Big Head Barry and the Monsters midseason edition

The second half of baseball starts tomorrow, so what better time to give a mid-season assessment. The biggest story of the first half has been the lack of Big Head Barry. And for me that is a good thing. Just hang up the cleats, the clear, and the cream full time Barry, the game is doing good without you humongous dome. But without Big Head Barry playing everyday, there isn’t much to make fun of through-out the course the first half. Luckily Kenny Rogers quickly became a great public enemy #2 recently. First he has to miss a start after getting into a fight with a water cooler. Then after getting mocked for that, decided to pick a fight with a camera man. An old and concededly smaller camera man. But a least he put up a better fight than the water cooler. I wonder what exactly the camera man said to Rogers. “You’re my lady?” “You got to know when to hold them?” And for everyone who was against Rogers pitching in the All-Star game was proven wrong yesterday. First the announcer actually paused to give the fans extra time to boo him. Then Chipper Jones tattooed him to start a NL run. Not to mention he had to answer questions from the hated media the last couple days.

As for my boy the Astros, after a slow start, they have got hot lately. Sound familiar? In fact, the Astros are one game better than they were last year. But unfortunately Carlos Beltran won’t be helping out this year. And they can’t rely on the Cubs choking again because they choked early this year. Although if Brandon Backe can throw together a few solid starts in a row, get one more bat, and actually win on the road (the start the second half with a long road trip starting in St. Louis) Houston could get the wild card again this season.

The International Olympic Committee also made baseball news over the All-Star break by announcing they are dropping baseball and softball from the games. Now I sick of all the pervs complaining that won’t be able to see Jennie Finch, but softball won’t be dropped until the 2012 London games. Who know how good Finch will look by then. Look at how far Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Love Hewitt have fallen lately. And we don’t even if she will still be playing then. And lets be honest, Derek Jeter looks more attractive than most of Finch’s teammates. As for baseball, this was a poor decision as the sport is huge in the Caribbean nations and Asia, so there was a lot of competition. And I dislike the IOC’s reason for baseball being dropped is because the MLB doesn’t send their players. That’s a sham because the Olympics are always better when the amateur players are participating and dropping one of the sports that doesn’t send its pro’s is a sham.

Now onto the baseball that truly matters, fantasy baseball. First there is Jobu’s Revenge of the California Penal League. Currently they are sitting in first place with a one game lead. Not bad for drafting 9 out of 12 teams. On top of that, I only have one player currently hitting over .300 (Jeter). Pitching has really been the strong point by picking up some gems in the later rounds like Chris Carpenter (9), Chad Cordero (11), and Livan Hernandez (13).

As for Bond’s Giant Head in the Bash Brothers League, they have been ransacked by injuries in the first half leading to a late slide in the first half to end up in 7th (out of 10) place and 16 games out. As mentioned earlier, injuries to Cory Patterson, Orlando Cabrera, Javy Lopez, Erik Bedard, among others have really damaged my worst to first dream. But at least I have the best name in the league.

In other sports news, it looks like hockey is back. Well that only too 300+ days.