Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today; Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today; Look at me, I can be Centerfield.

--from Centerfield by John Fogerty

Each of the nine positions on a baseball field has its own legends--indelible images that readily come to mind for the serious fan when the position is mentioned.

"Safe!"

It's a familiar sound in the major leagues, heard hundreds of times a day--the bellow from the umpire indicating that a runner has safely reached or held his base. In most cases, it is forgotten as soon as its last echoes fade into the artificially lit confines of whatever baseball park it is issued in. Tonight, it heralded the shattering of a journeyman pitcher's dreams and the permanent staining of a veteran umpire's reputation for competence.

Ouch--that was a tad painful.

First, the standings going into the Final Four:

Rank Team crct/possible pts pos pts
1 Blue Neponset 37 of 60 64 112
2 Fightin'Jimmy Langhurst 35 of 60 62 110
3 Wait - this isn't. . . 35 of 60 61 77
4 The Eiland Paradises 37 of 60 58 58
5 HankP 33 of 60 57 57
6 eeyn524 33 of 60 55 71
7 Davinci's Backetology 32 of 60 52 52
8 Prescient Peyton 29 of 60 38 38
9 Stine's Bracket 27 of 60 31 31

Hello.

M. Scott Eiland here: commissioner of The Formidable Forvm and lame duck leader of the pack after the first 48 games of the tournament have been played. We'll start with the standings, then see if we can make sense of what's left here:
Round

Rank Name Pts Possible Pts
1 The Eiland Paradises 42 78
2 Blue Neponset 40 128
3 Figthin' Jimmy Langhurst 38 134
4 HankP 37 105
4 Wait - this isn't for tennis?! 37 97
6 Davinci's Backetology 36 92
7 eeyn524 35 83

*Commissioner M. Scott Eiland ascends to the podium*

We are once again approaching that blessed time when millions of people waste tens of millions of hours of productivity in guessing what men's college basketball teams will do in the upcoming event known fondly as March Madness. While many will engage in this activity with some amount of money at stake, we in the Formidable Forvm League will be doing it solely for bragging rights, with the prospect of extreme ridicule should our prognostication be less than stellar--who's up for it? ]:-)

Once again, I am posting a diary to allow the inhabitants here to win bragging rights by making the most correct WAGs about random or almost completely random occurrences associated with today's national event. Without further ado. . .

--who will win the coin flip?

--which team will be penalized first?

--which team will kick a field goal first?*

--will the combined score of the two teams at halftime be an odd or an even number?

--(Tie-breaker) what will be the final score?

*--picking "neither" and being correct counts double!

The vote for the 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame entering class will be announced on January 6th, 2010: the complete list of candidates with lifetime stats can be found here. As I've gone over the credentials of many on the ballot in prior years, I'm going to keep it short this time:

Probably In (and should be):

Andre Dawson
Bert Blyleven
Roberto Alomar

Should Be In, But Probably Won't Be:

Barry Larkin
Tim Raines
Edgar Martinez
Allen Trammell
Lee Smith

The first round of the 2009 MLB playoffs combined two series that surprised few--the Yankees' sweep of the Twins and the Phillies beating the Rockies in four games--and two rather big surprises--with the Dodgers sweeping the Cardinals (after losing five out of seven to them in the regular season) and the Angels sweeping the Red Sox after years of being owned by Boston in the postseason. With the next round of playoffs about to begin, a re-evaluation is in order.

[As I begin this diary, seven out of the eight 2009 MLB playoff positions are set, and the Tigers and Twins are deadlocked 5-5 in the bottom of the 12th inning of the one game playoff to determine the winner of the AL Central, the last playoff position.]

[Strike that--TWINS WIN! TWINS WIN! 6-5 in 12. On with the diary]

.

Division Series (best of five: team with home field advantage listed last):

NL:

St. Louis Cardinals v. Los Angeles Dodgers
Colorado Rockies (wild card) v. Philadelphia Phillies

AL:

Boston Red Sox (wild card) v. Los Angeles Angels*

. . ."If A White Guy Said It He'd Be Toast" sweepstakes, we have Mr. Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star explaining how Serena Williams, winner of 11 Grand Slam titles, is an underachiever with a fat @$$.*

Dude. Serena's father is a racist idiot, but if he slugged Whitlock in the jaw over this article I'd raise my glass to him.

*--Whitlock *is* getting a lot of flak for this piece, but his job is in no danger.