Baseball dork

Don't look now, but the Tigers are five games out of the Wild Card spot.

In related news, the probable day of the tattoo is Monday, Aug. 1. I've decided to do it back in Michigan, where I figure they'll know how to make a Detroit Tigers tattoo better than anyone down here. This is, of course, if I don't chicken out. Or smarten up, depending on your perspective.

Long, but good, day today. Started with a rollicking softball loss, a ten-run spanking that was equal parts only having eight people mixed with not being able to hit the ball. I was especially guilty on the latter. I felt great at the plate last game, hitting a triple that was one of the hardest balls I've ever hit in softball, and then was anemic today.

Afterwards, it was off to Kiss Cafe for lunch, and I'm quickly becoming impressed with their food. Lots to choose from, all very vegetarian friendly and tasty. Today, I got brunch and ate for less than $10 and was very satisfied. My friend John came up from DC and we wanted to watch the Red Sox/Yankees game, so we headed over to Ray Lewis's Bar-B-Que next door. It was my first time there, and had mixed feelings about it. The atmosphere was strange, sort of too bright and fancy to be a sports bar, and I was surprised by how many kids were there. But like any guy, I enjoyed the TVs at our tables, and we had a good time there, watching the entire game. We were there so long that I ended up having the catfish sandwich - pretty much the only thing on the menu that I could have with my quasi-vegetarianism - and it was damn good. But fried with lots of mayonnaise, so extra laps at the gym tomorrow.

John and I are dorks, and are doing a special fantasy baseball competition for the rest of the season, based on this article. Basically, the two sportswriters decided to pick sixteen players each - one from each team - to fill an entire lineup (10 offensive players, including DH, along with four starting pitchers and two relievers).

John and I replicated this draft today (with Renee officiating... she hung out all afternoon with us, it was cool. I wonder so much about her, and about how things might have been different, and if I might somehow still have a chance with her, but that's for another, much whinier entry, so I'll leave it here in the parentheses so I can get back to my enthralling fantasy baseball story), and these are the teams:

My Team:
1B: Derek Lee
2B: Rickie Weeks
SS: Miguel Tejada
3B: Garrett Atkins
C: Victor Martinez
OF: Bobby Abreau
OF: Manny Ramirez
OF: Johnny Gomes
DH: Mark Teixeira
SP: Rich Harden
SP: Jeremy Bonderman
SP: Javier Vasquez
SP: Dontrelle Willis
RP: Miguel Batista
RP: Jose Mesa

His Team:
1B: Albert Pujols
2B: Jeff Kent
SS: Felipe Lopez
3B: Alex Rodriguez
C: Ramon Hernandez
OF: Vladimir Guerrero
OF: Scott Podsednik
OF: Andruw Jones
DH: Mike Sweeney
SP: Johann Santana
SP: Pedro Martinez
SP: Roger Clemens
SP: Jason Schmidt
RP: Chad Cordero
RP: Eddie Guardado

For batters we are tracking:
Runs, Home Runs, RBI's, SB's, Avg. and OPS.

For pitchers we are tracking:
Wins, Saves, IP's, Strike outs, ERA and WHIP

We're going to do it for the rest of the year and see how it goes.

I'm a dork.