Aaron Gleeman just has some short notes up today, but I have to take exception to one thing:

In a battle of man vs. wall, the wall always wins.

Not always, Aaron. Googlefight!

Boy, the Jays sure aren't doing well this year. It'd Sue be nice if they could Cash in some more runs, like they did when Johnny Olerud was here.

http://www.aarongleeman.com
I was gonna say something in my defense, but I checked, and "Burley" kicks the crap out of "Gleeman" in a Googlefight, 633,000 to 14,400. Damn you and your soccer-playing namesake!

You know you have an unimpressive last name when I show up as the #1 search result

Paul D deserves much cuttlefish goodness for that answer.

I thought that I would be the prize Googlefighter on the roster, but Gwyn absolutely demolishes me. The Price is indeed right.

You know you have an unimpressive last name when I show up as the #1 search result

There's a fun game. I show up #3 after a country music singer and some sort of design/construction firm.

100 million points for Paul D, for getting Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue:

I agree with Moffatt's sentiments above. As someone who will have attended 150 games over the past three seasons (is that a sad comment on my life or what), I will be unable to attend close to that number next year without the Star Pass. Like NFH said in the other thread, it'd likely be down to about 15 games a year. The pass is a great deal, that is without equal in baseball as far as I can tell. However, for a team with sagging attendance and coming off a poor season, it is something to offer the fans to entice them back to the ballpark.

But a deal with the Cheer Club would also suit me fine.

And yes, nothing annoys me more than people sitting on their hands when Rios triples to lead off the seventh inning of a ballgame where we are down by one run, yet they were cheering wildly two innings before for a free FedEx mug or 2-for-1 passes to Catwoman. Trying to make people loud by having them cheer for free giveaways has never really worked and we're never going to have Fenway-esque crowds in here. Toronto crowds seem to be naturally subdued and perhaps its part of our Canadian upbringing and nature. However, maybe trying to promote a Canadian equivalent to the Bleacher Creatures, with or without the Cheer Club, will make some progress towards that.

Paul D deserves much cuttlefish goodness for that answer.

You're right. I shouldn't be so stingy with the cuttlefish. Here ya go:



Man, I so need a saltwater tank for my office so I can get my own cuttlefish.

"Dudek" gets 260,000 google hits thanks mostly to goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek (10,000,000 points to the first non-slav to give the correct pronunciation of his first name) and Canadian poet Louis Dudek.

I show up on page 5. I'm not related to either: "Dudek" is probably one of the 20 most populat surnames in Polish.

Hinske, Delgado, Phelps, and Woodward are all hitting well under expectations

All four are below their 10th percentile projections. That's tough to do.

It would be nice to report that the Blue Jays are mailing it in, and that's the reason they have lost 13 of their past 15 games.

Sadly, that's not the case. They're just that bad.

I'm not saying this team is a good team right now, but the worst teams are still going to win 40% of their games over the long haul.

Mike, I think you provided the best marketing advice yesterday when you suggested, "No more ads featuring a guy swapping his girlfriend to a scalper for a $9 ticket." I cringe every time that commercial comes on. Ditto for the one where the women in the crowd go squealing-crazy over Eric Hinske's ass. My baseball-friendly female associates tell me that in the unlikely event they'd ever go that wild over a Blue Jay's posterior, Eric's is not the leading candidate.

Seriously, all those ads just got worse and worse with repeated viewings, including the Halladay stone-skipping one that took way too long to develop the very small gag. The ads were carried out in dead silence, contained almost no action whatsoever, and tried to make a virtue out of minimalism; all they did was reinforce the notion of baseball as sterile, joyless and dumb.

I'll say it once again: the Jays have exciting, hard-working young players that people should pay to watch, regardless of the score. Get Orlando Hudson out of the damn kitchen and onto the diamond, where we can see his hustle and dynamism with the glove. Ditto for Vernon Wells and especially Reed Johnson, who's the likeliest Blue Jay to draw female admirers. Canadians like their athletes to belong to the 4-H club: hard-working, humble, wholesome (hey, it's pronounced with an H) and heroic. Work those qualities into your ads, add music and colour, cut in voice tracks of Tom and Jerry announcing the players' successes and triumphs, and you have ads that make viewers say, "I really gotta go see these guys."

"Dudek" is probably one of the 20 most popular surnames in Polish.

Which reminds me, when are we going to start calling you "The Dude", like Jeffrey Lebowski? It does perfectly with your surname.

Or El Duderino if we're not into the whole brevity thing.

My baseball-friendly female associates tell me that in the unlikely event they'd ever go that wild over a Blue Jay's posterior, Eric's is not the leading candidate.

LOL. I was watching a game with my Mom a couple months ago when that commerical came on. She turned to me and said "I don't get it. He's not all that attractive". If he does appeal to some demographic, I guess it's not women in their 50s. :)

Robert, non-Slavs are virtually incapable of pronouncing Jerzy correctly. Dudek plays for Liverpool but was a disappointment for Poland in the last World Cup.

Slavic names are really hard to pronounce for English speakers. Just listen to how "Wisniewski" is pronounced in America relative to how a native Polish speaker would say it. Or you can do what I do and call anyone named Wisniewski "McCherry".

Finnish names are also quite difficult. Teemu Selanne's name isn't supposed to sound anything like TEA-MOO SALAMI but that's how all the TV announcers seem to pronounce it.

You didn't expect that picking up 10,000,000 points would be easy, did you?

Speaking of the EPL, here's hoping Man U continues their pace after one match and finishes the season with 0 points.

Non-slav here, is it Yay-zhee? (With "zh" being the French soft j, like in "jambe" or "jupe").

Polish names (I have two good friends who are Polish, plus El Duderino) always stump me.

Close, Craig. Work on the vowels.

Yup, always with the vowels.

Anyway, you're going to be El Duderino from now on, or at least 'Robert "El Duderino" Dudek'.

Sure, whatever you guys want.

Growing up, I heard my share of "Dude". My favourite though was when a good friend of mine at McMaster would refer to me as "Dudek" (never by my first name).

Anyway, his name could be Wlodzimierz Mieczslaw Szmajdzinski so really it's not too bad.

Wlodzimierz Mieczslaw Szmajdzinski

If that was my real name and I lived here, I think I'd have people call me Ted.

I grew up in East London, so I'm really good with Polish names, but I couldn't pronounce that if my life depended on it.

Polish, once you know the rules, is quite an easy language to learn how to read since it's always phonetic unlike English. My real name is actually Mieczyslaw (which roughly translates as sword guy) but in Canada I've seen it as Mat, Mitch and Murray. I don't remember how I got my English name.

http://www.aarongleeman.com
My favourite though was when a good friend of mine at McMaster would refer to me as "Dudek" (never by my first name).

I'm going to guess that, in four years of high school, I was called "Aaron" by someone who wasn't a teacher at most 10 times. I think about 90% of the guys I hung around with were called primarily by their last name or some very lame nickname based on their last name (like "Gleems").

Does anyone have any theories on why the Jays are hitting so many groundballs this year?

you know.. when a whole team falls off the map "hitting-wise".. I start to look at the Batting Coach.. must be something in their approach.. no?

you know.. when a whole team falls off the map "hitting-wise".. I start to look at the Batting Coach.. must be something in their approach.. no?

That would be the logical first step I'd think.

Mietek! That's what my sister-in-law calls my son.

I think about 90% of the guys I hung around with were called primarily by their last name or some very lame nickname based on their last name (like "Gleems")

what's that line from "BNL"??

They called me four eyes... they called me ???
They called me Eddie.

the worst insult of all, was not having a nickname, that was me too

Nicknames are always fun. Among my close group of buddies we have the very minimalist nicknames of R, Q, M, and Jimmy J.J. Von Swankendorf.

They called him Buckwheat.

I was gonna say something in my defense, but I checked, and "Burley" kicks the crap out of "Gleeman" in a Googlefight, 633,000 to 14,400. Damn you and your soccer-playing namesake!

If we're going to have googlefights based on surnames, I'm afraid I have almost all of you beat, bigtime. For example, "Till" trounces "Burley" by the rather overwhelming score of 38,800,000 to 633,000.

However, "Green" has 67,200,000 results, so I shouldn't brag too much. :-)

Mietek. That's what my mother calls her son!

I've generally been called "Burley" by just about everyone, a name I grew to hate. I don't mind it so much now, since most of my friends now use Craig with me.

I've generally been called "Burley" by just about everyone, a name I grew to hate.

Same with me. Everyone has always called me "Moffatt". It used to really bug me as a kid but I kind of like it now.

I'm going to guess that, in four years of high school, I was called "Aaron" by someone who wasn't a teacher at most 10 times.

I think the number of times I heard Chaleff-Freudenthaler in five years of high school was no more than I could count on my fingers and toes. Every September a teacher would be going through the attendance, get to my name and it sounded something like, "Adam Chale...Adam?" Heck, in elementary school, the computer system didn't have enough space in the name field of their database so I was a "Chaleff-Freudentha." Then when I was arrested, my booking video shows the police doubting that the name I gave them was real!

...And more formal phone conversations are a lost cause because I'll use just my first name, which more often than not ends up with the person inquiring about my last name and in no time we're spending 5 minutes just so the person on the other end of the line can get it down right (spelling, pronounciation, etc).

On the flip side, it's very, very rare that anyone forgets a Chaleff-Freudenthaler.

Jesse Crain is from Toronto? That's news to me. Where have I been for the last year?

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1092953412111&call_pageid=968867503640&col=970081593064
COMN for a story on Canada's reps at the 2004 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn.

A,

Your last name registered 462 google hits. I daresay that's a record low for any Bauxite. On the bright side, I'm pretty sure every one of them is actually you.

However, "Green" has 67,200,000 results, so I shouldn't brag too much

I'm actually surprised I don't beat that. Still, 25,100,000 isn't too shabby.

My last name, Oberc, which is extremely rare even in Poland, had 2,110 hits. To my astonishmnet I have some namesakes in Slovenia?!

Ah, googlefights ...

Apparently, we've been backing the wrong horse in Cuttlefish vs. Muppets.

As for the Burley v. Gleeman and Price v. Green fights, let me just say that I actually went to the extent of once writing and posting an article to my Web portfolio called I Am Not These People. It's really quite shocking how many Mick Dohertys there are in the world; a couple of them are quite ticked tha I exist and have a Web presence that demote them to Page 2 or 3 (or 55) of a Google vanity search.

My FULL NAME registered 4250 hits... freaky spelling and all!

My last name had 151,000,000 hits

Wlodzimierz Mieczslaw Szmajdzinski
I grew up in East London, so I'm really good with Polish names, but I couldn't pronounce that if my life depended on it.

Ironicalle enough, it's pronounced "Yastrzemski-Mientkiewicz." although many people mispronounce it as "Krzyzewski."

If he does appeal to some demographic, I guess it's not women in their 50s. :)

Or 40's :)

My friends, women in their 30's and 40's, none of whom consider themselves sports fans, could name 2 Jays when asked...Pat Borders (they loved his arms) and Carlos Delgado (a co-worker used to date him).

None were impressed by the Hinske ad, and all were offended by the scalper ad.

These are attractive, intelligent single women who have said they would go to games if they found the players appealing. While this obviously isn't the Jays main marketing target, there's no reason to alienate a group of potential customers with bad advertising.

"These are attractive, intelligent single women who have said they would go to games if they found the players appealing."

How do they feel about arrogant and obnoxious Jewish sportswriters?

Fordin. 9,270 hits.

let me just say that I actually went to the extent of once writing and posting an article to my Web portfolio called I Am Not These People.

Neat idea. I might do this some time.

When I was in highschool there were two Mike Moffatt's in London, ON and the other one just happened to be the head of the local teacher's union. The funny thing was that my phone number was in the white pages and his wasn't, so I'd get 1 to 2 calls a month from reporters asking me what I thought of some education issue. :)

None were impressed by the Hinske ad, and all were offended by the scalper ad.

The scalper ad is probably the most offensive ad on TV and that's saying a lot these days.

The other thing I can't understand is why 95% of the "You've got to see these guys play" ads are playing DURING TELECASTS OF JAYS GAMES! I'm seeing these guys right now, knuckleheads! Why not play those ads on a show like Family Guy? Maybe it'd get some of those annoying Fuzzy Peach/Cherry Blasters ads off TV as well.

SF, I don't think they'd go to the games to watch you work in the press box. :)

How do they feel about arrogant and obnoxious Jewish sportswriters?

Good thing you added "sportswriters" in there. I thought you were bad mouthing Wilner. :)

Wlodzimierz Mieczslaw Szmajdzinski
....
Ironicalle enough, it's pronounced "Yastrzemski-Mientkiewicz." although many people mispronounce it as "Krzyzewski."

Whaa? *Jaw drops open*

Woychuk: 982 hits on Google. Not quite as low as the 462 put up by Chaleff-Freudenthaler, but pretty darn close.

41734 for my names not ryan :)

Barrionuevo, a long one at that, still netted 21,600 results on Google. I'm pretty surprised actually, I thought there would be far less.

Google has failed, Altavista came up with 138 more pages for "Chaleff-Freudenthaler". My new "lowest last name at Da Box" total is 580.

Barrionuevo, a long one at that, still netted 21,600 results on Google

I'm thinking that "Newton", which is the English equivalent, would net about 1,000 times that number...

Hmmmmm...I just clicked the "total" link in my last post to check that it was working and I seem to have lost 66 hits. Thus, Yahoo now sports the most matches with 528.

I seem to have lost 66 hits

They're always in the last place you look.

Add me to the list of people who grew up constantly being called by their last name.

I have a namesake who is a professor of computer science in England, another who is a Malaysian easy listening artist, and a third who is a member of some Yo-Yo Hall of Fame. There's also another David Till living in Toronto; I used to get his calls all the time, including ones from a bank manager inquiring about when he was going to pay off his loan. I was once turned down for a credit card (many years ago), and I'm wondering whether it's because they had me mixed up with this other guy.

The other thing I can't understand is why 95% of the "You've got to see these guys play" ads are playing DURING TELECASTS OF JAYS GAMES!

I guess they're trying to get all of us couch potatoes to actually come out to the park. (Or maybe nobody wants to buy advertising for Jays games any more, which is why we keep seeing the same #$%$#@ ads all the time.)

I guess they're trying to get all of us couch potatoes to actually come out to the park

I'm sure that's it. I guess the ad should be You've got to see these guys play IN PERSON

Incidentally, my two namesakes are a Scottish international soccer player and an MIT software designer.

SF, I don't think they'd go to the games to watch you work in the press box. :)

They're missing quite a show. Last week, I established new land records for popcorn-eating and rapid-fire non-sequiters.

I did a Google search for my full name and came up with two hits. Apparently I recently received a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego.

If I leave my middle name out of the search, I become a recovering drug addict who once dated Winona Ryder.

They're missing quite a show. Last week, I established new land records for popcorn-eating and rapid-fire non-sequiters.

Popcorn? On Everybody Loves Raymond they get chocolate cake in the press box. I guess a $50 million budget affects the media too:)

You lose, Adam! 332 hits for my last name.

I think I've got the title about sewn up...

Buscemi: 412,000 hits. Almost entirely all Steve Buscemi. Which leads to the biggest aggrivation in my life involving my last name, the enevitbale "so... are you realted to the actor?" whenever someone hears my last name for the first time. Its like clockwork. I feel like Micheal Bolton in Office Space.

I think someone from this wonderful blog should drop a line to someone at relations for the Jays and tell them not to take the starpass for granted. Lack of starpass will dramaticaly reduce the Cheer Club pressence at the Dome, and next year that place will need all the noise and visibility it can get. As many others have stated, if there is no Starpass next year I'll probably only go to about 25% of the games I've gone to this year. I dont even mind if you tack on another 20 bucks to the pass to make change, but they shouldnt let those bogus arguments made at the start of the year influence the allmighty starpass. Maybe we can get NFH to write another "Open Letter..." seems to be his forte.

think someone from this wonderful blog should drop a line to someone at relations for the Jays and tell them not to take the starpass for granted. Lack of starpass will dramaticaly reduce the Cheer Club pressence at the Dome, and next year that place will need all the noise and visibility it can get.

I suspect that you're more likely to see the Star Pass in times of low attendance.

http://www.galenaschools.com/middle/seventhgrade/volleyball.htm
Thanks in large part to T2 co-star Edward Furlong, not to mention Furlongs who write mysteries (Nicola), program computers (Wez), play the Irish button accordion (Patty), run Maple Leaf Foods Poultry Inc. (Brock), produce collectable angel figurines (Margaret) and have an active interest in developing processes that lower the risk of environmentally induced mutations (Clement)(and let's not forget a lovely small town in Pennsylvania), my last name Googles out at a surprisingly high 455,000 clip.

Jordan Furlong, BTW, is also a 7th-grade female volleyball star in Illinois (COMN, bottom photo, on the right).

When I was in highschool there were two Mike Moffatt's in London, ON and the other one just happened to be the head of the local teacher's union.

That same Mr. Moffatt would have been my Grade 5 teacher at Westmount. Only made the connection now when you bring it up. Maybe I'll look him up and ask for advice on economics...

/Former west London snob. Only went EOA to visit the Grandma.

You lose, Adam! 332 hits for my last name.

I'm disappointed, Mike. You really need to work on your per-Denyszyn average (# of Denyszyns on Google/# of mataches).

Exactly my point Pistol. If the Dome returns to sell out days, by all means can the Starpass and make as much money as you can on tickets (its for the good of the team, I understand). But when the place is going to possibly be at its most tomb-like in history next year, they gotta do all they can to keep the budget minded yet completly wahoo fans in the building.

That same Mr. Moffatt would have been my Grade 5 teacher at Westmount.

That's him (and not me). I've met him a couple times. Seemed like a nice enough guy.

More fun with names:

Do a google image search on your name and see what comes up. You'll get more pictures if you don't use quotes.

When I did an image search on Mike Moffatt I got this:



Oookay.

Whoa - I had that Mr Moffat too. Math teacher, 7 feet tall, crazy grey hair and moustache, jogging pants. He was no Mr Hull though...

How do they feel about arrogant and obnoxious Jewish sportswriters?

Since most of us work for sometimes obnoxious and frequently arrogant Jewish lawyers and accountants, we'd probably love you. And while I won't comment on what effect your popcorn eating skills might have, non-sequiters are always appreciated.

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Ryan+Lind%22&sourceid=firefox&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
61,700 results for my full name.

"Lookouts pitcher Ryan Lind pitched well but couldn't beat his brother
Cory."

Damn you Cory!!

(No, that's not really me)

1,140,000 results for just "Lind"

My name is so boring. My first, middle, and last name all adds up to 13 letters.

Why dont they just increase the star pass price for next season. make it 2 dollars a game. Thats not that big an increase, and it might shut up some complainers.

I think the Rutsey article has a point: "They're just that bad". I was watching the Braves last night and RAPHAEL FURCAL made me green with envy. He was making these plays at short we haven't seen in Toronto for years, diving to his left to make a game-saving put-out. You don't hear the name "Furcal" as a marquee SS, but he's leagues better than anything we've got on D. All I can imagine is Woodward running with his back bent, glove two feet off the ground, making an effort on a play he doesn't have the talent to make.

IMO: $9 a game is nothing to complain at. Just don't buy anything at concessions. Bring your dinner into the ballgame, buy a $1 bottled water outside the Dome. That's a really cheap evening of entertainment. It costs nearly that much to rent a video these days.

The commercials: they would have been good for pre-season hype. But they do wear awfully fast. And why do they only advertise on Blue Jay telecasts? Isn't that like preaching to the choir?

Google image search of my name gives me this:



More fun with names: Googlism

ryan is saucy @ 330
ryan is america's premier career
ryan is eighth signee for women's basketball team
ryan is getting a raise
lind is a freelance writer and researcher who has worked as an investigative reporter
lind is located at
lind is the coordinator of this surname resource center
lind is a person who always upholds promises

....etc.

When I did an image search for my name, I got a pro wrestler named "Raven", pictures of American Pie the movie, some nerdy guys, a new born baby, a female tennis player, and Chipper Jones. That's just the first few pages. Should I be worried?

My "cool" baseball nickname in high school was "Leviathan", given to me by my high school baseball coach, which was a play on my last name and a parody of my size (I was a shrimp at the time). Anyway, I got some cool looking pictures of sea monsters when I put that on image search. A lot better than what my real name got me.

Thanks for giving me a way to unproductively kill time at work, fellas. I appreciate it.

The Slavic names do confuse the bejeebers out of us non-Slavs. This spring Liam and I are watching the NCAA, and Duke is playing. Liam says how do they get that pronunciation out of that name?

I have an inspiration. I get a big sheet of white paper, and I write on it in big block letters: KRZYZEWSKI

I take it to the bedroom, show it to my girl Alina (who speaks Polish).

I say "How the hell do you pronounce this anyway?"

She says "SHUH-SHEV-SKEE"

Why, Lord?

Anyway, Magpie gets 451,000 hits, which beats my actual name (McIlroy) like a drum (84,000.) Its Irish for "son of the red-headed fella."

There are, of course, no red headed people in my family. There haven't been any within living memory. Not for at least a century.

Go figure.

When I did an image search on Mike Moffatt I got this

Damn you Google Images, I was trying to lose that picture!

The only other Doherty I know (though not personally) is the snooker pro Ken Doherty. Mick, do you also pronounce your last name "Dock-ur-tee"?

Mike,

You should google your name in Cyrillic - that might add a few hits.

Not to insult the almighty battersbox, but does anyone know a good free live chat site I can go to discuss baseball? I've been in the Yahoo Baseball chat for five minutes and thats about all I can stand. I've been throughly spoiled by battersbox.

Is it a sure thing that the Season's Pass is on the way out? I must have missed that.

Furcal has the best infield arm in the major league - or at least he did until his injury problems. His problem is he sometimes messes up routine plays. He's still one of thebetter defenders at short around. And yes, he's miles ahead of Woodward and Gomez.

...attractive, intelligent single women who have said they would go to games if they found the players appealing

Alina, watching the Jays: "Who's that? He looks like a little kid."

It was the Cat.

Last season: "Wow, does he look like a geek."

Mike Bordick.

Then I told her about Justin Miller's tattoos, and she ran for cover.

My ex actually had a crush on Jose Cruz, back in the day.

Is it a sure thing that the Season's Pass is on the way out? I must have missed that.

It was eliminated around Christmas, but the Jays honoured most of the orders placed before the pass was cancelled. I was planning on ordering two of them, but I was too late.

I really hope they bring it back.

I've been to 180 games over the course of the last three seasons, and I can't imagine I'd go to as many as twenty next year if I can't renew my pass. Obviously, it's hard to be upset that I can no longer attend MLB games for one dollar, but it's surprising that they'd end it now. Maybe this disastrous season will make them rethink their cancellation of the pass.

Here's hoping.

John Doherty was a school board trustee at the Toronto Board of Education as recently as 1997.

As always with large companies we cant just hope, we should get active about it. I dont see why they would cancel the pass, especialy now with the outlook for next season. As far as I know this noble site is actually looked upon with some seriousness from sources inside the organization, maybe a well placed argument will get through to them. If we can do a quick survey and garuntee at least 30 starpasses will be bought just by people on this site, thats a start. Not to toot our own horn, but I've been to Cheer Clubless games and of course many Cheer Club games, and I dont think they're aware of the little magic that comes from 518. For every old family (no offence) we pissed off with our drumming, there were two more kids (usualy drunk) who were having the time of their lives near the drum and probably came back to the dome because sometimes, just sometimes, it can be a fun place to go too.

Mick, do you also pronounce your last name "Dock-ur-tee"?

No, that's usually just people who spell it Dougherty, and we dropped the "ug" at Ellis Island. However, that selfsame pronunciation is why my dad, growing up in New York City, was tagged with the nickname "Doc." I got the same nickname 40 years later when the brilliant people in my freshman dorm realized my initials were "MD.'

Hey, I have the all-time winner of namesake stories. When I was a lad of 13, just starting out at Toledo St. John's Jesuit High School, still going by "Mike" ... apparently, there was another Mike Dohety who weas supposed to be in my incoming high school class.

So the first day during homeroom, the entire frosh class is called down to the chapel, where the school pastor/president announced "I have some very sad news. One of your classmates who would have started here with you today passed away last week. Mike Dohety has died of leukemia."

It probably would've gone better for me if in fact someone in the administration had bothered to talk to me before making that announcement. I spent the first two weeks of high school showing everyone my student ID and being nicknamed "Corpse Boy." I am SO glad the other kid's family never heard that stuff.

Can anyone top THAT?

I spelled my own last name wrong twice in the previous post. Can I get an anti-cuttlefish award for that?

Since most of us work for sometimes obnoxious and frequently arrogant Jewish lawyers and accountants, we'd probably love you.

I regret to report that the adverbs are switched around, in my case. MLB.com is also reporting that this press box is way too hot and the clubhouse won't open for another half hour.

That is all.

How boring ... when I did the image search, two of the top five images returned are actually of me ... no diturbingly atractive young volleyball players or hot blonde models. Also a pboto of former Tar Heel hoops coach Matt Doherty, a distant cousin.

In terms of Jays marketing I'm suprised they said 1/3 are female. I don't think there's a single female poster on this site.

I don't even know one female that I would consider a sports fan. Sure they may know the players may get dragged out to a few games by their bf and friends, but in general they don't really know what's going on.

Denny Doherty was in the Mamas and the Papas. He's from Halifax I think.

I don't even know one female that I would consider a sports fan.

I do know a few, who know the sport, know the teams, etc. And absolutely none of them are coming to the ballpark to ogle Eric Hinske's butt. Or Alexis Rios' pretty face.

They're coming because they like to watch the Jays play ball. Just like the rest of us.

Females...in general they don't really know what's going on.

Let's let "A" handle that one.

I don't think there's a single female poster on this site.

We have a few, and many more are lurkers.

Mick, there's an Ontario Court of Appeal Justice David Doherty, an expert in criminal law, who's on the list of potential appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada. That is, if our Prime Minister gets around to appointing anyone this year....

KRZYZEWSKI

"Shu-SHEV-skee" is how the broadcasters pronounce the Duke basketball coach's last name. It's a near equivalent that is relatively easy for English speakers to pronounce.

It's not the correct Polish pronounciation, however.

The thing that throws people is that "rz" is a consonant cluster in Polish that is pronounced as an aspirated zed (zee for Americans reading this). This is similar to the s in measure or pleasure, but stronger. "Krz" is two consonant sounds formed when you put the k together with the aspirated z sound (that's tough to do if you're not Slavic).

So there are 3 syllables: Krzy-ZEW-ski (in almost all Polish words, the penultimate syllable carries the main stress).

y is always a vowel in Polish and is pronounced as the standard pronounciation of i in English: e.g. bid, rid, kid, did.

w is pronounced as v in English.

Thus,

Kshy-ZEV-skee is more or less correct if you pronounce the sh as a heavily-aspirated z, and the y as a normal English i. 6 consonant sounds and 3 vowel sounds.

My wife is a sports fan, though mostly a hockey fan. She likes just about everything except football and basketball though, and she used to be a ballplayer.

My male friends (sports fanatics almost to a man) all have wives that have zero interest in and knowledge about sports. I can't imagine that... I think it's great that we can talk (and even argue) about the Leafs, or bunting, or overtime games, or Halladay. It would be weird. I actually don't understand people who don't like sports or games, of at least some sort.

I established new land records for popcorn-eating and rapid-fire non-sequiters.

Not to mention moaning about the US basketball team.

I heard ya, pal!!

moaning about the US basketball team

This should be made the new Olympic sport.

My google image search yielded an artist reknowned for homo-erotic art. No fooling!!! I have no idea who he is, nor do I know if we are related. And no I refuse to divulge my last name (at least during this particular thread).

I am now going to go back to work. This game sucks!

I don't think there's a single female poster on this site.

Hey!!! I know I don't post a lot and usually only bits of fluff, but I consider myself a baseball fan. I go to around 20 games a year, usually by myself. I know what's going on and used to score the games. My father was a little league umpire and I used to take his counter and follow the Expos games on TV keeping track of balls and strikes. This was when I was 6 or 7. I've been a Jays fan since day one.

I also see lots of others like me at the games. I will never forget one game I went to where there were 4 teenage girls sitting a few rows behind me. They were the best hecklers I've ever encountered at the Dome. There was no squealing for Jose or swooning for Alex. These girls knew their baseball and the players.

I don't find the 1/3 number hard to believe at all.

Seriously, can't you see it? I got Bill Simmons, by the way, in the gold medal pool. Simmons started moaning about the team weeks before the Olympics actually started, and went so far as to do a particularly anal, almost Burley-esque whine : went out and picked a whole new team, complete with detailed arguments for every player.

One more thing...

The Polish standard spelling of the name has a dot on the second zed (which is obviously omitted in English). This changes the pronounciation to:

Kshy-ZHEV-skee

In the second syllable, instead of a z sound, you have the aspirated z once again.

In fact, as Simmons points out in that article, he actually started complaining about this year's team two years before the Olympics.

Not to mention moaning about the US basketball team. I heard ya, pal!!

Guilty as charged. Although, to be more accurate, I was actually complaining about the joy some Canadians seemed to take in that loss.

KRZYZEWSKI

Thank you El Duderino!

I just ran my test by Alina again, and she makes almost a clicking noise before the "ZHU" beginning. Not an out and out click, more like the suggestion of one. And she makes more of a "ZH" noise than a "SH" noise.

Hard for us Celts to notice these distinctions. Makes me want to throw some real Irish at you. Like my name:

Mac Guillh Ruadh

Let's let "A" handle that one.

Honestly, I don't even know where to start. When someone makes such a boneheaded, idiotic comment that demonstrates they must live under a rock where not even the faintest beam of light has endevoured, I find it hard to reply.

The Internet has more than enough hateful domains so I'm sure one of those sites would be happy to have you, Ron.

Could Jeff Kent be an option for first base next year?
If so, is he a good option?

I was actually complaining about the joy some Canadians seemed to take in that loss.

Fair enough, but we just love to tease you Americans.

Actually, I'd like to see AI get a gold medal.

Honestly, I don't even know where to start. When someone makes such a boneheaded, idiotic comment that demonstrates they must live under a rock where not even the faintest beam of light has endevoured, I find it hard to reply.

The Internet has more than enough hateful domains so I'm sure one of those sites would be happy to have you, Ron.

Actually, in fairness to Ron, I think he said that he didn't know any personally. I don't know that he was denying the existence of the type, just that he hadn't made their acquaintance. It's entirely possible that Ron just has a very small circle of female friends. I know mine is certainly smaller than I'd like it to be!

Excellent explanation Robert. The 2nd "z" would not sound right without the accent. It never occured to me before but Krzyzewski's name is derived from the Polish work for cross. I get a laugh out of these pronunciations. I'm watching the NHL draft in June and New Jersey drafts a guy out of BC named Zajac which everyone pronounces Zajak. It occurs to me that Zajac (pronounced with an accent on the 2nd "a" sort of like the "o" in on and a soft "c" and the "j" as a y) is actually the Polish word for hare.

I was actually complaining about the joy some Canadians seemed to take in that loss

I don't know; a lot of Americans, including some that I know, were equally happy about that loss. Anything to give the spoiled brats of the NBA a hard slap across the face - and this particular team has a lot of the NBA's Most Spoiled.

Here's a handy Irish curse, by the way. Good for all occasions.

Go gcreime cúnna ifrinn do thóin bheagmhaitheasach.

It means "May the hounds of hell chew on your worthless butt."

On my first tripm to Wrigley Field. back in '98, I was impressed at hopw many female fans were at the game, and by how much they knew. Once I moved to Chicago in '01, I discovered that on the whole, females at Wrigley know more about baseball than males. Chicago's a good town to find sports-knowledgeable women.

The Lebowski references got me thinking.. what would those guys say if they were in baseball?

Walter on Joe Morgan: "say what you want about sabermetrics, and least it's an ethos"

Walter as first baseman; a batter-runner comes near fair territory running out a ground ball: "OVER THE LINE! OVER THE LINE! Call him out, ump! Call him out! ... Does anyone around here give a SH*T about the rules?!"

Jesus as Manny Ramirez to opposing pitchers: "Ortiz and me, we're gonna mess you up..."

I've seen this movie waaaaay too many times..

When I google searched "Mike Forbes" in images I got 329 results... Including a picture of ex-Edmonton Oiler, Mike Forbes.. A picture of a Gene Simmons.. A polar bear eating a fish and a bunch of old guys.

Talk about exciting...

Chicago's a good town to find sports-knowledgeable women.

Tell me again, how do you go about getting a green card?

In fairness to our US friends, most of them are rooting for Canada in baseball. It would be nice if we could return the favour.

Then again, it's easy to root against the overdog. I dislike the current US Olympic team not because they're Americans, but because I can't stand many of their players and their attitudes, both in the NBA and in the Games. Talk about unappealing....

There's also a fair bit of leftover irritation throughout the world from the first (and truly well named) Dream Team, the Bird-Johnson-Jordan version that simply crushed its opponents. Nothing wrong with winning big -- I've never believed in "taking it easy" against an inferior opponent, because that just insults them more -- but the way many US fans (and not a few of those flag-draped players) celebrated those lopsided wins was disheartening. I think this current, lesser Olympic squad has reaped the whirlwind sown by its predecessors.

Just lost out to you guys as I end up with 682 hits on my last name. Nearly all of the hits come from a restaurant in Beverly Hills. I should find out if they're rich, and if I'm related ...

Name story, Mick.

I am about 23, when I have to see a specialist (who happened to have his office in a hospital) for something fairly innocuous, a stomach problem of some kind if I recall right. He starts examining me, puts the stethoscope to my chest and holds it there for a long time. He screws up his face and mutters: "it's really hard to hear it". I say: "pardon". "It's really hard to hear it". "What?". "The murmur". "What murmur?". The doctor stops to look at the chart. "The murmur you've had since you were an infant." "My parents never mentioned to me that I had a heart murmur". "You'd know about it, you've been hospitalized 3 times".

Then, a light goes on. Wrong Mike Green. We check middle initials (different) and date of birth (different), and I walk out of the appointment with a renewed faith in my parents.

...a fair bit of leftover irritation throughout the world from the first (and truly well named) Dream Team

I wonder if there's a specific Canadian irritation about that. We had our own Dream Team, too. In our game. In 1972. And it didn't exactly turn out to be the cakewalk most people expected...

I was sitting around wondering if the Jays would even win again. Their sched. is:

Bal 10
Yankers 10
Blowsox 3
Seattle 3
Oakland 3
Anahiem 3
Tex 3
TB 6

Does not look good. Unless the Yankees start sitting guys to rest them, the only "weak" teams are Seattle and maybe TB. If you give them 2/3 vs Seattle (all three will be 1-0 games) 3/6 from TB and 4/10 vs Baltimore, and maybe 3 more wins elsewhere, they will finish with 12 more wins for a total of 61 - 101. If there is any silver lining it is the draft pick next year (maybe 4th). I would love it if the Jays swept Boston casuing them to miss the wild card spot.

A Google image search came up with this for my name:



Before anyone asks, I am NOT the one on the left.

Mike Green

When I was a wee nipper, there was a Mike Green who used to beat me up.

Because he could.

Do I have issues? Nah, I've got a lifetime subscription...

Sorry guys, but I win for fewest hits. No one's going to top 12 (COMN).

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=kirk-Elleker&meta=
Whoops. Try this one.

When I was a wee nipper, there was a Mike Green who used to beat me up.

As Chuck Berry famously put it, "it must have been some other body, it wasn't me". I was the one playing Mahatma Gandhi in water pistol fights, weaponless and trying to avoid being soaked by running fast.

that work?

You the man.

Did my incompetent HTML make that happen?

No worries, Magpie, I've done it a few dozen times myself.

I would love it if the Jays swept Boston casuing them to miss the wild card spot.

Now *that* is something truly worth playing for.

I hear you. I'm not rooting for any particular team to win their division or the WC spot...in all honesty I don't really care. Instead I'm simply rooting against the Red Sox. If the Sox miss the playoffs, no one will be happier than me.

The playoffs last year were great, but the media tried its best to make it unbearable by shoving the Sox and Cubs down our throats.

Tell me again, how do you go about getting a green card?

Alas, no green card for me. In fact, my non-renewable visa expires in 6 weeks...soon, I really must begin looking for a job and a place to live north of the border

Big Brother is so under-rated ;-)

media tried its best to make it unbearable by shoving the Sox and Cubs down our throats.

Leave it to the media to turn everyone's formly favourite perrenial losers into overhyped perrenial loud mouths. Well, I guess the media can't be blamed for all of that.

With Neyer now pay[per-view, Simmons is now my primary ESPN.com stopdown. (Other than John Gizzi, of course) ... but isn't he the one, when moaning about the extinction of the American point guard, who sniped "The best point guard in the NBS may be from Canada, for crying out loud," or something snarky to that effect?

Incidentally, Mr. Simmons, we're big fans of Steve Nash here in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, but there's a Mr. Kidd who used to play here too, and he'd like to have a word with you ...

I mean "NBA" not "NBS," of course.

but isn't he the one, when moaning about the extinction of the American point guard, who sniped "The best point guard in the NBS may be from Canada, for crying out loud," or something snarky to that effect?

Ah, but he completely redeemed himself by describing him as looking like the second guitarist in a Drive-By Truckers tribute band. That description gave me a seriously sustained case of the giggles that I haven't quite been able to shake.

isn't he the one, when moaning about the extinction of the American point guard, who sniped "The best point guard in the NBS may be from Canada, for crying out loud," or something snarky to that effect?

Wasn't that the guy he was exchanging emails with ?
Simmons IIRC is a little more lukewarm on Nash

I'm pretty sure it was the other guy, not Simmons. I seem to remember Simmons pointing out that Nash can't play defense and always wears down over the course of the season.

Damm some of you are way too touchy feely about the gender comment I made.

I stand by my comments. The majority of females that I know who go to sport games know very little. I know this from personal experience.

After awhile it gets pretty annoying trying to explain icing, offside, why players do such things, why are there so many refs, etc...