MC Hammer has a blog?!?

Um, so why didn't any of you tell me that MC Hammer has a blog? It covers baseball, his new baby and praise to the good Lord Jesus Christ. So it's a lot like my blog, in other words.

Indie Rock + Playstation Baseball?

When I first heard about this, I thought it was a joke, but it isn't: the new Playstation game MLB 2K6 has an all-indie rock soundtrack. Actually, it's an all-Matador records soundtrack. Normally these games have awful soundtracks consisting of shitty rap songs about being good at the particular game in question along with crap stuff like Nickelback or Good Charlotte. If you are lucky, you get Van Halen. Generally it is so bad that I turn it off whenever I can.

But this new baseball game has Belle & Sebastian, Pavement, Malkmus, Interpol, Guided by Voices and a whole bunch of other good bands. I may have to trade in my old baseball game for this one (also because the rosters on the old one are hopelessly outdated). I'd love to hear Papelbon coming in from the bullpen to "Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie."

Go Jake!

This is one of the greatest pictures of all time:

Fantasy baseball

I've joined a fantasy baseball league that a guy in my program is running this year. Here's my team, in case you want to cheer on my players.

Active Players:

• A.J. Pierzynski - C
  
• Mark Teixeira - 1B
  
• Craig Biggio - 2B
  
• Hank Blalock - 3B
  
• Jimmy Rollins - SS
  
• Garret Anderson - OF
  
• Coco Crisp - OF
  
• Magglio Ordonez - OF
  
• Travis Hafner - DH
  
• Casey Kotchman - Utility
  
• Chris Carpenter - Starter
  
• Jon Lieber - Starter
  
• Derek Lowe - Starter
  
• Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod) - Reliever
  
• Tom Gordon - Reliever
  

Reserve Players:

• Aaron Boone - 3B
  
• Milton Bradley - OF
  
• Jeremy Hermida - OF
  
• A.J. Burnett - Starter
  
• Esteban Loaiza - Starter
  
• Keith Foulke - Reliever
  

The way it works is you get points for hits, home runs, walks, RBIs, runs and stolen bases for hitters and wins, Ks, saves and innings for pitchers. There are a couple things that cause you to lose points. For hitters, strikouts and being caught stealing; for pitchers walks, blown saves, earned runs, losses and wild pitches. And you have the reserve players in case someone on your team gets hurt or uses steroids or kills someone so you have a ready replacement.

I didn't really know what I was doing during the draft, so I kind of screwed up with my starting pitchers - most of the other teams have at least two legitimate aces, I only have one (Carpenter). I do have one of the better infields in the league and maybe the best relievers (if Foulke indeed has his act together this season), so maybe I can work a trade. If you'll notice there are no Yankees on my team. That was the only hard and fast rule I had during the draft - I never wanted to be in a position where I have to want a Yankee to do well. Maybe it makes me a weaker team, but there are some things you just can't compromise on.