Meet Your (Sports) Blogger

Well kids, this is it. This particular corner of the blogosphere has had a good run, but now that we've begun to "tag" each other with blog quizzes and the like, it's safe to say that we have jumped the shark. I suggest we now all go our separate ways, and devote ourselves to other pastimes.

Even though I consider these quizzes to be as big of a nuisance as anything that enters my inbox with a subject line beginning with "FW: FW:", I got tagged by Grabia, so it's my duty to answer the bell. Without further ado:

1) How many fantasy sports leagues were you in over the past year (leagues started after September 1, 2005 only)? How well did you do, listing both regular season and overall performance (i.e. after playoffs), as well as the number of teams in the league.

• Football: 8th out of 12 overall teams (Yahoo! League); 12th out 12 overall teams (ESPN League); 95th percentile in the public Yahoo! College Football Pick'em rankings.
• Hockey: 2nd Overall (out of 10) in the Regular Season, lost in the semi-finals of the playoffs. Unlike Grabia, I don't put stock in things like consolation games.
• Basketball: 8th out 8 teams
• March Madness: 3rd Overall (10 Teams Total); 70th percentile in the overall yahoo! standings; 76th percentile in the Deadspin Pants Party pool
• Baseball: Currently 6th in Division, 11th in League (6 teams in Division, 12 in League) in the Alberta Baseball Confederacy; Team Sports Matters (Avi, Andy, and myself) is currently 4th out of 12 teams in the Sports Bloggers league; after finishing 5th in the regular season, I won the 2005 playoff championship in my yahoo league. To use an old cliche, the real season starts in the playoffs, so I don't mind counting this as a post-September 1st, 2005 accolade.

2) What was the first jersey/sports clothing item you ever owned?

Hm. The first one I remember getting is an Edmonton Oilers jersey when I was about 4 or 5. It's entirely possible that I had earlier sports clothing than that, but I can't say for sure.

3) Name your top five favorite sports books (fiction or non-fiction).

i. Summer of '49, by David Halberstam
ii. Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella
iii. Flutie!, by Ian Thomsen
iv. The Boys of Summer, by Roger Kahn
v. The Hockey Sweater, by Roch Carrier

Bonus: Favorite sports movies, by sport

Baseball: Field of Dreams
Football: Rudy (honorable mention: All the Right Moves)
Basketball: Blue Chips
Hockey: Mystery, Alaska and Miracle (tie)
Golf: Caddyshack
Auto Racing: Days of Thunder


4) Name your ten favorite athletes of all time.

i. Steve Young
ii. Joe Montana
iii. Larry Bird
iv. Cal Ripken Jr.
v. Curt Schilling
vi. Tiger Woods
vii. Tom Brady
viii. Shaquille O'Neal
ix. Doug Flutie
x. Grant Fuhr

Honourable Mention (Maximum 5): David Ortiz, Jerry Rice (would have been top 10 were it not for his appearance on 'Dancing With the Stars'), Pedro Martinez, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio

5) Name three athletes you secretly like but are ashamed to admit to for fear of ridicule (current or all-time).

i. Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants
ii. Derek Jeter, New York Yankees
iii. Jake Plummer, Denver Broncos

6) The five people you "tag" are:

• Pradamaster, at Gatorade Dump
• Greg, at SportsBlah
• Loxy, at Hot Oil
• Murphy, at Sports Matters
• Just for fun, Will Leitch, at Deadspin