Baseball season is almost here. Every season is full of ups and downs for all fanatic baseball lovers. There are unexpected twists and along the way questions are answered. Here are one guy’s top 10 questions for the season.
10. Can Chris Carpenter return to form?
Carpenter has been injured for most of the last two seasons, but has been a dominant pitcher in the past. Carpenter won a Cy Young award in 2005, but has been under the radar since then. All signs from spring training point to Carpenter being ready to go. Carpenter finished spring training with a 1.52 ERA in six starts, struck out 17 against six walks and did not allow a home run in 23 2/3 innings.
9. Is Justin Upton as good as rumored and will it show in 2009?
The younger Upton (his brother B.J. Upton plays for the Tampa Bay Rays) has been touted by scouts as the best pure hitter to come into baseball in the last few years and has been compared to Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez. Last season at age 20 Upton hit .250 with 15 home runs and 42 RBI in 365 at bats. Consensus seems to be that Upton will be a superstar. The question is whether or not it will be this year.
8. Will the San Francisco Giants have the best starting rotation in baseball?
It’s easy to say that the Yankees have the best rotation in baseball with C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte, and Joba Chamberlain. But this reporter likes a dark horse. Tim Lincecum is arguably the best pitcher in baseball. Randy Johnson claims to be healthier than he has been in years and was once one of the greatest pitchers ever to play the game. Matt Cain is probably the most underrated pitcher in all of baseball. Jonathan Sanchez is a very solid prospect who had 157 strikeouts in 158 innings last year. Barry Zito has won a Cy Young and if he can return to his Oakland form is a very solid pitcher. The Giants offense is awful. But their starting pitching has the potential to be the best in baseball.
7. When will David Price be called up to the majors and what will his impact be?
Price was sent to the minors after losing the competition to be the Rays fifth starter. But being perhaps the best prospect in baseball he won’t be there long. Will Price be dominant or just serviceable or somewhere in the middle?
6. Will the Rays contend for a playoff spot again?
Last year the Rays shocked many by making it to the World Series. The Yankees reacted by spending over $400 million to ensure that they will be better this year. The Red Sox also quietly made moves to improve. The Rays pretty much have stayed with the guys they had last year. Carl Crawford will be healthy for a full year and Tampa Bay has a core of young superstars. But can they compete with the Yankees and Red Sox again?
5. How will the Yankees investments in C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixeira pay off this year?
The Yankees are paying Teixeira less this year than they paid Jason Giambi last year and Teixeira should be a big improvement. He should be solid with around 35 home runs and 120 RBI if he stays healthy all year. The question is whether he will play well under pressure or choke like A-Fraud. Sabathia was dominant over the second half of last season, posting statistics that are almost unheard of these days. He likely will not continue that type of production, but should still easily be one of the top five pitchers in all of baseball. Will these things happens or will the bright lights of New York melt these stars?
4. How will Alex Rodriguez fare this year?
Steroids. A-Fraud. Madonna. A stripper. A madam. An injury. What next?
3. Which teams will be surprise contenders?
I’m going with the Cincinnati Reds as my dark horse team. The Rays are proven. If they are successful again it will not be surprising. I also think the Giants could be a nice long-shot to win the National League West.
2. Who will win the American League East?
The Rays, Yankees, and Red Sox may all be among the best five teams in baseball. All will be slugging it out for the AL East title. I’m picking the Yankees, but I’m biased. This will be fun to watch.
1. Who will win the World Series?
I’m going with the Yankees again here, but if they don’t win the AL East then insert the division winner as my pick. In the NL I’m going with the Cubs, but they’ll lose to the AL team. Check back in October so you can make fun of me when the White Sox beat the Mets in the World Series.
IF YOU DO ONE THING THIS WEEKEND:
Relay for life!
Saturday 6pm - Sunday 6am, Carrier Dome
Join hundreds of students in this incredible all night fundraiser for The American Cancer Society.
You spend the entire night hanging out on the turf and doing activities to raise money to fight the disease,
If you're not already on a team, you can still sign up! Just show up at the dome on Saturday at 6pm and give a $20 donation.
Throughout the night there will be tons of activities and performances. Bring extra cash to spend fundraisers from various teams.when walking around the dome. There will also be a memorial lap and a luminaria lighting ceremony to remember those lost to cancer and to celebrate the lives of survivors. This is a night you do not want to miss.
After staying up all night at the relay, you should sleep on Sunday!
-Amelia Bienstock
Whether you’ve got a whole house or just a dorm room to offer to your friends, it only takes a little thought and preparation to be a great host.
Make Room
Before your guest arrives, clear out a space for your guest to put their bags and unpack. If they are planning to stay for an extended time, consider clearing out a drawer or making space in your closet for their clothing. If you’re lucky enough to have a guest room to offer, make sure it’s clear from the clutter that usually accumulates in an extra room.
Clean Up
If you don’t clean your room or house on a regular basis, tidy up a little before your guest arrives. At the very least, change the sheets in the bed your guest will sleep in. From there, judge the cleanliness of your space and vacuum or Febreeze as necessary.
Stock Your Shelves
Be ready to accommodate your guest’s needs – dietary or otherwise. It’s always a good idea to ask them for food preferences if you plan on feeding them. If your guest is vegetarian or vegan, double check which animal products, if any, they eat. For example, some vegetarians will eat eggs and fish, others will not, so check before you prepare a quiche or salmon for dinner.
In the bathroom, have extra towels clean in case your guest wants to shower. It’s also good to have some extra toiletries on hand in case your guest forgets a toothbrush or contact case.
Create a Plan
With out-of-town guests who want to explore, be prepared with a few activities or places to visit. They might come with an idea of what they want to see, but in case they don’t, you want to have something fun to recommend. Having a few suggestions is especially considerate if you have class or work, so that your guest doesn’t sit at home with no idea of what to do.
Take Your Own Time
No matter how long your guest is staying, make sure to take some time for yourself too. They might be your best friend or a relative you haven’t seen in a while, but after an extended period of time together, you’ll probably need a break. Suggest an activity they can do alone for a few hours, or excuse yourself for a nap. Once you recharge, you’ll feel refreshed and ready to resume your hosting duties.
-Leland Strott
March Madness is great. College basketball grabs the attention of the nation, sucks us in, and ultimately crushes us. We drink. We sit on the couch transfixed on the TV when we should be writing the 11-page paper that is due tomorrow. We eat too many chips. We don’t call our girlfriends. The only people we talk to on the phone are friends at other colleges once their team loses – to rub it in. We see too many beer commercials. We Drink. And we watch as our brackets are busted and our favorite players play their last games before leaving for the NBA or to never be heard from again. The Top 5 “Sadness During Madness this year are:
5. Blake Griffin’s last games?
Griffin likely will be teaming with Kevin Durant in Oklahoma next year. Though he is young enough, Durant is not going back to college. Griffin is NBA-bound. He will be a very good NBA player, but will not have dominating entertaining LeBron-like performances like he has in college.
4. SU’s draw in the brackets
It’s great that we got a three seed. It’s not great that we’re in the same bracket as Oklahoma and North Carolina. Aren’t we much closer geographically to UConn and Memphis? Why couldn’t we be in a bracket with those two as the top two seeds? We can beat those teams. Maybe I’m going out on a little limb, but I picked Oklahoma to win the whole tournament, meaning SU loses in the Sweet Sixteen.
3. Johnny Flynn’s last games?
We won’t know whether Flynn will leave school early for the NBA until well after the tournament is over. But it is likely that he will.
My plea: Johnny, if you come back and Paul Harris and Devendorf do too we can contend for a National Championship next year. If everyone comes back we will only lose Waffles from the rotation. We will add some good recruits and we easily be a top 10 team in the country and maybe even number one.
2. Early hope
After the first night of play my bracket looked great. I had 15 of the first 16 games picked correctly. I got Western Kentucky and Maryland. The only one I got wrong was picking VCU to upset UCLA.
1. Reality
Some lucky bastard wins your bracket pool. But even this guy is probably the square who picked a number one seed to win the tournament and doesn’t even have a great percentage right in the first round. By the time I went out to drink and party away mad bad bracket, my upset teams of West Virginia – who I had all the way in the Elite Eight – and Utah State – who I had going to the Sweet Sixteen – had lost as well as Tennessee and Utah – who I also had in the Sweet Sixteen. It got worse from there, but I don’t want to talk about it.
-Andrew Sagarin
I've never really considered the importance of consonants before coming to South America. "Tomar" and "tocar," for instance. Almost the same word, to a foreign ear, but one should really keep in mind the difference between drinking and touching something. And let's not forget about those vowels. Only seven of them, but damn, how they really affect the significance of a word. Once I attempted to tell my Ecuadorian friend that I had just tried cui, a regional delicacy of roasted guinea pig. But I guess my cui sounded a little more like cuyo, and I wouldn't suggest telling a friend you just ate asshole when, in fact, you really did no such thing.
For this reason, I would add "a sense of humor" to the "What to Bring" list of any foreign exchange student. In addition to a Spanish dictionary, hand sanitizer ("gringo gel"), and a strong stomach, the ability to laugh at yourself is really going to come in handy. For those perfectionists who love doing everything right on the first try, prepare yourself. You too will make the mistake of adding an "o" or "a" to the end of an English word, only to find out that playing música de foca does not actually mean "folk music," but rather, the music of seals. And no, the Uruguayan I tried to pick up that night did not find my aquatic talent the least bit impressive. You will answer si to questions that require neither a yes or no, when merely your name or favorite food would've sufficed. But at least that's not as bad as answering si when you REALLY should've said no. I almost got myself a 35-year oldnovio with that one.
But these are the best mistakes I've ever made. A foreign country is the best place to make a fool of yourself, because in six months, any mistake, regret, or disappointment just fades into the collective oblivion. It's liberating, sometimes, to know that you won't be remembered. Like being home alone, when you're completely free to raid kitchen cabinets, walk around naked, talk to potted plants. I'm not condoning "experimentation" (or talking to potted plants, that's just weird) but push your limits. Try something new. Take a chance. I've embarrassed myself, offended the local culture, made people laugh for the wrong reason, but have learned from every single mistake. Everyday, the foreign becomes a little more familiar. I feel a little more understood, a little more understanding. But if a local were to ask me how to summarize my experience in South America thus far, my answer would still be si. And it wouldn't be so far from the truth.
Chilean slang of the week:
Fomingo: A play on words between fome ("boring") and domingo ("Sunday"). Because Sundays pretty much suck in Santiago.
Huevón: It's the word I hear most and understand least. I'm convinced it's the sound of a period because you'll hear it at the end of every sentence, huevon. You can call friends huevones, you can call jerks huevones, it's an adjective, it's a verb, it's a plane... it means absolutely nothing.
Hachazo: Hungover. Which makes sense, considering hacha means "axe." Gruesome.
-Christina Lacy
Must See this Weekend:
Boy Gets Girl: A contemporary thriller about love and obsession
See this award winning play about a magazine journalist who goes on a blind date, only to find that the seemingly harmless man is an obsessive stalker. Variety calls this play "a suspenseful tale about the unraveling of a woman's sense of security in the urban jungle. It certainly will touch a tender nerve with anybody who's ever squirmed through a creepy blind date." The play covers themes of romance, relationships, sexism, and stalkers. The cast of SU drama students is incredibly talented.
Performances this weekend:
Friday, 3/20/09 8:00pm
Saturday, 3/21/09 8:00pm
Sunday, 2/22/09 2:00pm
An evening of New One Acts
Support student directed and student cast one-act plays. These bold, original plays, written by Chris Galaver, won several awards at the Pittsburgh New Play Festival (and only 75 minutes long!). The shows are located in Crouse-Hinds Auditorium 010.
Friday 3/20/09 7:30pm
Saturday 3/21/09 7:30pm
Sunday 3/22/09 7:30pm
Otto's Army 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament
Help Otto's army raise money for Relay for Life (a fundraising event, next weekend, that raises money for the American Cancer Society) by signing up to play 3 on 3 basketball
It cost $5 per person (and therefore $15 per team.) E-mail [email protected] if you are interested. The tournament winner will receive a prize! Located at the Archbold Gym.
Saturday 3/21/09 11:00am - 2:00pm
Keep your eyes open for: GRILLED CHEESE TO FIGHT THE DISEASE!!
In order to raise money for Relay for Life, Habitat for Humanity and other volunteers will be selling delicious homemade grilled cheese sandwiches on Euclid, Ostrom, Walnut, Marshall, and Comstock. You can get a burrito from Kimmel after any night out, so how about something different to support a good cause this weekend?
Grilled Cheeses will be sold:
Friday 3/20/09 11:30pm- 2:30am
Saturday 3/21/09 11:30pm - 2:30am
Breakfast for Relay
Feeling Hungry Sunday morning and still want to donate more money to Relay for Life?
Join brothers of the Alpha Phi Omega, co-ed service fraternity in the Walnut Hall Kitchen for customized omlettes,
Sunday, 3/22/09 11:00am - 2:00pm
-Amelia Bienstock
 Today I’m watching Don Dohler’s The Galaxy Invader from 1985, which the video box claims to be “Science Fiction Gold,” and is pretty much guaranteed not to be. The fullest synopsis I could find is the following:
“When an alien is forced to crash-land his spaceship on the Earth’s surface, he finds himself relentlessly pursued by a bunch of drunken rednecks.”
It was a tough call to watch this one, honestly, when I had such a large selection of movies promising “beautiful women,” “a clan of beautiful women,” “a stone-age beauty,” “wild women,” and “lost women,” and all this has to offer is drunken rednecks and one alien. Nevertheless, it promises to be brain-stompingly stupid.
00:01: Cue ‘80s synth score during opening credits.
01:00: A car is driving through the desert when a cartoon meteor-like object flies across the sky and strikes the ground.
02:00: We’ve got the alien’s perspective as it walks through the forest after crash landing.
02:30: A redneck that saw the hand-drawn meteor/UFO is calling another redneck who apparently is a redneck expert in these matters and also a horrible actor. It’s hard to tell, but no one appears to be drunken yet.
The expert is heading out to the site.
04:00: Alien-POV in some redneck house. Redneck husband gets a knife to protect his wife, enters basement. 80’s synth chords make it tense.
05:00: We keep getting POV’s but I’m not sure whose. Alien? Redneck? Knife? I don’t know.
7:00: Alien pops out! Synth chords go crazy! He kills both redneck and his wife, meanders out of house.
7:30: Cut to redneck dinner. Rednecks arguing about coffee and the social life of the daughter. Father is definitely drunken, and slaps the daughter when she points it out.
Father chases daughter with a shotgun, wears torn white t-shirt. Now things get all Shining as Dad hunts the girl through the woods for way too long. He stumbles to accentuate his drunkenness, and — op, there’s the alien. Just standing there.
Dad shoots the alien and it runs away, leaves some kind of pulsing egg. The rednecks (Dad and son, JJ) are far too casual about this very close encounter.
10:00: We learn that this is the fourth time the father has chased the girl with a gun; her boyfriend is mildly perturbed by this.
13:00: Redneck UFO expert shows up, talks to kid that saw the crash. These two don’t seem prone to drunkenness.
16:00: My attention wanders for a moment, but a car just pulled up to redneck house and a couple got out. Not sure what their deal is. I think the girl is supposed to be an east-coast city gal, but her accent is horrible. They’re there to check out the egg thing.
They claim it has a button and does something incredible, but you can’t be near it when it’s on. So they poke it with a stick. Turns out it’s a smoke bomb, or something.
18:00: Drunken rednecks begin to hatch a plot to catch the alien in order to make money off of it. City girl, Vicky, is hesitant, but easily swayed by the prospect of money, like all city girls.
20:00: JJ has the egg thing and — there’s the alien again. It attacks him and takes the egg.
21:00: Bar scene. Everyone gawks at Vicky. Rednecks wax hillbilly and practice wearing trucker hats. Guy with Vicky recruits them all to hunt the alien. Drunken father still hasn’t changed out of his torn white t-shirt, and chances are he won’t.
24:00: Cut to drunken father running around hilariously for no apparent reason, looking confused. The children express for the third or fourth time how much they hate their father.
Father yells at JJ for losing the egg, seems to be unsure of whether the camera is rolling or not.
25:00: Remember when I said Santa Claus Conquers the Martians may be the worst movie ever? God, was I wrong.
27:00: The rednecks gather at night, drunken, to hunt the alien.
27:30: I lose interest and wander to the kitchen to talk with my roomate about the tiramisu coffee creamer she just bought. I’m skeptical. French vanilla is about as crazy as I like to get with my coffee creamers.
30:00: I come back and haven’t missed much. Kid and UFO expert are in the bar, and so is Vicky, who doesn’t seem to be wearing pants. She’s flappin’ her mouth about the alien-hunt and UFO expert is interested; I’m not. She tells them about it and they head out. I get some cold pizza.
Sometimes the camera doesn’t even have the characters fully in frame. It’s like this movie was actually made by drunken rednecks. Or aliens. Let’s see what else Don Dohler has made, because that’s sure to be more interesting than this movie:
The Alien Factor
Fiend
Nightbeast
Blood Massacre
Alien Factor 2: The Alien Rampage
Dead Hunt
40:00: Now there’s a shoot-out with the alien and the rednecks, who are hootin’ and hollerin’; also drunken.
But ya know what would be more fun? Trying to make porn titles out of Don Dohler’s movies:
The Alien Factor is Sex
Sex Fiend
Nightbeast
Blood Massacre (After several traumatizing attempts, I refuse to do this one.)
Alien Factor 2: The Alien Factor is Still Sex
Dead…oh, come on now
It seems I’m horrible at writing porn titles.
45:00: The rednecks have captured the alien and have the egg thing again, as well as the alien’s gun. They plan to sell it to the Russians?
50:00: Kid and UFO expert are trying to save the alien, I think. They break into redneck’s garage, where the alien is tied up. As they study the restrained alien, it strikes me that this character is really lacking depth. Why did it come to earth? Where did it come from? What are it’s motives? Why does it wear suspenders without pants? All questions that demand answers.
Now they’re friends with the alien, and they run, again hilariously, out of the garage. This may have just turned into the best buddy movie ever. Redneck father still refuses to change out of his torn white t-shirt.
55:00: Oh my. A drunken redneck just shot UFO expert. Oh! And he tries to shoot the kid, but the alien pops out and shoots the redneck. Then another redneck shoots the alien, steals all his shit, and scampers into the woods, as rednecks are wont to do. That was intense. But not to the kid, however, whose level of dismay and trauma is at about “dropped my ice cream on the ground,” as opposed to the more appropriate “my friend was shot by a redneck as we were escaping with an alien, who was then shot protecting me.”
65:00: I think the movie should end now. I just don’t see it getting any better than this.
I’ve now tried the tiramisu creamer, and it’s a bit much for me, as expected. I heard some screaming from the television while I was in the kitchen, but couldn’t care less what happened. Redneck father is still wearing his torn shirt, still drunken. He’s wandering around for no good reason, much like the plot of this movie.
75:00: Do these people even know they’re in a movie? Is this just home video spliced with footage of a guy in an alien suit? Are rednecks really that drunken?
78:00: Vicky is such a hoochie in her hot pants and shiny shirts. Drunken father starts making moves, and by making moves I mean near-raping. She runs away and—oh god. He just shot her. He shot Vicky. What the hell. And now he’s drinking more.
You know, with the alien dead, I’m really not sure why this movie is still going. Now it’s just rednecks drinking, fighting, and shooting each other to the sweet atmospheric chords of a synthesizer.
Don Dohler porn titles, round two:
The Alien XXX Factor
Fiend Who Has Sex a Lot
Nightbeast, Naked
Blood Massacre (Still not doing it.)
Alien XXX Factor 2: The Alien Sexcapade
Hed Hunt
85:00: Daughter, boyfriend, and kid have stolen the egg thing and are being chased through the woods by drunken redneck father. They’re on the edge of a cliff, and he forces them to drop the egg. They back off whi— the alien is back. It shoots redneck father and redneck father shoots it, fights with JJ.
87:00: They fight while redneck family watches. Father has JJ on the edge of the cliff, strangling him, when—oh sweet moses—redneck grandmother, in slow motion, picks up a rifle and, in slow motion still, swings it, in very very slow motion, with double, triple, quadruple takes, and knocks redneck father off the cliff.
A dummy, apparently made of sticks and clothing, falls off the cliff and the father is dead at the bottom. He goes out of this world as he came into it: in his torn white t-shirt.
And it’s over.
There was just no reason for that movie to be made. I feel a little sick. Here are Don Dohler’s movie’s as Christmas specials:
The Alien Toy Factory
Tinsel Fiend
Santa Claus, the Nightbeast
Blood Massacre (There’s nothing I can do with this that isn’t horribly disturbing.)
Alien Toy Factory 2: The Alien Egg Nogg Rampage
Elf Hunt
-Kyle Adams
 Even though St. Patrick’s Day is over, everyone’s looking to capitalize on the luck of the Irish. And with two Friday the 13th months in a row, luck seems to be on everyone’s mind. It might seem like a difficult task if you’re constantly plagued with black cats and ladders, but here are a few ways you can increase your good fortune.
Attitude
We all pay bills, go to work, and run into our fair share of obstacles in life. But the difference between miserable people and happy people is what they choose to focus on. Miserable people only see the bad things that happen, and as a result, their mood plummets. Happy people are more optimistic and don’t let the small stuff get them down. The same holds true for lucky people – they look at situations they face and find the luck.
Lucky Charms
Sometimes it helps to feel more fortunate if you’ve got a good luck charm, a number or a symbol on your side. It might have to do with your birthday – if you were born in 1987, the year of the rabbit, it’s the luckiest of the Chinese zodiac signs. You may have a lucky uniform number that makes you play harder, better, faster or stronger. A pair of socks you never wash, a rabbit’s foot, a clover tattoo, whatever it is, sometimes just having the external object to count on makes you feel luckier.
Create Opportunity
You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket. But while your chances of winning the lottery are very slim, there are smaller ways to create your own luck on a regular basis. If you have bad luck catching the bus to class in the morning – it’s too crowded or you miss the last one to get to campus on time, try waking up a few minutes earlier to catch an earlier bus. Yes, it involves a little work, but remember your attitude and think about your good luck when you get to campus with enough time before class to grab coffee!
-Leland Strott
For those who don’t know, fantasy baseball is a growing multimillion-dollar industry. Basic fantasy baseball consists of a group of people “drafting” individual Major League Baseball players to make a team. Each team gains points based on the real players statistics in that season’s MLB season. Just like
Five best things about fantasy baseball
5. You're not looking at Porn
‘Nuff said.
4. It's acceptable to know too much about sports
Many may chide those who know how many saves Francisco Rodriguez had last year (62) or to go further what Rickie Weeks’ batting average was (.234). Outsiders may ask about these people’s social and sex lives (some are doing just fine, thank you). But in fantasy baseball circles these stats - along with the facts that Rodriguez will certainly have less saves this year and Week’s batting average will very likely be higher - are known to all who are competitive.
3. Knowledge
Serious fantasy baseball players follow the game closer than many serious fans and remember essential statistics that can end Saturday afternoon couch arguments over whether Jose Reyes or Hanley Ramirez is an all around better shortstop with the player the emphatic winner and his challenger drowning his sorrows in his Bud Light.
2. Smack Talk
After your sleeper starting pitcher who your buddy has been hating on all season (for this year let’s say someone like Chris Carpenter) gets a seven inning win allowing one run and striking out eight on Sunday, giving you a narrow win over the buddy for the week you get to throw it in his face. “Carpenter nailed the win for me, scumbag. Gotcha!” you might say and throw in some expletives for good measure.
1. Winning
Getting the money (if you play for money) is one thing, but bragging rights over your buddies for the entire off-season are glorious.
Five worst things about fantasy baseball
5. People lump you in with other nerds
Fantasy baseball is based in reality and accompanies an obsession with sports. It is an outlet for those whose claim they know more about sports than their friends to prove it. Fantasy baseball is a social activity that is more real than “Magic” or role-playing games (not that kind pervert, we’re talking about people who re-enact battles and things of this nature, like in “Role Models”).
4. It can be addicting
Spending an hour and a half looking at stats and trying to decide whether or not to drop Matt Cain to pick up Randy Wolf is over the top. Spending five minutes doing this is okay, but then you need to write that five-page psychology paper that’s due tomorrow.
3. Rooting against your team
I would never do this in the stretch-run in September if the playoff race is close, but I have found myself in June rooting for Orioles closer George Sherrill to get a save against my Yankees because he is on my fantasy team.
2. Smack talk
If someone beats me with Nate McClouth, Lance Berkman, Kevin Youkilis, Matt Holiday, Adam Dunn, Cliff Lee, or Troy Percival achieving the same stats or better stats than last year I’ll have to eat my now printed words stating that all of these guys will fall off significantly from last year.
1. Losing
Any ultra-competitive person knows losing sucks.
Bonus
Some of my favorite sleepers for this season:
1. Chris Carpenter SP St.L
2. Nelson Cruz OF Tex
3. Joey Votto 1B Cin
4. Justin Upton OF Ari
5. Clayton Kershaw SP LAD
6. Cameron Maybin OF Fla
7. Xavier Nady OF NYY
8. Chris Iannetta C Col
9. Randy Johnson SP SF
10. Shin-Soo Choo OF Cle
11. Chad Qualls RP Ari
12. Jorge Cantu 2B Fla
13. Travis Hafner DH Cle
14. Hank Blalock 1B/3B Tex
15. Clint Barmes 2B/SS Col
-Andrew Sagarin
 Did you know they make the beds upside down in Chile? Bet you didn't. The actual beds are right-side up, of course. But there they were: my Sesame Street alphabet bedsheets made upside down on my Chilean, right-side up bed. An inconsequential observation, until I noticed the faded backwards alphabet visible through the thin fabric. Kinda symbolic of my study abroad experience thus far. They see ABC; I see CBA. Which just sounds like the acronym of some metaphoric TV channel that I've never watched. One with sitcoms of upside down sheets, backwards flushing toilet water, and a language barrier incredibly difficult to overcome. I think I need to stop looking at my sheets.
But these are the crazy things you notice while abroad. Things that appear so opposite to one's own culture, and with connotations you couldn't even begin to express to a local. Okay, so upside down sheets aren't that crazy. But a swimming school in Ecuador called "Duran Duran." Grown men and women living with their parents until marriage. Coffee shops with scantily-clad waitresses for middle-aged businessmen, scattered about Santiago - cafes con piernas, they're called. Perfectly normal things, to anyone from South America. But to this little gringo? Not so much. But how can one remain objective in a foreign country? How can one ultimately appraise their own culture without first comparing it to another? Yes, being from a country that values independence above everything else, living with your family until the age of thirty does seem strange to me. But could I honestly say that moving away from your family, the people that love you most, is a better alternative? You tell me.
But not everything is so different here. Trends and music reminiscent of the United States remind me daily that we truly do live in an integrated society. And if they haven't hit the states yet, I'm absolutely positive that jodhpur pants are coming back with a vengeance - they're everywhere! But globalization has affected more than just culture. While Chile has been estimated by the Ministerio de Hacienda as the fitfh most prepared country in the world to combat the crisis (what that really means, I couldn't say), the economic situation is universal. The construction of the Costanera Center, a skyscraped projected to be the tallest building in South America at 300 meters high, has been suspended due to lack of funds at only 22 stories high. As of now, it's just a concrete skeleton ominously referred to by Chileans as la cicatriz - "the scar"- de la crisis economica. Guess we're not so far away as we thought.
Chilean Slang of the Week:
Bacán: Awesome, dude
Cachar: to understand ("Cachas?": Do you get it?)
Terremoto: The literal translation is "earthquake," but the tastier version is a liter of pipeño (sweet, fermented wine) with pineapple ice cream. You'll understand the name after drinking it.
-Christina Lacy
Pictures (Right to Left): Empty seats in Montevide during Carnaval, reserved for 300 Uruguyan desaparcidos; Futbol game in Ecuador between Cuenca and Venezuela Cuenca won); Evita Peron's gravesite in Buenos Aires
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