Baseball Blog Bullshit

When it comes to talking about the Chicago Cubs, and reading about them on the internet, do you want to know the first site I read? The Uncouth Sloth.

I like the Sloth's site because he's passionate about his Cubs. And everything he says on his site comes from that passion. He doesn't spend countless hours making charts and comparing OBP or any of the other cold and heartless numbers. He just eyeballs the proceedings, and tells you what he feels. Which is something I appreciate. I'm not a numbers guy, when it comes to the baseball.

I say passionate, and that's not a descriptive enough word. He's angry when the Cubs (or anybody else) do something stupid (which is often). He's skeptical about true-believers. He's not quick to jump on any bandwagons. He wants the Cubs to do the right thing to finally win one.

And he hates it with every fiber of his being when they fuck up.

But also, he's not apologetic about anybody on the team. Which I like. Hates him some Sammy Sosa. Michael Barrett is not the answer for him (I think Barrett's a lateral move at best at catcher). He'd like a different shortstop (yeah...one who doesn't strike out 125 times). He's quite correct in his beliefs that we don't have a solid leadoff hitter (can I point out that until Kenny Lofton got there last year, we didn't have a decent table setter and we were mired as far down as third?). He hated that six fingered freak we had in the bullpen last year.

And he's tired of the Cubs mortgaging their future for pathetic attempts at a division title, the past few times they've reached for the ring.

But what's more.

When he sees something he likes, he'll tell you about it just as quickly.

When the Cubs actually looked like they were doing all the right things to win last season, and they finally convinced the Sloth that they had the tools to carry through....to my ears, there was no louder or more proud a banner carrier.

Others: He's got a disquieting amount of man-love for Mark Prior. He's really happy about the minor league set up, right now. Loves Juan Cruz, but not enough that he wouldn't take a decent leadoff hitter for him.... And he, like a lot of us, is warm n' fuzzy over Professor Maddux returning to the Friendly Confines, but not at the expense of higher priorities.

But there is one thing about the Sloth. And it's in his blog title. It's that he's UNCOUTH. You know, when I first read the title, Uncouth Sloth, I wondered. Why's it called Uncouth? And I read, with my feet set just a little, and I found out. Hey! The Sloth Curses! And I started to get offended, and call my local church, when I remembered that I curse quite a bit and I'm not affiliated with any particular religious movement, and that I don't have a giant stick up my ass.

At least not about people cursing and being a little uncouth.

But Rob's (I hope I haven't outted the Sloth too much by using his name) rubbed some people the wrong way. He's not gotten linked to by a couple of the other Cubs blogs because they don't like his language. One such site didn't include the Sloth's very insightful thoughts on the recent Maddux signing in its roundup. Because they run a family site.

Well, you know, everybody's got a prerogative, I guess.

Mine's that you should make the Uncouth Sloth your online headquarters for passionate, angry rants about the greatest baseball team in all the universe (the Nippon Ham Fighters coming in a distant second).

And shit on those who don't respect the man, just because he talks rough.

It's what I do.

Next time I'm up Chicago way, I'm going to buy the Sloth a beer.

Now, if only I could afford to go to Chicago....

(With props to the ever-faithful Say Uncle, who is not a baseball fan and despairs when the baseball fans write about a game that they won't even be playing for six more weeks....I say again that we can't all write about guns all the time....)