Since this happened, we should probably say something about it

June 27th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanE

College baseball. It doesn’t exactly get me all lathered up and ready to go, but it’s entertaining in very small doses, I suppose.Thus, I also suppose it necessary to briefly mention Oregon State’s win last night in the College World Series.

Confession: I did not watch a minute of the CWS. Not even the Championship game. Despite R’s solid list of reasons to watch yesterday, I just didn’t make it a priority.

I don’t know; I was out running errands, and then other stuff came on. I’m sorry. I got distracted. I feel ashamed.

Fortunately, I can redeem this post with the obligatory Beaver(s) joke. Ha. There it was. I hope you enjoyed it.

Actually, this whole not-watching-but-still-writing thing is weird. So this is how it feels to be Jay Mariotti.

Case of the Mondays : Without that movie, what would they say?

June 26th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

Bend it like Beckham! Beckham bends in lone goal for England! Bend! Bend! Bend!

Yep, this phraseology was all over the place yesterday on the Web and on TV. Despite puking all over the pitch, Beckham bent (we just had to) in a free kick just inside the left post which lead to a 1-0 win for England over Ecuador.

In other World Cup news, the referee of the Portugal-Netherlands game went a bit loco, issuing 16 yellow cards and four reds during the match. Hey, yet another sports match in which people will blame their squad’s loss on poor officiating instead of not getting the job done. Portugal won the match 1-0.

The White Sox nine-game winning streak finally came to a close last night, as they lost in 13 innings to the Astros 10-9. (Note to self: Don’t leave the Cell in the top of the eight when the Sox are down seven runs. You will miss Iguchi’s three-run homer and grand slam that tied up the game to send it into extras. Whoops.)

If you’re looking for an update on the lingering story that is Jay Mariotti and Ozzie Guillen, get at it here. (Jay made himself the story again!)

And for the record, I am in fact sitting in my underwear as I blog. Take that, traditional and professional media.

Weekend Fun: So, what else is there to do?

June 23rd, 2006 | Posted by PostmanE

As I noted earlier today, this is one of the first ‘Weekend Fun’ posts we’ve ever had to make without mentioning the NBA playoffs. Fortunately, the NBA draft is nearly here, so you can spend some time this weekend thinking about that, if you’re so inclined. (We’d like to personally thank Isiah Thomas for the Bulls’ beneificial draft picks this year. Thanks, Ike.)

Also, the lack of basketball will certainly be accompanied by an increased interest in day-to-day baseball stuff - and not just Ozzie Guillen vs. Jay Mariotti nonsense (though Rick Morrissey writes a column worth reading today on the subject). Like, actual baseball. I might even start working through the Cubs media guide I was recently given. Exciting stuff, I know.

But, in the short term, the NBA’s lingering absence will no doubt be most effectively filled by the World Cup, which, despite a boring afternoon of action today, continues to entertain and surprise and destroy the spirits of men. Group of 16 action starts tomorrow afternoon with Germany v. Sweden at 11 and Argentina v. Mexico at 3. Sunday, the team I’m likely to root on now, England, will face Ecuador in the early match, and those pesky Polskis will take on their neighbors, the Netherlands.

R departs for Bloomington as we speak, signaling impending drunkenness. Enjoy your weekend as well, peeps. See you Monday.

Revisiting the Oswaldo Guillen Situation

June 22nd, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

So, this Ozzie Guillen f-word story (not the four letter one, the three letter one, silly) has become a big deal. (A bigger deal than even the mighty Ron Burgundy, in fact.) It’s all over ESPN, the radio, the blogosphere, you know; pretty much anywhere sports opinion disseminates from, you’ll find commentary on it.

Few quick things on it.

First, plain and simple, he shouldn’t have used that word. Even though he wasn’t targeting gay people, as he said, that word in today’s society has negative connotations. Sure, plenty of players and managers talk like this in the clubhouse, but to do it in front of a bunch of microphones, well that’s just plain stupid.

Second, as commenter Sam pointed out, as long as the White Sox are winning, Guillen’s outbursts will most likely continue to be tolerated by the club. It doesn’t seem like Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf came down on him too hard, only telling him he shouldn’t have used that word. The Chicago Sports Review has an excellent take on this situation, essentially saying he is ‘forfeiting his ability to ever manage a struggling baseball team’ because of his antics. I’m going to have to go ahead and agree with their take. If you have even a remote interest in this, I would suggest reading it. It’s one of the better written columns I’ve ever read, regardless of subject matter. (It makes mention of some scholarly book I’ve never heard of, but you don’t have to have read the said book to understand the concept the writer uses to illustrate his point in the column. Phew.)

And third, Mariotti still sucks. I’m glad Guillen is not backing down on that. But for as much as I applaud him for doing that, all he (and the entire White Sox organization, for that matter) are doing is fueling Mariotti’s ego, fame, fortune and essentially his ineptitude as a writer. Really, the best solution for Ozzie and the White Sox would be to just ignore Mariotti. Sox announcer Hawk Harrelson continues to bring up how he doesn’t like him. Everyone knows Reinsdorf and Mariotti have gotten into many feuds in the past. To continue to verbalize it only makes matters worse. Just ignore the dude.

Hell, we’re even contributing to his fame and fortune by posting about it right now. (Well, maybe.)

Oh, and if you need proof Mariotti is not good at what he does, here it is for you. (Again, I highly suggest you take a look at that.)

But all of this is neither here nor there. What’s really important is who would win in a fight between these two loudmouthed bravados. (This is an idea that’s been used on other sites and really since the dawn of mankind, or dinosaurkind, you choose. We’re not claiming to be revolutionaries or anything here with this idea.)

If we have 20 people vote on our poll, we’re claiming moral victory for ourselves. Get at it after the jump. (Height, weight, strengths and weaknesses included!)

CONTINUE READING THIS POST –>

Finally, a place where we can all go to collectively rip Jay Mariotti

May 24th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

We here at the Postmen (like both White Sox and Cubs organizations, sports bloggers everywhere and anyone who actually knows good writing/journalism) can’t stand Jay Mariotti’s columns in the Chicago Sun-Times.

He flip-flops more than John Kerry. He writes to get a rise out of people. He doesn’t do thorough research. And according to A.J. Pierzynski, he hasn’t been in the White Sox clubhouse since he’s been on the team.

Not to mention, we never agree with his stance on anything.

He, well, frankly, isn’t good at what he does.

But don’t fret, Mariotti haters. We now all have a blog on the interweb to read about all of Mariotti’s blunders – jaythejoke.com.

Here are a few choice cuts.

This is a classic example of something jaythejoke.com refers to as “The Mariotti Flip.” Two weeks ago the guy is lambasting Frank and praising Williams for getting rid of him. This week? He’s as happy as a schoolboy watching Frank hit dingers at the Cell and acting as if two home runs make Williams look like a fool.There is no consistancy from week to week. He simply picks something inflamatory, gets out his thesaurus and starts writing.

And in another post….

Today Jay showed that his computer has a thesaurus by using words like hubris and rancor in first sentence of his column. Unfortunately, anyone stupid enough to read this man’s column obviously has no idea what those words mean. Moving on.

We LOVE this site.

Badjocks.com - Much ado about nothing

May 18th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanE

This badjocks.com guy certainly knows how to make it big on the Web - celebrity photos! Well, except that the people in the photos he pulls up aren’t really celebrities. They’re college kids who happen to play a university-sponsored sport.

We’ve already touched on this, so I won’t dwell, but commenter Jason has a pretty good point about the irony in the entire situation here in an e-mail he sent to Badjocks peeps:

Dear idiots at Badjocks,
First of all, I belive searching for pictures of hazing incidents online is a weird habit to pick up. However, if that is what you losers do in your time, well that’s your prerogative. What I question is your numerous ads/links to DUI lawyers all over the country. What kind of message are you sending out about drunk driving? That it is a much better alternative to hazing incidents.During 2004, over 16,000 people were killed due to alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents (representing 39% of all traffic-related deaths). When it comes to hazing, 130 people had been injured or killed between the years of 1923-1980 (that’s 130 people in 57 years…a little over 2 a year). Although the numbers are up in the past 25 years, they don’t even come close to comparing to the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths. You idiots need to show some responsibility and get those ads off of your website. All it says it that you support drunk driving and that, in my opinion (and probably many others) is absolutely ridiculous. Enjoy your ad money…but honestly, I hope you choke on it.

It’s tough to argue with Jason on this one - this guy isn’t out to demonstrate the destructive (if you can call it that) nature of collegiate drinking and hazing practices. He’s just out to make a quick buck.

I wish the mainstream media - including Chicago’s king moron, Jay Marriotti - could recognize that.

Speaking of which, I also wish that idiots like Mariotti would realize a simple fact: hazing happens. If no one is hurt, either physically or emotionally, then it’s fine. Come off it, lad.

(Update homies: Check this link for a scathing essay on Bob Reno and why he’s a giant douche. Couldn’t have said it better myself.)

Does anyone like this Jay Mariotti guy?

April 6th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

Just picked up this interesting tidbit from the good folks over at Deadspin. Looks like Cubs president Andy MacPhail and White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf co-authored a letter to the Chicago Sun-Times publisher John Cruickshank regarding the world’s most notorious columnist, Jay Mariotti.

Mr. Mariotti ripped Bud Selig’s supposed slow response to this whole steroid business in a recent column. MacPhail and Reinsdorf fired back saying that Mariotti ‘has made no effort to be the least bit informed on this important subject.’ And later, ‘If Mariotti would ever trouble himself to make a phone call, maybe he would get the story right.’

It may be a little difficult to side with MacPhail and Reinsdorf for defending baseball’s response to steroids, (and after reading their facts and evidence it’s pretty convincing the burden rested on the Player’s Association and not on Bud Selig) but either way, it’s nice to see the Cubs and Sox can at least agree on one thing – their hatred for Mr. Jay Mariotti.