The last 36 hours have just not at all been what I expected or hoped for them to be.

It all started on Wednesday when, buoyed by my fantasy baseball team’s hot start (my team and another have already opened up a double-digit lead on the pack in a H2H league), I decided to take to the message boards with some thinly veiled trash talk at the rest of league. My team is playing the other top team next weekend so I posed the question of whether or not it was the biggest H2H matchup in May in the history of fantasy baseball – a reasonable question I think. Naturally, my hitters have struggled and my pitchers have been awful this week.

Then, on Wednesday, the Cavs were surprised by the Magic in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. After watching the Cavs dominate in the first quarter, I thought it would turn into another Pistons/Hawks rout. Not so much. The Magic proved that they would be worthy Eastern Conference Finals adversaries, and if they needed any more motivation for tonight and the rest of the series Mo Williams decided to give them some: “I don’t feel this team can beat us four times. I don’t see them beating us four times.”

The only problem, of course, is that the Magic have beaten the Cavs 9 out of the last 12 times they’ve played (at least, that was the stat tossed out on the radio today) and lead the series 1-0. I’m thinking a more humble approach would work here; but the the proof will be in the pudding tonight.

Anyway, back to the B.S.

So I wake up on Thursday morning to the exciting news that the White Sox are surprisingly making a hard charge to get Jake Peavy. I run into the office and post about it here on MSF, leave to teach a class at the SBDC here in town, and then get back and hear that it’s all up to No-Trade Peavy whether the deal will go down or not.

Always willing to do anything necessary to help my teams win, I get the completely misguided inspired idea to start an online petition to show Jake Peavy support from White Sox fans. In my insanity zeal to somehow make a difference, I convince myself that I can promote the petition, get tens of thousands of White Sox fans to sign it, and it gets added to the “Pro” list Jake Peavy is making as he weighs his options. Then he comes to Chicago, ultimately does an interview with MSF, leads the White Sox to the World Series, and his sublime K/BB ratio inspires Iran and Israel to schedule a Texas-style square dance at which they will squash their difference and lead a united front for peace in the Middle East.

Well, we all know what happened. A measly nine people signed my measly petition and Jake Peavy pretty quickly soon thereafter decided to stay with San Diego. Oh, and then the White Sox got shellacked 20-1, as if we needed to feel any worse after getting jilted at the alter.

I would go into more detail about my thoughts on Jake Peavy and the White Sox from yesterday, but Bobby from Tremendous Upside Potential pretty much said everything I was already thinking. Hop on over to TUP and read his post.

(By the way, the sublimely perfect picture to see there of an unnamed White Sox fan on his back was lifted from PhotoBucket, courtesy of the aptly named profile “White Sox Suck.” Ridiculous.)

So, that all kind of sucked. In more positive news, Josh Cribbs visited the Browns facility yesterday and even took part in a team meeting, although he is still not taking part in any on-field activities. But the fact that he is having dialogue with Mangini at least appears to be a positive step in the right direction on the surface. And Brady Quinn has apparently vaulted into the lead for the Browns QB race, mostly by virtue of the fact that Eric Mangini had to pick someone to take the first team reps. I just can’t get excited about our QB situation heading into this season after the debacle of last year. Every time I think about Quinn and Anderson is reminds of my favorite South Park episode…

And on that same subject, why is Phil Dawson not attending the voluntary minicamp? Purportedly he wants a new contract, to which I would respond: “Dude, you’re a kicker, and we were 4-12 last year.” The way I look at it, kickers get new contracts when things are good and everyone else has been taken care of. I realize that Phil Dawson was perhaps the Browns’ most valuable player last year, but shouldn’t that be a clear sign to Browns management that we need to spend money elsewhere to upgrade our roster? I love you Phil, I really do, and I think you’re a great kicker. But consider the timing. A 4-12 team probably has bigger fish to fry than a solid, but still pretty replaceable kicker. (Or as my old high school buddy Ssengats might call him, “a piece of equipment.”)

Before I being the work day, time to pass a little love along to some of our good friends here at MSF.

The guys over at Sharapova’s Thigh continue to entertain with their Random Retro Baseball Player series. The most recent highlight? Mark Gubicza, who was a pretty good pitcher for the Royals. Now, feel free to go to the Sharapova’s Thigh home page and scroll down. You will not be disappointed, as Mark Gubicza is clearly the least attractive person pictured. The fact that I have chosen the post about Gubicza to link to, when I could have chosen any number of hot chicks now has me wondering if I am way too obsessed with baseball…

Next, step over to Hugging Harold Reynolds (my favorite blog name ever, by the way). We are always proud to support any post that includes a picture of Ben Roethlisberger looking like a drunk neanderthal.

Our buddies at Sparty and Friends have uncovered the movie poster for Spike Lee’s next film about Michael Vick doin’ work.

Robert Littal, the bona fide sports expert, has a post that includes something you don’t see every day: criticism of LeBron James. For its uniqueness alone, I send you over there.

And finally, I sent you on your way this morning with a link over to Josh Q. Public, who is already on his way to a weekend of ridiculous fun in Las Vegas. Since I’ve never been there before, I figured I’d try to live vicariously through the Elvis Presley video he posted yesterday. Not surprisingly, it didn’t work. But we here at MSF always support weekends of irresponsibility, debauchery, and good old male bonding. Have fun out there JQ. Thanks for making me even less excited about my work day today.