People, people! Where are your priorities? Look, here's the official breakdown on who to love and root for in baseball. It's very simple, really.

1. Your home team, especially if it is the Red Sox but not if your home team is the Yankees.

2. The Red Sox, unless they are playing against your home team.

3. Should your home team fall out of the running, you are permitted late in the season to root for other teams from your home state should any such be available.

4. The Padres, because Trevor Hoffman once said nice things about Emmett's pitching stance (or, you know, substitute in any team with a player who signed a glove or sent a card or did something nice for someone you know) (But still, Trevor Hoffman said Emmett had great mechanics! How cool is that?).

5. If you are female and tenderhearted, the Kansas City Royals, because they suck so bad and it's like watching that Little League team that goes a whole season without winning a game. Your heart just breaks for the poor kids and, even though you don't want them to beat your boys, you want them to beat somebody, just once.

6. The Mets, because they are the New York team that isn't the Yankees.

7. Everyone else.

8. The Yankees.

Sadly, Emmett's current Red Sox love conflicts with list item #2. He can and should love them up like crazy most of the time, but not when they're playing Oakland. It isn't seemly.

My JZ love is large and contains multitudes.

People, people! Where are your priorities? Look, here's the official breakdown on who to love and root for in baseball. It's very simple, really.

Sheesh. It's even more simple.

1: no one.

Though I gotta admit, #8 is HIGH-larious.

No, no. Here's the cheering order:

1. Your home team, unless you live in New York

2. The Atlanta Braves

3. The Cardinals, because my nephew keeps sending great pictures of his kids dressed up in Cardinals gear, plus my dad was a Cardinals fan.

4. The A's, to make Suzi happy.

5. The Cubs, since they're working on the 100th anniversary of their last championship, plus they have the wondrous Greg Maddux.

6. As the season goes on, the pity cheering goes to any team that is consistently referred to as hapless. Currently the Nationals have the highest hapless rating.

7. Late in the season, anyone who could beat the Yankees.

Currently the Nationals have the highest hapless rating.

Awww, poor little pooties! I will add them to my pity cheer list.

There may be no crying in baseball generally, but there is totally crying in my version of baseball fandom.

1: no one.

Yeah, but some of them are so pretty. The A's in particular seem to have an unusual number of players that make you want to muss their hair and tickle them and feed them big nourishing bowls of pasta. They're not in the same class as the SPN boys (as who is, really?), but they're very appealing.

As a side note to baseball, the Brooklyn Cyclones are going to have a special night, with bobbleheads. Bobble ... um, whatever ... of the Brooklyn Bridge. WANT.

Ugliest baseball player in history: [link]

COOP made blog post celebrating Don Mossi, a quite unusual-looking fellow who played professional baseball from 1954 to 1965. Apparently, he was nicknamed "The Sphinx" and "Ears." As Mark F. said, he'd have been a great character actor. From Wikipedia, here is what baseball historian Bill James said about Mossi:

"Don Mossi was the complete five-tool ugly player. He could run ugly, hit ugly, throw ugly, field ugly and ugly for power. He was ugly to all fields. He could ugly behind the runner as well as anybody, and you talk about pressure ... man, you never saw a player who was uglier in the clutch."

I'm feeling needy. What did people think of my hair links?

Though I gotta admit, #8 is HIGH-larious.

But it's a lie. You never have to root for the Yankees. Ever. You always root for whoever is playing against them. Always.

Yeah, but some of them are so pretty. The A's in particular seem to have an unusual number of players that make you want to muss their hair and tickle them and feed them big nourishing bowls of pasta. They're not in the same class as the SPN boys (as who is, really?), but they're very appealing.

attempts to avoid mentioning I know where to find good baseball slash. yes. attempts it.