We're Getting Lazy

Or is "efficient" the word I'm looking for? You'll see what I mean. We haven't bitched about Ed Hardiman and his Foxsports.com blog The Fowl Line (Why did he use the animal spelling? Why does he get paid for being a shitty writer? The world is full of mysteries.) for a while so I decided to stop in and see what kind of crap he was writing about. Turned out his most recent column was one evaluating this year's newly eligible baseball Hall of Fame candidates. It was pretty inoffensive. There were a couple bad jokes, like

Tom Lampkin, banjo-hitting catcher, Fowl Line says: Lampkin? Lampkan’t.

and

Lee Stevens, a 1st sacker with a .254 career average and 144 potatoes way better than my numbers, rock-solid mediocre. Fowl Line says: Give us a call when the Kintetsu Buffaloes induct you in their HOF, cause Cooperstown isn’t quite ready for you yet.

As well as a pretty flagrant grammatical error, for what it's worth.

Hipólito Pichardo, rhymes with Ricky Ricardo. There is a baseball hell it’s called the KC Royals, seven-years of a ten-year career spent there will not get you HOF numbers. Fowl Line says: When pig’s fly he still won’t get in.

Yes. When pig is fly. Or is that pig, possessing fly? I am basically a 6th grade English teacher.

But let's get to the main point of this post. The one place Ed really actually crossed the line was with his evaluation of one Timothy Raines.

Tim Raines, Rock! Rock! Four guys have stolen 800 bases, Raines, Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock and Ty Cobb. Two are in and the other two will be. Not even a close call. Fowl Line says: Hell yes.

This is where the laziness and/or efficiency of FireJay comes into play. Is Tim Raines really a no-brainer 1st ballot guy for the Hall? Well, let me just refer you to my colleague Dan-Bob, who wrote this amazing piece probably well before any of you nine faithful readers even know we existed. So it's basically new! I think he handles the subject very gracefully.

And just like that, my work here is finished. I really need to half-ass my way through more posts and just link you guys to old stuff we did months ago that no one has seen. That would make my life down here in the basement much easier. There's only so much time in the day to blog in between eating Pop-Tarts, shooting spiders with old Nerf guns, and playing Sega Genesis.

As Long As We're on the Subject. .

Do we really need an article about how we should root for "the next guy" ?


Not much in this article except for tired, rehashed "Bonds cheated", "Selig's uncomfortable", and "Let's root for A-Rod" fluff. However this line stuck out:

"Personally, I hope Barry dies," former Pirate photographer Pete Diana told Pearlman.

But Bonds doesn't care what Pete Diana or anyone else thinks of him. Perhaps even more than the steroids, that attitude is the source of his strength. I find this athlete's composure peculiarly admirable. He might be a miserable guy; but he hasn't let the pressure get to him.

I like how the author here just moves on as if this photographer didn't just try to put a hoodoo curse on Bonds. "I hope Barry dies"? Seriously? And then to just move on with a "But Bonds doesn't care who wishes death upon him." Wow.