Jewish Baseball Draft

I'm going to represent all Jews today and share that we support Jewish athletes and want them to succeed. You know Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song where he goes through famous Jews, primarily those in entertainment? Well, the same applies to athletes as Jewish sports fans tend to know Jewish athletes since there aren't very many of them. Even though Sandy Koufax retired from the Los Angeles Dodgers nearly a decade before I was born, he's still a legend, not only because he had one of the greatest stretches as a pitcher in baseball history, but also since he didn't pitch game one of the 1965 World Series since it coincided with Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year. There's a sense of pride in Jewish athletes doing well from Shawn Green to Mathieu Schneider to Mark Spitz and even to journeymen quarterbacks Jay Fiedler and Sage Rosenfels. (Ryan Braun is a bit more complicated since he destroyed the Pirates as a member of the Brewers over the years, and he got away with using steroids. But I digress.)

Why am I mentioning this? It's a fun discussion to try to come up with the best all-Jewish baseball line-up. And just recently, a pretty neat group including former MLB players Ian Kinsler, Danny Valencia, Ty Kelly and current Miami Marlin (and former Pittsburgh Pirate) Ryan Lavarnway, held a Jewish Baseball Fantasy Draft. Fantasy sports and Jews? This is basically my dream! All of this was a fundraiser for the Israeli Baseball Olympic team. The full draft is available here or via this video:



I'll admit that I didn't watch the entire draft (yet) since it's 2 hours long. Still, it's cool that Shawn Green shows up around the 44-minute mark, and Danny Valencia's hair is outstanding. Plus, through this draft, I learned about The Great Rabbino website, which I should have known about years ago.

Now we just need some analysis on who won the draft and which team would win in a seven-game series!

Sean's Fantasy Baseball Championship

I know that you don't care about my fantasy baseball team; however, since this is my blog, I feel the need to document my recent title. Enjoy! (Or skip this post and scroll down to read others.)

After being in the same fantasy/rotisserie baseball league since 1992, I finally won in 2014. I wrote about my historic victory from two years ago and noted that I traded my future to win the championship. It was entirely worth it. (The Pittsburgh Pirates might also want to try this sometime.) In 2015, I went in an entirely different direction. Knowing my team wasn't going to win part way through the season, I traded many assets for cheap keepers. I finished in 11th place out of 12 teams but felt optimistic about the 2016 season.

In the auction league draft this season, I spent big money on Jake Arrieta, Ben Zobrist, Stephen Strasburg, Yasmani Grandal, and Andrew McCutchen. With my team challenging for 1st place, I acquired Ryan Braun and Carlos Gonzalez. Free agent pick-ups of Keon Broxton of the Brewers and Alex Dickerson of the Padres were pleasant surprises. I also got amazing production from holdovers Freddie Freeman, Justin Turner, DJ LeMahieu, Freddy Galvis, Ichiro, Tanner Roark, and Tony Watson. In addition, I really enjoyed watching Jameson Taillon came up from my and the Pirates the farm systems to pitch well.

So now, I've won 2 championships in 3 years and along with 2nd place finishes in 2011 and 2012, that's 4 top-2 finishes in 6 years. Olli Maatta of the Pittsburgh Penguins is also Finnish. In my mind, this is a fantastic run. Considering the amount of time I've spent reviewing baseball box scores, trying to select free agents, and contemplating trades (I probably need to spend more time on draft preparation), I'm quite proud of this accomplishment. This ranks up there with other life accomplishments.

Anyway, thanks for making it all the way through this blog post. Stay tuned for future posts about my new role as soccer coach for my son's U6 team, my long-awaited thoughts on Paw Patrol, and my hope to get media credentials for the 2017 Academy Awards. Yes, really.

Random Questions

What actor, who has never been nominated for an Academy Award, has the highest grossing films? In case this isn't clear, let's take Will Smith for example. His films (Men in Black, Independence Day, Bad Boys, etc.) have grossed approximately $900 trillion dollars. Of course, Smith got an Oscar nomination for Ali, so he's out of the competition. I have no idea of the answer to this question, but I have some ideas.

What is the top seed in girl scout cookies?

Is there a better lollipop than Blow Pops?

Why is Tuesday always the worst day for mail?

Do they have Long John Silver's restaurants in any upscale neighborhoods? For example, do they have a LJS in Beverly Hills?

Will you watch The Office's finale on Thursday night?

Despite the Pirates extra inning win last night on a Cutch walk off home run, the Pirates are 13-209 against the Brewers since the Randall Simon incident. (This record may not be accurate.) It's the Sausage Curse! The only way to break the curse is for Ryan Braun to take out Cheese Chester. How can we get this to happen?

I guess you could consider this a Trivia Wednesday. Leave your answers in the comments section below.