There have been analytical arguments. Who can forget the great “Joe Blanton Debate”?
Some threads have branched out into politics and the economy, such as the combined “Inflation / Gold / New World Order” posts in the fall of 2008.
How about the start to the 2010 season with the “Padilla/Fanball” debacle? That one at times questioned the integrity of the NFBC itself and some of our fellow competitors before cooler heads stepped in and things settled down.
We have had personal battle, “Walla Walla v Shandler”; and personal statement threads, "I Quit"
We have a 'give us the facts' thread, “Braun Suspended”
There have been required reading threads like "Stuff", "Fantasy Camp" and "Mouth Musings"
No single thread has had as many individual replies as the “All-Time Draft Thread” (1,953).
Yet none of these thread topics held the daily anticipation of reading or the universal admiration that Glenn Lowy’s “Countdown to the NFBC” 2012 topic had.
Glenn started his thread in the dead of winter, and for the next 100 days he posted pictures and commentary that helped pass the grueling time until the start of our baseball season. It was a must read and would probably be listed by many, if not most, the best single-topic thread ever on the message board.
And now we are in the dead of winter again, and Glenn has been asked to start a new countdown, but he has passed. He has passed for a good reason however, he’s already done it. What he did was so epic that he admittedly doesn’t want to try it again. So, he suggested that someone else give it a go and provide a new take on the countdown…………. I guess that’s where I come in.
I don’t have the writing skills of Glenn, Dan, Shawn or many of the other posters on our message board, but I have a solid knowledge of baseball history and I know how to find pictures on the internet. So I can't guarantee that this countdown will be as entertaining or informative as Glenn's; hell, I can't even guarantee a comment every day. Some days I may just get a picture posted and may leave it up to you guys to make the comment.
I will use March 22nd as my target date. That is the date of the first weekend Main Event. I know there are some events before this draft and many more after, but the Main Event IS the NFBC.
I'll try to spread the love around to as many MLB teams as possible, but like Glenn and his beloved Mets, you can expect to see more than a fair share of Cubs.
So will all due respect to Glenn’s original thread.
I give you the Countdown to the NFBC 2014………………
38 Days to NFBC 2014
I thought it would be only right to start this countdown off with a member of the New York Metropolitans. However, just like the Mets themselves, a number 38 has not had a lot of great success in New York.
In fact, jersey number 38 hasn't been that good overall in baseball. Of all jersey numbers 1 through 45, every single number has been retired by one team or another, every number that is except number 38.
There have been some decent players wear #38 as their primary number, but none are going to have it retired anytime soon.
Curt Schilling wore #38 throughout his career with the Phillies, Red Sox, and DBacks, but only his sock has been retired.
Carlos Zambrano wore #38 with the Cubs, I'll let someone else tell him we aren't retiring his number.
Some players wore #38 at the ends of their careers; Steve Carlton with the Twins, Bret Saberhagen with Colorado, and Luis Tiant with Pittsburgh. Yes, Tiant finished up with the Pirates among others. I had to look that one up to believe it.
So back to the Mets. #38 has not had great success. From Roger Craig to Buzz Capra to Matt Wise and Vic Black. It's basically been a dark hole..........
Except for one...........
Rick Aguilera was drafted by the Mets in the 3rd round of the 1983 draft. He made his ML Debut as a 23yo rookie on June 12, 1985 and picked up the first of his 86 career wins with two scoreless innings in relief. Aguilera pitched in 20 more games that season, including 19 starts.
During his five seasons with the Mets he was 37-27 with a 3.58 era and 7 saves.
The Mets traded Aguilera in a deadline deal on July 31,1989 for Frank Viola. Rick has his most success with the Twins and eventually ended up with 318 career saves pitching for Minnesota, Boston and the Cubs.
So when draft day comes and you are debating which player to take, you might want to take an extra second and think about their uniform number. Last season, of the 30 different players to wear #38, only 2 had a WAR above 1 (Tyson Ross, Joe Smith).
And one last thing. If I've only remembered one thing from Advertising 101 it's this, sex sells. So you can expect some occasionally gratuitous shots of beautiful women in this countdown (all baseball related of course).
If the idea of drafting Pete Kozma, #38, doesn't get your juices flowing; or thinking back about the outstandingly average career of Rick Aguilera doesn't do it for you, maybe a photo of Christina Aguilera will work.
At least now I'll make you scroll through the others to find the good one.
