FACT OR FICTION 2008

round 1

featuring the fof styling of SBL hall of famers Big Rando Knight and Nate Tomko

 

 

 

1)     VOLTRON WILL EMERGE FROM WEEK ONE WITH A BETTER RECORD THAN THE QUEENS OF THE REST STOP REACHAROUND

 

Nate:  Fact.  Assuming voltron comes in tact (read: Jamie Fabian shows up), which as of now looks to be the case, I don’t see them losing to either the banana democracy, which will be their tougher game, or the kyoto kamikazees this week.  (Ed. note- stupid mikey has to spell kamikazees with that extra E so I’m gonna have to retype it all season since Microsoft Word automatically edits it.  Ass.)   Kyoto doesn’t scare me one bit, and the democracy is loaded with young talent that probably won’t be playing to their potential right out of the gate.  That being said, the queens have an incredibly tough opening week matchup with the oatcake hate monsters, and obviously the democracy won’t be an easy win.  Terry and Pat are better than Lee and whatever fourth B.Frank throws out there, so I’m picking oatcake to take that game.

 

Big Rando: fiction. it's hard to say what's going to happen in week 1. i haven't talked to jamie fabes in at least a month but i wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't show up. in his absence billy would be playing either battyani or derek lockovich which is a bit of a downgrade. i'd say voltron goes 1-1, while i think the queens will go 2-0.

 

 

 

2)     THE DEEPEST ROSTER IN THE LEAGUE BELONGS TO TERRY SHERNISKY’S LASER CATS

 

Nate:  Fiction.  I would have agreed last week at this time, before I decided Esenwein won’t be playing on our team this season.  But now, I’m gonna have to go with oatcake.  They have Shelley Goodpastor, who is back from the dead and taking an internship in Greenville this summer, coming off the damn bench.  Jesus.  In addition, their pine is loaded with Seth Salcedo and Dan Sypolt, who many have tabbed as preseason rookie of the year fave.  Hammy, B.Frank ringer Zach Kaikis, and Tim Martin are all gonna help the cats this season, but they just can’t match the firepower Shelley is packin’.

 

Big Rando:  eh? i just got done looking at the rosters and i think it would be hard to actually consider any of these teams "deep." if nate misses as many weeks as he says he might, this team loses pretty much all of it's depth, but with shernisky still there, it doesn't really matter. having nate and terry on the same team pretty much gives you all the depth you need, but behind them is bob spohn, who had a so-so debut last year and mostly unproven rookies.

 

 

 

3)     THE BEST TEAM NAME THIS SEASON BELONGS TO THE QUEENS OF THE REST STOP REACHAROUND

 

Nate:  Fact.  I’m a big fan of all the team names this season... well, except maybe that oatcake hate monster thing, which I’m sure is just some inside joke between two people that I’m just never going to understand.  For the first time in a long time our team names just aren’t a bunch of ridiculous names for sexual maneuvers, which is funny once or twice, but gets lame pretty fast.  Voltron is just awesome, but I’ve always been partial to the longer names that require some work to make fit onto a jersey.

 

Big Rando:  fact. hands down. there are some good team names this year, but the fact that frankovich is the captain of the queens makes it even better

 

 

 

4)     WITH TOMKO AND SHERNISKY SPENDING ALL SUMMER SPLITTING STATS, SOMEONE ELSE WILL WIN THE PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD

 

Nate:  Fiction.  Man, this is honestly the toughest one.  I actually skipped over it the first time and had to come back.  For the rest of the SBL, and Bryan Frankovich in particular, this has to be their best shot.  There is absolutely no way either me or Shernisky will get near the numbers we had last year playing together in ‘08, but you can pretty much sharpie both of us up both for 30hr, a .650 avg, 110+ rbi, 10 assists and 60 double plays.  Those numbers are going to be really tough to beat, especially if the voting panel takes into consideration that we played together.  However, if a Frank or Moroco or Mcclelland or Blackie or Billy puts up gaudy enough numbers, this will definitely be the season to get recognized.  Still, I think it’s more likely me and ter-bear split the POTY than someone else sneaks off with it.

 

Big Rando:  fiction. once again this depends on how much time nate misses. with this team there's always going to be someone on base, and nate and terry are the 2 best in the league at putting those runners in. if nate doesn't miss much time it will be a pretty heated battle, but if he misses more than 2 weeks i think shernisky runs away with it.

(Ed. Note- I meant someone other than tomko or shernisky will win the POTY, but I guess it was kind of vague so you get to read not only nate and rando’s answers, but also get a peek at their interpretations of the question as well!)

 

 

 

5)     JAMIE MOROCO WILL PLAY IN LESS THAN 10 GAMES THIS SEASON

 

Nate:  Fiction.   I’ve known Jamie Moroco for a really long time, and I’ve heard Jamie Moroco talk about missing big chunks of baseketball for a really long time.  She never really does.  In fact, for the last few years, she’s driven back from Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoons just to play, and last year she did it to play with Mcclelland and Ben Smith.  She’s got the sort of baseketball dedication I wish a few others in this league had, and I would honestly be shocked if she didn’t make it back for more than half the games this season, even if she has to drag her beau behind her, kicking and screaming.  Besides, Rando really, really, really needs her and she couldn’t let the inventor of “Make Out With Rando” down.

 

Big Rando:  fact. she told me that on the phone yesterday

 

Nate:  Oh.  Fact.

 

 

 

6)     THE FLESHY FUNBRIDGES OF CAPTAIN BIG RANDO KNIGHT WILL WIN AT LEAST 8 GAMES THIS SEASON

 

Nate:  Fact.  In many ways, the answer to this question is directly tied in to number 5 up there.  I’m pretty confident George will be around plenty this summer, and I’m also very certain Biddle will not.  The funbridges bench, tho reliable, won’t be producing a lot of runs or preventing many, either.  George and Rando cannot do it alone, meaning they’re gonna need Jamie as often as possible.  If she comes, as I’ve already given my thoughts on, 8 wins is very attainable.  Also, I wouldn’t be that surprised to see someone off a stacked roster- maybe the laser cats or oatcake- end up playing in the brown and pink if my good friend rando needs a little more help.

 

Big Rando:  fact. i'm the captain so it kind of makes it hard for me to say otherwise, but i think we can pull it off. i talked to george and he told me he'd be there every week, but it's going to be tough to win without biddle and jamie, which is what we'll have to do because both of them have said they won't be here very often. everyone i drafted will be here most of the time. i think most of this season will ride on how well they play, but i think we'll win at least 8

 

 

 

7)     SOME TEAM FULL OF PEOPLE THAT HAVEN’T PLAYED IN A YEAR WILL NEVERTHELESS PUT UP 30 RUNS AT ASS CLOWN OUTDOOR ARENA IN AN OPENING DAY GAME

 

Nate:  Hmmm….. Fact.  Ass Clown is a hitters park, and that oatcake/jukebox game just has mollywhopping written all over it.  The oatcake hate monsters will score a ton of runs on anyone, much less a riffraff bunch like jukebox.  Week one is always loaded with people who will come very little, if ever again, and players who have never so much as seen the movie baseketball.  Boys bring their unathletic girlfriends, who would much rather be shopping for really big sunglasses or boots with the fur, and the gym class rejects who couldn’t survive a rousing game of Sharon high speedball crawl out of the woodwork thinking maybe, just maybe baseketball is the semi-athletic psuedosport for them.  The point I’m trying to make is that the jukebox rosters this opening day will carry on the traditions of other opening day jukeox rosters, so expect a lot of Jason Jennings, Brendan Radcliffe, Taylor Cataldi, Emily Wiercinski, Katie Burger, Scott Lewis, Rob Chavara, Lindsey Landfried, Princess Adelay-types, who will stand by, hell…part the way, while Terry Hall and Matt Mcclelland tip home assist after assist, extending every single inning while Katie Kelly drains double after run-scoring double.

 

Big Rando:  fact. bill and tracy's house has seen some pretty high scores in the past. nate is lights out there, as he's been practicing there since he was about 14, and shernisky made a ridiculous amount of homers in the home run derby there last year, so putting those 2 together on the same team i think they'll definately get 30 at least once. possibly twice.

 

 

PRES2008