Delmon Young Day… looking back with a smile

Seems today was designated as “Delmon Young Day” in the Twins blogosphere. Don’t ask me why.

I really don’t have strong feelings with regard to Delmon. He’s young. He’s talented. He’s been a little bit of a disappointment, overall, since his arrival in Twins Territory from Tampa Bay, I suppose, but he showed us all something by showing up at Spring Training about 30 pounds lighter this season and his mobility has reflected it. But if you really want to read a bunch of stuff about Delmon, let me suggest that you check out:

TwinsGeek

BP’s Baseball Blog

Off the Mark

Alright Hamilton!

Hitting the Foul Pole

Twinkie Talk

Josh’s Thoughts

k-bro’s baseball blog

OK, that should be plenty for you to read this evening about Delmon, right? Truth is, I have to be honest… I haven’t read ANY of those posts about DY. I worked late and simply don’t feel strongly enough about Delmon to spend too much time reading others’ opinions of the guy.

But it just didn’t seem right somehow not to read ANYTHING about him. So, as I tend to do from time to time, I turned my attention back to where my blog origins took root… Batgirl. And it made me smile all over again.

In case you may not recall… or simply never knew… that the arrival of Delmon Young was such a big deal in Twinsland that it brought Batgirl out of ‘retirement’ briefly (much, much too briefly). She posted this on MnGameday back in November, 2007. I strongly encourage you to take this stroll with me down memory lane tonight (and enjoy LEGOvision with me, one more time!).

Oh, and just for the heck of it, since it’s “his day” and all, let’s give Delmon Young “Boyfriend of the Day” award for his 3 hits (including 2 doubles) and a run scored in the Twins 3-2 win over the BitchSox today!

Who do YOU hate?

So, since CapitalBabs and I were the only two in the GameChat during this afternoon’s Twins/Tigers game, we had to find things to talk about. One of the topics we hit on was this article, in which the WSJ presents the Nielson Co.’s analysis of something they call an Internet Algorithm, which concludes that the Cleveland Indians are the most despised Major League Baseball team. The Cleveland Indians? Seriously?

(Do you suppose that’s the same Nielson Co. that tells us all the crappiest TV shows are actually being watched by millions of people and, as a result, we keep getting more crappy TV shows to watch? I bet it is.)

Normally, I think you have to give the Wall Street Journal some respect. They’re a pretty reputable (if somewhat conservative) newspaper. But today, I’m thinking maybe they should stick to writing about business and leave sports to someone else.

Babs and I both thought the conclusions of the WSJ/Nielson Co. were, to be polite, wrong. In fact, I’d be willing to bet good money the Indians don’t even come close to being the most despised team. Actually, I’d give you pretty good odds that I can tell you exactly which team IS the most despised team without the benefit an algorithm of any kind… and that team barely cracked the top 5 in the WSJ/Nielson rankings.

But to be fair, Babs suggested we  put out a poll after the game to see what the rest of you think. I’m not going to list every team here because, let’s face it, who can really hate the Royals or even care about the Padres? But if you truly hate another team more than any of the 11 listed below, there’s a “someone else” box for you and you can let us know in the comments section who you really hate. And if you want to lie to us and say you don’t hate anybody, ok, there’s a box for that, too. – JC

P.S. – I was really tempted to add a “the ‘team’ of umpires working the Twins/Tigers series” as an option… but I didn’t want to skew the results based on one pathetic series by one particular umpiring crew. Of course, no poll asking “who I hate” is really complete without Bud Selig being on the list, but I’ve made my feelings about Bud pretty clear already, I’m sure.