It’s not exactly MeTrain, but it’s close

December 6th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

Anyone who likes The Dugout — and really, who doesn’t, besides people both dislike baseball and who don’t use AIM much — is familiar with MeTrain, Dontrelle Willis’ screenname. He’s one of the few classic characters our now-FanHouse colleagues have conjured over the years, and he’s pretty brilliant. I don’t always understand what he’s trying to tell me, but he’s brilliant nonetheless.

Still, MeTrain is just a character, a figment of a few brilliant imaginations. He’s not the real Dontrelle Willis, no matter what AOL commenters might think. The real Dontrelle Willis — now writing for Yardbarker — is a real person, with totally different pursuits, a real life … you know, nothing like the fictionalized version. Not at all. No way:

whats good everyone this is your boy d nice saying hello. As u can see im now part of the yardbarker family and im here to give u whatever u need in world of sports. hahahahah just playin, like i know anything besides baseball but i will say i do love sports and i love to talk about them so whenever u want to hit me up i will get back u asap. durling the course of the year i will talk about things that are on my head and things that u want to talk about as well.

.THE TRADE
Its crazy how it can happen anytime anywhere . Man i get off a plane in mexico with my family and everyone is callin me like something bad happened but i didnt know until my agent called and told me. I thought he was playin but then i saw it on t.v and for a second i was like ”damn for real” then i was like “well lets do it baby boy ” . My family didnt know how i would take it so they didnt know how to act so it was kinda funny. It feels good that someone else wants u but at the same time i felt like i didnt want to leave. But i do understand that moves r made alot in the game and now im apart of one once again.

It may not be identical … but it’s pretty close, right?

Case of the Mondays: In which suspicions are raised

October 23rd, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

The two-thousand and six World Series of baseball:

Kenny Rogers had some sort of a brown substance on his hand in the first inning last night. He claims it was dirt, fair enough in my book. Rogers was still quite masterful after it was wiped off heading into the second inning so, you know, if it was pine tar or something else, nothing quite changed all that much when he wiped it off.

But, I’ve had dirt on my hand before, wet dirt as he claims, even. And I must say it doesn’t leave a residue on my hands after I wash it off as was the case with Rogers (referring to the split screen of his hand FOX showed during the second inning).

ESPN claims to have reviewed tapes from Kenny’s first two playoff starts, and a similar substance was noticed on his hand. Bum! Bum! Bum! Perhaps this played into his 23 scoreless innings of pitching this postseason? Maybe, maybe not.

Enough of that triviality, my head is spinning. Series is tied at 1-1.

National Football League:

It was a Sunday of long field-goal kicks in the closing moments of competition for victory. Such as this game involving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Philadelphia Eagles. Or this one betwixt the Chargers and the Chiefs. Peyton got a little banged up, but still rolled on the Redskins. Pittsburgh continues to confound, dropping a game in OT to the Falcons.

Our Bear sat idle. We image Brian Urlacher dreaming about destroying this man all weekend.

The Association:

Preseason-ness is upon us. Please peep the post directly below this one for a nice little moving picture treat.

Case of the Mondays: In which PostmanR only writes about the Tigers’ celebration

October 9th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

Well, since E scrimped a bit on the trusty and faithful Weekend Fun post Friday, it’s only fitting I don’t do a proper wrap-up of the weekend, no?

Plus, a TON of stuff went down the last three days and all 14 of you that read this site don’t even glance at Case of the Mondays – it’s all old news.

So, the remaining text of this post will discuss the Detroit Tigers and their post-game celebration after they mauled the Yankees Saturday 8-3 and sealed up a spot in the ALCS.

Brilliant performance, I must say. Let’s start with Jim Leyland. Dude goes up to the netting behind home plate and kisses his wife and daughter through it right after Detroit records the final out. Then, a presumably drunk Tiger fans comes down for a kiss as well, and Leyland obliges. Love that move, really I do.

And what I liked even more was a large majority of Tiger players coming out of the clubhouse, jogging up and down the stadium walls and high-fiving and spraying fans with champagne. (See picture.) Don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything quite like that.

For a franchise that hasn’t tasted success too often in the recent past, that must have been a nice little treat for the fans.

Then, after all that, Kenny Rogers has to one-up everybody by hopping on top of the dugout and spraying a bunch of fans with champagne. And for a kicker, the Gambler dumps a bottle of it all over a cop’s head.

Honestly, I really thought A-Rod and crew were going to roll into the World Series. Which - as you should know if you ever read this site – we’re usually dead wrong with the predictions. So yeah, not surprising that I was wrong in the least.

This Oakland-Detroit series should be a fun one to watch – two hot teams devoid of the traditional/proverbial superstar going at it.

But yeah, good work Detroit.

Weekend Fun: Full Pigskin Jacket

September 1st, 2006 | Posted by PostmanE

In case you were worried, let me assuage your ponderings: Indiana is not - repeat, is not - a football state.

Our squad, IU, is perenially terrible; the small schools - Indiana State, Ball State, etc. - give suck a new perspective. Hell, even the state’s best (Purdon’t) are terrifically average by anyone else’s standards.

Thus, with the exception of tailgating, we’re a bit more excited about non-Indiana area football this weekend. The first glorious college football Saturday is here, complete with College Gameday, hungover roommates, a late tailgate, and loads and loads of exciting games.

Ranking-wise, the most exciting should be Cal vs. Tennessee, on ESPN at 5:30, but the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt-Michigan, and USC-Arkansas things should be relatively interesting, if not disasterously entertaining. Then again, as we’re tailgating from 12-6 on Saturday afternoon, the margin of football watched here might be pretty slim. Still, it’s comforting to know the games are out there, huh?

If college football isn’t your thing - in other words, if you’re a robot - solid baseball races still abound. The White Sox will look to hold on against the Royals as the Twins and Tigers test their mettle against the Yankees and Angels, respectively. Just for kicks, the Cubs are playing too, and are actually up 6-0 on the Giants right now. Whoaaa.

Also, if you’re masochistic, you could tune into USA Basketball as they complete their only slightly dissapointing FIBA World Basketball Championships. After the loss last night, it’d be nice to see Coach K, you know, try something different, if not for the purposes of the win, then at least to see where we need to go from here.

Scattered NFL exhibitions are around this weekend, too, but come on. It’s the first weekend of college football. Get to a campus - even if it’s one without a football team; hey, just like IU! - get a grill, get some beer and some tequila or whatever else floats your boat, and break off a piece of that pigskin. And we’ll see you there.