In honor of Opening Week for Major League Baseball

Found this floating around the web. Not sure where it came from originally.

Blogger attempts to get The "Express Written Consent of Major League Baseball"

C'mon, admit it. When you hear those warnings during baseball games about not allowing any rebroadcast "without the express written consent of Major League Baseball", you wonder what exactly it would take to get it. The Simpsons even made of this by stating they only had "implied verbal consent." Well, one blogger who wanted to describe a game to a friend on his cell, decided to find out.

I explained my situation to her and asked how to go about getting express written consent. She wanted to know if I was going to blog about the game or do a podcast, and I said no, I just wanted to describe the game to someone while sitting on my living room couch.

"How could anyone stop you from talking about the game in your own living room?" she said, taking my request as a joke.

I reassured her that it wasn't. While I doubted the MLB spies would be able to get to me, the disclaimer made it very clear that I'm not allowed to give my account of the game, so I wanted express written consent that gave me permission to talk about the game, and I would post a blog about how I went about attaining the consent. She said someone else from MLB would be calling me.

At the risk of spoiling the punchline, he never did get his "express written consent."

Phillies - Going to the WORLD SERIES!

ya gotta believe
Originally uploaded by pompomflipflop.

I first became a baseball fan in 1980 when I was living near Philadelphia and watched the Phillies become World Champs against the Royals. I am thrilled to see it (maybe) happening again, as the Phillies beat the Dodgers to top the NLCS and head to the WORLD SERIES. Here is hoping this is only the start of the celebration and the greatness this year!

P.S. Sorry Joe Torre. We would have all enjoyed the irony if you had beat the Yankees to the World Series. But this was the year of the Phanatic!

Water banned from MLB dugouts

We have posted plenty of criticism here of the bottled water craze: it is too expensive, it creates waste, etc. But it seems strange to ban bottled water from baseball dugouts at Major League Baseball games!

White Sox clubhouse personnel said if players take bottled water onto the bench, all the bottled water will be removed from the clubhouse as punishment.

So remember, the biggest threat to baseball isn't steroids or HGH or amphetamines or runaway ticket prices or four-hour games.

It's water.

Hopefully, they allow the water if it is delivered in gatorade-logoed cups instead. {{Roll eyes.}

Poor, poor Phillies

Well, my celebration was short-lived. The Phillies fought had to win their division, but could not hold out against the red-hot Rockies and have now gone home to watch the rest of the post season from their recliners. It was a nice dream while it lasted. Maybe next year can be a better repeat of 1980.

Also, congratulations to the Diamonbacks over the Cubs, and the Red Sox over the Angels. We're watching the Yankees game now, which I hope ends out better, for Shadowmom and Sean's sakes.

Go Phillies!!!

I am not a big sports guy in general. But I have been a faithful Phillies fan since 1980 when they last won the world series. I want to congratulate my beloved team on winning the National League East pennant. And I hope they go on to the World Series.

And my sympathies to CRChair on his poor Mets.