Aug 2011

Sorry To Say, But We're Going Dark For A While

08/31/11 10:34 PM Filed in: League Info| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

Sorry to do this to y’all, especially this late in the season, but the SLPL Blog is going dark starting tomorrow (Thursday) and will remain dark for, oh, maybe as much as a week. All the Livernoises responsible for running this league are heading El Centro-California-way for our mother’s service … and the Livernois most responsible for running this blog and updating the standing and stats (a.k.a., me) won’t be back for a week. We’ll try to steal some time away to update standings and stats at least once early next week, but we can’t make any promises. Things will be up and running again for sure come next Thursday. Until then, take care and be careful this holiday weekend.

Hola Homestretch $20 Trades!

08/31/11 07:55 AM Filed in: League Info| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

You know you’re in the homestretch of the season when trades go up from $15 to $20. Welp, folks, we’re in the homestretch of the season. If you earned ‘em, now would be a good time to use your free trades.

$15 Trade Is Adios-Worthy

08/30/11 08:58 AM Filed in: League Info| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

The final hours of the $15 trade are ticking off. Get yours today, before the first pitch of the first game played today, using this form. Trades go up to $20 after that and stay that way until the end of the season. All trading ends when the playoffs begin.

Special Monday Morning WTF?! $15 Trade Nearly Bye-Bye

08/29/11 07:43 AM Filed in: Sunday Morning Wiskey Tango Foxtrot| League Info| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

Yeah. We’re distracted. So much so that we forgot that the $15 trade was about to become a $20 trade. When it finally occurred to us this morning, we checked the MLB schedule and saw that the Regular Season ends on September 28th. Since the $20 trade is supposed to be in effect during the final month of the season, and since today is kinda, sorta in that final month, trades should now be $20. But because we goofed and failed to give our ownership group -- the single best group of fantasy baseball owners on this planet, because we said so -- any warning of the impending change in trade costs, we’re giving everyone a one-day reprieve starting today. If you want to make any last minute $15 trades, you have until the first pitch of the first game played tomorrow, August 30. So, getchyer $15 trades in because tomorrow trades go up to $20.

Hey SLPL Blog Peoples, Whiskey?! Tango?! Foxtrot?!

Sunday Morning WTF?! Indians Fans!

08/28/11 09:23 AM Filed in: Sunday Morning Wiskey Tango Foxtrot| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

I’m a Cleveland Indians fan. Lifelong. Love my Tribe, without a doubt. But I’m also ambivalent about my fellow Indians fans. I loved them -- every single on of them -- when I went to my first Indians game in Cleveland, Game 5 of the 1995 World Series. I hugged and high-fived more fellow Tribe fans that night than I had ever even met before then. Then I detested my fellow fans for relentlessly booing Jim Thome -- that very same Jim Thome who was the hero of that very same Game 5 -- every time he stepped up to the plate as a non-Indian. While I’m jazzed that Thome is back with the Indians and will likely go into the Hall-of-Fame wearing a Tribe cap, I am a little peeved that my fellow fans are treating him like a hero again. I appreciate that they would have preferred that he stay with them instead of taking the massive Phillies contract, but damn, they really should have treated him better whenever he came back. Like the class dude he always was, I like how he appears to have forgotten how badly Indians fans booed him for nine straight years. So, Whiskey?! Tango?! Foxtrot?! Indians fans! WTF?!

Ole!

08/27/11 11:03 AM Filed in: League Info| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

This bull’s not putting up with any of that, well, uh … you know.

Everything's Up And Running Again

08/26/11 12:00 PM Filed in: League Info| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

Everything’s up and running again. Standings. Stats. Etc. Oh, and hey, lookie! With some recent tradage, we’ve been able to bump the payouts to the Division Champs from $100 to $125. So, the minimum a champ will win this season will be $125. Sah-wheat!

We're Back … But RotoWire Is Down

08/25/11 08:25 AM Filed in: League Info| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

This SPL Blog is back, as evidenced by this here little blog entry, but now our stats provider RotoWire is down. RotoWire posted stats for games played through Wednesday night, but stats for yesterday’s games aren’t yet reflected.

But that’s cool ‘cause we get to highlight the fact that Paul Martin’s Cabbage Farmers have overtaken Joe Livernois’ Moammar Camacho’s, bumping Camacho’s from the top spot for the first time since July 22. Interesting.

The Blog Is Going Dark For A Few

08/22/11 08:31 AM Filed in: League Info| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

This SPL Blog is going dark for the next couple days. We’re headed to NYC, leaving early morning tomorrow and coming back late Wednesday night, so we won’t be able to update the blog or the standings or stats until first thing Thursday morning. Sorry about that, boys and girls. While we’re gone, do us a favor and keep a lookout for pitchers who hit home runs. You know, just in case.

In the meantime, enjoy this sweet triple play. It’s worth watching more than once.

Sunday Morning WTF?! Bad Training Producers

08/21/11 08:36 AM Filed in: Sunday Morning Wiskey Tango Foxtrot| Video| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

Today marks the beginning of my 48th rotation around the sun … and soon I will be the target audience for videos like this. Whiskey?! Tango?! Foxtrot?!

Adam Done…Baseball Participant

08/20/11 09:13 AM Filed in: Link| Just Cuz| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

Raiding This Is Gonna Get Uggla owner Sue Klinkhamer’s Facebook posts for today’s entry … this is a thing of beauty.

Many Thanks

08/19/11 09:01 AM Filed in: League Info| Just Cuz| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

The SLPL Blog thanks you all for the many kind words following yesterday’s tribute to our mother, Barbara Jeanne Livernois. We heard from you via Facebook, via blog comments, via e-mail, and via the old-school telephone. All of your good thoughts are really appreciated.

Hoping that he doesn’t mind that I share this, the following came to us via e-mail from Full Circuits owner Bill Cunning. It is representative of the types of messages we have been receiving, all of which provide great comfort during this rocky time:

I was very sorry to read about your Mom passing and wanted to acknowledge my recollection of her as being a very fine human being. As you probably know, I grew up with your cousin, Jim Cummings, and as such, was privileged to be accepted as part of his household. During the early years, I remember your Dad and Mom visiting Jim's Mom, who was very special, and recall fondly how they all interacted with each other and the pleasant aura that they all shared. My sincere condolences on her passing and extend my best wishes to you and all members of your families.

For fun, I’m resurrecting a video from earlier this year announcing the ’11 season of the SLPL. I provide it here because it prominently features the one-and-only Bobblehead-of-Lettuce, Babs’ enduring contribution to the league. Enjoy.

Finally, here’s a picture of Babs with league Commissioner Rube Furrow, taken years ago, just before Rube’s country music career petered out because he was too proud to play Kenny Rogers cover songs.

Barbara Jeanne Livernois, 1930-2011

08/18/11 08:47 AM Filed in: League Info| Just Cuz| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

The woman responsible for bringing into the world the knuckleheads who created this dopey little league has passed on to the Great Fantasy Baseball League In the Sky. (Though, if heaven matches the person, she has passed to the Great Kitty Haven In the Sky.) Barbara Jeanne Livernois, mother to six children, grandmother to a herd of grandchildren, and great-grandmother to a few great-grandchildren, died yesterday in Brawley, CA, at the age of 80.

While raising a gaggle of kids perpetually on the verge of a MacGruber moment, Babs worked various and sundry full-time gigs at various and sundry places, including St. Mary’s Catholic School, Central Union High School, Imperial Valley College, Coca-Cola bottling, and El Centro Community Hospital. Somehow, she always found time to attend all her kids’ sporting events and even found time to create and create and create in various side hobbies such as stained glass, painting, knitting, etc; she always seemed to have a project going. Barbara was also a lover of pets, using her home at various times to host dogs, cats, turtles, a duck, rabbits, fish, sheep, neighborhood kids, and other animals. On top of all that, she was a voracious reader.

Barbara is known to Santa Lechuga Power League owners as a past co-owner of an early league team. But she is best known to SLPL aficionados as the creator of the first and only real, actual, manifest Bobblehead-of-Lettuce, which sits proudly on the bar of league Vice President Pedregoso Rios.

To Barbara Jeanne Livernois, our mom, our grandmother, our great-grandmother, our fellow-SLPL owner, maker of the Bobblehead-of-Lettuce, all-round remarkable woman: We love you and miss you. You will forever be in our hearts.

Just Pure Clever

08/17/11 08:15 AM Filed in: GIF Fun| Just Cuz| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

I simply love this.

From Bad To OH HOLY HELL!!!

08/16/11 07:52 AM Filed in: GIF Fun| Just Cuz| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

While exchanging insurance information following their minor bender bender, Steve, Nate, and their passengers were OH HOLY HELL!!! RUN!!!

Cruel, Cruel Prank

08/15/11 07:44 AM Filed in: GIF Fun| Just Cuz| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

Seems obvious, sure, but how can you anticipate such things when you’re splayed out on a couch trying to catch some quick Zs?

Sunday Morning WTF?! Warning: Not Safe At All

08/14/11 09:12 AM Filed in: Sunday Morning Wiskey Tango Foxtrot| Video| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

Joe Far-Below Average. Not safe for work. Not safe for firing neurons. Not safe for eyes. Not safe for humanity. Not safe to play on your computer without it wanting just up and stop working. Not safe for people who care about humanity … or even just for people who care about cinema.

Still haven’t figured out how this sort of stuff gets made.

Riddance Of The Good Variety

08/13/11 09:13 AM Filed in: Video| Just Cuz| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

Head cases like this are just dumb enough to leave $24 million out of the pockets of their heirs. What a knucklehead.

[Insert Any Person On Earth Here] Tribute

08/12/11 09:25 AM Filed in: Video| Just Cuz| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

Former SLPL owner Megan Pierce passed this video along, thinking we might get a blog post out of it. And she’s right. We love Ron Santo, especially after seeing his son’s documentary about him, and we’re glad to link to the Chicago Tribune’s tribute video (though we wish the Trib would allow you to embed the video).

The only issue with this video is that it would have been just as moving if they had used old-timey video and various sound clips of any person on Earth against this Van Morrison song. Seriously. Close your eyes while that song plays and try to imagine any person -- saint or serial murderer, jet-setting rich guy or fly-infested, stomach-distended poor girl in Africa, should-be Hall-of-Fame baseball player or actual Hopscotch Champion at Mt. Clarissa’s Elementary School -- and tell me it wouldn’t be just as emotional. I’m not saying. I’m just saying.

(Speaking of Ron Santo’s son, remind me to tell you the story about how I got into an argument with him after he premiered his film in St. Charles, IL. Only someone in the front office of the SLPL could get into an argument with a guy on the day he premiers his movie to rave reviews. I’m not saying. I’m just saying.)

Mad Crazy Tray Skillz

08/11/11 07:21 AM Filed in: GIF Fun| Just Cuz| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

This guy has mad-crazy tray skillz.

"9 Is This Year's Lucky Number"

08/10/11 09:14 AM Filed in: League Info| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

Woke up this morning to the following message from Brandon Olivarria, owner of Kirby Puckett’s Good Eye:

Just a friendly heads up that my boy Mr. Cliff Lee does it again! And on my lucky day again! [Team That Shall Not Be Named owner] David Adrian wasn't a happy camper when I called him. "You bastard!” were the actual words! Not to mention Lee also tossed 10 Ks. Ya I'd say it was a pretty nice day!

Brandon’s taunts at David’s expense come on the heals of Brandon’s taking over first place in the Power-Hitting Pitchers Standings at David’s expense. With Lee’s home runs on July 9 and August 9, and with a Magic Number of 9, Brandon has jumped ahead of David, who has gained points for each pitcher who has hit a home run this year but who has yet to have hit the Magic Number dead-on for any of them.

Donate Your Old Glasses To MLB Umpires

08/09/11 08:04 AM Filed in: Just Cuz| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

I love whoever did this.

We're Back

08/08/11 08:59 AM Filed in: League Info| Video| Just Cuz| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

We’re back. After a rousing, hot, wet, rocking three days, the SLPL blog is back in business until, well, the next time we decide to have a rousing, wet, rocking three days. My dogs are tired, my ears are still humming, and my shoes will undoubtedly squish for another week or so. But, damn. It was a fine time.

On the drive home last night, we had to agree that The Joy Formidable was one of our favorite new live bands. Damned impressive for a three-piece unit. It will be fun to see if their recorded stuff measures up.

The League's Going Dark for the Weekend

08/05/11 07:47 AM Filed in: League Info| Video| Tip of the Ballcap| Joe Morgan Die!| by Pedregoso Rios

Lollapalooza’s in Chicago this weekend, which means the SLPL blog won’t be even remotely aware of baseball, Santa Lechuga, tsunamis, or most anything else that’s happening in the world for three days. Thus, the SLPL Blog -- including standings and stats -- will be ignored until Monday. If you send trades, we’ll process them retroactively when we get back.

In the meantime, tip of the ballcap to ScootTucky Plow owner Scott “Scoot Bigs” Allen, who sent us the following NSFW video. It’s a thing of beauty. The narration is the video.