108 STITCHES: Congratulations on Dan Suitor for winning A League With Thrown Baseballs 3, our sixteen-team head to head fantasy baseball league. He beat me in the finals, and if you think I'm going to whine about losing my first two picks down the stretch, Hanley Ramirez and Dustin Pedroia, you know me well. But Dan had a damn good team, winning the regular season as well, and he is to be commended.
[Side note: we all pretty much agreed that a 16-team league was a demanding experiment which we're not eager to repeat. But we didn't want to lose any owners either. What we'll do is that the bottom four (or six) owners from this season's standings have agreed to be relegated into a new ALOTT5MA Baseball League hosting 8-10 owners which will serve as the entry point into the league for new owners and provide a less intense experience. Every year, the top four teams from that league will be invited into the ALOTT5MA Premier League for the following season,with the bottom four from Premier agreeing to be relegated in exchange. More details when the snow melts.]
Yesterday also concluded the real-world regular season, and we'll have time later this week to talk playoffs and awards. For now, let's just focus on memories of the season which won't be captured in those later discussions. I was lucky to attend a 16-inning game with my dad that finished well after midnight with Roy Oswalt playing left field and which was so giddy and exhilarating by the time of the second "seventh inning stretch" in the 14th that the result felt irrelevant. What will you remember?
added: Thanks to the work of intrepid blogger Peter J. Nash, the National Baseball Hall of Fame has determined that a donated jersey allegedly worn by "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in 1919 was a fake. I mention this because you'd know avid baseball collector/historian Nash more by his former stage name -- he was the Prime Minister, "Sinister" Pete Nice of early 90s rap group 3rd Bass.
