Yeah, yeah.  I know it’s Thursday, but it sure feels like Friday, doesn’t it?  Due to strict copyright laws, I wasn’t able to come out with a Thursday Quick Hitters.  I decided to keep the branding going and let the Friday Quick Hitters campaign continue.  After missing last Friday due to vacation (also referred to as “chilin way too hard” to write), I thought everyone deserved this.  I thought we were past this being July 3rd and all, but here is the 1330 office cam pic of the day:

It’s funny because with the Supersonics leaving Seattle, this is exactly what I picture in my head when I think of Seattle.  Well, this and fish being thrown around.  And I guess girls with armpit hair, too.

Last night, choosing what to watch between Supernanny, So You Think you can Dance, Baby Borrowers, and Criminal Minds was like choosing if I’d rather lose a finger or a toe.  For those that chose toe, you probably picked Criminal Minds.  I was left sitting there thinking, “uhhh, is there another option?”  Luckily for me, there was.  The Tampa Bay Devil, err, Rays versus the Boston Red Sox.  It’s tough with baseball with their not being a team in Indianapolis.  I grew up a Reds fan and have tried my best to maintain that throughout my life, but for me, it’s tough to have a favorite team outside of the city you live in.  In the summer of 2002, I went and worked for the Colorado Rockies, which led me to also add the Rockies to my favorite team list.  I feel you can do this when there’s not a pro team in your city.  Last year when Colorado made their run to the World Series, I have to say it was pretty cool.  On the other hand, it wasn’t nearly as cool as a team you sincerely love making it that far.  Now if I ”rock” my Rockies New Era, people probably think I’m on the bandwagon.  Oh well…it’s a sick New Era.  

The point of that paragraph was to prove that it’s hard to follow teams outside of your DMA, especially in baseball where the two teams you like are a combined 73-98.  WIth baseball, you can’t really root to get the number one pick.  Top draft picks are more wishy washy than any other sport and they won’t be at the big league level for at least 2 years after the draft.  In baseball, bad teams trade away value for prospects, so you don’t know if a trade is good or bad for about 4 years.

ANYWAY, I watched from the 5th inning on of the Rays-Sox game last night, and it was a game that made me realize that I do, still in fact, like baseball.  A whole lot.  If you know nothing about the Rays, just realize that they’ve been terrible since the inception of their team in 1998.  Through those minor league-esque years, they’ve actually stock-piled some young talent like Carl Crawford, BJ Upton, James Shields and Evan Longoria (The next MLB star).  Through those trades I spoke of earlier, they’ve added talent like Scott Kazmir, Jason Bartlett,  and Matt Garza, and lucked out with a guy like Carlos Pena.  Basically, they’re young, have unbelievable team chemistry, and a great manager in Joe Maddon.  If you did a fantasy draft while playing MLB Baseball on Xbox, you’d definitely draft about 5 young Rays players to your team.  You’d also have a dynasty for about 10 years. 

There’s no better story in baseball than the Rays.  Last night, they were down 4-1 heading into the bottom of the 7th.  That’s when the Red Sox relievers fell off the wagon.  Tampa batted around in the 7th, scoring 6 runs to go up 7-4.  Longoria (again, the next superstar of the league) knocked in the two runs to put them ahead for good.  There were tons of pitching changes and the game lasted four hours, but baseball season has officially begun for me.  The sweep that they completed last night showed the nation that they’re for real, and will be in the pennant race for the long haul.  Their pitching is devastating if it stays healthy, and someone new steps up each night with the bat.  As I wait until next year for Cincinnati and Colorado, I’m going to ride this nationwide bandwagon out of Tampa.  Oh yeah, and I may pick up a new New Era tonight.

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Aaron Rodgers gets rid of the ”Butt-Cut”.  Here’s the link. 

Super Reader, Rum, informed me of a 200 yard chip in that Annika Sorenstam sank on the final hole of her last US Open.  To me, that’s unbelievable way to go, soI’m still searching for video for you to see.  Seriously, is this not the way to go out?  A win may have been better, but geez, what a feeling.

Enjoy your 4th of July weekend and be safe out there.  Keep your fingers close to your side and don’t stand over any unlaunched fireworks.  Hopefully, I’ll be standing over a few grills.