Thursday, October 2, 2008

Hindsight and Hubris

Rather than make baseless postseason predictions, I will take this opportunity to reflect on how wrongheaded and ignorant I was six long months ago. I won't delve right into the nitty-gritty of my foolishness (I picked the Twins to finish last, hinting at my future hate), only the teams I tipped for the playoffs.

I selected Boston, Detroit, L.A. as the division winners, the Wild Card going to Toronto. In the National League I picked the Mets, Cubs, Dodgers, and Phillies. All told: 5 outta 8. Better than half, even though three were pretty much slam dunks. Many people picked Detroit so I don't feel bad, and the Mets have broken sweeter hearts than mine. I'll probably pick the Jays to win the wild card every year until they officially rebuild. Basically forever.

In the spirit of deflecting criticism and making myself feel better; I'll look over some other writers picks and belittle them for being shortsighted.
  • Noted contrarian Robert MacLeod nailed the Jays as a fourth place team and the ascension of the Rays. He picked the Indians to win the World Series, which is really too bad. He did better than Jeff Blair, who may have selected the 100 loss Seattle Mariners as his AL West Champs. Ouch.
  • Peter fucking Gammons himself predicted an Indians - Mets World Series! So did Canada's boyfriends Keith Law & Jonah Keri. Wow. Looking back makes us all dumber.
  • Not one of ESPN's experts predicted the Rayvolution, only one found a White Sock at the bottom of his hamper. Pedro Gomez can apparently see the future. He picked the White Sox and an Angels/Dodgers World Series, one of only two writers with both World Series horses still bejockeyed.
What does this prove? Nobody knows shit about the future. Injuries, bad luck, shitty starts whatever. The Tigers finished behind the Royals, Seattle lost 100 games! Nobody in Blue Jay land should complain about a damn thing.

7 comments:

  1. The Tigers finished behind the Royals? What the fuck? Hold on, I gotta go look at the standings...

    ...

    Holy mother of Jesus Christ himself, you're right.

    Wow.

    Wow.

    No, really, wow.

    Wow.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There's still a lot to complain about in Blue Jay land

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pre-season predictions are always hilarious. I can't remember how many people picked the Tigers to make it to the World Series. Don't feel bad about it Lloyd, we don't all have a crystal ball. Except for Ken Rosenthal apparently.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Bonderman injury was a shitty break, as was getting absolutely nothing of value of D-train. Sheff was hurt, Granderson was out for awhile and fatty Cabrera lost 20 points of OPS+. Verlander forgot that he was supposed to be awesome, The Roaster got hurt. JP wishes he could have this much bad luck at once.

    I SYMPATHIZE after what the Jays have gone through the last 2 years.

    JW

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Bonderman injury was really shitty, as was Granderson. Cabrera was still good.

    The Roaster and Sheff are nearly 40 so carpe diem my friends.

    As somebody else recently pointed out: only 7 teams have had three straight winning records for the last three years and six of them made the playoffs. You know the other one.

    We aren't so bad off.

    ReplyDelete

Send forth the witticisms from on high