cubs all have creditable claims. I going for the Brewers, as their off-season activity points to them choosing 2011 as the year to roll the dice. I can see them reinforcing their squad before the trade deadline if they are in a competitive spot, and that will push them over the line.

NL West

1. Giants
2. Dodgers
3. Rockies
4. Padres
5. Diamondbacks

This should be another close run thing, but I can see the Giant’s pitching and experience gained from last year making the difference. I have the Rockies in my “overrated” pile. This will probably mean they’ll storm the division!

And on to the play-offs…

ALDS

Red Sox over White Sox

Rangers over Rays

ALCS

Red Sox over Rangers

NLDS

Giants over Reds

Brewers over Braves

NLCS

Brewers over Giants

World Series

Red Sox over Brewers

The Red Sox look the most complete side in MLB right now, and I have trouble looking past them even though it’s not really a clever prediction. I’m taking a bit more of a punt having the Brewers make the World Series, but I think the National League is open enough for it not to be inconceivable.

Image from jbcurio, via Flickr

I’ve drafted my fantasy baseball team (the mighty Pretzel Vendors).I’m not convinced listening to hours of fantasy baseball podcasts and poring over my Bill James book did a whole lot of good, but it should be a fun fantasy season, nonetheless. Drafting in haste, I’ll be tweaking at leisure. Or something like that.

I’ve renewed my mlb.tv subscription. They also successfully upsold me a minor league baseball subscription (for pennies, so I couldn’t resist). I’ll have literally thousands of games at my fingertips. I now have to (a) work out how to find more hours in the day (b) decide which AAA sides I should keep an eye on (c) fight off any buyer’s remorse when I don’t have the time (or maybe even the inclination) to watch thousands of hours of baseball every week. However, I doubt there is a better value deal in all online-sport-y-watching this side of a dodgy streaming site, so I should be happy with the deal even if I don’t use it each and every day.

But perhaps most importantly, the New York Mets have confirmed I’m their “tenth man”. And about time too. I mean, I don’t think they could do a whole lot worse, and they need all the help they can get.  Click-y the picture to see my swanky, lifelike trading card in its full glory. They even made a whole video about me, but sadly I can’t embed the thing. But you can make your own here. It is great fun.

As the baseball season rapidly approaches, I’ve been getting back up to speed with the sport. One of my new favourite stop-offs is the Eephus League website, which collates all sorts of baseball emphrema, trivia and minutiae. It is a wonderful, ever-growing treasure trove. It is also incredibly accessible, which is very welcome. There is as much there for the newcomer (which, relatively speaking, I am) as there is for the lifelong fan.

The website has a fantastic prototype for a baseball scorebook. Now, I love baseball and I love stationery, so this is pretty much the ideal item for me. I’ve tried scoring a few games (and I’m sure promised to blog about it a while back, but then failed miserably to do so), but I think I’d be tempted to do so more often if I had a swanky book to score with. It would certainly beatscoring with a few dog-eared, photocopied sheets.

No doubt I’d muck up the scoring, or end up devising my own unintelligible system, but never mind. It would be a lovely thing to have, and a lovely thing to look back on. Plus, the current prototype has room for making general notes on what happened, beyond the boxscore. I like the idea of scrawling fun little notes, and then trying to make out what they meant years later.

Anyway, for the site to print the scorebook, they need to guarantee that enough people would actually buy one. As I want to get some baseball stationery sooner rather than later, I’m spreading the word. Take a look at the latest update on the baseball scorebook production here.