Category > The Polite Power Rankings
Baseball season is coming into the home stretch, as many teams are contending for playoff spots while others are just looking forward to seeing their September callups perform. In Illinois, the three teams of local interest (Cubs, White Sox, and Cardinals) are all in the hunt, which should make for an interesting September. The Cardinals and Sox both made quite a bit of noise at the July 31 trading deadline, adding Matt Holliday and Jake Peavy (right), respectively, while the …
| Well, it's the Wednesday after the All-Star Game, perhaps the worst day of the year for a baseball fan. There are no games to distract you from the pundits acting like they know what's going to happen in the second half. Yeah, those guys suck. Oh, and here's what's going to happen in the second half.
It's been a little more than a month since our first baseball power rankings of the 2009 season. In that time, we've seen several teams nosedive (Royals, Mariners, Cardinals, Marlins) and plenty of teams climb the ranks (Yankees, Giants, Brewers). Number one is still reserved for the Dodgers, who have gone 19-13 since losing Manny Ramirez to suspension. Kevin Youkilis is no longer hitting .400, but .350 isn't too shabby. Someone finally caught Carl Crawford on the base paths — …
Welcome to Smile Politely's Power Rankings for baseball, where our resident baseball fans-slash-editors mull over the majors and report back. In February, the three of us — Joel, Seth, and Doug — were talking before one of our weekly editorial meetings about the possibility of authoring this very column you're now reading. We weren't convinced that had the brains to back up our opinions, so we decided to partake in a round of Hot Stove League speculation concerning the upcoming …
Heading into the home stretch, the guys from Pittsburgh are making clear that they’re ready to make a post-season run. Illinois grad Carey Davis, the Steelers’ first team fullback, could see increased action in the weeks ahead as the team tries to keep its backfield healthy by spreading the ball around. Former Illini standout Rashard Mendenhall, whose season ended with a shoulder injury in Week 4, will have to wait till next season to help out Pittsburgh’s …
A few years ago, there wasn’t a football fan in the land who wasn’t intimately familiar with the word “parity.” Everyone from John Madden and Chris Berman to the guy who worked at the sports paraphernalia store out at the mall was marveling at the sudden presence of parity everywhere they turned. The Titans beat the champion- to-be Colts? Parity! The Super Bowl-bound Bears get thumped by the Dolphins? Parity! Then, last year, the dominant Pats (and a few others) …
Tennessee vs. Detroit. Dallas vs. Seattle. These were the two daytime games on Thanksgiving this year, and both games were built to stink. Dallas vs. Seattle might be forgivable — when the schedule was being penned, nobody could’ve known Seattle would be this bad — but there’s simply no excuse for giving the perennially awful Lions such a marquee game. And the night game, Arizona vs. Philadelphia, which was the day’s only game with competitive promise, was on the NFL …
The good poet Robert Browning gave us these prescient words: “Jove strikes the Titans down not when they set about their mountain-piling, but when another rock would crown the work.” Ok, maybe that’s a little harsh. And maybe the Jets had a little more to do with the recent Titans-toppling event than Jove did. Blame whomever you’d like, but the fact of the matter is that the NFL’s last remaining undefeated team finally has one in the “L” column. And …
Déjà vu, huh? This time last year football fans were placing bets on whether the New England Patriots would go undefeated and whether the Miami Dolphins would go completely defeated. This year, the saga is replaying itself in the forms of the surprisingly dominant Tennessee Titans and the not-so-surprisingly atrocious Detroit Lions. But drama isn’t reserved for these extremes. In the middle of the pack we’re seeing perennial heavyweights like the Colts and Patriots ebb and flow, which keeps everybody …
“Football players, like prostitutes, are in the business of ruining their bodies for the pleasure of strangers,” says writer Merle Kessler. Well, consider me one of those strangers. We’ve hit that time of year — in real and fantasy football — when diehard fans feel compelled to devote, approximately, 14 straight hours every Sunday (including pre-, between- and post-game coverage) to watching the game. But it seems that every week, there are new teams worth keeping an eye on. Are …
Most Recent Sports Comments
Congratulations on the AG place! In all of your accomplishments, don’t forget what it was like to think a mile was an impossible distance. Getting to the six-mile point takes a lot of training and preparation to acclimate the mind and musculature to so much pounding. Your…
Sounds like it!
I heading out on my 9 miler before my 10 hour work day right now. Do I have what it takes?
I wonder with Griffey if he’s not in game shape enough to play a significant number of minutes. If you look at his minutes played this year, he’s never played a starters minutes.
*Shrugs*
Sometime between now and their first game in this year’s NIT, the Illini need to practice taking a shot before the game clock expires.
Can we please refrain from ever EVER comparing running a marathon to childbirth? Especially when the comparison is made by someone without a vagina? Kthx.
I think we are in. But being blown out again by OSU might give the selection comittee doubts. I dunno anymore.
Mark: You raise some interesting points. I’m impressed by anyone who runs a marathon, no matter their finishing time. It’s the commitment people show to accomplishing a goal they set for themselves that impresses me most. A sign I saw at the Illinois Marathon last year along…
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Most Recent Comments
Set your own life easier take the business loans and all you want.
Awesome looking lineup… I’m excited. Another vote towards the Smoking Popes rocking out at the first Laughing Prairie Dog festival… it was a pretty good energy, and plenty of groups considering the cheap ticket. The rest all look pretty good for the ticket price as well. …
(Not to talk too much, but I would delight in being proven wrong. I hope that there are many vegan dishes, and next time I am there, I will ask the owner for dishes that are vegan that are offered and post them as a comment here,…
I understand the disclaimer, and I appreciate it, but given the title of the article, it would be nice to have more of a talk with the owner and less of a “to the best of my knowledge” thrown in the article as an aside, when vegan…
Nate, No offers to crash but I was wondering if you’d ever considered publishing the plans to your trailer. You might make a dollar or two especially after you go solar! Let me know if you do it. Sincerely, Don
Not sure if it’s been mentioned here, but they’ll also be playing the Old Rock House in St. Louis on May 22
Interesting about who owns land in the path of the Olympian Drive extension. My comment was in response to ‘Tony C’s remarks about the I-74 expansion. Just who owns land in the 150 [BloomingtonRd]-I-74 corridor?? Because the corridor is zoned for future use as Commercial/Industrial, I am…
(happy face)
Wow, great article. I wish you the best in your endeavors and hope you have a nice trip.
Um. Yeah — check out that “General Disclaimer” at the bottom of the article, folks.
As an adoptee, I can empathize—although I’m not an international adoptee, and I apologize if I’m assuming too much on the nature of your adoption. You can feel what you feel, but don’t be too hard on yourself. When I started a search for my birth family,…
I highly doubt a single dish is vegan at Bombay. Most Indian dishes use Ghee(essentially clarrified butter) as the base fat. While I guess they could make some dishes with canola oil, I would for sure ask the exact ingredients before I consumed if you are following a vegan diet.
You’re right! Every runner, in my opinion, is a real runner.
Congratulations on the AG place! In all of your accomplishments, don’t forget what it was like to think a mile was an impossible distance. Getting to the six-mile point takes a lot of training and preparation to acclimate the mind and musculature to so much pounding. Your…
Sounds like it!
I heading out on my 9 miler before my 10 hour work day right now. Do I have what it takes?
Nice, killer work pretty man…the channeled, one sided collaborated rhyming poem. An oft forgot genre. The ruckus was felt even here in my living room, which is normally a safe haven from ruckus.
wait, I was commenting on the wrong thing - sorry - he’s actually a gigantic sellout but who really knows what all this is about.
If the democrats didn’t have Kucinich, and the republicans didn’t have Ron Paul, where would both these parties really stand? These men actually mean what they say.
Joel, thank you for the opportunity to answer these questions and have them posted here. I really appreciate it! Yes, I was thrilled to see that Rep. Kucinich flipped today, so he will has committed to voting yes for health reform. I appreciated his comments which seem…
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You’re right! Every runner, in my opinion, is a real runner.