As if I didn't like the Phillies enough to start, my idiotic choice to dump one of their closers cost Hoagy Time a much-needed victory this week. Brad Lidge went on the DL, and I figured Ryan Madson would be an adequate stopgap solution. Minus-21 points later, I'm a loser again.

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It’s fitting for Major League Baseball to officially honor its role in spurring America’s Civil Rights Movement by including black players during the 1940s. But it’s also appropriate to recognize the many leagues and individuals who played the game during the decades of segregated baseball that preceded it (and maybe to wonder why it took the league as long as it did to offer inclusion).

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Like General Motors, Hoagy Time has "reinvented" itself. Riding the emotional wave of a two-game winning streak, my fantasy baseball team has righted the ship ... and has even softened its stance on Jimmy Rollins now that he's begun to hit.

Is fantasy baseball a thinking man's game or does it come down to pulling some juvenile antics and working the waiver wire like a streetwalker on McMicken?

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I went out of town and you wouldn't believe the things I saw! It sure was different!

As you can see, I've been working on my leads and intro paragraphs. I spent a week in Maine and had more fun watching the New England Sports Network I ever could have imagined. My little brother went to college up there, so he had four years of watching/enduring their unique brand of sports coverage.

The folks at that station really exemplify what it means to be a homer. Aside from that, I hear they have a regular segment in which a man takes a woman on a date to Fenway Park. The most confusing footage I watched was when former Patriots tight end Christian Fauria did a segment at McGreevy's bar, and he was holding this mammoth burger called the "Josh Beckett Burger."

It's for charity or something, which is good. Fauria's assessment of the burger was something else entirely. The camera focused on him, he held the burger up and said "This thing will go right through you!"

I'm not sure if that means something else up there by the Freedom Trail, but around here that is not how you describe something you want someone to purchase and eat.

The Boston Red Sox have many smart, level-headed fans. They also have a lot of fans who wear Red Sox hats and T-shirts that say things like "YANKEES SUCK" across the front.

My brother is correct in thinking that these folks exhibit the behavior of someone who has been bullied somehow. Yankees fans aren't nearly as concerned with Boston. I think they just want to win, and if they get to climb over the Red Sox to get there, then all the better.

The lunatic Red Sox fan has some distorted notion that the Yankees are a big market "Evil Empire," when their team is run no differently. I understand why A's and Twins fans might feel this way, but for Boston fans to makes no sense to me.

The more I watch Jonathan Papelbon the less I care for him. Also, the Dunkin Donuts ads featuring Dustin Pedroia are shot so that Pedroia looks like he's 6-5 and not 5-8 or whatever he is.

The worse my fantasy baseball team plays, the less I'm going to talk about it. I'm playing like the Diamondbacks.

I will say that Volquez's mystery-voodoo ailment coupled with Mike Cameron deciding his knees hurt on MONDAY really helps. A lot. Thanks.

I think I still love sports, but SportsCenter is getting harder and harder to watch. I just can't shake the notion that until they can routinely call the Mets catcher "Omir" instead of "Omar" Santos they should shy away from having Barry Melrose offer baseball analysis and certainly shelve those moronic moments in front of a screen where two or three anchors stand around sipping coffee, somehow trying to make their personalities (of which there is little) shine into the stories they are supposed to be telling.

More objective, coherent content to follow.

Image: Dustin Pedroia in yet another coffee-themed optical illusion.  

Last night I was watching the last couple innings of the Reds game and this Reds coach popped up on the screen with dark Batman-looking eyes and a very well-defined face and I was like, “Who the fuck is that dude?”

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Let's not point out the many things I haven't been right about so far in 2009. Instead, let's focus on my Spring Training prediction that Laynce Nix, if healthy and in the lineup, would hit 25 home runs. It looks pretty feasible. The shot he hit to dead center in Arizona last night was certainly not a cheapie.

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There are times during Reds TV broadcasts when one just shakes his head and thinks, “Goddammit George Grande, the world ain’t all that great.” And there are times when you might say, “Welshy, I really miss your mustache and I think it's funny how uncomfortable George Grande makes you.” And then there are times when Jeff Brantley talks about himself, and all you can do is laugh out loud.

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Things were getting dicey heading into last week. I found myself wondering what was going to happen first — Hoagy Time breaking into the W column or somebody not named Isaac Thorn completing a CityBeat Sports Blog.

Fortunately for me, I got great pitching performances from Johnny Cueto, and my odd affinity for Randy Wolf has paid off big time, too.

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Today is one of those days where it's hard to imagine any activity being more appropriate than baseball. Hopefully, Reds fans flock to the stadium tonight, and the rest of this homestand.

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Dear Cincinnati Reds:

I recently attended a baseball game between the Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates at Great American Ballpark. I don’t usually go to your stadium to watch the games live because walking across Fort Washington Way and looking at the Pepsi Smokestacks in the outfield kind of make me hate being there. I don’t mind the Mountain Dew bottles racing each other on the scoreboard or how Mr. Red always loses the Skyline Chili race because he is too tempted by a 3-Way to finish the competition. That guy’s lack of dedication kills me every time.

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